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.
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.
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.
I know that rim front wheel has radial spoke pattern so, there’s no cross section. Your problem sounds really interesting. I think it is related with seasonal temperature change inducing thermal expansion on rims and spokes, or just due to accumulated mechanical stress during the riding season. I dunno why. Just guessing.