I’m pondering one of the above, just wondering which would be stronger. The Rovals are effectively 28 DT Revolution spokes at the back, the Hopes are 24 Sapim Race (effectively DT Comp).

I weight about 14 stone and only want them for speedy XC/trail center/racing. I’m currently on the XT factory M775 wheelset which I find a bit flexy, that uses 24x 2.0/1.8/2.0 spokes too*, would it be safe to assume this is roughly how the Hopes will feel?

*although Shimano claim 2.0/1.5/2.0 on their website, everyone else claims 1.8, hmm, they certainly don’t look like 1.5

If you’ve got 2009 Rock Shox forks you can use the 20mm end caps on the Rovals giving a far far stiffer front end, although it seems not many people know that! The Rovals are also designed to be run tubeless.

For my money it’d be the Rovals.

Don’t take this the wrong way but…

I wouldn’t trust either considering you’re almost 200lbs! My friend weighs under 165lbs and he says his rovals are super flexy and doesnt trust them when riding agressively.

Obviously it depends how you ride, but I’d suggest a set of DT 4.2d 32 hole rims built onto some xtr hubs or something similar (dt swiss?) with super competition spokes. I weigh 150lbs and thats what I’d buy next time.

I weigh about 150lbs and find my Rovals (the Controle SLs) plenty stiff enough. I do use the oversized end caps, which gives a far far larger contact patch on the fork though, whether it makes any real world difference I couldn’t say.

Not sure about a 200lb rider though, I’d be custom building, although on some ZTR 355s, so you could run tubeless.

Don’t take this the wrong way but…

I wouldn’t trust either considering you’re almost 200lbs! My friend weighs under 165lbs and he says his rovals are super flexy and doesnt trust them when riding agressively.

Nah, don’t think I would either to be honest. Just seeing if anyone had any experience in the matter. Pro IIs on ZTR 355 with 32 DT Comp spokes is infinitely more likely, given I’ve been riding for a year on 24 spokes though I was just wondering how a lighter set would compare.

At 14 st, have you looked at the standard Pro II build with Flow rims? Hope Hoops through Wheel Pro sound like they’d suit you perfectly.

I’d get the ZTR build.

To be honest, I wouldn’t have bought the Rovals anyway, but they came on the bike, I’d have custom built if I was starting from scratch.

At 14 st, have you looked at the standard Pro II build with Flow rims? Hope Hoops through Wheel Pro sound like they’d suit you perfectly.

Well, no, not really as I’m after light racing wheels 🙂

1900g, 28mm wide indestructable wheels are a different kettle of fish to 1400-1600g race wheels. I’m not a burly freerider, I’m 6’6″ tall with a BMI of 22.6 apparently. I’ve got Flows on Pro IIs on my Meta 🙂 This set would be for a ~22lb carbon Zaskar running narrow racey tyres.

I might just stick on the XT for the moment, it just seems a shame. So much weight is lost in the hubs, something like the Roval Controle looks very similar but with lighter Dt240-style hubs. Maybe XTR would be a better bet, so expensive at the moment though, £400 became £600 overnight.

In that case, if it’s just between those two set ups, I’d go Hope just because I know the backup would always be there. The other advantage with the Hope Hoops it that you can get them from WheelPro with a bit of extra TLC applied.

Roval coming from Specialized, and using DT parts there’s fewer proprietary parts, and they have similar back up to Hope. That’s not really a factor IMO.

What about American Classic hubs on 355s with Competition spokes, still be pretty light, but a fair whack tougher than the Rovals.

The estimated number for my Flows on Pro IIs were very, very accurate much to my surprise, just under 1900g. 355s on Pro IIs are quoted as 1653g which isn’t too bad, it still seems like overkill though really. Removing weight from the heavy XT hubs, and putting it on the spokes instead. The 24x comps on the XTs at the moment are fine, flexy but it’s a racey bike so I let it off.

I think I’ll pester the local shop to let me demo something with the rovals on, quite easy to see if a wheel is going to flex. Maybe Traversees are a better bet with the Supercomp spokes, just wish they did a version with a narrow rim 🙂

Looks like my bike is desinted to never hit the mythical 20lbs 🙁 hehe.

Depends if you want things to snap or not…

I import some very lightweight finishing kit, which will help you on your way, but you’re over the weight limit!