smashndash

https://cyclingtips.com/2020/06/rova...st-clx-wheels/

I’m not entirely sure if we’ll be seeing these wheels as OE beginning next year, but it’s something to keep in mind if you are considering buying Specialized stuff in the future.

A very unexpected decision, considering that Specialized was one of the biggest proponents of tubeless.

guadzilla

Interesting wheels - the Rapides are 50f/60r and weigh 1400gm. My CLX64s are 1615gm or something like that. That's a yuge improvement in weight.

But 35mm OD on the front, as per the road.cc article? I am still trying to come to grips with how this would be faster. At some point, surely you are on the diminishing side of the curve with regards to both rolling resistance and aero.

I suspect some wordplay at work with the "fastest all-round" terminology.

Sy Reene

This serves as the explanation, and sorta maybe explains the low max pressures that the likes of Enve /Zipp list for their wheels. So the tradeoff as they view it, is they could have made them tubeless but then demanded that riders inflate to a lower pressure that may not have been optimal for them.

"According to Roval, the greater (compression) force put on a rim by a tubeless tyre requires extra material, “and that extra mass would have outweighed the benefits of tubeless tires”. As a result, Roval’s decision equates to lighter wheelsets."

WhyFi

Interesting choice. They won't be going on the list of candidates when I "need" new wheels.

rubiksoval

So it sounds like they've gone for performance over marketing gimmick.

Interesting.

Wonder how long until we're back to rim brakes...

Seattle Forrest

Wonder for long until we're back to penny farthings.

rubiksoval

E-penny farthings...?!

Seattle Forrest

E-penny farthings gobbling up KOMs on Strava and not waving to people!

SethAZ 

You're stuck in the past. The future is the bitcoin farthing. They'll be disposable because nobody will understand how they work so nobody can fix them, and they will randomly steal themselves even when you lock them up in your garage.

Rides4Beer

I like that they kept the ID 21mm on the front. Other manufacturers keep getting wider, but also increasing the inner width at the same time making it harder to get an aero match with the tire. You could prob stay aero on this wheel with a 30/32mm tire.

guadzilla

I may bite the bullet and get a pair at some point next year... if faster than my CLX64s, great. If not, with a 30-32c tire fitted on, it would be a great daily riding wheel.

noodle soup

If you care about performance, and safety, why not go tubular?

Seattle Forrest

So the performance angle they say this gets them is less weight at the rim. And they've managed to match the weight of Zipp's new wheels which are tubeless. Me thinks this "performance" they're playing up is marketing.

rubiksoval

Who? Me? I race tubulars. Mine are 200 grams lighter than comparable clinchers (that I could actually afford).

I'm assuming their pro teams do as well, but haven't checked recently.

Sy Reene

Sorta.. They're saying I think that to build a wheel that can take the pressures they feel their wheels will need to accept for any rider up to 240lbs, they would have had to add enough weight that the tubeless benefit goes away.

Zipp otoh, has some (IMO) some screwy PSI inflation recommendations that I'd guess are only what they are because their rim couldn't take any more. Eg. a 240lb rider + bike (260lb total weight) gets a result of 70 psi for a 28mm tire, and 73psi seems to the highest PSI that these rims are rated to be able to handle.

noodle soup

I'm aware that you race tubulars. My comment is just a response to your comment about Specialized/Roval's choice to move away from tubeless.

Seattle Forrest

My Enves are 1,500 grams (much deeper than the wheels we're talking about), and don't have a rider weight limit. They're warranted for use on tandems.

Sy Reene

To clarify.. the rims may not have a weight limit, but pretty sure they have an inflation limit, which could effectively drive the weight you'd want to put on them.

WhyFi

If you read/watch reviews, the folks at Zipp have explicity said that the wheels can safely take more pressure but they've set the "max" at 5 bar because they believe that it's fasterer and betterer and that people are more likely over-inflate (in terms of optimal performance, not safety) otherwise.