Tag Archives: carbon

Ceramic bearings in the Chris King R45 hubs complete this no-compromises wheelset, and the customer was kind enough to send us a photo of them fitted to his bike (with some very nice Campag Super Record components).

The first ride report was brief but to the point,
"Just took the wheels on a test run. love them! Very smooth and feel fast...Will tell all my friends what a great job you've done",
just what we'd hope for with wheels like this.

The Enve 3.4 SES (Smart Enve System) rims come as a front and pair with differing characteristics. The front has a rim depth of 35mm, while the rear is 45mm, and the widths vary too; a deep 26mm wide for the front, and 24mm for the rear. In this tubular incarnation they weigh in at 340g front, 380g rear.

Take a look at our custom online road wheel builders if you'd like to spec some similar wheels, or contact us for some advice.

Carbon, carbon, carbon, matching front coming up when the 650b Enve Composites are available.

A 26" Enve AM laced to DT 240s rear hub for one of the lightest, strongest wheels you can buy. As an extra twist, the front wheel is a slightly oversized 650b, curently a DT 240s hub laced to a 650b Pacenti TL28 rim. A pretty good combination anyway, and the rim will be replaced with an Enve AM 650b once they arrive here in December.

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I don't think it can get any better than this Chris King / Enve / CX-Ray combination. One of the stiffest, strongest wheelsets money can buy with a weight of just 1584g per pair and able to take a lot of hammer.

The unrivalled stiffness of the Enve rims means that lightweight bladed Sapim CX-Ray spokes can be used for a weight and aerodynamic advantage with no concerns over wheel stiffness.

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We had to pull out all the stops to get this one together for a customer so we thought we'd put it on the blog to make a few of you "Enveous".

Enve 29er rims laced to Tune Cannonball Lefty and Kong in blue. Laced with red and black DT Swiss Aerolite spokes.

It's  a shame the Prince and Cannonball SL hubs weren't available at the time otherwise it would be even lighter...note of caution - We found a little of the red powder coat flaked off the spokes where they are bent around the hub flange. It's only on the head-inwards spokes, and the Tune hubs are probably more susceptible to this than others due to the tight fit. It's also possible some red may come off where the spokes cross, although the ultra stiff Enve rim should minimise this.

And the weights? 627g for the front, and 731g for the rear excluding rim tape and valves (total 1358g). Pretty light for a 29er wheelset, and extremely stiff.

From the customer "I was out yesterday, testing for the first time: Absolutely fantastic performance!!! I love the way they act on the track."

DT Swiss have updated their 190 hubs with a carbon shell, and called them the "180"... which is about the weight of the rear road hubs. Available in Shimano or Campag road versions, and centerlock (QR only) mountain bike versions, the price is high enough to put off most people but if you need the best and have QR axles, you won't find anything lighter that works as well.

As always with DT, although they're light it's not just about the weight. You can bet that these hubs will last longer than pretty much anything else, the ceramic bearings will roll smoother, and they won't let you down. Just as well at these prices (£275 front, £500 rear). Buy them here now >.

Here are a couple of pictures, it's a shame they don't have any carbon showing (it's the hub shell - the central tube) but they still look pretty:

Some more photos of the wheels we took the Bespoked Bristol show. If you missed part 1, click here.

Enve Carbon All mountain wheelset

The best AM/downhill wheelset money can buy. DT Swiss 240 hubs and Aerolite bladed spoked are a natural match for the strongest, stiffest, lightest rims we've seen. No compromises (including on the price).

hubs DT Swiss 240s
rims Enve Composites AM
spokes DT Swiss Aerolite
nipples Pillar aluminium (internal)
weight 1569g
DT Swiss 240 hubs oversize front 20mm, QR rear. Front is convertible to QR, 9mm through axle (eg DT RWS) or 15mm thru bolt. Rear converts to 12 x 135 or 12x142mm.
price £2,063.00
buy now> £1,959.85 (discount price for show build)

aero road racing wheelset - Enve Composites 45 with American Classic hubs

hubs American Classic
rims Enve Composites 45
spokes Sapim CX-Ray
nipples Pillar aluminium (internal)
weight 1396g
20 hole front Micro 58 hub, 24 hole rear Road 205
buy now> £1,765 (discount price for show build)

Enve's 45mm deep full carbon clincher rims are built onto American Classic road hubs for a light, aero wheelset ideal for road racing or time trials. The moulded-in (not drilled) spoke holes mean we can wind up the bladed Sapim CX-Ray spokes to a high tension with no fear of them pulling through the rim.

quick, colourful road wheels - Pink Chris King R45 hubs laced to NoTubes ZTR Alpha 340 rims

Perfect for lighter riders, the 20h front and 24h rear Alpha 340 rims laced to the the Chris King R45 road hubs in pink laced to NoTubes Alpha 340 road rims.

Please ask about other Chris King, road builds or lacing patterns. Most of these haven't been put into the online custom wheelbuilder yet but can be built at Just Riding Along.

hubs Chris King R45 - pink 20/24h
rims NoTubes ZTR Alpha 340
spokes Sapim CX-Ray
nipples DT Swiss aluminium
weight 1264g
20 hole front wheel- radially laced / 24 hole rear wheel radially laced non-drive side, 2 cross drive
Actual weights, front 567g / rear 697g, pair 1264g.
price     £695
available to order as a suggested build, please enquire to find out if your preferred hub colour and spoke count is available.

all mountain wheelset with mango hubs

Chris King hubs, in orange, with orange spoke nipples on ZTR Flow rims. Perfect combination for Enduro downhill races or just all-round riding.

hubs Chris King - mango
rims NoTubes ZTR Flow
spokes DT Swiss Competition
nipples Sapim aluminium - orange
price £673

available to order as a suggested build, please enquire to find out if your preferred hub colour and spoke count is available.

Chris King large flange 15mm front hub, rear 12 x 135mm. Convertible to 20mm front, and 10x135 or 12x135mm rear at no extra cost, please contact us to arrange this.

Shown in the photo with the Maxxis Ikon tyre (2.2 eXC 62a 3C EXO).

burly Surly single-speed wheel

Indestructible 29er singlespeed rear wheel on the only 36h NoTubes rim available. Disk brake compatible hub.

hubs Surly Single speed - disc, solid bolt-on axle
rims NoTubes ZTR Flow 29er 36 hole
spokes DT Swiss Competition
nipples DT Swiss brass nipples - silver
weight 1153g
price £182

available to order as a suggested build, please enquire to find out if your preferred hub colour and spoke count is available.

Update....all Enve rims now in stock. Click here to see them.

Formerly known as Edge Composites but now known as Enve Composites after some trademark niggles, we've been looking at getting some of these rims in for a couple of years. It's probably best not to look too hard at the price, come and listen to the good bits first.

The rim we've been most looking forward to getting our hands on is the Twenty6 AM, a rim with a dull name but an improbable spec list. It's 28mm wide and weighs just 405g while being tubeless-compatible and strong enough for Greg Minaar and Steve Peat to win world cup downhill races, so they should be plenty tough enough for the rest of us. There is a 29er version as well.

The Twenty6 XC rim sounds positively mundane in comparison, but only because we're so used to the uber-light NoTubes rims, and there's more to Enve than just weight. There is a version for tubular tyres weighing just 260g, and for those of us who don't like gluing tyres to the rim, a tubeless-compatible clincher at 350g. What's the point?, you might say, when you can have a NoTubes Podium or Alpine with less weight and a fraction of the price? Well, stiffness and strength is the answer. The layup of the carbon material and shape of the rim contributes greatly to this but Enve's moulded-in spoke holes are also responsible. Most (all?) other carbon rims have drilled holes which weakens them a lot as it cuts through the fibres, making it impossible to reliably achieve high spoke tensions but Enve rims can be built to a hefty 140kg. Lightweight NoTubes rims top out at about 95kg.

 

Enve road rims are actually the first to arrive with us, we have some in stock now and we have made a staff rota showing which of us is allowed to coo over them at various times throughout the day. They come in various rim depths according to their intended use, from the extreme lightweight "25" (25mm deep), a 250g tubular-only rim aimed at people who like going uphill fast. The "45" is the all-rounder, the tubular version weighs in at 295g with the clincher a very respectable 440g making it one of the best aero road race options available. The "65" is of course 65mm deep for superior aerodynamics and still a reasonable weight at 369g tubular, 495g clincher.

 

Now, the question of price, what price perfection? Well, £700 per rim, it's a lot of money, but they will make you faster.

Take a look at them all in our shop.