Ok, so this isn’t really much of a hack, but more of a “we didn’t know if this would work previously, the guys at Bike Barn figured it out, and now we know.” With the introduction of 11 speed drivetrains which added 1mm to the standard 130mm road spacing, the compatibility with disc brake hubs at 135mm spacing was a relative unknown. When Aaron and Jas were asked by a customer if it they could make the Roval carbon mtb wheels work for his CX bike, the set out to make it happen.
Going into the project they were given the answer, “it may work, or it might not.” See how easy the switch was after the break.
To compliment his Specialized Crux Pro Disc frame, Aaron’s customer wanted a set of disc wheels that were MTB tough, carbon, and were tubeless compatible. The 2014 Roval wheels were perfect, except for the fact that they were 10 speed only, and the customer wanted to run 11 speed SRAM Red22 HRD. Since the hubs use DT Swiss 240s hub internals, swapping out the cassette body and the end cap was a straight forward process. Using the new 11 speed freehub and the 11 speed end cap, it is a direct fit that doesn’t require any additional modifications.
With a SRAM PG-1170 11 speed cassette and a SRAM Red 11 speed chain there is plenty of clearance to the dropout, and the now 136mm spaced wheel seems to fit well in the frame. So there you have it – a simple cassette body and end cap swap is all that is needed to convert 2014 Roval Control carbon wheels to 11 speed.
Thanks to Aaron Alter, the Service Manager at Bike Barn Houston, TX (left), and his top service tech Jas Illockowitz (right) for Guinea pigging this and sending it over!
