Roval CLX 50 Disc vs DT Swiss ERC 1100

borre

I'm looking for a new disc wheelset.
My shortlist has these 2 possibilities:
- Roval CLX 50 Disc
- DT Swiss ERC 1100

I'm a bit clueless what is the better choice... any help would be appreciated.

Some elements that make me doubt:
- the ERC 1100 will come € 400 cheaper where I live
- CLX 50 has 21mm inner rim width vs 19 on the ERC 1100
- CLX 50 has 21 spokes on the front wheel, the ERC has 24. Will the CLX 50 be durable in the long run? Not too few spokes for a disc front wheel?
- Weighth is very close on both sets
- I like the looks of both options
- I will use these wheels as my allround wheelset, I guess both are good in that regard

Any experiences on this forum? Good and bad?

philbar72

Back in the day the disc brake wheels always had higher spoke counts, because of the braking forces they encountered would wear them out quicker if they had a standard spoke count. not used either as I don't have a bike with discs.

ugo.santalucia

philbar72 wrote:

Back in the day the disc brake wheels always had higher spoke counts, because of the braking forces they encountered would wear them out quicker if they had a standard spoke count. not used either as I don't have a bike with discs.

Yes, the circumference of a 160 mm disc is about a quarter of the circumference of a 700 c rim, give or take... so in order to stop a bike in the same distance with disc brakes, you need to apply 4 times the force, hence we were led to believe wheels for disc brakes had to be fitted with more spokes.
The message has somewhat faded :roll:

borre

so... better to go with the ERC 24 spoke front wheel instead of the 21 Roval?

ugo.santalucia

borre wrote:

so... better to go with the ERC 24 spoke front wheel instead of the 21 Roval?

... we were led to believe so... :roll:

borre

anyone who has experience with one of these wheelsets? Do both perform more or less the same? Or is one significantly better than the other?

cycleclinic

It a actually more than that ugo. the disc is 160mm but the flange is alot smaller in fact 10 times smaller than the rim if you have a large flange hub. It the flange that tranismit the braking torue to the spokes. So its 10 times the braking load minimum for disc brakes.

Fewer spokes in other wise identical wheels does in principle mlead to shorter spoke life. If you never brake then that less of an issue. Disc brake wheels due to the shorter flange seperation are also less laterally stiff than there rim brake counterparts. That means those that corner a lot at speed and rock the bike alot are going to fatigue the wheels faster. whether or that a problem just depends.