ENVE just released a „custom“ road bike

Pro tip - every year buy yourself a barely used $11k bikes on Ebay from Goodwill of Silicon Valley :wink:

3 Likes

:smile:

Selling the old one might also be a bit tricky. Who wants a bike custom-made for someone else?

True, however I think that is where this still provides great benefit. For example, I have a very long torso relative to my height. I’m 6’1" and ride a 58. I have to bury the seat post because my legs aren’t that long but have to run a 120mm+ stem in most cases to get the correct reach. I would have a frame with more reach but a shorter seat tube built. Minor changes in flexibility could be addressed via stem/spacer changes just like they would be on any bike I own, custom or not. Similarly if something drastic changes that wouldn’t be feasible to adjust the frame to, that would apply to a normal production SWorks or SLR bike too (which are the same price). In my opinion this pricing really isn’t totally out of line when compared to other top of the line offerings and then considering the custom option and the hand built in US.

1 Like

Is it expensive? Definitely
Is it necessary? Definitely not
Do I want one ASAP? :innocent:

1 Like

I’m ENVEous.

1 Like

Ooh, this is interesting to me. My first blush was something like, “Man, I just can’t get excited about ultra-high-end frames anymore, because it feels like we’ve just jumped the shark with pricing.”

But the more I thought about it, the more I don’t hate it.

  1. I agree with the others who said similarly, I don’t know if I think the average rider truly needs a fully custom frame vs the other adjustments available.
  2. The price is blistering.

But… I would rather be in a market where brands actually emphasize fit and really push that as the driving factor, vs, “Huuuurrrr we’ve made it nought point 4 percent stiffer, and it saves 6 watts at 40kph with the wind at 17deg on days starting with T,” etc etc. At least fit is a tangible thing that really changes your experience on the bike. This instance (cost, exclusivity) might not be for me, but I’m on board with the philosophy.

3 Likes

I find this interesting because the incident replacement program specifically states they’ll replace the damaged part at no cost to you even if it’s due to a crash, car rack incident, or your dog eating it. They offer this no-questions-asked style replacement program for their wheels, too, and it’s the primary reason I went with buying wheels from them. That they’re offering for a whole bike is actually a groundbreaking warranty for the industry imo. Sure you have to pay for labor and potentially a little more, but that’s nothing compared to buying the whole thing outright again.

Hmm…

$8400 for the Ultegra Di2/Force AXS spec with the Foundation wheelset isn’t far off from the price of an SL7 of similar spec.

Now just need to decide which colors…

3 Likes

I’m gonna order one with Shimano 105, you know, to keep the price down. I’ll be the enve of all me mates!

Except they aren’t offering it on a whole bike. If you read the fine print on their warranty page it’s a percentage off. If I crashed my new $7000 frame into my garage, getting 35% ($2500) is a small consolation if I thought I had a 100% warranty.

Their definition of “Lifetime” also isn’t what most people think it would mean. Getting 10% off after 5 years isn’t groundbreaking.

1 Like

It’s taken some brands many generations to fine tune their bikes to be where they are today (Tarmac in on SL7, and there were generations before they started the SL numbering scheme, so maybe 9 or 10 iterations to get to where we are now).

ENVE tout work with forks and front ends of other bikes, but really this is their first road bike. I’m definitely not in for one, as $12k for a “light gravel” bike is just way more than I’m prepared to spend (I do not have a difficult fit, so don’t need custom). If I were to spend money on ENVE products tomorrow, it would be foundation wheels.

Now ENVE became a real brand of choice for wheels in the last 10 years. I remember when the first bikes came out with Fox forks, and they were so cool, so rare. It was all rockshox, marzocchi and manitou. Now, it’s like mostly Fox, then Rockshox, and almost nothing for marzocchi (I’m excluding cheap bikes with sun tour and x-fusion etc). I would like it if ENVE can make a foundation frame in Taiwan without the customization, and have it be the next Tarmac (in terms of numbers I see around)

Just thinking more about wheels. So go back 20 years, what were the premium upgrade brands? Mavic was huge, spinnergy, zipp, reynolds, and some others. They’re almost all gone or bit players now. ENVE, Hunt, zipp, and Chinese wheels (either direct or rebranded) are where it’s at. I do truly hope ENVE become a big player in frames and bikes. They know how to make appealing products.

If I were in the market for a new bike I would definitely take a hard look here as I have been loving my my Enve Ses wheels for a year now on my Tarmac SL6.

Great for everyone to have some new choices and competition.

A custom fit with a price-point that competes with major-brand offerings is pretty nuts. If you’re in the market for one of these, it would be hard to argue against this bike.

Then again, I bet getting your hands on one, not deciding to pull the trigger, will be the challenge.

Availability is definitely the limiter. I heard from my LBS that they are only making 150 of these bikes this year. I suspect people will be waiting quite a while in the queue to get one.

They are going for the Sacha White model of a 5 year wait list! Its the ultimate validation you are now a boutique builder !

1 Like

BB386 it is. from there bike FAQ page.

1 Like