Roval Control Carbon

Roval Control Carbon Wheels – XC Race Wheels At A Lower Price

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It’s the same winning rim, just a more affordable set of hubs.

Today, Roval is launching its 2021 Control Carbon 6B XD wheels. It features the same, impressive rim from the Control SL wheels we reviewed last year, only now with more affordable hubs. Rather than Specialized’s own ultra-light hubs, the new Control Carbon wheels feature far more affordable DT Swiss 350 hubs. These add about 200g to the overall wheelset weight, but the price drops by around £700.

DT Swiss 350s have had their own tweaks this year.

So, the same super-light, but strong rim, designed to shrug off pinch flats, only now with DTSwiss 350 hubs. These hubs have recently had their own upgrades. The 350 has been relaunched this year, using the twin-spring 36T Ratchet system. (Previously it featured an 18T ratchet.) The Roval Control Carbon is one of the first production wheels to incorporate these new hubs and the price of the wheels drops dramatically thanks to that.

Launched last year, the Control Carbon SL wheels cost £1950 in their special-edition team format. The overall weight was around 1240g, though, which is the lightest wheel Roval had ever made – even lighter than its climbing specialist road race wheels. With this new, more affordable Control Carbon wheelset, the price is £1,150 a pair. The weight is still very impressive, at 1450g including tubeless tape. (You can reduce that a tiny amount by using Roval’s spoke hole plugs that fill the spoke holes and do away with the need for rim tape. Amazingly, this is a lighter option.)

We can see the Roval Control Carbon wheels appearing as ‘race day’ wheels for some privateer racers, though we’ve been running a pair of the Team SL wheels for the last year on a 130mm trail bike and they’re still holding up perfectly. We’ll see how these new ones stack up.

Currently (and going off the name) the “2021 Control Carbon 6B XD” wheels are only coming in 29in, six bolt and with an XD driver. Though DTSwiss makes its replacement drivers available aftermarket, so you should be able to run MicroSpline or regular Hyperglide if you’re not on the SRAM train.

Roval Control Carbon Product Specifications:

  • Control SL 29 Rim
  • 29mm Internal Width
  • 4mm FlatTop Bead Hook
  • Tubeless Compatible
  • New DT Swiss 350 Hub Straight-pull 6-bolt Rotor-36t Star Ratchet System
  • Thru Axle 110x15mm & 148x12mm
  • Weight: 1450g w/ Tubeless Rim Tape
  • Wheelset Lifetime Warranty

The wheels are shipping now and should be available at Specialized dealers by the time you read this.

Check rovalcomponents.com

Chipps Chippendale

Singletrackworld's Editor At Large

With 22 years as Editor of Singletrack World Magazine, Chipps is the longest-running mountain bike magazine editor in the world. He started in the bike trade in 1990 and became a full time mountain bike journalist at the start of 1994. Over the last 30 years as a bike writer and photographer, he has seen mountain bike culture flourish, strengthen and diversify and bike technology go from rigid steel frames to fully suspended carbon fibre (and sometimes back to rigid steel as well.)

More posts from Chipps

Comments (9)

    mudeverywheremudeverywhere April 26, 2021 at 6:22 pm

    “Previously the 350 hub didn’t incorporate DT’s famous star-ratchet engagement system (it had regular pawls instead) and you had to get the fancier 250 hubs for those.”

    Hmm…but 350 hubs already have the ratchet system and never heard of 250 hubs

    Rubber_BuccaneerRubber_Buccaneer April 26, 2021 at 6:35 pm

    Beaten to it 🙂 I thought 370 hubs had pawls, 350 hubs had 18t ratchet as standard and 240s were the top end but not sure whether they came with the 36t ratchet or not. 250 must have been a special edition journo only model 🙂

    johnw1984johnw1984 April 26, 2021 at 7:43 pm

    Non-boost front and boost rear?

    dominic54dominic54 April 27, 2021 at 11:10 am

    I know there’s always someone saying ‘I could build a better/cheaper/lighter XXXX’, but I’m going to be that guy today. Sorry. I have a set of DT 240 EXP hubs, 54T, laced with Sapim lasers to Light Bicycle 27mm rims. They weigh 1365g, and cost £840. They’re standing up to the peak district on a 150mm trail bike. I can never understand how large manufacturers routinely can’t beat the individual purchase cost to consumers.

    ravingdaveravingdave April 27, 2021 at 12:25 pm

    Doninic54 are those wheels 29ers?

    pmurdenpmurden April 27, 2021 at 12:42 pm

    I have a pair of Rovals on my mtb and they’ve been bloody briliant even with me aboard.

    dominic54dominic54 April 27, 2021 at 2:22 pm

    @ravingdave 27.5. I specced up a 29″ set and they came in 60g heavier; so, still lighter than these, better hubs, much cheaper. And that’s with an AM-rated rim; they have lighter XC versions, albeit narrower. I don’t doubt that the Rovals are nice wheels, they just seem really expensive.

    ravingdaveravingdave April 27, 2021 at 2:43 pm

    Thanks Dominic, made a note for when I need some 29ers built

    ChippsChipps April 27, 2021 at 4:36 pm

    Sorry, fixed some of the errors in the story. It was a long weekend and this got a bit rushed. I’m sure you’ll point out all the bits I missed though 🙂

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