SRAM Roam 50 Wheels

Back in 2012 when SRAM first entered the wheel market we put their Rise 40 wheels to the test and found them wanting in a number of key areas. It seems we weren’t the only ones because the latest wheel offerings from SRAM address all our key concerns, namely tubeless compatibility, ease of maintenance, freehub pickup and axle convertibility. Within the new line-up you’ll find a carbon rimmed (and carbon priced) Roam 60, an all aluminium Roam 50, and for more aggressive riding there’s a burlier and wider Rail 50. All three models are available in the three common wheel sizes. We’ve been riding the 27.5 iteration of their new Roam 50, and they clearly show that SRAM are prepared to learn from their mistakes in order to reinvent the MTB wheel.

Pegged at the XC and general trail rider, the Roam 50 is a completely new design. It uses an asymmetrical aluminium rim with staggered and offset spoke holes. The internal width measures 21mm with a genuine UST inner profile and they come with airtight tape pre-installed for easy tubeless conversion (tubeless valves are included).

The hubs are also totally new units. They easily convert between quick release and 15mm on the front and the rear caters for both 135mm quick release and 142x12mm—you simply swap the supplied end caps to suit. You can order them with a standard 9/10 speed freehub or with an XD driver body to suit the XX1 and X01 11-speed cassettes. The flanges use what SRAM calls a ‘stacked’ design, whereby the 24 bladed, straight pull spokes are arranged in pairs with leading spokes sitting significantly outboard and lower than the trailing spokes. This means that the spokes don’t interlace between each other like a traditional wheel, and in combination with the asymmetrical rim SRAM have managed to make every spoke on the wheels the same length—hooray for simplicity!

The freehub now uses DT Swiss renowned star ratchet for durability and ease of maintenance. While that’s great, we do have a gripe here; whilst the Roam 60s get the 36 tooth ratchet for engagement every 10 degrees, the Roam 50s are fitted with the old-school 18 tooth version. The last time we heard someone say “I really like these wheels, but I just wish the hub pickup was a bit slower” was, well, never actually. For the price and intended use we really think the 36 tooth ratchet should be standard across the board. And that asking price is $1,330, so there’s no disputing that the Roam 50s are a premium wheelset.

We weighed ours with a 15mm front axle and 142x12mm rear, which we reckon is the configuration most riders will use, and came up with 1,588g for the taped wheels plus 13g for the valves. That’s a pretty impressive all-in weight for a set of 27.5 trail hoops, especially if they prove to be as tough as SRAM allege.

When in Roam…

Another of SRAM’s claims for the Roam wheels is that there’s enough options and versatility to appeal to a broad range of riders; we have to say we agree. The Roam 50s are light enough to see use on a cross-country bike, and tough enough to be fitted to a 130-150mm travel quiver killer, regardless of what size hoops you prefer. The outer surface of the rims is shot-peened to improve resistance to dings and it looks smart too, although the laser etched graphics mean you’ll be advertising for SRAM whether you like it or not. We think the chiselled look of the hubs will add drool value to any bike, and the black on black colour scheme is guaranteed not to cause colour clashes whilst keeping your inner EMO happy (or is that sad?).

As for their durability, well after a few months on the trail they remain as straight and true as the day we got them. While we didn’t get to thrash them as hard or for as long as we’d have liked, we’ve got a sneaking suspicion that they’ll take quite a beating and come out smiling. We had no drama fitting tyres tubeless with a track pump, and with tyre pressures in the low 20s for the duration of our test we never experienced any air loss or burping.

The Roam 50s feel laterally stiff despite their modest spoke count, with little to no discernible flex under high cornering loads or with our highly technical ‘stomp on it and see if it bends’ test. On the flip side, we did notice quite a bit of tyre squirm when cornering and we wish that SRAM had taken wide rims a bit more seriously. “Hey check it out, we’ve got really wide 21mm rims” might have sounded impressive five years ago, but with companies like Syntace, American Classic and Stan’s offering rims that are 5-8mm wider at similar wheel weights, the Roam 50s feel a bit like you’re dipping your toe in the water when everyone else has double pike somersaulted in for a swim. Properly wide rims are the future—mark our words. The only other thing on our Roam wish list would be a 15/20mm convertible front hub; there are still plenty of people out there riding 20mm Maxles on their trail bikes who won’t be coming to the Roam party at this point.

All in all though, we have to hand it to SRAM and say they’ve done a good job with the new Roam wheels; all (well, most) of our gripes about their previous wheels have been addressed, and the Roam 50s now stand as a worthy contender in the aftermarket wheel department. Cheap they are not, but they’re light, adaptable, capable, tough, easy to maintain and tubeless ready straight from the box.

Monza Imports (03) 8327 8080/ www.sram.com