Cheap Specialized Roval Wheels available… Where? Your LBS, seriously!

Rang up a shop this morning to enquire about the cheap Roval Traverse EL wheels on their site, at £360 down from £600. Asked if they had any in stock, response was “no but can get them in inside a few days”. Odd I thought, but transpires Spesh UK have stocks left of last years wheelsets, and ANY Specialized dealer can get hold of them and sell them to you at 40% off! And there’s a LOT of different wheels available, Traverse’s, Controle’s, Pave’s and more!

So I popped down my LBS, and if your LBS that sells Specialized is like mine, and gives loyal customers an extra 10% off, then you can buy a £600 pair of wheels for £324 as I just did! 😀

Should be with me by the end of the week I’m told…

I haven’t heard great things about those wheels. Know a couple of riders that have destroyed them without much of a battering.

Glowing reviews everywhere I’ve read. Worst that has been levelled at them is they’re not the stiffest in the world, but they’re very resilient.

Besides, rider weight limit of 250lb and I’m about 165lb… And a lifetime warranty on them! And the hub internals are from DT Swiss 240s hubs…

I know the warranty probably won’t cover racing, but seeing as I won’t be racing then that’s all good isn’t it! 😉

Mine have been mint… Bought them used then beat them up for a couple of years (they’re the old model but the same as the current ELs I think). Managed to break a spoke at fort william messing up a jump, not their faulr… Put a decent size ding in the rear at Balblair by riding around on a nearly flat tyre, not their fault.

I did get the rear rebuilt as it needed trued and many of the alu nipples were seized- stripped it right down and replaced them with brass ones for durability. But then that was after 2 scottish winters including road use.

Sure, they’re not as tough as some but then they’re almost XC-rim light.

I read some of your positive reviews on them Northwind before I decided to just go for it. Normally I don’t like Factory Wheelsets, but at the price I’ve paid, they’re an absolute steal.

I suspect mine should be ok as I’m not likely to subject them to as much abuse as you I doubt, they will be going on a Ti hardtail with a 120mm fork for XC use and I tend to be wheels on the ground to be fair. They’re actually replacing DT240s on Mavic 717’s as I’m moving to a 20mm axled fork (and lo and behold, before I bought the fork I didn’t check the DT240 front hub that I’ve got can’t be converted to 20mm!). New DT240 20mm front hub is £160 on its own! And yes, I could have got a Hope Pro2 or something, but I bought DT’s for a reason… Should be able to get my money back on the rather nice 240’s (complete with 9mm and 10mm thru-axles), and not be out of pocket by much.

Expecting to have to change the alloy nipples for brass after a bit of use too to be fair, alloy nipples never last, but that’s no biggie.

My Control SLs were ok, but no better! Wouldn’t buy them aftermarket. Front hub bearings were utter toss, broke a spoke, nipples seized, dented a rim etc. Like the look of the Alpinista road wheels!

Control SL’s a fair bit flimsier than the Travere’s by the looks of it njee, obviously more pure XC race wheels (or aimed at it at least).

Wouldn’t have bought them for £600 either, but at £324 I’m hoping they’ll do me proud.

I’m interested in these too, both the traversee EL and AL

The rim width is described as 26mm, I can only assume this is external, anyone know what the internal width is?

Hmm, so the stiffness is questionable then
Anyone know if they’re more like ZTR Crest flexy or ZTR Arch stiff?

If spesh is lopping 40% off loads off wheels for all their dealers whats the chances they’re bringing out an all new model for 2012 ..

If spesh is lopping 40% off loads off wheels for all their dealers whats the chances they’re bringing out an all new model for 2012 ..

100% considering there’s pictures of them up on the internet already… 😉

Anyone know if they’re more like ZTR Crest flexy or ZTR Arch stiff?

I’ll let you know when I’ve ridden them, but for me if they’re like Crest’s that’s fine, as that was what I was probably going to go with anyway.

The rim width is described as 26mm, I can only assume this is external, anyone know what the internal width is?

External. If it was internal, they’d be 4-5mm wider than a lot of DH rims.

External width 26mm / Internal is 21mm on my set.

Control SL’s a fair bit flimsier than the Travere’s by the looks of it njee, obviously more pure XC race wheels (or aimed at it at least).

And that’s what I used them for, but the front hub bearings lasted <5 rides on average (admitteldy I had a stack of free replacements, but it was a faff), and my comparisons were drawn against other XC race wheels. The A2Z/Podium wheels I replaced them with are lighter (by a fair margin), stiffer, have lasted better already and are still cheaper than £324. YMMV.

The A2Z/Podium wheels I replaced them with are lighter (by a fair margin), stiffer, have lasted better already and are still cheaper than £324.

Where fron njee? I meant to ask the other day when you posted on another thread about them.

I have a secondhand pair of Traversees to flog if anyone wants some even cheaper.

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Hubs from any Windwave dealer, I got the rims from Wiggle for £67 each, admittedly they may have gone up, they were randomly on sale for a while, and Revolution spokes from Actionsports.de. 1246g with yellow tape and valves, you could use Alpines for a more robust wheelset and they’d still be about 1300g and £300.

Thanks njee – 60kg coward here so no need for anything stronger.

Picked them up this evening.

Claimed 1550g the pair.

Actual weights: 775g front, 855g rear (1610g total), including 20mm front adapters, tubeless rim tapes and tubeless valves. So I expect the 1550g weight is actually pretty accurate if you took off the tubeless strips and valves.

I understand where you’re coming from too njee, looked at those A2Z hubs a while back, but I wanted some proper quality hubs (read DT Swiss) and need the ability for through axles on the front, and rim wise also I’d not even be looking as light as the Alpines myself, would be Crests for sure. So in comparison, hopefully I’ve done alright…

Sure you have, the front hub bearings were only a problem on the SLs – the others have bigger bearings. The rear hubs are great, as you say, wont go wrong with 240s.

I have these wheels and they are very good, quick and strong. I also converted the rear hub to the 12×142 standard with the dt swiss 240 kit, which specialised/roval said wouldn’t work! Also put SKF bearings in mine as originals kept failing with regular abuse on the Quantocks!

Just popped the adapters off the front hub. A 6804 RS on the disc side, and a 6805 RS (same as HT2 BB’s) on the non disc side. Shouldn’t be difficult to get decent quality replacements at least.

Rear hub wise, well I’ve done a lot of miles on DT Swiss rear hubs in the past, without changing a single bearing, so hopefully they’ll be alright.

Got to be said though, I think having looked online at pics of them, the previous years looked nicer with silver hubs and all black rims, as opposed to these dull grey hubs with grey/black mix rims. And ano red nipples FFS! 😕

Still… 😉

Bendy, bendy 😀

Gayer :D. I got in mboy, gulp!

I had control AL’s and seem ‘alright’ light but mega flimsy rims. Trued about half dozen times each. Nipples won’t take any more. Might rebuild with ztr crests when the time comes. All rear hub bearings shot after 8 months ofheavy riding. Probably expected though.

7/10

I’ve got two sets of the original traversees. I’m a heavy, clumsy rider and although I’ve broken the odd spoke over the last couple of years they’ve never needed truing. Nothing wrong with a little bit of twang if they bounce back into shape. I’d buy them again.