Peter: Uncurled the Mavic sticker and yes, green stripe "Module E2". The "2" made me wonder if it was an MA2 by way of some jargon. "Lost" the front rim years ago during a move; that is, the load shifted in the moving van and pretzeled the front rim. So, now I have to get a first born to retain for trade in case one of these shows up. Thanks. Richard Cielec Chicago, Illinois
PBridge130@aol.com wrote: In a message dated 1/1/2005 8:20:24 PM Mountain Standard Time, teaat4p@yahoo.com writes: How can I identify a Mavic MA2 rim ? Can I assume that any Mavic rim meeting these specs is an MA2: Mavic red diamond sticker; silver rim from 1978 or 79; eyelets; clincher; 36h (I assume the usual assortment of holes were offered).
That's almost certainly a "Module E" rim. Rare and collectable and very hard to find. Is there a green strip (if 700c) along one side of the red sticker? That would confirm Mod E, although Euro models had a different color strip.
I believe these things:
--the MA2 is the same extrusion as a Mod E --the ModE was not anodized, and tends to oxidize a bit, to a dull gray --the MA2 is a superior alloy, and a stronger rim --MA2's are polished and clear anodized, and stay shiny rather than going dull --The red diamond sticker went away in the mid 80's, and MA2's never had it, although MA40's (black anodized, same extrusion as MA2's, did have it) --MA2's have had two sticker generations, both yellow and green. The early one has the Mavic oval logo as part of it, and the later one is a yellow parallelogram and a green parallelogram, adjacent to each other.
Mod E's come up on ebay occasionally. 700c's sell for a lot of money, but 27 inchers sell cheaply, as almost no one wants them. There was a lot of four 27's for sale just last week.
When MA40's (again, these are black anodized MA2's, available from the early 80's through maybe mid 90's) were originally available, they had red foil stickers. Later they had I do not recall MA2's being available at that time, so I think that the MA2 is a later rim.
I'd like to find a pair of ModE's, but I've lost every auction that I bid on. I suspect that an NOS pair of 700c ModE's would go for maybe $150, maybe more. Definitely more, if they were 32 holes.
One more thing. MA2's have double ferrules. That is to say, the ferrule at the spoke hole goes all the way through the box section of the rim. I can't remember whether ModE's had full-depth ferrules. I have a pair of Super Champions of the same vintage as Mod E's, and they have ferrules which are a simple ring on the inner surface of the box section, not full depth. It's possible that ModE's had single ferrules, too, but I cannot recall.
I hope this helps.
Cheers,
Peter Denver
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