Enve announce Foundation Collection carbon wheelsets, bringing prices down to £1,800

Enve have announced two new carbon road disc-brake wheelsets, the 45 and 65, to create their Foundation Collection. The American premium wheel brand hopes to bring features from their premium wheels down to a more affordable price point.

The new wheelset brings prices down to £1,800 and there are two wheelsets available, the 45 and the 65. Both are available only for disc brakes with hookless carbon rims designed to be most aero when used with a 25mm tyre.

Key points:

• £1,800 retail price
• Disc-only
• Two rim depths available - 45 and 65mm
• New Foundation Collection to maintain US design and manufacturing
• Range backed by Enve’s no-questions lifetime incident protection

The new wheels feature Enve’s Wide Hookless Bead technology. They say that this is a wide surface at each of the rim’s leading edges which, by creating a larger surface area at the rim’s leading edge, distributes impacts from curbs, potholes, and debris over a larger area. The result, they claim, is a reduced likelihood of pinch-flatting both clincher and tubeless tires. Enve also says that this feature increases the rim’s impact toughness.

16 of the best tubeless wheelsets over £1,000

Why have they chosen a hookless design? Scott Nielson from Enve’s R&D department explains that a hookless design “allows us to consistently produce the critical dimensional tolerances tubeless requires”. This should give consumers fewer tubeless issues.

Enve has a list of compatible tubeless tyres here.

The tubeless-ready rims are designed around a 21mm internal width. As a result, Enve recommends using between a 25 and 28mm tyre with the 25mm tyre option providing the most aerodynamically efficient setup.

Both new wheelsets are built on a new road hub that uses the same internals as Enve’s high-end hub, but with a simplified hub-shell.

This new Foundation road hub has Enve’s ID360 40t ratchet drive mechanism and Enve’s maintenance-free automatic preload system. This system is designed to stop the hub from developing bearing play and movement over time.

Speaking of bearings the new hubs get premium grade, fully sealed NTN steel bearings where rather than the custom NTN stainless-steel bearings found in Enve’s premium hub.

Wheels of the Tour de France

While the £1,800 price point will certainly seem high to many, you are backed by Enve’s lifetime incident protection and an impressive five-year warranty. So if you find a structural defect within five years, or wreck your wheels in a crash, Enve will replace them.

Enve’s Managing Director, Jeremy Venz said in a press release that “a more accessibly priced wheel collection has been on our project list for many years now” with that lower price being attainable partly as they’ve been able to “achieve greater manufacturing efficiencies”.

The Foundation Collection’s Enve 45 & 65 model road wheel models are available now.

We’ll be getting a pair set up, so keep your eye out for a review soon.