Pawlus

Hi. Being a bit lucky I managed to lay hands on vintage Roval wheelset. These were made in France way before Specialized bought the company. They appear to be of a very good quality. I wanted to share with the community.

Here's a quick link to Classic Rendesvous:Roval wheels

Here are photos of my wheelset:




In my wheels front wheel has 24 spokes and rear 20 spokes on the drive side and 10 on the NDS.

I would appreciate any additional info about those wheels.

Cheers
Paweł

old's'cool

That's a very cool concept; makes a lot of sense technically, by reducing the gap between DS and NDS spoke tension (i.e., assuming equal spokes, applying them more evenly in terms of their strength and fatigue properties.
It also looks like the NDS spokes are arranged radially, so virtually none of the drive torque is transmitted through the centre of the hub. There's a theoretical advantage there, allowing the hub shell to be built a little lighter.
What does all this sophistication add up to, assuming strength and other properties are held constant? - probably a few grams, I guess. But it's cool from an engineering perspective.

Citoyen du Monde

Roval had a few major disadvantages back in the day: they were very expensive (in large part because shipping was more expensive back then and you were basically shipping air), you could only true them by removing the tire (which meant that virtually no mechanic wanted to work on them), and the spare parts were basically impossible to find (spare spokes, bearings, etc...). Had they been a bit more affordable back in the day; I would have perhaps tried to get a set for myself. About 10 years ago, I bought out most of the old 1980's stock from Cinelli and they had something like 10 sets of Rival wheels still in boxes which they had procured for Laser bikes. I wasn't able to convince them to sell them to me.

Bianchigirll 

They were pretty fancy wheels back then I only a saw a few pair and they were Tri Guys.

Chombi

The black finish on the rims seem to be the weakness on the Rovals, It does not take too many miles to get the sidewalls all messed up looking from wear from brake pads, and the rest of the rim seems to chip easily. I really suspect that they are painted and not anodized like most other rims....
Anodizing wear at the sidewalls but nowhere near as quick and as bad.
I think they also came in silver, but then the black with the polished silver accents really does look cool...
I have have two sets of Rovals that needs clean up and restoration and I'm thinking, maybe I should strip off their beat up black finishes on the rims and give them a good polish, then hit them with Scott Brite pads lightly to give them that subtle grain you see on other aluminum bike components.

styggno1

Got a silver pair in the 80ies. Used for time trial only. Hubs are very high quality. Bladed spokes. Strong rims and the wheels stayed true. Very satisfied at the time. Still is but now more for the aesthetics. I have seen information of them being first made in 1977.

edit: Found the source of information - Radfahren 2/1990, S. 40 - 44
"Ein einzelnes, sich wie im Fahrrad drehendes konventionelles Laufrad kommt nach Messungen von LeHanneur (10) auf eine Luftwiderstandsfläche von cwA = 0,05 m2. RovalLaufräder (1977 entwickelt: tiefe Feige, Säbelspeichen mit Hammerkopf, 24 Speichen je Laufrad) haben hingegen einen Wert von etwa cwA = 0,03 m2."

Funny thing - these were considered as deep (tiefe) section rims back then. And they were - compared to conventional rims. Now they are not...

Sorry for the bad picture.

El Chaba

I had a teammate with a pair back in the late 80's-early 90's....I borrowed them on a half dozen occasions for time trials. They were fast wheels. I also recall several smaller riders using them for general racing. I guess that they were not alone as I also recall Roval coming out with a version with more spokes and possibly a beefier rim for those applications; I don't recall how many spokes there were for which versions. My other recollections of the wheels were that the hubs used internal parts from Maillard; they were essentially the same as the contemporary 700 hubs....I further suspect that Maillard went beyond supplying parts and actually made the hubs. If I am not mistaken, William Lewis Imports was the importer for the US...

plonz 

Are you referring to different Rovals? The ones in the OP look to have machined sidewalls.

miamijim

That's worn off anodizing.

styggno1

Pics of my hubs - the non black variety.

Will polish up nicely once I get around to it.




Rim height (no air in tubes make it seem higher maybe):

styggno1

Pawlus

You're right Old's'cool, this is indeed a very interesting concept. Roval was first to use cross/radial lacing on the rear wheel to increase stiffness and reduce drag. I also never heard of any other manufacturers building stock wheels with bladed spokes. I have the same era wheels build onto Campagnolo Record hubs. Looking at these two it feels like there's a decade separating them.

Chombi, I think you're right. These rims look more like they were painted and not anodized. That said I don't think that braking surfaces are messy or ugly. My set must have pretty low mileage (judging from their condition) and the surface looks pretty tidy. Here's a quick snap of a rim joint where you can see how paint/anodizing wore off:


Styggo, even tho by today's standards those rims are nothing special it makes me smile they were the precursors of Shamals and Zipps. Here's a photo of my on a bike with inflated tires for comparison


Ps. Silver rims look higher!

non-fixie 

Probably the best-looking wheels ever, these Rovals. I have bought a pair for that very reason years ago, but haven't found the right bike for them yet.