Thread: Roval Wheelset
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Old 05-29-19, 03:16 PM
  #15  
T-Mar
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Originally Posted by dddd
The Roval's hubs were produced by Maillard, who also made hubs for EDCO.

The give-away that all of these hubs came from the same factory is the axle assembly, proprietary fine-threading with distinctive chromed hardware.


The hubshells were a new design for the T-head spokes, as were the rims with their nipples supported internally on large polymer rings.


Does anyone recall when Roval wheels first came out? Guessing 1981 or so(?).
Designed and developed by Claude Lehanneur during 1975-1977, the ROVAL wheel prototypes had their first appearance at the Salon de Paris bicycle show in the autumn of 1977. The first commercial units became available in Europe during July 1978, though it took several years to obtain a USA distributor.

Hubs were manufactured by both Maillard and Perrin (Pelissier). Rims were manufactured by both AVA and Pellet (Super Champion). The spokes were manufactured by Robergel.

While not the first aerodynamic wheels, they were the first spoked wheels to address the aerodynamic interactions between the hub, spokes and rims as a synergistic unit.

Last edited by T-Mar; 05-29-19 at 03:54 PM.
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