Wheels - retirement age?

2 Wheels Good

I've a set of Mavic Ksyrium SLs on my bike. I'm thinking they're 2006/2007 vintage (got them on a 2nd hand bike 7 years ago). They wouldn't have huge mileage on them (by me at least, <10000 km)
They're still true and freewheel better than most I see on the road so my only thoughts are how old is too old?

Columbia

I had a crash a couple of years back riding around on pretty much identical wheels (Ksyrium SLs from around 2005).

I thought the same as you, they were beautifully smooth and true, so I thought all was good.

Then one day the front wheel folded for no apparent reason. Turned out that the rims had been worn down through years of braking, and had become too thin to support my weight.

tl:dr; check that the rims haven't been worn down too much.

lennymc

you can measure the wear on the rim using a straight edge. They may even have wear markers.

clog

The wear markers are usually directly opposite the valve hole on the rim.

Check that the braking surfaces are not worn thin and there are no cracks around the spokes (this can also be a problem with Mavic rims).

tomasrojo

I had to replace five-year-old wheels recently. The wear groove was still very visible on the rim, but the rims were so thin they deformed when installing new tyres.

Before this, I had to keep straightening the rims with a wrench after I hit potholes. I already knew they were too thin, but I had cash-flow problems.

I think looking to see how concave they've become, using a straight edge, is the best, as already said.