ENVE just announced some new budget-conscious wheels for road and mountain.
The road wheels are disc-only, 21 mm internal, hookless bead, and tubeless tire-specific. 45 mm and 65 mm depths. They look incredible. Incredibly accessible at $1600, too.
The site seems to be getting hammered right now, so it’s a little slow to load. But man, these look amazing.
Relate press releases:
I’m just not sold on the hookless bead design for road at this point, especially given the very limited number of tires that Enve says are compatible.
Edit:
Sort of marketing fail on Enve’s part: announce a new wheelset, but forget to check all of the places you list compatible tires
I am very interested in the AM30… at ~1850g its not the lightest, but seems like for the price and company standing behind it, this could be a great option for a do-it-all wheel.
Any thoughts on something like this for XCM/Epic type rig? Scott Spark 910 for reference
The road wheels look really nice. I’m pleased to read they’re still made in the USA. I think we’re going to start seeing a lot of these at local crits.
30mm is pretty big. I have 30mm Santa Cruz Reserves on my 170mm Santa Cruz Nomad with 2.5" tires.
I’d go with 25-27mm on an XC/Downcountry rig, depending on the size of tires you’re running. Consider Santa Cruz Reserves in the meantime, which are also priced at $1600 with DT 350 hubs and are equally bombproof.
these do look nice for the price. I am still looking to get the Enve 5.6 Disc. I found them on bikesdirect which is an authorized deal but it is QR and not thru-axle. I have a Tarmac with thru-axle and I am guessing I would need to get that part to convert them.
My reasoning to get through bikesdirect is because you get points kind of like clevertraining. Guess I need to call Enve first.
I’m not sure I quite get the value prop here. This is a hotly contested price point - there’s several (arguably better) wheels for a better price. Hunt wheels from the UK / Boys wheels in the US etc. What makes the wheels worth the extra money?
Bro did you really just suggest that Hunt is as good as ENVE?
My man. No.
Hell, the Lifetime Incident Protection alone makes ENVE worth the extra money.
Pretty cool to see the “Foundation Series”, and something I have been waiting to expect and see from Enve for a while. I live just a few miles from the factory and HQ, and during the summer do weekly group rides from there as well. Nice place, and great product.
Though, I don’t use any on my bike. I’ve never been able to justify the price, despite the incredibly high quality 
. Wheels that cost more than the rest of my bike just hasn’t made sense for me yet, but maybe if I get a disc brake bike with tires compatible with the Foundation series it may be worth a shot
@summerson - Not directly I’m just trying to understand the difference. Its not weight, its not aero, the guarantees are similar … I guess I’m asking as someone who’s only ever ridden $1000 wheels on how much better it gets. Not a slight against Enve – when I bought my last bike for $2100 another bike was being built up with some and I asked the bike machanic how much they were - He smiled and said, “More than your bike”. Turns out somone was building up a custom Ti rig for around 8k.
I went from cheaper Nextie carbon hoops with American Classic hubs–around $900 to build–to my ENVE 3.4 SES Disc and the difference was night and day. I’ve also ridden Roval and could feel the difference compared to my ENVEs.
I haven’t compared to Hunt or Zipp, but there’s just something special about ENVE. I’m not even sure it can be quantified, but when you feel it, you just know.
I like that I can get a more reasonably priced wheelset that is manufactured in the US. I may end up selling my Roval 50s to get a pair of these Enve 45s.
I have a lot of family and friends in the SLC area and given the current times, I’d like to help keep the local economy going 
The 45s look like the sweet spot to me, too. I’ve been looking for a new set of wheels for my CAADX for “allroad” use with some tubeless Gravel King 32s, and these look perfect. A little more than I was planning on spending, but I love my 3.4s so much I know that they’ll be worth it.
Kate C. ran 30 mm in XCO races this year. Santa C reserves with those dt 350 hubs is all good.
A shame they aren’t offered in rim brake versions. Guess it’s probably too much RD cost for a shrinking market.
Are these a mavic / enve hybrid?
Bit heavier, slightly less aero spokes and same depth front and back so a little less good in wind based on the marketing for std enve wheels
I guess they are cheaper but is this maybe detracting from the premium brand of their other lines and they aren’t cheap.
looking fwd to see the real life tests and how these perform. At this price point not sure if id go with a local built wheel or Hunt or something similar. If I was making a premium build I’d prob just go all in for the top tier
I love my enve 5.6.
Imagine these might find themselves on some of next years std model builds eg cervelo
Be on the lookout for sales.
Back in November, Competitive Cyclist was selling the SES rim brake versions for half off.
Great to see Enve get into the space. Likely broaden their customer space and may get some to jump up to their other products in the future.
I ran the original AM’s on my XC bikes back when those were considered wide at the time. I eventually switched to M525’s but still have the AM’s on a couple of older bikes and they have been bulletproof. The new AM’s look amazing and should be a great wheel.
Having a company that designs, builds, and backs their products in the U.S.A. is a big deal. That alone always had be going back to Enve. Now with a more accessible price point I really hope they get a lot of sales.
Hunt has a reputation among some folks as people who don’t really understand the nuances of aerodynamics. Take everything with a grain of salt, but I believe those folks. The company may have a great reputation for customer service and slick marketing, but IMO they’re “yet another” small company that imports wheels from Taiwan.
Enve, on the the other hand, has their shit together. “Made in USA” doesn’t seem to hold much weight these days among the cycling public, which is a shame. To me it’s huge. Add it to the fact their wheels are among the top performers in many tests, it’s a no brainer for me that their products are worthy of their reputation.
