The steep climbs and descents helped inspire some pretty radical designs and most importantly left us with no doubt that these wheels will exceed your expectations.
Let's talk about those expectations. They include everything from the ability to stay true after launching off drops to being light enough to efficiently pedal to the top of a climband they all begin with the rim. Their engineers knew they wanted carbon fiber and with the inclusion of the zero bead hook design they were able to implement a continuous fiber layup across the sidewall and rim bed. And when paired with a whopping 30-millimeter internal rim width they made a wheel that's super resilient to impact with low rolling resistance and incredible traction. You'll also find that it helps prevent "burping" during hard cornering while making tubeless set up quick and easy.
Along with light overall weight, stiffness and durability, another top priority for the traverse was ease of use. First off they got rid of the creaky straight-pull spokes and corrosion-prone alloy nipples. Next up, they landed on 28 j-bend spokes for front and rear wheels that are all the same length, making it easy to find replacements if needed. And finally they engineered a new hub design with a wider profile and higher flange to aid in overall stiffness.
A wider rim does a variety of things for ride performance, it better supports the tire for increased confidence and grip and it affords you the ability to run lower pressures that help spread impact out over a larger surface area to reduce the risk of damage. And when you combine this girth with the notoriously nimble and playful 27.5 platform youre left with an incredibly stiff quick-to-accelerate wheelset that climbs just as well as it shreds descents.
After designing the perfect trail rim, they kept their lightweight and durable design properties in mind with the wheel build, hand-lacing the rims, DT swiss 350 classic hubs via 28 DT swiss competition race spokes, and brass Pro lock nipples. Inside you'll find sealed cartridge bearings and a 36t quick engagement ratchet system for quick accelerations. Specialized also wanted to ensure that each wheel was built correctly and found that this could only be achieved by hand. Machines have a tendency to miss little mistakes that humans catch.
Each wheelset comes packaged with a SRAM XD driver 11-speed freehub and a tubeless valve stem in order to make tubeless set-up a touch easier. *please note that Shimano freehubs are sold separately.
Features:- Rim type: carbon clincher, 2bliss ready, zero bead hook design. Black graphic under clear coat.
- Rim material: carbon fiber
- Rim width: 30mm internal
- Front spoke pattern: two-cross
- Rear spoke pattern: two-cross
- Spoke count: 28h front, 28h rear
- Spoke type: DT swiss competition race j-bend
- Nipple type: DT swiss brass Pro lock hexagonal
- Front hub: DT swiss 350 classic, 28h, 15x110mm thru-axle, 6-bolt, includes 15x110mm 19mm od end caps.
- Rear hub: DT swiss 350 classic, 28h, 36t quick engagement ratchet system cassette, includes SRAM xx1 xd freehub.
- Includes 31mm od end caps for front hub
- Bearing type: sealed cartridge
- Every wheel includes a tubeless valve stem in order to make tubeless set-up a touch easier.
- Assembly method: hand-built
- Total wheelset weight: 1700g