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TECH NEWS
Just In: Enigma Endeavour - new steel gravel/adventure bike from the British company
Look at this beauty! It's the new Endeavour, a British made steel gravel and adventure bike from Enigma Bicycle Works, the East Sussex-based company best known for producing titanium bikes since 2006.
The Endeavour is made in the UK and is part of the company's Core range of small-batch made stock bikes that enables Enigma to offer more affordable bikes with shorter lead times than its bespoke offerings.
It’s handmade and painted in the UK largely using Columbus Zona tubing, with some Dedacciai and Reynolds added to the mix. It’s a thoroughly modern-looking bike with oversized tube profiles, wide tyre clearance and disc brakes using 12mm thru-axles with flat mount callipers.
Geometry is largely based on the Escape titanium gravel bike and it’s aimed at “ all-road riders looking for a comfortable and versatile machine” says the company. A prototype frame was put through its paces in the Pan Celtic Race – a 1440 mile ultra-endurance race through Scotland, Ireland and Wales by an Enigma employee, proving both how capable and tough the bike is.
The frame has clearance for up to 42mm tyres on 700c wheels, and there’s compatibility with 650b too, up to 47mm wide. The pictured bike is rolling on a set of 38mm wide Panaracer slicks and there’s ample clearance between rubber and metal.
Versatility is ensured with eyelets for mudguards, ear rack, three bottle cages and the brand new GRV carbon fork has triple bosses for Anything racks and cages. There’s also internal dynamo routing for distance riding.
There’s compatibility for all modern groupsets, with mechanical gear cables externally routed and electronic cables going inside the frame. You can choose 1x or 2x as well so suit your preference, and cable guides can be removed if you don’t need them or go wireless.
Claimed frame weight is 1.85kg for a size 52cm and 435g for the fork.
You can buy the Endeavour as a frameset for £1,700 and complete bikes start at £3,000, and it’s possible to spec the bike with any build kit you want. The bike here costs £3,700 with Shimano’s brand new GRX 800 groupset, providing mechanical shifting with hydraulic disc brakes and 2x configuration. It’s also got an optional Hope upgrade kit with the hubs, bottom bracket, headset and seat collar nicely matching the frame decals.
“This is an exciting new direction for Enigma, we wanted to offer a more affordable frame with shorter lead times to our customers but did not want to compromise our UK made ethos or control over production methods and quality. It has also tied in well with our support for the inaugural Pan Celtic Race, there was no better situation than a real-world endurance race to test the bike out and as our man, Chris will testify, its performance excelled,” says Brand Manager Richard Lambert.
Prices:
- Enigma Endeavour Frameset (frame, fork, headset, seatclamp) £1699
- Enigma Endeavour Complete GRX600 1x £2999
- Enigma Endeavour Complete GRX810 2x £3399
- Enigma Endeavour Complete Force AXS 1x £4299
- Hope Upgrade Kit £225
- Painted Stem and Seatpost £160 (not including parts)
More info at www.enigmabikes.com
David worked on the road.cc tech team from 2012-2020. Previously he was editor of Bikemagic.com and before that staff writer at RCUK. He's a seasoned cyclist of all disciplines, from road to mountain biking, touring to cyclo-cross, he only wishes he had time to ride them all. He's mildly competitive, though he'll never admit it, and is a frequent road racer but is too lazy to do really well. He currently resides in the Cotswolds, and you can now find him over on his own YouTube channel David Arthur - Just Ride Bikes.
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13 comments
Thank you everyone for the comments.
Tyre clearance is without guards, so a couple of mm less with.
The paint may look like primer, but in the flesh it is almost universally loved! We get excellent feedback on it.
We appreciate the bike isn't cheap, but it does reflect the quality of a handmade British product. We have spent 14 years fixing and refurbishing other brands frames alongside building our own, so we can be very confident that our workmanship compares well to other framebuilders (even ones that spent 30 years at Roberts). We also offer one of the most complete services of any framebuilder in the country. We have an onsite proffessional fitting studio, so can advise whether a standard frame or custom size would be best option, and the paint is completed in house to award winning standards.
We could cut corners on the workmanship, materials or the service we provide, but that's not what we do.
You're welcome to visit our factory and check out what we do.
Thanks,
Richard
Mmmmm...
klein.jpg
Pity they didn't finish painting it. Looks like primer on the back half!
Paint looks like shiny primer.
42mm with or without mudguards, why do reviewers frequently never clarify this when it's a fairly important aspect with regards to widest tyre that can fit?
Where are the rear pannier rack mounts, would expect a double eyelet on the rear dropouts.
The price is extremely strong in today's market IMO, comparative to the pricing for a made to measure filet brazed gravel/adventure Zona tubeset + Columbus Futura carbon fork build by a master framebuilder (28 years at Roberts) for £50 more I'd say the Enigma doesn't come across as good value for an off the peg frameset.
Its about £100 more than a Mason Resolution frame - so I'd say its in the right ballpark.
A Bokeh or Fairlight Secan is a lot cheaper tho not quite apples and apples.
Ballpark for another overpriced frameset, yes I agree. Which would you rather spend your money on, a near 30 year indentured craftsman building your filet brazed frame exactly to your own measurements, or same money for something that isn't, the comparison proves to me that the Mason and the Enigma are well over priced within the market.
If anything the £1,750 custom frame sounds like the outlier in terms of price. Examples from other builders: Saffron Frameworks quotes from £1,740 for a Life / Zona frame only, and extra cost for other frame features (e.g. disc tabs); Quirk Mamtor custom gravel frameset: £2,450; Field semi-custom road frameset £2,350; August road framesets start at £2,500. Maybe you'll tell me these are all trendy new wave framebuilders and the price difference is all margin, but in that company the Enigma looks on market.
I think they should have gone all in with the Hope kit and fitted some orange Hope RX4 Brake Calipers!
Don't want
Not entirely sure why but just not a fan of colour matched stems and seatposts
And clearly we're back to the (what was it, late '80s?) world of fades adorning rigid mountain bikes (which isn't necessarily a bad thing)
I'm with you on the seatpost, but there's been a Klein shaped hole in my life since I first saw one in about 1991. Maybe this would do it?
Santa better get saving
Me neither, and I don't like the groupset, but the frame...
Want.