Trail wheels are either heavy and durable or light and flexy. A lightweight, wide-profile, and enduro-ready carbon wheel seems like something only found in a fairytale but Specialized made it a reality. The Traverse SL Fattie 29 puts all the features you need in an all-mountain wheel into one package, and it has the results to prove it.
Along with light overall weight, stiffness, and durability, another top priority for the Traverse SL was ease of use. First, Roval got rid of the creaky straight-pull spokes and corrosion-prone alloy nipples. Next up, they landed on 28 J-bend spokes, for both the front and rear wheels, that are all the same length, making it easy to find replacements if needed. Roval engineered a new hub design, with a wider profile and higher flange to aid in overall stiffness.
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. You've probably noticed that mountain bike rim widths have hovered between 19mm and 23mm for decades, and they've been long overdue for a change.
In the search for a better wheel design, engineers began testing 2.3- to 2.5-inch tyres on 45mm-wide fat bike rims to see what benefits could be found. It only took them a few rides to realise that the wider rims offered a variety of advantages, like adding additional 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 25 to 45mm, determined that a 30mm inner width is optimal.
After determining the width, Roval began designing the rim using the knowledge that they gained when developing the Control SL. With this, Roval started with a Zero Bead Hook technology that gets rid of the weak spot found in a traditional wheel, and combined it with the wider profile to make a carbon rim that effectively dissipates forces. This way, you can take abuse from rocks without the worry of cracks or dents.
They’re strong, impact-resistant, and tyre supporting but don't compromise on weight. Even though “fattie” is in their name, they're far from fat. To achieve this weight, the rims were hand-built to their own alloy hubs, using only the highest quality DT Swiss Competition Race spokes. Inside the hubs, you'll find DT Swiss 240 internals 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. Whether you need a carbon wheelset to get you through an enduro stage or one to shred your local rock garden, the Traverse SL Fattie has you covered.