While ‘Fast and light’ may no longer make for the most compelling of product stories it’s a combination that’s remained de rigueur in road racing for decades. And with good reason. In a sport where success is measured in speed, either by crossing the line first or riding against the clock, being fast is everything. And, in rudimentary terms, weight continues to be a vital part of the equation.
That Roval has framed the narrative of its two latest pieces of kit, the Alpinist CLX III wheels and Alpinist cockpit, around these two measurables then is perfectly understandable. As the name suggests these are components aimed at high performance in lofty altitudes – ‘the fastest way to the top’ as the market copy promises.
(Image credit: Specialized)
And there does appear to be proof in Roval’s pudding. Demi Vollering, the Specialized-sponsored FDJ-Suez rider was some five seconds faster on an ascent of the Tourmalet using the new CLX III wheels compared to the predecessor. This was carried out using simulated results but you get the gist.
(Image credit: Specialized)
So what are the ‘improvements’ over the CLX II?
Roval says the new hoops are some 124g lighter, with a claimed weight of 1,131 grams including rim tape and tubeless valves. The rim itself is 33mm deep, front and rear, with a 21mm internal width. This isn’t wide by today’s standards but emphasizes that the wheel is designed for racing rather than offering additional all-road versatility; Roval says the wheel has been optimised around 28mm tyres.
(Image credit: Specialized)
The spokes are from Arris and the result of a partnership between the two Northern California-based companies. Arris supplied proprietary composite materials and manufacturing while Roval added its expertise in aerodynamic shaping. The results are a set of spokes that are a claimed 20% stronger than steel, and at 1.9g per spoke, lighter, as well as being smoother. How so? Roval says the spokes are better at absorbing vibrations from the road, helping to create what it calls a “calm, planted sensation even at high speed.”
Rounding out the ingredients are the hubs, which use DT Swiss 180 EXP internals and Sinc ceramic bearings, which from experience will help make the CLX IIIs pretty easy to service and maintain.
(Image credit: Specialized)
With a shared purpose, the Roval Alpinist cockpit has shaved a few grams off the weight of the Alpinist bars and stem combination, with a claimed weight of just 270 grams for the 400 x 100mm size. Its shape is apparently drawn from “thousands of rider Body Geometry fit data points”, to create an ergonomic design that’s comfortable even on long rides.
(Image credit: Specialized)
Some of that reported comfort likely comes from the D-shape tops that typically reduce hand pressure by increasing the surface area by some 12 per cent. Roval also says the carbon layup provides almost 30% more vibration damping when compared to its Rapide cockpit. Control is aided by a four-degree flare at the drops.
(Image credit: Specialized)
However, rather than just singing from the supplied hymn sheet we’ve had an opportunity to ride both the wheels and the cockpit and our thoughts after some 80km in the saddle follow here.
First ride
The Alpinist name conjures up a stripped-back set-up. The improvements to the new range, whilst impressive in this department, also have to be viewed in the context of Specialized’s clear commitment to making sure the parts ride well too. And that was clear for the duration of my short test.
That’s refreshing. When you take weight away, there’s always a price, either in robustness, or functionality, and hubs, spokes and handlebars are all areas where the trade-off can cause some serious issues.
Freehubs with minimal pawls might weigh less, but there can be engagement issues, with a dead spot for what can feel like a quarter of a turn on the pedals in some flyweight set-ups. Weak flanges in hubs, machined to reduce weight; insufficient spokes in the wheel to be functional; or bendy bars which feel vague or can’t take a few knocks. It’s all in the price when low weight is the mission. And I was on full alert throughout the presentations and road tests, looking for any signs of this kind of foolish errand.
(Image credit: Specialized)
The new Alpinist components could have fallen foul of any or all of those traps in their pursuit of headline-grabbing lightweight. However, while the weight is impressive at 1,131g for the wheels and 270g for the integrated bar and stem, I am pleased to say it doesn’t appear to have come at the cost of some sensible essentials.
The new bar isn’t round anymore of course. The structural superiority or efficiency of the formerly round bar has been sacrificed in a quest to produce a lightweight but responsive bar set-up. By responsive I mean supple enough to absorb the worst of the road, but sufficient to support your position and steering inputs without feeling vague. In that regard, the outgoing bar was very successful. This new one had to feel at least as good in my view.
(Image credit: Specialized)
The new cockpit seeks to package cables, and it does so in a welcome and entirely sensible way, where the cables run in a channel under the stem, not within it. The bar integrates with the stem, and, as mentioned, the round template has been replaced in favour of an ergonomically formed and distinctly aero shape. Specialized engineers told us they’ve run simulations based on the preferences of everyone in their pretty expansive ‘Body Geometry’ database to arrive at the final shape and the result is certainly a comfortable place to be on the tops. I really like the hand positions available on the bar and it does feel very natural both on the tops and in the drops, where there’s a little flare on offer, 4 degrees.
(Image credit: Specialized)
Each of the added capabilities – running the cables inside, joining bar to stem, or just making it a slippery or a more ergonomic shape – add design complexity, and could easily have distracted from the ride quality. They haven’t and the result is really quite compelling. It’s comfortable and has the added features, which seem very well thought through.
The actual ride quality is nothing short of sublime for an integrated bar, with some welcome and discernible movement available when compressing a pair of loose bars, which I suspect is adding a little dampening, but not so much that it ever feels spongy, unsupportive, or less direct than a rock-hard bar might.
Specialized has confirmed that it has designed the cockpit system with the upper head bearing for Tarmac SL8, so it is entirely compatible with that bike. As such, having ridden it, I think this is a sensible and discernibly more comfortable bar than the existing Tarmac set-up. Not that that set up is overly harsh, but I rode the bar on some pretty hostile tarmac in the Surrey Hills, and the next day rode a Tarmac SL8 back at home. I couldn’t recreate the state of the roads in one of the UK’s wealthiest areas – good god, they are poor in places – but it was certainly firmer than the bar I’d ridden the day before.
(Image credit: Specialized)
It was so comfortable that I would say it’s worth considering, or at least trying it at a local Specialized dealer if you want more comfort from the front end of your existing Tarmac SL8. There’s some advantages to the way the cables route of course too, especially if you’re travelling, prone to tinkering at home, or just want less hassle in the bike shop. Whether you can justify the expense of course, is another matter, with the cockpit priced at £575. It’s not a game-changer, so you have to weigh up that relatively subtle comfort advantage against the cost of the work and the part to perform the upgrade.
(Image credit: Specialized)
The development of the wheels is really much more interesting than a pretty decent stab at an integrated handlebar. I’d almost expect Specialized to do a good job of that component, but the development of the Alpinist wheels has clearly considered some practicalities beyond just reducing the overall weight.
For example, the hubs use the excellent DT Swiss 180 internals. Possibly the best choice available in terms of service life and functionality. What’s the point in designing your own, when DT Swiss can’t be bettered? The Specialized engineered straight-pull hub shell is made to suit the Arris spokes, which were told, are exclusive to Specialized. They’re spaced for no spoke to spoke contact as you’d expect, with a sensible 24 in the back, and front.
Where the Arris spoke differs from others, in my view, is in how Specialized’s input has improved wheel feel. Something I don’t think anyone else has looked at to this extent yet.
Instead of buying the Arris spoke, then making it work in a wheel, dropping the spoke count, or adding T pieces and other developments that have come from field testing, Specialized sent the first spokes Arris supplied back, and instead entered into a development partnership that challenged the way they made them, asking them to come up with something new, that didn’t come with the same compromises as the other carbon spokes in the market.
(Image credit: Specialized)
Steel is still in spokes for a good reason. The reason for that is steel’s natural ductility. Steel absorbs loads in compression and tension that carbon just can’t. It’s simply too rigid. A wheel needs to be stiff laterally when accelerating, braking, or cornering, but also needs to absorb load at the rim and disperse it through the wheel’s structure. It does this through a subtle springing action, necessary in a good spoke.
With a super-rigid carbon spoke in the wheel, there is no spring and the loads don’t transfer out of the rim. They are instead held back essentially, and the rims have to be engineered to handle the impacts on their own. The combination of tougher rims, and spokes that can’t absorb or transfer impact loads, is often a lighter, but also much harsher ride feel.
Arriving at this launch, I held the view, and still do, that carbon fibre has no business in a spoke, such is the response of a well-built, well-made wheel with the best steel spokes, namely Sapim CX Ray, Sprint, or DT Swiss Aerolites. You can’t beat the feel of wheels made well, with a performance spoke, all else being equal. You’ll still see those spokes in Enve’s Pro range launched recently, and others, including Swissside, Reserve and Roval have hung on to those as a spoke solution for a long time, because they’re just that good.
What surprised me about the new Alpinist wheels, as well as the deeper Rapides and Sprints that I rode, is that there is little harshness, and dare I say it, it felt, not unlike a well-built steel-spoked wheel. That’s a challenging thought for a stalwart of steel spokes.
I haven’t ridden them long enough to say they’re better than steel spokes, they’re almost certainly not, and having seen the various decks they presented, I still hold the firm belief that carbon isn’t as good at being a spoke, Arris made or not. That said these are certainly the best composite spokes I’ve ridden for ride feel so far. I need more time with the wheels to better understand why and to what extent they’re better, but they feel great and they’re worthy of far more investigation and I’m very excited to ride them more. I have pair in hand, with some competitor wheels in both steel and carbon variations, so I will give them a thorough test alongside some strong competition over the next few weeks.
What I can observe, is that the spokes themselves feel less rigid in the wheel than competitor equivalents. Clearly tension is similar to any other well-built wheel and the spokes don’t seem much different in ways you could measure in a single test day out on the road, but whereas the spokes made by the common carbon spoke vendors don’t move much at all when subjected to light twisting between a thumb and forefinger, these twist and move much more readily, and as such are clearly a different beast.
They referred to them as ‘thermoplastic’ throughout the presentation, as if to avoid using the word carbon. Thermoplastic of course differs from thermoset carbon, with some desirable characteristics that make sense as a concept, but they’re still a carbon spoke. Despite this the word carbon itself was hardly mentioned. I wondered in conversation with colleagues who felt the same, whether this is another signal – already shared with me by many in private, especially wheel engineers – that the industry does understand the downsides of traditional carbon spokes in place of steel, even if the marketing doesn’t always fully acknowledge it.
If the Arris spoke can address some of those concerns, and retain some of the ride characteristics steel is popular for, then the weight saving may be worth it.
I rode the Alpinists for most of the day, which really did feel very light and responsive, with no sense that I was giving away much for their lightweight. They stood up well to my groaning inputs on some very rough roads, riding in close quarters with others, where lumps and bumps had to be absorbed not avoided.
For their intended purpose, the Alpinist components seem to be a very compelling package, with no faults to nitpick in the short time I had them. I was pleased to switch out for the Rapides and Sprints which I also tried. They’re deeper and do naturally hold more speed, but that has to be taken in the context that I wanted any advantage, as I was hanging on through gritted teeth in a fast-moving group of at least six of the world’s most respected cycling journos, most of whom had ten years on me, and were all at least 20kgs lighter.
