With just weeks to go, Monday brought us a late contender for one of the strangest stories of 2025 — social media filled with confusion and disbelief after screenshots from Specialized’s website began circulating featuring a disc brake rotor fitted on the same side as a rear derailleur and… a cassette on the front wheel.
While some questioned if a poor photographer had actually managed to build such a horrorshow (and others pointed out it just wouldn’t work), the leading theory was that Specialized had deployed AI for its Roval Rapide CLX III web page and something had gone (quite significantly) wrong.
Specialized Roval Rapide CLX III image (credit: Specialized)
At the rear, people noticed the disc rotor was on the same side as the drivetrain, while up front there was a cassette pictured neatly fitted between the forks. Bizarre. Just to top it all off, Specialized’s marketing copy for the wheelset meant this rather strange pic was accompanied by the headline: “Everything you thought you knew about wheels was wrong”. Quite.
Specialized Roval Rapide CLX III image (credit: Specialized)
That then added another layer of social media speculation, some suggesting it’s all an attention-grabbing ploy for eyeballs.
Well, having spoken with Specialized this morning, a spokesperson for the brand said the truth is actually none of the above, the rogue cassette and rotor apparently not AI, not a marketing gimmick, and certainly not what a photographer actually photographed.
That particular part of the product page is meant to be a GIF, not one image, seamlessly alternating between a front and rear view of the bike, all to demonstrate that Specialized has made the front wheel deeper than the rear for aero gains, going against what some people used to believe and thus justifying the tag line “everything you thought you knew about wheels is wrong”.
The bike brand’s digital team is working to get it fixed. Interestingly, the US site is working as a GIF… but on one of the images there is still a cassette up front and a disc rotor on the wrong side at the rear.
Even if the GIF is working on the US site, things aren’t looking much better here… (credit: Specialized)
Needless to say the person we spoke to at Specialized says something has broken on the website. They also explained this page has been up since the wheels were launched.
Once the internet did spot it, social media was typically quick to jump all over the bizarre image…
“Actually amazing: Specialized has an image of a bike using their $1500 wheelset, where the front wheel is on backwards, and features a cassette. The back wheel has an integrated disk brake rotor aa part of the cassette itself — as well as the brake itself integrated with the chain?” someone else wrote on social media.
From there the great AI vs deliberate marketing vs real photo debate began and Specialized scrambled its digital team. Not AI, not deliberate marketing and not one real photo is apparently the answer…