Been looking for a lightweight wheelset upgrade for my short travel 29er and can potentially get a set of the new Roval / Specialized Control Carbon wheels for a couple hundred £££ less than RRP.

Anyone on here riding these wheels, or the lighter Control SL version (same rims apparently)? Experiences?

Durability is obviously my main concern compared to aluminium. I’ve owned carbon wheels before (Giant own brand) and didn’t destroy them. There’s videos on Youtube of riders hammering these wheels on terrain well above my pay grade although there’s also a few comments on Pinkbike of people who’ve cracked them riding silly stuff though. The Rovals are just under 200g lighter (actual weight) than the DT Swiss XMC 1501s that Jason reviewed a few months ago which is my main concern. I’m fairly light on gear though and have, touch wood, never trashed a rim in 10 years of riding so I’m presuming they will be ok for some general trail riding?

We have been running carbon wheels on all our bikes for quite a few years, mainly Sixth Element but we have a couple of sets of Rovals, one set is now on a Turbo Levo and the other is on a S Works Stumpy.
All have been ridden hard with no problems apart from the usual scratches rims get.

I picked up a second hand pair of Roval Carbons, I think they came of old expert model spesh, its a 350 rear on the roval carbon rim, the front is the unbranded hub on carbon rim, I have had no issues with them anywhere.

I had 27.5 Roval Carbons, beat hell out of them, and I’m a big lump, zero issues.

I’ve just retired a set from a Spesh Enduro after 3 years. The front’s been no issues, just needed the occasional truing and tightening that any MTB wheels needs really. The rear is a whole different thing though  I’ve cracked a rear rim,  which TBF to Spesh was replaced no questions asked and struggled after that to keep it straight and tight – the spokes (especially non drive side) just won’t keep their tension. I’ve probably replaced them all individually, and last winter relaced the whole wheel from scratch.

I don’t think that 28 spokes on that rim, in an “enduro” application is enough. I don’t know if the rim is too stiff and all the energy gets transferred to the spokes…who knows? I’m no expert I do know that if I ride hard, that evening I’ll have to rebuild the back wheel. I do ride in a particularly rocky part of the world, though.

I’m a big ol’ unit and mine have been great. I’d have thought 28spoke rear was a bad idea, but they’ve been solid on my 140mm stumpy.

Yeah I bought a pair in the summer. First used on the full sus now on the hardtail for winter. I’ve been very impressed with them. Seriously light. So light I kept wheelspinning on climbs. Tough enough so far. Plenty of rock deflections and the scuffs to show it. Very precise which was odd at first but now feels totally normal. Ride quality is excellent but they do feel slightly stiffer when blasting through very rough stuff, giving a bit more feedback. Easy to get tyres on and off. If you’re a lighter rider and not riding the gnarliest trails most of the time then I suspect they’ll work well for you.

Thanks for the info all. Sounds like they’ll be ok for the type of riding that I do.

I’ve been using Control SL 25 Carbon 29ers on my XC race bike, 4000km so far including probably 15-20 XC races. No issues what so ever, v impressive 1300g wheels.