I just picked up a 2019 Time Machine that has some heavy Mavic alloy wheels aaaaand I pretty much hate them.
Living and riding where I do, I have come to really appreciate tubeless for its puncture resistance, and I like carbon for its light weight.
Being that I’m dealing with rim brakes, most of my options are used wheels, Mavic UST or Chinese. I don’t think brands like Enve or Zipp even offer a new tubeless rim brake wheel.
Anywho, I’ve found a set of Roval CL50s that are 1) rim brake, 2) tubeless, and 3) Shimano (that’s another bugaboo I have. That damn XDR hub is super expensive and very limited cassette options).
The price is more than what I really want to spend but I don’t think it’s unreasonable given the market. I just don’t have any experience with Roval. All I do know is Roval is Specialized’s in house brand. Given that, I have to assume they’re not utter garbage.
I’m not looking for the ultimate fast, super light weight wheel that’s all of a sudden going to make me competitive in the bike. I just want a good quality, reasonably well built and durable wheel that doesn’t weigh a ton.
Now that I’m done with my blather, what’s the opinion of Roval?
And I’m also curious about the opinion on Mavic as well, if you have one.
Re Rovals, they are right up there with the best. I have some CLXIIs for my road bike that are astounding for their stability. The Roval Disk wheel that is now out of stock was incredibly popular. And whilst you can debate if you should have to get a warranty frame replacement, then they have now replaced my 2012 Epic MTB frame twice (note they no longer offer unlimited ‘life of first owner’ warranties 
And the roval wheels on that MTB still going strong, although from memory I did get one of them rebuilt after I snapped a spoke with a branch through the wheel in a race 5 years back.
As for other options, there are many. And probably as good for a lot less money if you go direct from factory/ali express / etc. Chance is it’s an old mould from some previously top spec wheel that’s no longer made by a named brand. But it may not be. And QC on the build may be bad. So a bit of a lotttery. Honestly, quality second hand rim braked wheels are easy to come by. Make sure you give them a good look, check the rim thickness, for anysigns of cracking around the nipples, give all the spokes a twang to make sure they all sound evenly tenisioned and you’re as good as gold.
Thanks for the reply. I kind of figured Roval was up there. I have actually been shopping for a couple of months and, discounting the Chinese wheels (let’s not go there), all I’m seeing is Roval, Reynolds and Mavic. I already have a set of Reynold AR41s I run on my Shiv. I also have a set of Reynold AR80s which have been, I’ll just say, “temperamental” when setting up tubeless. They’re a decent enough wheel but I’m itching to give another brand a chance.
I found some Oval Concepts I liked but when I tried to research them, I hit a dead end. Look like decent wheels but I guess the company got bought out or absorbed and no longer exist, at least not as Oval Concepts. While I hope I never need to contact the manufacturer, I don’t want to get into an obsolete wheel either, at least not for the price being asked.
As I said, neither Zipp nor Enve appear to offer what I need, at least not any more. I found one set of Vision wheels I really liked but one of the wheels has some pretty gnarly road rash and I’m just not willing to take that chance with a rim brake wheel.
I also wouldn’t mind trying the Mavic carbon wheels but I’m just not finding what I want there, at least not for a price within my budget.
I’m mostly shopping regional Craigslist and Facebook marketplace and Fleabay. If anybody has suggestions for other sites, I would be appreciative.
Be worth actively posting a ‘would like to buy’ around your tri-club. Plenty of people have got good (old) wheels sitting in the shed that are now almost worthless but too good to put in the bin. But when I hear of a clubbie wanting something then I know it’s going to get used and so will generally pull stuff out, give it a clean/check and then offer it.
And I’d forgotten about Oval Concepts. Not 100% sure but I seem to remember that they maybe used/were related to Reynolds rims. Probably with other options its hard to recommend them now as getting bits for the hubs could be more tricky than for other wheels. Even to the point that you’d need to check you can fit a 10sp cassette on the rear hub and it doesn’t limit you to 9sp…
I actually did do that for the local tri club but all ads have to be approved. My ad was supposed to be approved but I haven’t seen it posted yet. I need to message one of the mods and find out what’s going on.