Coach Neal H crashed badly a few weeks ago on a pair of these (check his instagram). Looks like the spoke pulled through the rim i.e. rim bed cracked and wheel collapsed.

Just to be safe, check the rim thoroughly for signs of cracks.

I hear a creak from time to time.. I put a dab of grease were the spokes cross and it's much less now then when I first got them.

I believe it’s coming from your rear hub in cassettes body. You’ll want to take apart, regrease and you should be fine.

Thanks I'll give this a try.

I've isolated this noise to my rear Roval CLX 50, at least I think I have. Spokes? Freehub? DA Cassette? Everything else has literally been taken apart/rebuilt, on this 2019 S-Works Venge w/ full DA. Video of noise: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Aw7F17Wesv8

That sure sounds like it is coming from the cassette. Does it creak when you stop pedaling?

When I am trying to find noises I do these things (below), it is not foolproof but it works most of the time. It helps to take care of the simple things first, make sure the wheels are fully seated and the skewer/thru axle is tight, make sure the stem(both handlebar and steer tube) and seatpost (both clamp and saddle rails) are torqued appropriately as well as the chainring bolts.

These are not absolutes because there have been crazy noises documented on this board that everyone thought was one thing and turned out to be another :

• see if you can isolate front or rear of the bike, this can be hard in the wind, get someone to ride alongside you to help isolate
• does it make the noise only when pedaling? If so then drivetrain or saddle/seatpost
• does it make the noise only when seated? If so then saddle or seatpost
• noise seated and standing in sync with crank rpm or wheel rpm? if in sync with crank rpm then pedal/crank/bb/cassette. if in sync with wheel rpm then it's the wheel
• noise in sync with crank rpm-creaks from the rear are often from the cassette being loose or dry and dirty, clicks can be from bottom brackets or pedals but for me they are always pedals.
• check the bottom bracket while stopped, put the crankarm on your side of the bike at 6 o'clock, step on the pedal like you are trying to flex the frame, rotate the pedal to 9 and 3, repeat. Repeat for the other side
• chainring bolts are hard to diagnose unless they are obviously loose so i take my off once a year or so, clean them and apply never seize or grease to the threads
• wheels are tough too.
• look for signs of any rim cracks around spoke holes especially. use a bright light and take your time.
• look for signs of spokes rubbing and moving at the cross, like scoring or bare metal showing through anodization
• look for cracks in the hubs, i had a front hub zipp hub split on me after creaking for time and i could not see anything

I am sure i am missing some things but this is a good start. Also there is somewhat of an art to distinguishing between squeeks, creaks, groans, ticks, etc. Once you have isolated the noise you can look up how to fix it or address it.


One .thing I have not seen personally yet is a cracked carbon frame making noise...I have no idea what if any noises are generated by that.


rich

I have the exact same, really annoying noise. What was your solution?

This is from the interlaced bladed spokes. After a short period of time they wear a slight groove where they overlap and dust and contaminants creak and crunch under high torque as the spokes flex and radiate the noise.

-SD

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https://www.kickstarter.com/...bike-for-the-new-era

Dave, what’s the fix? I just had mine trued & tensioned, now the sound is unbearable.

Clean between the spokes? A dab of dry lube in there? Thanks.

I had the same exact issue with my rim brake CLX50's. To solve the issue I dripped a few drops of tri-flow on each of the spokes that overlapped each other

I did that today. It decidedly did not work. Wheels were professionally trued & tensioned 2 weeks ago.

Over time the spot where the spokes overlap will develop a slight groove and as the spokes interact and slip and fall over this groove they will emit a noise, sometimes a bit of lube will help prevent the groove and quiet the noise but once there is considerable wear here I don't have a good solution that will eliminate it.

-SD

Thanks very much. Turns out I’ve got some little cracks around several of the spoke holes. I brought it to my LBS, who sent pics off to Specialized & I’m certain will take care of it.

Dodged a bullet there. I've seen several reports of these wheels collapsing - some involving serious injuries.

Nah. Whatever’s happening in those catastrophic failures has to be more than just a spoke pulling through. On its own, that wouldn’t make a wheel collapse any more than breaking a spoke would.

I had chronic rear spoke failure on a first-gen Knight Conposites wheel, including twice in a field sprint. It’s super annoying, but certainly not life threatening.

Unless one pulling through causes others to pull through too.

Spoke and nipple pulls through causing cracks to propagate. Rim collapses. Google Neal Henderson crash and have a good look at the image of the collapsed rim.

Fair enough. I for sure don’t mean to dispute what happened to others. My cracks are tiny & I don’t want to condemn these wheels over them.

I have had all 3 of them, yes, the spokes will creak after some mileage, mainly when riding the smallest gear with high torque. I think putting some chain wax in between where the drive side spokes meet will help.

Thanks Dave!

While a couple of friends are really annoyed by this and have returned them as faulty, mine seem to be fine. I keep my bikes cleaner too though. I've also done what others have suggested by putting a drop of lube on each spoke crossing. It helps for a while. It's not a big deal to me and I just seem to keep riding and enjoying the wheels. YMMV as they say.

As to the failures of these wheels, while I've heard of this happening, I've got 5 pairs of CLX wheels (3 50's, 1 64, 1 32) that I ride regularly (the 64's and 50's mostly) and haven't had any failures.

Love these wheels!

Just done a check on my CLX32, they have covered around 16,000km (10,000 miles) in the past 2.5 years. I am a strong rider, with FTP around 330, but I'm not too heavy around 70kg (154 lb). I don't find that they creak and more than other wheels. In terms of damage, I see no cracks around any spokes, however, thanks for the head's up, I will continue to check periodically

Hi
resurrecting this thread as i am experiencing the same issue with my CLX50s. LBS think it is to do with grit in the completely inaccessible area where the spokes meet the hub - looks clean enough to me and nothing i can do about it without major disassembly anyway. they seem unable to come up with a solution. talk here and elsewhere of the cause being where the spokes cross makes more sense to me

i've had the issue on and off since near new (nearly 2 years), today it was terrible - embarrassing to be riding along making such a racket! never experienced anything like this on 7 previous road wheelsets, most with bladed spokes, not to mention numerous mtb wheels.

is this issue specific to the roval design? have i got a bad wheel? is there anything i can do about it?

I have used, 2015 bontrager xxx wheelset, 2014 Zipp 808, 2015 reynolds Aero 90, a Dt-swiss made stock wheelset for CX, a cheap alloy wheelset with Novatec hubs and Roval clx 64.

I have the same experience. Roval was the only wheel which makes ticking sound, when high torque is applied (especially low RPM, steep hill) 2 years ago, I was wondering what is causing it and came to touch crossed spokes and heard the same tinging sound. That was the Aha moment.

I found out appying some oil to where spokes cross each other on rear wheel, NDS and DS really helps. I have been using roval for 3 consecutive years and now the noise is gone and the reason I think is, crossed sections got rubbed enough to make space between the spokes.

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Stay home, stay healthy.

I've had CLX50's since they came out and by the end of every season I get a little creaking out of the front wheel. It's nothing significant, but I notice it, so when I drop my bike off for the beginning of the season tune up, I have them check the spoke tension and it goes away again until the end of the season.