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Carbon Wheels
So let's put money to one side and just talk about the product itself. And we might as well focus on the golden standard: ENVE rims.
Are these a good choice of wheels for Sydney? We've read about how strong they are in comparison to alloy, and that they are tried and proven on the WC DH circuit and Enduro WS etc etc but if money was no object would you ride the AM or 60/40 versions of these around our AM trails, the likes of M Dam, Red Hill, Cascades DH, and perhaps one or two others that we can't mention?
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I got a second hand set off ebay. They were going cheap and I thought why the heck not give 'em a go
Not from Sydney but our tracks up here are loose rocky and stick schrewn
Originally thought I'd just use them as race wheels and swap back to Al for mucking around. Our race track at Rydal has no rocks anyway... But as I got more confident with them I have let them loose on a variety of trails.
Hassan's Walls is notorious for "baby heads" fist sized loose rocks... Mt York fast techi descents... Newnes, Gardens of Stone.
I put a stick through my wheel mid race, didn't realise I had snapped 3 spokes, Finished the race with just a slight wobble in the rim. Trued up no dramas
I'm approaching 100kg, kinda of an aggressive rider with a lack of style
I've cased them, dropped them, wedged them in rocks... No issues other than the original Al spoke nipple corroding out so I replaced them with brass.
Bit over 12month on I rate ENVE highly
I have a couple of sets, an XC set that came with my Highball and an AM set. Been using them for about 18 months in all sorts of conditions. Races, around the dam, wherever... Taken some pretty big hits that have resulted in punctures and not a scratch on the rims. They seem pretty tough to me. They build up pretty light as well, my XC set are 1380g in 29er. Don't need special training wheels with these in my opinion.
Had my AM 26" Enves for about 18 months now with no issues. I'm not the fastest or heaviest rider, but I can be very hard on my wheels and suspension. If I had to build my bike over today, I'd get Enve carbon again.
I started road racing on carbon wheels as a 10 year old in the early 90s (damn, that makes me feel old), and moved very quickly to riding on them every day. Today, my AM bike, road and TT bike are all on carbon. My recently acquired DH bike's carbon wheels shipped yesterday
, and I have another 5 carbon wheels for specialised road/track use.
While a good carbon wheel is std equipment for me, they can still fail.
Mate rode and rode hard with alu his whole MTB life. Gets a set of Enve's and busts two rear wheels in the space of a few months. It's very rare, but carbon isn't some magical product thats indestructible.
Was he looked after in terms of replacements?
Yeah, both were replaced under warranty with a minimum of fuss.
There was the AUS retailer and Enve which both put up a tiny amount of initial resistance/hesitation, but I think thats usually the case with any warranty claim.
Biggest problem was being in Perth.
I believe the wheel needed to be sent to Syd where they sat for 2 weeks, then back to Enve, before they sent a new rim back to Syd to be built up then sent back to Perth.
All this takes time, and with Enve's popularity exploding in the last 6-12 months, the whole process took 6-8 weeks if i recall correctly.
Being an XX1 hub, he unfortunately had no spare wheel to use.
I know my enve's will NEVER break as I've got a spare set of unused XTR wheels
Yes! Yes, I would. Even for a unit my size.
Or Matt P's size.
If I had the $$ I'd nab a set.
But for now I might just blank out my Stans and use some Liquid Paper to dolly up the ENVE logo…..
So that's a unanimous thumbs up then - I was expecting some mixed opinions!