Roval, Specialized’s specialist wheels and components arm, has announced two new products in its lightweight Alpinist range. The new Alpinist CLX III wheelset boasts thermoplastic spokes and a lighter weight, while the £575 Alpinist II cockpit looks to be far more compatible with integrated front ends. Does new lightweight tech mean a fresh bike along the same lightweight lines is coming soon?
Roval’s Alpinist CLX III wheelset looks packed with interesting trickle-down tech from the brand’s own Rapide CLX III wheels. But when it comes to tubeless tech, Roval has stuck with a hooked bead rather than going hookless, stating that it believes the design is safer for consumers.
The Roval Alpinist II bar, meanwhile, gets a new cable routing system to better suit integrated front ends. The current Aethos, however, for which the Alpinist bar was originally designed, has brake cables entering the frame and fork externally.
In the past, a new Alpinist wheelset and cockpit has been followed by a new bike, which hints that something new could be coming from Roval’s big brother bike brand Specialized. It has been five long years since the Aethos was introduced, after all… before we speculate further, though, let’s have a closer look at the new gear first.
Roval Alpinist CLX III Wheelset
The headline claim attached to the new Roval Alpinist CLX III is the weight, or lack of it. Roval says that its new wheels are just 1,131g with valves and tape. This, it says, is 134g lighter than the old CLX II wheels.
The majority of the weight saving comes from the spokes. The DT Swiss Aerolite spokes of the Alpinist CLX II wheels are replaced by a thermoplastic model from American manufacturer Arris Composites.
We first saw these spokes earlier this year, introduced with the Rapide CLX III and Rapide Sprint CLX wheels. The spokes are claimed to be 20% stronger than steel spokes, while also saving 103.5g across a wheelset.
While carbon spokes are now common across road wheels designed for racing, Specialized says its collaboration with Arris results in a wheelset which is more forgiving vertically.
As with the Roval Rapide CLX III wheels, the spokes feature titanium heads and nipples. These lace into Roval’s Low Flange road hubs with DT Swiss 180 internals and SINC ceramic bearings.
A quick look at the rim profile is enough to see that nothing significant has changed. Roval sticks with a 33mm depth, a 27mm external width and 21mm internal width.
Roval has, however, made small changes to the profile of the rim bed shape so that the wheels are now ETRTO compliant. This, the brand says, goes with the hooked bead design to improve tubeless safety.
By Specialized’s calculations, all of these changes mean that Demi Vollering would shave five seconds off her Col du Tourmalet time by using the CLX III wheels compared to the outgoing CLX II.
The price? You’re looking at £1,149 for the front wheel and £1,599 for the rear, which is £2,748 for the pair.
Roval Alpinist II Cockpit
The new Alpinist II bar, meanwhile, has been treated to what (on paper at least) look like sensible tweaks. The new design has a revised cable routing system, with the brake hoses exiting on the underside of the stem.
> Has the move to full internal cable routing on road bikes been worth it?
This looks like it will better match the cockpit to bikes with integrated front ends. But as the current Aethos is one of the few modern road bikes with partially external brake hose routing, and because the design is five years old, we’d hazard a guess that a new Specialized road bike – perhaps a revamped Aethos, or something different entirely – could be coming soon.
The tops have been ovalised, increasing the surface area by 12% for a claimed improvement in hand comfort. The drops flare out by 4º while the weight for the 400 x 100mm size is a claimed 270g. Roval suggests the changes result in 28.3% more vibration damping vs its own Rapide cockpit.
Again, the new design is claimed to shave weight from the outgoing model, though this time it is just 10g.
More importantly, Specialized and Roval admitted that two elements of the old design caused issues for consumers: the first was the skinny top section, which many complained was simply too small for their hands. This area has been flattened to suit riders with medium and larger hands.
The second was the small range of sizes on offer. In the 40cm width, for example, only 80 and 90mm stem lengths could be selected, and this width was also the narrowest option. Now, Roval offers 13 size options, with combinations which are more in line with current bike fit trends.
The Alpinist II cockpit features a 1 1/8th steerer clamp, meaning it will fit Specialized’s Tarmac SL8, Aethos and Roubaix road bikes.
The price for the Roval Alpinist II RD Cockpit is set at £575, and should be available to buy – along with the Alpinist CLX III wheels – on Specialized’s website right around now.
Will we see a new Specialized bike dressed in these feathery components very soon? We’ll be keeping an eye on our inboxes. In the meantime, we’ve requested the new wheels and bars for review.
4 thoughts on “Roval unveils brand new 1,131g Alpinist CLX III wheels and integrated cockpit… does this lightweight launch mean a fresh Specialized road bike is coming?”
New Aethos imminent I would
New Aethos imminent I would say…
This week: pics on the ww
This week: pics on the ww forums. Internal routing, geo is a smidge shorter, and more upright, aforementioned new cockpit and wheels, and honking great big logo on the downtube. More expensive than the current one.
Nothing wrong with the
Nothing wrong with the current one, apart from the price. Still, should mean old model will be cheaper
Nope, this means new model
Nope, this means new model will be evwn more expensive. Specialized likes the haute-couture market segment as it must be highly challenging and rewarding. And above all, lucrative.