Road Bike Tire Test: Mavic Yksion Pro UST Tubeless 25

The Mavic Yksion Pro UST is a tubeless-ready tire that comes as the stock tire on a large range of Mavic UST wheels and wheelsets. Because the Yksion Pro UST is pretty much the only UST rated road bike tire available at the moment, I'm really curious to see if it's worth it to buy the new Mavic tubeless wheels.

I've already tested the entry level Mavic Yksion Elite (read review) last month and that tire didn't perform like a tire you'd want to run on your new expensive wheels.

The Yksion Pro UST is made in France by Hutchinson which is a big change from the cheaper Yksion Elite that's made in Taiwan. I've already tested some Hutchinson tires and they are some of the best performing tires in our tests.

The Yksion Pro UST uses Hutchinson's brand new "11 Storm" compound that's supposed to be an improvement over their older HDF 5.x compounds that I've tested last year and already were great compounds.

The Yksion Pro UST is a tubeless-ready tire which means that it should be used with tire sealant as the sidewalls will bleed air without it. The main advantage of the tubeless-ready tires is a lower weight and a lower rolling resistance because of the absence of a butyl inner liner that's often seen in "full tubeless" tires.

In my opinion, tubeless-ready tires are the way to go as most people are already using tire sealant in "full tubeless" tires to gain the advantage of self-sealing (small) punctures.

Weight. The Yksion Pro UST in the 25-622 size has a specified weight of 260 grams. While 260 grams already is a low weight for a tubeless tire, my sample even comes in a bit lighter at 256 grams!

Size. At an air pressure of 100 psi / 6.9 bars, mounted to a 17 mm internal width rim, the maximum width of the tire is 27 mm. Height is 24 mm.

Tire Thickness. At the center of the tread, the Yksion Pro UST has a maximum thickness of 2.8 mm which is an average thickness for an all-round tire. Most tires in the all-round class have a thickness of 2.5 - 3.0 mm. No-compromise tires optimized for speed usually come in at less than 2.0 mm.

The sidewalls are quite thick as well with an average thickness of 1.1 mm. non-tubeless tires in this category usually have a sidewall thickness of ~0.5 mm.

* Although the maximum rated air pressure as indicated on the sidewall is 102 psi / 7 bars, I did test the Yksion Pro UST at 120 psi / 8.3 bars to keep the results consistent across the website.

In the rolling resistance tests, the Yksion Pro UST performs much better than the Yksion Elite (read review) that I've tested last month. When we compare the Yksion Pro UST to the Schwalbe Pro One Tubeless (read review) that is similar in construction and weight, the Yksion Pro comes within 0.6 watts at all usable air pressures.

Although rolling resistance is a tiny bit higher than the Schwalbe Pro one, the Yksion Pro UST does have the advantage of a slightly thicker tread and sidewalls.

When we compare the Yksion Pro UST to the full list of clincher tires (road bike overview), we can conclude that rolling resistance is comparable to the best tubetype clincher tires that are tested with a 100 grams butyl inner tube. When compared to the best tube type clincher tires fitted with latex inner tubes, rolling resistance of the Yksion Pro is slightly higher.

In the tread puncture resistance tests, the Yksion Pro UST scores 10 points which is slightly below the average of 11 points that most all-round tires with anti-puncture belts achieve.

In the sidewall test, it scores 6 points which is good and equal to the Schwalbe Pro One Tubeless.

I expect the Yksion Pro UST to provide good puncture resistance when used with 30 - 40 ml of sealant as the tread and sidewalls are quite thick (sealant works better on thicker tires).

If you're looking for a nice set of Mavic Comete Pro, Cosmic Pro, Cosmic Elite, Ksyrium Pro, or Ksyrium Elite in the UST version and are worried the tires that come with these wheels will hold you back, I can confirm that in our tests, these tires perform just as good as tires from the big tire brands.

With the Mavic UST wheel and tire combination, you'll also get the added benefit of easier tire inflation as the rim and tire are made to tighter tolerances.

Even if you're not running Mavic wheels, the Yksion Pro UST might be worth considering as it's pretty equal in performance to tires from the bigger brands.

Have you used the new Mavic / Hutchinson 11 Storm compound? Consider leaving a comment as I'm curious how this compound performs on wet and dry roads.