lcrider

After 350 miles of nice road riding, I busted a spoke on the rear tire of my new Roubaix Expert. The LBS swapped me out another temp rear wheel and then called Specialized and learned that they are recalling the Roval Fusee EL that the bike comes with and swapping them for the Roval Pave SL.

After looking on the Specialized website, I noted the Pave SL wheelset is a CHEAPER wheelset that is designed for Cyclo-cross! This is a road bike! Am I getting hosed? Does anyone have any recommendations on what to do?

I don't want to keep breaking spokes, but I also loved the look and feel of the wheels I had before. Should I insist on a "better" wheel? What would that be?

scattered73

It is pretty lame they are downgrading instead of upgrading. On a positive note I have the Pave Sl on my cross bike and they are really tough I have taken them on mtb trails many times and never had any problems. I once even had a pannier bounce off and wedge beteen the wheel and rack and caused my jandd rack to bend out but wheel was fine.

cappuccino911

who cares that its cheaper, obviously your more expensive wheel was actually a piece of crap! Cost is what you pay, value is what you get.

I will say that I saw a thread on here about a month ago with a person in the same situation and was given the same wheel and it worked out quite well for them.

lcrider

What I'm really worried about is getting a "clunky" wheel made for cyclo cross riding for my beautiful and responsive road bike. I don't ride off road and don't want to devalue the bike that I just bought by having a different purpose wheelset.

scattered73

Looking at these two wheels it looks loke the Pave Sl is lighter and it is what is used on the premium cross bikes they sell and I kid you not they are tough and much lighter than my handbuilt cross wheels I have. I would not consider them cluncky by any means and only recently dropped the price this year from $500 to $400 (I know because that is when I got mine) my guess it is not a popular selling wheel. I got them because my buddy who has has a set for several years who weighs north of 250lbs has never had a issue with them, he also takes them off road and on the mtb trails on his cross bike all the time. Plus some pretty sweet looking hubs. If you really don't like them talk to your lbs when I had a KHS warranty issue once they offered replacement or store credit but that was KHS not specialized but could be worth asking. What I find odd is that they are still selling the wheelset you mention on the website, is this normal with an item with a recall?

cccorlew

Damn. I have these wheels on my new Roubaix Expert. I have 2000 miles and no broken spokes.
It's odd that the recall isn't on the Specialized site.

I don't love the replacement wheels you say they offer. I wonder if they'll work with me, like credit for the wheels and allow me to add cash and get better ones.

What Roval wheels would be an upgrade?

lcrider

I think the Fusee SL's are upgrades, but my LBS is calling Specialized to tell them that that I'm not happy with the Pave as an option for a swap. We'll see what happens. I don't know if the recall is 100%, or just an offer to people having problems. I did note that their 2011 line is a new set of wheels all up and down the lineup.

cccorlew

I just looked at their site, and as near as I can tell the difference between the 25s and SLs is ti skewers.
Looks like the same hoops and spokes. Maybe I'm missing something...