Utah's ENVE Composites has a pair of new high end offerings, including a carbon road hub that won a Eurobike Design and Innovation award and made it onto our list of Best New Products from Interbike.
The ENVE carbon road hub features patented molded in spoke holes in the hub's full carbon flanges, which both save weight and make the hub stiff and strong. The front hub weighs 74 grams while the rear comes in at 158 grams.
"Whenever possible, ENVE rims and components incorporate continuous, uninterrupted carbon fibers. Doing so ensures that there are no excess or redundant fibers to compensate for deficiencies in a part's design," explained Scott Nielson, ENVE's VP of research and development.
Features include a patent pending full carbon hub shell and molded spoke holes in the hub flanges (click to enlarge).
In addition to the lightweight full carbon hub shell and inclusion of DT Swiss internals for the drive mechanism, each ENVE carbon road hub comes standard with Ceramic Speed bearings. The new hub is manufactured and assembled at ENVE's factory in Ogden, Utah, and is now shipping as hub set only or complete with any Smart ENVE System wheel.
The hub set alone will retail for $1350 while a complete Smart ENVE System clincher wheelset will retail for $3500 and a tubular for $3300. Here's a complete rundown of features.
ENVE Carbon Road Hub Key Features
- Weight: 74g front 158g rear = 232g hubset
- 20 hole front / 24 hole rear
- Available in Campy, Shimano, SRAM
- Patent pending full carbon hub shell
- Molded spoke holes in hub flanges
- Ceramic Speed bearings
- Easily serviceable DT Swiss internals
Continue to page 2 to learn about ENVE's new SES 2.2 carbon clincher wheels »
The latest member of the Smart ENVE System (SES) family comes in the form of a lightweight tubeless compatible clincher. This is the first ENVE road clincher to incorporate tubeless tire technology, which the company acknowledged was something its customers had been clamoring for.
Because light weight was the key objective with the new rim shapes, ENVE opted for matching rim geometries front to rear. As such, the rim shape is 27mm outer width, 18.5mm inner, and is 25mm deep. The end result is a tubeless clincher race rim that weighs a respectable 410 grams per rim.
"The SES 2.2 Clincher is the perfect wheel for cyclists who prefer shallow wheels, love to ride in the mountains, and want the benefits that ENVE carbon technologies have to offer," explained ENVE director of marketing Jake Pantone.
According to ENVE, their latest brake track achieves virtually equal performance in wet and dry conditions while allowing the rider to use 30% less force at the brake levers (click to enlarge).
The SES 2.2 also introduces the evolution of ENVE's molded in brake tracks. According to ENVE, their latest brake track achieves virtually equal performance in wet and dry conditions while allowing the rider to use 30% less force at the brake levers to achieve the same amount of stopping power when compared to the first generation SES brake track texture. Along with a new brake track, ENVE has developed a new brake pad to further improving wet weather performance.
Complete wheelset pricing starts at $2575 with DT Swiss 350 hubs. Choose the new ENVE Carbon Road Hub and you'll need to cut a check for $3500. The SES 2.2 Clincher will begin shipping the first week of October. Here is a rundown of key features.
Combine the new wheels and hubs and you have one seriously lightweight climbing weapon (click to enlarge).
SES 2.2 Clincher Key Features
- Rim weight: 410g Front; 410g Rear; 820g Set
- With ENVE Carbon Hubs: 585g Front; 690g Rear; 1275g Set
- With Chris King hubs: 613g Front; 747g Rear; 1360g Set
- With DT180: 612g Front; 716g Rear; 1328g Set
- With DT240: 618g Front; 757g Rear; 1375g Set
- With DT350: 661g Front; 797g Rear; 1458g Set
- Hole Count: 20 Front; 24 Rear
- Tubeless compatible
- Improved brake track texture and brake pads for increased braking power and wet weather performance
- High cross wind stability
- Developed for Team MTN-Qhubeka for use at the Tour de France
- Optimized for use with 25mm tires which provide more comfort, better traction and rolling resistance
For more information visit enve.com.