Roval Rapide CL II Tubeless Wheelset

The Roval Rapide CL II Wheelset offers an all-round fast ride, delivering top-end road riding performance at a price point a notch down from the top end. The design features apparently mismatched front and back wheels but it's a pairing designed for real-world riding conditions, offering great stability and handling to match their pure speed. Specialized claims these produce a performance close to its top-of-the-range CLX IIs while coming in £1,000 cheaper, which makes them a near shoo-in for our best road bike wheels buyer's guide.

> Buy now: Roval Rapide CL II Wheelset for £1,500 from Specialized

The first thing I noticed when unboxing the Rovals was the unmissable difference between front and rear wheels. The front wheel looks, well, massively wide, with an external width of 35mm, and when I came to mount my 26mm tyres onto something so wide it really did take getting used to. In contrast, the rear is noticeably narrower with an external width of just 30mm, though at 60mm its rim is deeper than the 51mm front. Got that?

But once you take some time to read Specialized's info on the wheels, the asymmetrical setup makes a lot of sense. Aerodynamically, the front and rear wheels face differing demands, and Specialized has designed this wheelset to focus on real-world riding dynamics. Effectively, by sacrificing a bit of depth on the front wheel, you're less susceptible to crosswinds and can hold a more stable position. The deeper rear wheel has a lower impact on stability.

The CL II s are tubeless compatible, with a hooked rim enabling pressures up to 110psi. My preference is for an old-school tubed setup that also worked perfectly well. Worth noting that you'll need some extra-long valves if you choose to run these with inner tubes. I tested the Rovals using 26mm tyres, but they're designed to cater for tyres from 24-38mm in width. To be honest, I think I'd select at least 28mm tyres for these wheels if I was buying tyres to match, as the exposed rim at the front look a little odd when you're riding.

The CL II wheels are marketed as being a more affordable alternative to Specialized's top-end CLX IIs. There is a fair saving, with the entire wheelset coming in £1,000 cheaper than the CLX IIs but, very impressively, the hand-built rims are identical, with the same quality of carbon. The key difference lies in the hubs, bearings and spokes, which means the CL II wheels are a little heavier at 1,590g.

The CL II wheels come with DT Swiss 350 Hubs, which contain stainless steel sealed cartridge bearings. The rear free hub is a 36-tooth system, which rolls really smoothly. I'm not one who obsesses with a freehub sound check, but these are quiet as well as smooth, and engage quickly once it's time to jump back on the pedals. I've used these hubs on another wheelset that I mainly use over winter and have found them to be reliable in tough conditions.

The key comment on these wheels is that they just feel fast. They are brilliant at carrying speed, particularly on the flat and rolling hills. I switched up to these from a pair of Roval CL32s and could immediately notice how much better they performed on the flat. The deep rear wheel is incredibly stiff, making it rather fun to kick over the top of each roller.

Lighter wheelsets certainly exist, but these still climb well, and it doesn't feel as if the aerodynamics come at the sacrifice of uphill performance. The 1,590g weight is still very good, even if's not the lightest in the wheelset continuum. This is heavily influenced by the depth of the rims, so other options are available if you're looking to trade off weight-saving against aerodynamic performance

Specialized makes a lot of claims about the stability of this wheelset and having tested these in some rather grim winter conditions, I would back this up. However, I can't really say I noticed much of a difference in stability compared a 'standard' setup of 50mm deep wheels. The cornering of the wheels is also as good as you'd expect. It feels like this may be mostly related to the 21mm internal rim width allowing more of the tyre to be in contact with the road.

In terms of directly measuring performance against other available wheels, it's hard to compare without a full controlled wind tunnel test. However, we recently had a crack at comparing a range of similar wheels in a real-world test.

The Roval CL IIs came out top in this, proving their all-round credentials, and Jamie picked these out as one of his favourites, commenting that 'the super-wide profile means they offer impressive stability for a multitude of conditions'.

Value

These wheels are clearly aimed at road cyclists looking for top performance and it makes a lot of sense to save £1,000 compared with the £2,500 Roval CLX II wheelset, by having spokes and hubs that aren't quite so exotic. Retaining the identical hand-built carbon rims means you're accessing the same aerodynamic performance and stiffness as the CLX wheels while keeping a pretty serious chunk of money in your pocket.

Personally, I think the cost/benefit analysis makes these the better choice for me.

When it comes to value, at £1,500 these are still at the mid- to high-end of what you'd expect to pay for a carbon wheelset. Stu recently rated the £600 Prime Doyenne wheels highly, although these are a fair bit heavier than the CL IIs. Cannondale's Hollowgram R45 Wheelset didn't rate quite so highly when Steve reviewed them and they retail for £1000.

However, if you think £1,500 is expensive, then the Zipp 454 NSW wheelset that Jamie puts through its paces may make your eyes water at over £3500.

And for even more alternatives, check out our on-the-road real-world test.

Conclusion

Quite simply, I really loved riding these wheels. They are speedy but stable and it's easy to see why they came top in our recent test. Specialized has taken some steps to make these substantially cheaper than their CLX II cousin, but it doesn't feel that the designers have sacrificed much in the way of performance. Overall, I believe that with its new CL IIs Specialized has created an excellent carbon road wheelset.

Verdict

Excellent wheels with hand-built aero rims that are speedy, stable and great fun to ride