hookless issues are blown out of proportion! I never have an issue with hookless, but I’m light and run less than 50psi tubeless so I guess I’m not the one that would have issues with hookless
1 Like
I agree, to me the weight is the main issue with their wheels and seems like they are not that interested in making them lighter since their new innerdrive hubs are not light and their recent redesigned mountain lineup is also not lightweight
By what standard? The Melee is one the heaviest and least aero race bikes out there. There are full on aero bikes that are lighter. Meanwhile UAE specifically picks their wheels and cockpits.
And it’s 100% just an opinion, but for how bling bling their wheels are, their frames have the most boring, uninspiring paint jobs of any bike out there. I briefly considered a Melee when it first got released but that Silver is just bland.
Are they considered heavy? They’re lighter than Reserve wheels by a good bit. Yea, you can get some carbon spokes wheels that are lighter but is 100g that big of a deal for aero wheels?
I went to look again, the SES road wheels are actually not heavy compared to most competition. 4.5 is lighter than CLX II and Reserve wheels. I think their MTB wheels have more of a weight problem than Road wheels.
1 Like
They’re heavy compared to Chinese wheels, but not compared to mainstream big brand wheels. Are these Chinese wheels actually faster even though they can offer deeper, lighter wheels at much cheaper prices. I’m not so sure anymore? Details matter.
1 Like
Mine
By comparison to the new breed of mountain wheels too. The new Specialized wheels are 900 grams.
I think the M5 is heavier than the previous control sl and zipp hitop as well.
Yea, to me their frames are their weak point by far. Just not very competitive in any sense: weight, aesthetics, price, performance. But you’ll see their wheels and components all over the place. My MTB is running ENVE bars. My road race bike has the ENVE stem and aero bars. I’m glad they’ve ventured into making frames but I just think they not quite there in terms of making a competitive bike.
that might be the case for the Melee. But the MOG is one of the best gravel bikes in the market Today and was released way ahead of time with 50mm clearance, udh and storage bay, really the only thing it’s missing is suspension adjusted geo imho. still out there as one of the top gravel bikes. hard to say about the fray, as it doesn’t look like a race bike all road endurance. but again, if I’d put into a ranking order the MOG is out there, while the Fray is kind mid pack but still has UDH and 40mm clearance as well as storage bay, not bad for every day all road bike, the Melee really is the bike that can’t compete again the stacked race bike competition.
1 Like
I recently went through the same dilemma. It was my chance to add whatever wheelset I wanted and I narrowed down to Reserve (practical choice) and Enve. In the end, I went with the Enve. Id be lying if I said I think they are a “better” wheelset than the Reserve but they bring my heart joy every time I look at my bike. That justifies it to me. 
2 Likes
I don’t think I’m going to change your mind and that’s fine. We all like what we like. I still just don’t find the MOG that exciting in really any way. I’m actually in the market for a new gravel bike and the MOG isn’t even in consideration as I just don’t see many stellar qualities that set it apart. Most of it is specific preferences. But I don’t really like the look of it, especially with the fork mounts. And the specs aren’t anything special. Maybe top 10 gravel bikes out there (big maybe), but not in the top 5 for sure in my eyes. But that’s why we have choices. What qualifies as the perfect bike for one person is a clunker for another, and vice versa.
I think the Fray is actually their best bike. Still not much of a looker, but until the Synapse just came out, was a unique bike of its own, and a lot of nice features.
Anyways, this has gone off on a tangent. I’m still excited about their wheels and they’re the best looking wheels out there in my opinion. Ride on!
Curious why you thought the Reserve were the logical choice. I considered them but they’re heavier and don’t really offer deep rims. I actually do think the ENVE are better in performance. I just didn’t see much standout qualities of the Reserve other than being a tad wider.
I have a set of 5.6s and new 3.4s so I’m all aboard the Enve train. But the Reserve wheels do test well. The 52/63 seems like a current gen 5.6 (wider and lighter) and I’d love to try a pair. E.g., The big 2024 aero wheel group test – 11 high-performance carbon wheels head to head | GRAN FONDO Cycling Magazine
Interesting. The Cycling News aero test had them (Reserve) behind a lot of other big brands. The ENVE 6.7 were the third fastest behind the much more expensive Syncros Capital SL and the Scope Artech 6.A, both almost double the cost of ENVE. The Reserve did test pretty well at 30kph, but fell off at higher speeds. Most races I do are well above 30kph. At 40kph, the ENVE 4.5 were about .5W faster. And the 6.7 were around 1.5W faster. So not a huge amount by any means. The Scope Artech wheels tested crazy fast and they’re the lightest also. But they’re also like $4500 USD a pair.
That said, these tests are a very isolated system and doesn’t tell the whole story of how a wheel and tire are going to interact with your frame. Also, they tested with a 28mm tire. I’m using wider on my race bike. Which them muddies the water even more. Which then just goes back to my very childish reason of wanting ENVEs because they look cool.
Edit: Since the Cycling News article is now behind a paywall, here’s some screenshots of the data.
1 Like
What was the baseline wheelset (the watts saved comparable)?
Baseline wheelset was a Fulcrum Racing 5. Just a standard alloy wheelset. Fulcrum’s website says 24.5mm/27.5mm depth front/rear with a 17mm inner width.
Bike used for all tests was a Reap Vekta.
1 Like
I have been a long time ENVE user and currently have two sets of M5’s, the M5 Pros, G23s, 3.4 ARs, the new 4.5s, and a set of the Foundation 65’s. I use them across XC, gravel, and road.
The only issue I ever had was a couple broken spokes on the G23’s, likely from rocks hitting them on gravel rides. I’ve need had to true any of the wheels, never broken a wheel, never had a tire burp or come off.
I never liked that ENVE didn’t factory tape the wheels for tubeless, but on the M5 Pros they came taped, so perhaps they are now doing that for other wheels, but not certain. The M5 Pros are also the first ENVE wheel I have to go away from the internal nipples, so perhaps they will change this on future wheelsets.
I’ve had to warranty other ENVE parts, like a stem, and it was painless. However I’ve never had to warranty a wheel.
Clearly I like ENVE a lot, but there are a lot of other great brands and products out there. I’m hopefully they can continue to innovate, but no question there are a lot of options now and the competition much stiffer than a few years back. The G23 is due for an update to make it wider to go along with the bigger tire trend in gravel. But overall ENVE’s are just super solid and seem to work great for what I need.
I chipped my front 5.6 rim in a pothole. Enve rebuilt it for no charge and sent it back with new tubeless kit in the box. Awesome service!
1 Like