ROVAL CLX 50 - DELANTERA

When we set out to create the CLX 50 we had clear goals in mind—create wheels that are 45 to 55mm deep 2Bliss Ready aerodynamically optimized ultra-wide and under 1400 grams. This meant that they'd have to borrow some weight savings techniques that we developed for the CLX 32 while taking some aero guidance from the CLX 64 if we were going to create what we like to call "the unicorn wheel."

We implemented every lightweight trick in the book without sacrificing anything to durability. And from there we performed a variety of studies on different wheel depths ultimately deciding that meeting our strict weight and stiffness targets would be a big gamble with something too deep which is where 50mm was born from.

After the depth was determined we jumped headlong into Computational Fluid Dynamics computer modeling to arrive at various rim shapes that could make the CLX 50 as fast as possible. It took a while but we narrowed the rim shape down to three contenders that were then CNC machined into rims built into wheels and put into our Win Tunnel. In the tunnel we tested every wheel ours and the competition's with a 24C (measuring ~26mm wide) Specialized S-Works Turbo tire inflated to 100 PSI as tires can drastically affect performance. Testing wheels by themselves not on a bike is often seen as malpractice but in our 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 optimized rim shape that supported our svelte weight requirements we opted to lace the rims to our Aero Flange (AF) hub which features the legendary CeramicSpeed bearings via 16 DT Swiss Aerolite spokes. Now it was time for final testing validation. The result? A 50mm-deep 1375-gram clincher wheelset that's not only ~200 grams lighter than the competition's similar depth wheel but is also measurably faster in every conceivable test than every wheel in its category.