Whilst all-mountain wheels used to be regarded as heavy and durable or light and flexy, the Roval Traverse SL Fattie turns these notions on their head to bring you all the features you need from an all-mountain wheel in one package.
During the prototype phase, the rims spent two seasons of abuse on the Enduro World Series circuit under Curtis Keene, and have since been proven by Jared Graves and host of other riders around the world. But don’t think of the Traverse SL Fattie as merely some indestructible, heavy carbon wheels - there’s far much more to the story.
The Traverse SL Fatties may be wide, but with a 30mm inner rim width, they’re far from the girth of a fat bike rim. Mountain bike rim widths have hovered between 19 and 23 millimeters for decades, and they've been long overdue for a change. In the search for a better wheel design, Roval's engineers began testing 2.3 to 2.5-inch tyres on 45-millimetre-wide fat bike rims to see what benefits could be found. It only took a few rides to realise that the wider rims offered a variety of advantages, like adding extra tyre volume, which better supports the tyres in hard cornering, greatly improves traction because of the ability to run lower pressures, and noticeably increases rim stiffness. They did note that there is an occurrence of diminishing returns with increasing width, however, and after testing everything from 25mm to 45mm, determined that a 30mm inner width gave us the optimal width.
After determining the width, the rim was designed using knowledge that was gained when developing the Control SL. With this, Specialized started with their Zero Bead Hook technology that gets rid of the weak spot found in a traditional wheel, and combined it with the wider profile, making for a carbon rim that effectively dissipates forces. This way, you can dish out abuse from rocks and without the worry of cracks or dents.
They’re strong, impact-resistant, and tyre supporting without compromising on weight. Even though “fattie” is in their name, they're far from fat. During the development of the Control SL, the importance of using high modulus carbon fibre to reduce weight was learnt, and this technology was embedded into the Traverse SL Fattie rim, resulting in an all-mountain wheel that, at 1600 grams, is as light as many wheels in the XC category. To achieve this weight, Roval hand-build their rims to their own alloy hubs, using only the highest quality DT Swiss Revolution spokes. Inside the hubs, you'll find sealed cartridge bearings with a quick engaging 54t DT Swiss star ratchet system in the rear that allows you to power over rocks and roots without delay. While machines do a pretty good job of building wheels, Roval choose professionally trained humans because they do so with an artistic touch that makes for minimal flaws. You may have noticed the low, 24-front / 28-rear spoke count, but during testing, they discovered that this not only reduced weight, but when built up with 32 spokes, the wheels were actually too stiff.
To further reduce overall system weight, Roval's tubeless plug system was added that saves an additional 60 grams when compared to a rim strip. Whether you need a lightweight, carbon wheelset to get you through an enduro stage as quickly as possible or one to shred your local rock garden, the Traverse SL Fattie has you covered.