Roval Traversee vs. Hope Hoops / stans flow

Hello all,

Kind of a reintroduction from me – I posted a little on the old forum but clearly it's been a while.

I've been driving myself mad reading countless reviews and forum posts regarding wheelsets, and have boiled it down to two options – roval traversee or hope pro II on stans flows. I intend to run both of them tubeless, as an experiment if nothing else. (I've never run tubeless before)

Haven't had new wheels and hubs since D521's were considered cutting edge!

Briefly:

– I'm 9.5 stone and very light on my feet / agile rider
– I ride mostly the aggressive end of UK trail centres, and ride pretty fast and loose
– I also ride the alps once or twice a year (just back from the megavalanche) but these wheels will really be for UK use.
– Initially wheels will be used on two bikes – Ellsworth Moment and Cove Hummer, Ellsworth has 203mm hope tech m4's front and rear, 6 bolt IS.
– both bikes have 20mm bolt through
– currenty setup is early hope hubs, d521, 2.35 high rollers and freeride tubes. Never ever get a puncture and love the grip but clearly a pain on the climbs and totally ruins the Hummer full stop!

Now, I'm looking for something as light as possible, but which will take a bit of abuse. As I said, I am very light on my feet, never really puncture and even landing off larger jumps my landings are (generally!!) pretty smooth, although I don't go off anything really bigger than 5ft.

Ultimate grip / performance is very important….I'd rather struggle a little more on climbs and really be able to push the descent…very happy with current setup in that department but just desperate to shed some weight and rolling resistance, particularly on the Hummer, which is frankly ruined by running the current wheels / tyres.

Based on all of the above, which wheelset should I choose? Anyone have any direct experience they can share of either wheelset?

Full disclosure – I'm close to pulling the trigger on the traversee's, so would appreciate any showstopping input on either.

thanks
Ed

I have the Traversees. They're light, wide, fast, adaptable and only a little bit flexy.

Riding on a full-sus in the Lakes they stood up to some fast, very rocky descents – but I would hesitate to ride the same stuff on a HT (and now usually leave an older 719 rimmed wheel on my Reign for rocky routes and jumping).

Got my Rovals for £359, but Hoops didn't come with Stans rims at the time. I'd probably go with the Flows now (pun intended).

Hope that helps.

Thanks – my HT only really gets used in places like Leith Hill (my local ride) which is fairly loamy.

What's the weight difference with the flows over the rovals? 500g?

Also how heavy are you?

cheers
ed

Won't be anywhere near 500g.

I've got Roval Controle SLs, and they're good, but if I was buying it'd be a wheelset using off the shelf parts, like the Hope Hoops, if nothing else spares are easier to come by!

I'm 12 stone, although I do ride light. No idea of the weight difference, sorry.

I'm sure you'd be very happy with the Rovals, they're great wheels.

Would Stans 355s on Hope hubs not be more comparible to the Rovals in terms of weight and width?

Yes but the reason I am considering the Flow is *because* they are slightly wider.

Basically I'm trying to decide if I go for slightly lighter (traversee) or slightly wider / burlier but a little heavier.

From reading various threads it seems the traversee spins up noticeably faster, although I guess given I only go up to come down (fast) perhaps the stans are actually the better option after all?

May be able to help here…..

I have a set of Roval Traversees, and some Flows onto CK hubs built with DT Supercomp spokes. Respective weights are 1580g vs 1790g. Hope hubs are about 30g lighter than CK's. Note these weights are based on a nerdy spreadsheet I built rather than on the scales!! Both are run tubeless.

Out riding, the Rovals are noticably lighter, and quicker to spin up to speed. For such a light wheel, with a low spoke count, they are also pretty stiff.
I weigh 12.5st and the Rovals are on a Titus Motolite which is built up for lightweight all-mountain duty. As such, the wheels have been used in the Lakes, Scotland, do 4-5' jumps, and on one occaision the rear was cased on a ditch that I felt sure would have destroyed it – it didn't budge! The front one needed retruing after I put my foot into it in a rather bizarre slow-speed crash, but that's been about it in the 18 months or so I've owned them.
The CK/Flows are on a 456, and get used for local thrashes, inc 4-5' drops etc. They are stiff and reliable, and the Flow gives a great profile to something like a 2.2 – 2.3" tyre.

Overall I'd say you are light enough to get away with the Roval for pretty much any riding you'd do in the UK. I'd have no problems getting another pair.

BTW I'm based nr Godalming if you wanted to compare the two.

excellent – in fact I think yours might have been one of the posts I found via Google!

I will likely be running 2.35 high roller tubeless (anyone have any other recommendations? I love the high roller like a brother and struggle to consider using anything else!) will the profile be okay on the traversee or a bit squished?

I'm starting to warm to the idea of the flow now, I could bung a 2.5 tubeless on them and even use them for the occassional more extreme riding like the alps trip.

Not tried a High Roller on the Traversees but suspect the 2.35" would be fine. I run 2.25" Nobby Nics on them and give a great profile.

If you want to run 2.5" for the occaisional Alps trips, I suspect the Flows may be a better bet. You are not taking much of a weight penalty in the scheme of things.
If you are getting them handbuilt, worth using super comp spokes over regular comps – worth about 60g per wheel.

So do the factory hope hoops come with regular comps?

One other option – I did look at american classic hubs with super comp and flows at http://www.justridingalong.com

Any experience of the american classic? Seem very light / strong.

cheers
ed

Mind you, having re-run some options on there now based on the above, they seem very expensive!

Hope pro 2 and flows are £228 from Winstanleys too!

Hope Hoops every time, given the options you are looking at. A 32 or 36 hole rim and hub build means that if you knacker one component you'll be able to replace it easily. I'd wager that Spec's 09 spares will be thin on the ground in a few years as new models come and go so a crisped wheel may require a whole new wheel.

@benjag well spotted, that's pretty irresistible at that price! Nearly £200 less than the traversee. I don't think I'm going to do any better than that unless anyone knows any different?!

cheers
ed

Beware Winstanleys don't have a great rep – you may have to hassle them a bit to get what you want. Doesn't sound like they are bad people, just a bit useless at times.

Happy with my Traversees but I'm sure I'd be happy if I went with Hope/Flows to (apart from the noise :p ). If the Hope were a fair bit cheaper I'd go with them otherwise I'd be more tempted with the Traversees.

One thing I would say about the Traversee is you may end up fitting stans rim strip anyway so if the Hope weight includes that then bear it in mind. I found on mine the supplied blue rim strip was fine sealing the first time but when I swapped tyres I noticed the tape had a few kinks in it (despite being as careful as I could be getting the tyres on and off) and I couldn't get the new tyres sealed around the valve properly. In the end I got Stans Rhyno Lite strips (plus a couple of layers of yellow rim tape) and they sealed fine with those but obviously add to the weight.
High Roller 2.35's are fine on them but the UST versions are very heavy so I'd stick with the normal single-ply XC ones.

If you don't fancy Winstanleys, Wiggle do Hope Hoops with DT rims (4.2 or 5.1) for ~£225 (less if you can get hold of one Wiggle voucher per wheel)

I bought my Cove Hummer frame from Winstanley with no problems however I just called them to enquire if the rims come with the valves and rim tape and he didn't know. LOL.

Anybody here know?!

I'm guessing that they do.

cheese
ed

Bought my Hope hoops with flow rims from winstanlys. Out of stock but still came in 4 working days.

MRanger156 – Member

Bought my Hope hoops with flow rims from winstanlys. Out of stock but still came in 4 working days.

Did they come with the valves and rim tape?

The rims don't include rim tape or valves no. Can't speak for the Hope Hoops, the wheels using DT Rims include a rim tape, so it seems plausible that they do.

Durability on AM Classic hubs is questionable it would seem, a lot of people say they're fine now, but I know of a few people who've had some serious problems with them. I'd use them on a pure XC bike, but probably not on anything more.

hope hoops dont come as standard with the valves and tape -they do come with normal cloth tape and spare spokes though

Flows don't come with rim tape or valves. I use the yellow tape (a tenner from JRA) and standard Mavic UST valves.

i just got hope to put a pair of kits in with mine …. cost 25 quid or something but saved me faffing about

Guys, thanks so much for all of this, really very very helpful, thanks!

Will report back how I get on with whatever I choose 🙂

cheers
ed