8 rides old and they are not looking good.

The front is out of true and the rear is also, with a massive dent from a rock. I can’t see me getting anywhere with a warranty claim (although I’ll try). This never happened in 3 years of Peak District riding with the SUN SOS rims on my old Enduro.

1. What do you weigh?

2. What kind of riding do you do?

rnt they super light weight race wheels?

Realman – 14.5st (I asked the supplier if they were suitable) and rocky descents, but no jumps/big drops.

Crazyjohny – no, they come standard on the S-Works Enduro – the bike that I’ve built up.

No, theyre the all mountain/trail ones.

They also come with a 1 year warranty (looks like) so you will probably get some help if theyre really that knackered.

And at 14.5 stone with no drops or jumps I reckon you deserve it if theyre showing signs like that after only 8 rides. Its the 20 stone guys who buy super light xc wheels then do jumps on them, then complain when they dont stay true that annoy me.

The Traversee isn’t a super light weight race wheel, that’s the Controlee. The Traversee is a more robust wheel and is designed to be hardwearing, although still reasonably light.

However, I’ve had a set of Traversee’s and the build quality was absolutely awful. Spoke tension all over the place, spokes snapping on the first few rides and generally unhappy with the quality of the build, but not the weight or the hubs. Once sorted and effectively re-built, they’ve been a whole lot better.

seems to me a free re tension is order but I don’t see who is liable for the dent other than you.

Got to accept that al, but it makes me question their longevity if they’ve done this after 8 rides and I’ve never done it to any other rim in 15 years of mtb’ing.

No problems with mine – 12.5st doing lakeland rocky descents and 4′ drops.

Mine are really strong, taken down quite a few rough rocky tracks, they’re normally bombproof. not always the smoothest lines either. Have a word with Mark Dennis at Spesh he’s the Roval guy.

You’ve never dented a rim in 15 years? Seriously?

What tyre size & pressure were you using. Were you hooning it?

I’ve had minor dings, but nothing like this.

2.1 and 30mph Peak District descents – no pinch flat though. I’ve done these descents dozens of times on my old rims.

Does the dent impair the function of the rim?

I’ve got no issues at all with mine. Apart from being b*****ds to get tyres on and off, but I blame Stans for that since Spesh ripped off the rim from them Wheels do need truing from time to time you know.

Sarcastic comments not helping my mood Northwind. I’m fully aware wheels need trueing occassionally, but the fact remains that I have a fortnight old £400+ wheelset that is in worse condition than a three year old (cheapish OEM) set I’ve just sold (and never even took a spoke key to). This is supposed to be a light, yet strong wheelset.

I’d find it more acceptable if I’d just gone and bought a stupidly light wheelset that wasn’t really suited to the bike/type of riding, but these are what come as standard on the ‘off the shelf’ £4k bike.

Dented my rear on one of my first urban test rides, hooning down a flight of stairs that I’ve been down dozens of times on my DT Swiss 4.1D that came standard on my build (reputably real cheese rims, but I never dented them!)… not really happy from a wheelset that is for “aggressive trail riders that aren’t afraid to take risks and go big…” **** marketing, I should’ve known better really 👿

I’ve sent an email to Spesh, we shall see what happens. Not really holdign my breath as I guess I have an element of blame, but what gets me is that I never ever dented my 4.1D’s on this exact same stair case, having done it multiple times…

I’m not being sarcastic at all… Machine built wheels are most likely to need attention in their first few rides, just like anything else on the bike they bed in and can need a bit of a tweak. It can even happen with hand-builts though that’s less common if it’s done right. So, it’s not surprising that your new wheels are needing some love while your old wheels keep rolling, they’re past the initial break-in point. It’s no different to checking over a new bike after its shakedown rides- more things go wrong in the first hours than will for the next hundred.

The dent… I definately agree it’s odd that it’s happened to you now, and never with the old wheels. The law of sod applies maybe… Are you using the same tyres, pressures etc? Are the new rims wider than the old ones? I’ve noticed mine have clipped rocks a lot more than my old wheels, just because the rim is physically wider so more exposed on the same tyres.

Here’s the limited lifetime warranty for Roval wheels, you should definately speak to your dealer about it.

“Limited Lifetime Warranty on Roval Wheels

Subject to the following limitations, terms and conditions, Specialized warrants to the original owner for the lifetime of the original owner of each new Specialized Roval wheelset that these wheels when new will be free of defective materials and workmanship. The limited lifetime warranty is conditioned upon the wheels being operated under normal conditions and use, and be properly maintained. This warranty is not meant to suggest or imply that the bicycle wheels will last forever or will not fail. It does mean that the wheels are covered subject to the terms of the warranty. Paint/finish, decals, etc. are covered under the limited one (1) year warranty. Wearable items including spokes and bearings are also limited to a (1) year warranty. All warranty claims are void if the wheel or wheelset was not purchased new or not properly assembled by an authorized Specialized dealer.”

my 2penny worth – got them cheap from freeborn’s and they have had serious hammer on a hardtail, cairgorms and lakes rock. no problems at all. not had any pinchflats either. straight and no dings. much stronger than dt swiss and seem just as durable as my mavic 719’s.

just unlucky maybe?

i’m not the most skillfull rider and tend to clatter around too.

The Freeborn latest batch were the latest, maybe the newer onmes are stronger? increased spoke tension?

Might as well see if you can get them fixed under warranty – Spesh are meant to be pretty good about such things.

these whels will not be machine built.

That’s correct, they are hand built.

no problem with the ones i have here

however maybe talk nicely to specialized explain you are slightly miffed about said wheel being a bit naffer than the cheapo wheels and not being up to your expectations

they might just send you a new un they might say blow your tyres up a bit more either way if it happens twice its a more valid view that the wheel might be so so rather than great

for some mythical reason things just dont work for some people for some reason

I bent my front one on the first go out, I did crash and bend a spoke on a rock though. I retensioned it and it came up perfectly true. Haven’t had a problem since. I did buy some spare spokes for each wheel as they are not standard (just in case). I have dented my 4.1 rims while doing nothing but bimbling along, now they really are cheese like.

Still a bit dis-heartening for a expensive wheel set

“Hand-built by robots” or really hand-built?

Hmm, I’ve read they’re machine built in a couple of places, but could be wrong. If they’re hand built, that’s not very impressive.

That E5 alloy seems very tough though, i only use 2.25 as a minimum normally big 2’3″s up front for more cushion, I’m only under 11 stone and no problems on pressures down to 23 psi front.