Yeah, seems a few deep breaths and step back for perspective could be useful.
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I dont think anybody is up in arms about it. I certainly not. I just find the concept of $1600 âbudgetâ wheels to be amusing. Just like im not angry at rapha marketing pocketsâŚbut i certainly find it amusing.
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I was going to say the same, but then made the leap to the ridiculous sums of money spent on cars. Not throwing stones, my last car was a 2012 535i and it f***ing rocked. Bought it used (great deal) and still lost a boatload of money when I sold it. Saving piles of cash now, no insurance, no gas, etc.
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I work in the automotive industry for a major US car maker and I agree. People have cars that are way too expensive and way too big for what they use them for. But it is always funny that people who drive a $60k pickup and maybe put some mulch bags in the bed once a year will think itâs crazy that we spend more than a couple hundred on a bike, let alone several thousand on multiple bikes.
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Exactly. Thank you for that perspective.
p.s. hows it being in the ventilator biz now? 
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I think in terms of the targeted market they are âbudgetâ wheels. The people looking at these wheels race bikes. Race specific bikes are expensive. Itâs just like Di2, even dura ace and ultegra Di2 is expensive. You could just buy mechanical. But here we are in a pretty premium sport looking at premium products. A pro with a crazy engine would kill any of us on a 9 speed rust bucket bike just like they would on a top spec bike.
I think 1600 is not cheap but for a full carbon wheel manufactured in NA that is a competitive price (I assume its NA manufactured, have no bothered to dig too deeply). If you want cheap and value you can go for a alu rim carbon faring. I donât understand the logic here.
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Perhaps I should rephrase this. Assuming you are using rim brakes, would you prefer braking on a brake track made with â*Chineseiumâ (material somehow ductile yet still brittle, hahaha material science joke!) or on something a bit more âtrustedâ, even if you have to pay more money for it? No wrong answer here, but when I am going 70km/hr+, I will pay for a premium product, or just go aluminum rim. For disc brakes this argument brakes down, but see my post for aerodynamics associated with rim shapes. Yes, an expensive wheel could be all marketing, but if you go into 3rd party reviews, in general, most upper end wheels handle very well.
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I know you and others have been talking about the road options mostly, but this statement really doesnât apply to the MTB option in this new series. Santa Cruz and We Are One both offer a lifetime warranty/crash replacement that is certainly on par with ENVEâs. Both also have options at this price point that may be better value depending on your needs and priorities. With We Are One, you get better hubs at this price point (Hydras), and with both Santa Cruz and We Are One, you arenât limited to 30mm ID rims. If the fact that ENVE rims are handlaid in-house in the US matters to you, We Are One does the same in Canada.
I donât know enough about road wheels to know how these new ENVEs stack up there, and maybe the warranty/crash replacement really is unparalleled there, but the MTB option has very strong competition at this price point that bring a lot of similar benefits to the table. Probably a somewhat off-topic aside, but I felt it was worth mentioning.
If you were unfortunate and had a catastrophic wheel failure, then I think âmade by a reputable North American companyâ is more important than âmade withâ
For reference I will throw this up here to illustrate what happens when resonance occurs. Note that I am not saying chinese rims are bad (just like frames are not inherently bad) but you do get what you pay for to a certain extent.
Sometimes you pay for sex appeal, sometimes its for solid engineering done, sometimes its advertising, typically its a factor of many things. Whether or not it is worth the price tag is up to you
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So if you crash and destroy a set of Santa Cruz or We Are One, theyâll send new ones at no charge?
Yep, any incident that occurs while riding your bike is covered.
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Wow, thatâs cool. I thought ENVE was the only company doing this. All the others Iâve looked into (again, just for road) will do crash replacements âat a discount.â
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edit: Sorry I donât understand your argument. Also, note that its not the carbon thats important, its also the layup process and how they orient the fibers. Cooling also comes into play here. Again look for 3rd party reviews
Also one other thing you might want to consider is the life of the product and its expected use case. For example, one wheel manufacturer (will not name names here) tested brake track and showed that their brake track held up amazing when the wheel was going extremely fast while others delaminated over time. However, this means that the brake track failed to work to actually stop the rider and basically became useless. So yes you may have a brake track and wheel in perfect physical âconditionâ in terms of shape, but the brake track is now useless (pads and rim have become glazed) and now you cant stop. So if you survive the descent, yeah your wheels are in 1 piece, but again you cannot just assume everything is a-okay. Also, I believe most carbon sheets are manufactured in china. Just fyi
I should honestly probably walk back my previous statements a bit.
I still stand by it in large partâŚbut truly enve wheels are not WILDLY astronomical in terms of pricing. I mean yea theyre outrageousâŚbut not by multiple orders of magnitude. And I certainly do concede that you do get something (speculating) for at least a portion of the extra cash spent on them.
So yea they are a luxury/bling/show people how big your bank account is itemâŚbut not nearly on the level of watches that cost more than cars.
The latest ENVE podcast is on the Foundation wheelset. Itâs interesting, and, to me, put a good perspective on the cost of the SES line, and these too.
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Oh nice. Iâm giving this a listen ASAP. Thanks for sharing!
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Would love to see more companies do their manufacturing in the U.S. and Canada. That is something that I pay attention to factors into decision making when selecting products.
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Any military vets on here?
If so you can get the wheels (or anything else ENVE you would like) for 20% off.
Another reason to support a U.S. company that supports us vetsâŚ
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