The year of the lightweight trail wheelset continues!
As we noted last month, Roval’s Control Trail AL wheelset makes a good case for itself: Wide rims (21mm inside), a DT Swiss sourced freehub and spokes, a competitive weight and price, and a limited lifetime warranty all look very good on paper. On the trail, my set has been trouble-free, with demerits only coming from a bit of flex when compared to the competition and some odd spoke noise when braking in rough terrain.
After reading that review, the folks from Specialized’s wheel house were in touch, confident that the new 2012 models would address my complaints. Would we like to have a look at the revised carbon-rimmed version? Would we ever.
Fresh off the FedEx truck, here is our First Look at Roval’s 2012 Control Trail SLs wheels. Hit the jump for more details, the surprising price and even more surprising weight…
It’s not uncommon for components’ published weights to be a bit off from their delivered weights. What’s not common is for products to come in below their advertised weight. A wheelset weighing at 70g less than advertised is all but unheard of. That’s what happened with the Trail SLs: Advertised at a very competitive 1,350g, my scale reported 1,280g for the pair (26in size, 135mm QR rear/15mm thru front). Repeatedly. That’s 180g lighter than Easton’s benchmark Haven Carbon. The included valve stems were 5g apiece and the very nice titanium QR skewers were 50g and 55g. The price? $1,650, or just over twice that of the ALs. That’s not cheap by any measure, but these have to be some of the least expensive carbon-rimmed trail wheels on the market.
With a couple of scoops of Stans liquid, the Ground Control Control (not a typo) 2Bliss 26×2.3 (590g) and Purgatory Control 2Bliss 26×2.2 (710g) tires seated very easily despite being hand-mountable. The wheels are all mounted up and ready for a weekend ride… Stay tuned for an initial review in a couple of months!
marc
