The CLX 50 wheels were designed to be 45 to 55mm deep, 2Bliss Ready, aerodynamically optimised, ultra-wide, and under 1400 grams. This meant borrowing some weight savings techniques developed for the CLX 32, while taking some aero guidance from the CLX 64, to create what Specialized like to call “the unicorn wheel." Specialized implemented every lightweight trick in the book without sacrificing anything to durability. From there, they performed a variety of studies on different wheel depths, ultimately deciding that meeting their strict weight and stiffness targets would be a big gamble with something too deep, which is where 50mm was born from. Next, Specialized jumped headlong into Computational Fluid Dynamics computer modeling to arrive at various rim shapes that could make the CLX 50 as fast as possible. The rim shape was narrowed down to three contenders that were then CNC machined into rims, built into wheels, and put into a Win Tunnel. In the tunnel, they tested every wheel, Specialized and their competition's, with a 24C (measuring ~26mm wide) Specialized S-Works Turbo tyre inflated to 100 PSI, as tyres can drastically affect performance. Testing wheels by themselves, not on a bike, is often seen as malpractice, but in all their years of testing experience, the numbers have shown that the deltas between bike and wheel, and wheel alone, to be consistent. After finding the most optimised rim shape that supported svelte weight requirements, they opted to lace the rims to their Aero Flange (AF) hub with DT Swiss 240 internals, which features the legendary CeramicSpeed bearings, via 21 DT Swiss Aerolite spokes. Now it was time for final testing validation. The result? A 50mm-deep, 1375-gram wheelset that's not only ~200 grams lighter than the competition’s similar depth disc wheel, but is also measurably faster in every conceivable test than every wheel in its category.
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Rim Type: Carbon clincher, tubeless-ready
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Rim Material: Carbon
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Braking Surface: Carbon Fibre
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Brake Track Height: 12mm
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Rim Depth: 50mm
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Rim Width: 20.7mm internal, 29.4mm external
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Spoke Pattern: Radial/Two-cross (2:1)
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Spoke Count: 21
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Spoke Type: DT Swiss Aerolite T-head
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Nipple Type: DT Swiss Pro Lock hexagonal
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Rear Hub: Roval AF1, CeramicSpeed bearings, DT Swiss 240 internals, 11-speed
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Assembly Method: Hand-built
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Extras: Roval padded wheelbag, Roval steel QR, Roval tubeless plugs and tubeless valve, SwissStop Black Prince brake pads
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Weight: 768g