- If you were worried that it might be difficult
to keep the ball rolling on the awesomeness
that keeps cropping up here on GCN Unboxing,
then have no fear because this week
the good people from Enve have stepped up to the mark
and you know that they're not going to disappoint.
Oh no (knocking).
In here are the brand new SES 3.4 wheels
which then yes will be at the end of this video
up for grabs.
(cheering)
Now, before we actually unbox you will notice
that actually the box itself isn't perhaps as pristine
as it might once have been and rather than apologise
on its behalf, I will just point out
that this has actually been sent all the way
from Enve's HQ in Ogden, Utah where the wheels themselves
are built and I don't just mean laced up
I mean literally all the carbon on those wheels
is laid out and manufactured in-house.
Right then, enough apologies for the box, let's open it.
(upbeat music)
More from that later.
Look at that.
That is a very very special wheel.
So what have we got here then?
Well, the 3.4 is actually Enve's top selling wheel set
and it's not really a surprise.
They are a lightweight set of climbing wheels,
but they've been optimised to have some serious
aerodynamic performance as well.
But as I mentioned these are brand new
so what Enve have done is taken the best of the 3.4
and then updated it so these are now optimised
for wider tyres up from 23c to 25c
and they're also now tubeless compatible.
And then these ones which are the rim brake version
also have the new molded in brake track.
Okay let's go back a step then shall we?
How do you optimise a wheel for wider tyres?
Well in this case the rim profiles have been changed
and yes, I mean profiles.
Enve you'll be familiar with I'm sure,
have different front and rear rims
and that's because their chief aerodynamics guru
Simon Smart has created wheels to deal with specific
characteristics of front and rear wheels.
So for example, the front wheel is gonna be
more susceptible to side forces so stability is key here
whereas the rear wheel can be tailored much more
for pure aerodynamic performance.
The most obvious difference is in the depth.
So the front wheel is actually 38mm deep
whereas the rear is deeper, that's 42mm.
However that doesn't specifically deal
with helping for wider tyres so what Enve
have chiefly done there is to beef up the width
so they're now at 21mm wide internally,
27.5mm wide externally and what that does
is it helps smooth the transition from tyre to rim
so there's less bulge so that helps keep the air flow
attached and therefore reducing drag.
Now of course, a wider tyre in of itself
does actually create fractionally more drag
than a thinner tyre so a one watt difference
apparently for that 2mm extra
but according to research, wider tyres roll more efficiently
so they more than offset that one watt drag penalty.
Now while we're talking wider tyres,
let's also talk tubeless.
If you've not got on that particular bandwagon yet
then running tubeless basically eliminates the risk
of a pinch flat so you can run much lower pressures
and then it also should really get fewer punctures
from sharp objects because you pop a little bit
of liquid latex inside the tyre and that actually seals
any holes as you go but you do need
tubeless specific wheels and also tyres.
So in this case you would have a very
high performance set of the former.
To make them tubeless though, we need to delve
inside this little bag which is not actually
a high performance pencil case as I first thought.
It's a bag full of goodies.
So in here
we've got some titanium skewers,
valve extenders, standard rim tape, the tubeless kit.
So in here you've got tubeless specific rim tape
and tubeless valves and so what they do is effectively
make the rim itself completely airtight.
Then all you got to do is add tubeless specific tyre,
a little bit of sealant, and away you go.
That's not all in our cheeky little Enve bag here.
We also have brake pads, now it's always
really important with carbon wheels to use the correct
brake pads for your specific rim and in this case
these Enve pads are actually different to the ones
that have come before and that's because of this.
The textured, molded in brake track.
Enve say that that actually means that you can exert
30% less force at your brake lever
to get the same braking performance as before.
And the performance is pretty much the same
in dry conditions as it is in the wet
which is pretty nuts.
And that's not all, they've also changed the resin
that glues it all together so that's now
even more heat resistant apparently
and to help with that aspect further,
they've also added in a different laminate.
So basically the test protocols that Enve have had
to dream up in order to put these wheels
through their paces now sound frankly bonkers.
Now that is quite a lot of chat about rims.
Although with good reason, I do like rims a lot,
but the eager amongst you will have noticed
that this isn't just a rim, it's actually a complete wheel.
20 spokes here lacing up the front wheel,
and then the rear wheel has 24.
(whirring)
That's the sound of DT Swiss internals.
Beautiful, like a watchmaker.
How much time can we devote to it?
Any longer?
No, okay.
Alright, now as well as DT Swiss internals
and ceramic speed bearings actually which
if you didn't know you had them in there
you would when you opened your Enve case
and you see they've given you some specific
ceramic speed grease there.
But both of those things are actually housed
in Enve's own carbon hubs so they say that the carbon shell
gives them pretty bonkers stiffness to weight ratio
and then actually the spoke holes aren't drilled out,
they're actually molded in so that keeps the integrity
of the carbon fibres intact in what must be a frankly
laborious process.
These hubs also make these particular wheels
the lightest options that you can buy on the Enve website
so the hub itself apparently weighs 158g for the rear
and just 74g for the front hub so all in
that then means that they weigh 740g
for the rear wheel and 630g for the front.
All in then that means that they weigh
that's 1,368g.
Can we get a check on that?
1,368g, is that right?
(dinging)
Now admittedly that weight is without rim strips
but nevertheless, it's pretty clear that Enve
have hit their target of creating a lightweight
set of climbing wheels.
And when you add in all the other extras
like the aerodynamics, the tubeless compatibility,
and that molded in brake track, frankly
they look like they're gonna be really good.
Right, do make sure you subscribe to GCN.
Wait a minute, I've forgotten the competition bit.
Give it away.
Give it away, okay, give it away.
Right well as usual for GCN Unboxing
we will be giving these wheels away to one lucky winner.
And if you want to enter that competition
to be in with a chance then you need to click on the link
in the description beneath this video.
Keep your fingers crossed.
We'll be announcing the winner in a forthcoming GCN show.
Now, do make sure you subscribe to GCN seriously,
before you go there, it's very simple.
Just click on the globe and then
if you want some more content why not click
just up there for a very interesting feature
about wider tyres, mentioned it earlier in this video.
It's a more in depth look just up there,
or for a cheeky shortcut to get to that competition
it's just up there.