I am thinking of upgrading my current 35mm wheels to the new Rapide CLX as an all-round wheelset. I’m light for my height (67kg/1m88, 146lbs/6’2) and scared that these wheels might throw me around a bit too much. I mostly ride in the mountains/hilly terrain (Switzerland) and tend already go out of trajectory with some gusts of wind. For those of similar weight, how do the Rapide’s feel? Would I be better off with the Alpinist’s for instance?
PS: if it matters I’m riding a BMC Teammachine SLR01 Three
Hi there, I am 190cm and 70kg. I don’t know a single wheel that has less steering Moment than the rapide CLX. They are as stable in the wind as my RSL37 (14mm less depth).
I don’t have much of a problem riding any deep wheels, but these are just amazing. You will not regret buying.
Edit: no, Alpinist are better in pretty much nothing.
They are only 150g lighter (which is sub .2% of your system weight), which are pretty narrow and several watts less aerodynamic than the Rapide. Stability has never been a problem for me.
Nice to see Mt Ventoux in one of your pics. A friend gave me that climb as an example of where deeper wheels can be an issue.
I’ll need to check if the wheels fit on my frame. It has max clearance of 30mm on the rear which is about a millimeter less than the rim width. However, apparently for the larger frame sizes it’s larger due to the rear triangle being attached higher up. Fingers crossed that it fits.
You do not need to worry, you have a fantastic wheelset, that is just as fast as the Rovals.
The Rovals I‘d argue are significantly lighter, which is their biggest advantage. Despite that, differences are slim. I don‘t use road tubeless, so I really don‘t care about this rating. As I have posted elsewhere though, over on weightweenies, several people have build these up tubeless to great success.
This guy has a workshop and said they are the best TL wheels he‘s ever build:
the horror!