Gonna do a bit of xc racing again next year and also do blacks, etc at Glentress i suppose all-mountain stuff, are these any good?
I'm 12stone and tend to be pretty hard on rear wheels.......
what ya reckon?
thanks in advance, J
I reckon so... 1580 grams but still pretty tough. I managed to break a spoke at Fort William, but on the worlds' downhill course so I'll forgive 'em. Other than that mine have just done the job. Though I'm not particularily core, I'm fairly inept and they're on a hardtail so they've laughed off some silly hits. You wouldn't want them on a freeride bike or similiar though.
Only downers are that it's an alloy freehub body, and spares aren't that easy- I made the mistake of trying to order spokes through Edinburgh Bicycle Coop and it took them about 8 weeks to find one spoke 😛 But Freeborn got me some faster, and as there's only 2 sizes in the wheels I just got some spares just in case.
My experience is much the same as Northwind's, although I've not broken a spoke yet. They've stood up really well to a lot of abuse and I'm 15st. Ended up getting Stans rim strips when running them tubeless as I was getting leaks from the around the supplied valve. I'd second the point about the alloy freehub though, changed the cassette on mine and it took ages to get it off as it bitten into the body, not sure I'll manage to get the one that's on there now off 🙁
TBH unless you can get them cheap (I paid £350 when they were on offer) I'd probably go with a decent hand-built wheel instead with Stans flow/arch rims or something similar.
I have the '08 Traverse wheelset, which I bought at a discount, and was so impressed I bought another set.
They're light, the rims are wide and they've stayed true. Although I've only used them on a couple of properly rocky rides.
I'd agree that the supplied rim tapes are rubbish - and I'll be popping out to check my freehubs as soon as I get the chance.
Like Fuzzy, I wouldn't pay full whack. I'd get some Hope Hoops instead. And that's what I did when I needed another wheelset.
It's like with Hope, you're only suppose to put a full-carrier cassette on an alloy freewheel, so if you fit XT or similiar the little rings will dig in. Personally I just don't care, you can use a chainwhip to muscle them off and chemical metal to repair any damage, bit cheaper than an XTR cassette!
Oh, and yeah, Stans yellow tape is better than the Specialized blue stuff, which seems to be just electric tape 😛 It's also hard to find, presumably because they know everyone will get the Stans yellow tape!
I've got the lighter more XC orientated Roval Controle SL and they're fantastic wheels. Bonkers light yet fairly bombproof so far. I had leakage issues with the normal rim tape as well - they're currently running tubed until I can sort out some Stans or a ghetto job on them.
Both the Traversee and Controle seem really good value for money and even the Controles take 2.2" tyres, the Traversee will easily cope with 2.3+"
Got the Traversee.... lurvly looking wheels...tough as old boots. Ridden them for six months in the Peak on bouncy rocky bits an they are spot on. Great wheels.
As above. Thrown them off 4-5' drops no problems and down Lakes rocky descents. Cracking wheels, although run Mavic SX's on the "bigger" bike!
btw, anyone know if the 15mm Fox fork size adapters came out for this wheelset ?
You could ask Mark Dennis at Spesh UK, he's the Roval guy there.
cheers, thanks for the tip.