At Mavic’s headquarters in Chavanod, at the foot of the French Alps, Cosmic Ultimate wheel development and production share a building. The site combines composite-material research with manufacturing a specific wheel model. It offers one example of a bicycle company keeping design closely connected to the workshop.
The construction treats the wheel as a whole. An R2R carbon spoke runs from one side of the rim to the other through the hub. Carbon thickness also varies around the rim: spoke attachment areas receive reinforcement, while the sections between them use less material.
This illustrates why “carbon wheel” alone says little about manufacturing. Fibre placement and component connections matter too. The Chavanod arrangement can be read as one production approach: designing and making the wheel are interconnected work, rather than simply a choice of individual components.