A total of three hundred of the Roval Control SL TeamLtd wheels will be made available outside of their elite cross country team.
As light as they are expensive, the new Roval Control SL Team Ltd wheels certainly have the headline figures in their favour.
Key features:
- Roval hubs with DT Swiss 180 internals
- Flat top bead
- 20h only
- 2-cross lacing
- Carbon fibre, straight pull spokes
- 1,190g
- £2,700.00 RRP
- Specialized.com
Coming in lighter than some road wheels, the new Specialized Roval Control SL Team Ltd wheels might well be part of the reason Specialized’s cross country pinners have had so much success this year at World Cup level. The new wheels come from the increasingly gnarly XC courses that World Cup riders have to face week in, week out.
At £2,700 a pair, they are far from cheap, but then top end kit rarely is. That’s £2.27 a gram. No messing about here. The new wheels feature new Roval hubs with DT Swiss 180 hub internals, carbon fibre spokes and a carbon fibre rim. They save a whole 60g off the previous top tier Roval offering. That’s £136.20’s worth of weight saved. The rims claim to eliminate pinch flats entirely with their flat top bead design and apparently need 33% more force than competitor wheels to fail.
It’s claimed that these are both the lightest and fastest MTB wheels on the of the planet. The first might well be true. New carbon layups in the rim and carbon spokes don’t just offer low weight, but also put the stiffness and compliance where it needs to be. A super stiff wheel will be fast, but not for long as they will be too fatiguing. You have to get the balance right.
For your £2,700 you do get more than just a set of wheels in a carboard box. The custom box contains the wheels themselves, Ti rotor bolts, end caps and end cap tool, a Microspline freehub body (XD fitted stock), SINC bearings, Roval branded Dynaplug with spare plugs, Spoke kit (20 spokes), a double wheel bag, 2 x S-Works tyres, two custom Roval water bottles and letters from the S-Racing riders.
