Specialized Roval Controle XC Race Wheelset
March 18th, 2008 by Arleigh
Specialized Roval Controle w/ Titanium Skewers
Price : $830
Details : Front - 24 spoke; Rear - 28 spoke; Tubeless ready; 1425 grams per set;
Includes : Titanium skewers, tubeless valves and tubeless rim tape.
Mountain bike wheel sets have come a long way in the past few years. The XC wheel keeps getting lighter and lighter with the price tag getting even higher. Cycling News featured a pair of Specialized wheels which lead me to read all about them on Specialized website. These wheels don’t exactly have the bling factor that the latest craze of Industry Nine wheels does. BUT the fact for 10 extra grams you can get the Specialized wheels for more than $100 cheaper is a huge thing in my mind. Also they use DT spokes which can be found at any bike shop in most countries. Industry Nine needs their special spokes which are a different length per rim used. Chances of you finding a replacement around your neck of the woods is very low.
If harder hitting is your cup of tea, check out their Traversee Disc Wheelset.
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Good point about the availability of spokes — those I-Nine wheels are nice but knowing which size spoke to order and having to wait for it would suck.
One itty bitty nitpick thing:
“Also they use DT spokes which can be found at any bike shop in most country’s” — country’s should be countries
jason
Thanks for the spell check!
Aah, but investing $800 in a wheelset that need a strip of rubber to be tubeless compatible? No thanks- I’d like my additional weight to be structural… For a while, at least, the I9s were available with *proper* tubeless Mavic rims. Here in the desert Southwest, I don’t know any avid riders who are actually running tubes. Heck, even in New England, the additional traction/feel made tubeless worth the slight additional hassle… I know that it’s hard to make a tubeless wheelset without infringing on others’ patents, but at this point, buying a high end tube-only wheelset seems pretty short sighted. They are light, though…
many wheelsets need rubber to be tubeless. its weight savings really.
I agree that I9 has the advantage of being able to build on several rims.. but i would rather have a rubber rim strip than needing to find spokes in the middle of the desert