Roval Traverse Alloy 350 wheelset review

Specialized’s component brand Roval released a trio of new Traverse trail wheels in 2023, with the Alloy 350 wheelset here being the cheapest of the bunch.

They’re built for the rigours of trail riding, designed with wider tyres in mind, and with a rim that’s constructed to prevent air loss, even if you ding them.

Roval’s alloy rims sit around DT Swiss hubs, held in place by 28 Sapim spokes and nipples.

Roval claims this is the most durable alloy wheel it has ever built.

Roval Traverse Alloy 350 specifications and details

The Traverse Alloy 350 wheels are based on the new Traverse alloy rim. The brand sees 29in and mullet bikes as the future, with the front wheel only offered in 29in and the rear in both wheel sizes – 27.5in riders will have to look elsewhere.

The rim is constructed from a 6013 alloy, which has been shot-peened to give it a more durable finish.

It has a hookless design, and is wide at the top of the wall, at 2.3mm.

Roval says the rim wall is designed to bend inward in a hard impact, which should lessen the chance of air loss if you damage the rim.

I measured the internal width of the rim to be spot-on at 30mm, while the rim itself has a depth of 22mm.

The rim well is 15.1mm deep, and is broad in width.

The 28 spokes, front and rear, enter the rim off-centre, enabling better triangulation of the rim over the hub’s flanges, for a stiffer build and more consistent spoke tension.

Sapim provides the spokes, with its D-Light J-Bend model. These are butted along their length, and are built in a two-cross pattern.

Sapim alloy nipples secure the spokes to the rim.

The hubs come from DT Swiss’ 350 range.

These come with an XD freehub as standard, however the body pulls off by hand and can be replaced with a Micro Spline freehub.

The DT Swiss freehub’s 36t Star Ratchet system has a 10-degree engagement angle.

The wheels come taped for you, with valves fitted into the rims – a tyre and some tubeless sealant are all you need to add to get these rolling.

While the tape is broad, and fairly well applied from the factory, wheels such as the Race Face Turbines have better-finished taping.

Rotors attach via the six-bolt interface.

The wheels arrive with a spare spoke and nipple kit, as well as front 31mm Torque Cap hub end caps, ready for use with a RockShox fork.

The wheels have a lifetime warranty, and US customers benefit from a two-year ‘No Fault Crash Replacement’ service, with replace or repair being offered if the wheels have been registered.

There is a maximum bike plus rider weight of 125kg.

Roval Traverse Alloy 350 performance

In terms of performance, the Traverse Alloy 350s make for great alloy trail wheels that I’d happily recommend.

Setting the wheels up is easy.

While I’ve had wheels with marginally better taping, the pre-installed valves allow decent air flow through them and the tape remained airtight throughout five months of testing.

The rim bed is broad, meaning there’s plenty of room for both beads of the tyre to fit in there.

This makes fitting tyres relatively easy, even if the well depth isn’t the deepest around.

The other benefit seems to be that the tyres pop into the rim wall with relative ease.

Tyre engagement is confirmed by a solid ping, while the pressure required to seat our test tyres was just over 30psi (a relatively new tyre, with no sealant on rim or tyre).

DT Swiss’ hubs are a well-known quantity. In BikeRadar’s experience, the hub bearings are reliable over time and thanks to the brand’s ubiquity, easy to replace.

The Star Ratchet system’s freehub pickup is positive, and the ratchet system has thus far proved reliable.

Noise levels are muted.

Swapping the freehub, or gaining access to the ratchet or spring is easy, because the freehub pulls off by hand.

The flipside is that if your wheel is out of the bike and it gets dropped or falls over, the weight of the cassette can pull the hub apart – make sure you keep an eye out for errant springs and ratchets if this happens.

Fortunately, the component parts are larger than a load of springs and pawls.

On the trail, the Traverse proved very capable.

The wheels displayed ample stiffness in corners, and I couldn’t detect any undue flex or vagueness, enabling me to confidently load the bike as I wished when committing to lines.

At the same time, the 28-spoke build and alloy construction seems to have enabled Roval to make a pair of wheels that aren’t unduly harsh.

The 30mm internal width enables plenty of volume in the 2.4 and 2.5in tyres I used during testing, further boosting comfort and grip.

During testing, I took in three days of enduro racing on these wheels, as well as throwing them down my local trail and enduro tracks on a hardtail.

Despite taking plenty of dodgy lines, I’m yet to find any reliability issues.

The rims have stayed true and the spoke tension has not loosened.

The rims’ shot-peened finish may aid durability, but I have found these rims scratch up a little more easily than I’d have expected. There are more battle scars on these than on competitor mountain bike wheels I've ridden similar amounts on equivalent trails.

Roval Traverse Alloy 350 bottom line

Roval’s Traverse wheels have proved easy to live with and more than capable on the trail.

They’re easy to mount tyres to and service – though watch out for freehubs falling off – while the taping and included valves leave nothing to complain about.

On the trail, they blend adequate stiffness for all your trail riding needs, without contributing to an uncomfortable ride.