Team Tested: ENVE 60 forty Carbon Rims Review

They look cool, they’re light, they’re stiff and they’re super strong, or so we are all made to believe when it comes to ENVE rims! But just how good are they, and at 850GBP per rim, can they really be worth as much as a cheap family car for the pair?

These are my third set of carbon rims, the first 2 being more from the budget range, both ended up having issues, proving, you really do get what you pay for. I had been on at ENVE for a while about kitting out the Carbine with a set on test, eventually, with a broken rear from other model in hand I was promised a set on long term test after the last UKGE rough-assed tracks of Ae Forest. The promise was made with a bold statement “you won’t do that to any of ours” hmmm I have to admit I wanted to prove them wrong!

So lets start with the brand name; ENVE. What a clever name when it comes to marketing. You remember it, you want it and the bold looks of the (your colour choice) graphics just seems to be so recognizable in amongst the ever growing competitive world of carbon rims. As for in house testing, they have been sporting these on lots of the Santa Cruz rider’s top bikes, where surely they must be pretty strong to take the rigors of such top riders as Greg Minnar, Steve Peat and Cedric Gracia.

Previously the ENVE range was a little limited, just having a light weight version or a DH rim, where lighter smoother riders may have wanted to opt for an even lighter rim and more aggressive riders would want to go for a burlier rim to take much more of a hammering. Now with their new range they have sorted that out, with four different variants to suit every type of riders style and weight.

It’s pretty simple how they have named these four new models, the M50fifty is based around 50% decent to 50% climb. These more Enduro style ones I’ve been testing are the M60forty, there’s M70thirty and right at the top of the crop is the DH version known as the M90ten, simple really.

These M60forty rims, which seem more suited to Enduro, weight in at 397g (29”) 374g (27.5”) They come with a 29mm external rim diameter, 23 internal and a large depth of 32mm. The optimum tyre size for the M60forty is 2.1-2.4 with recommended suspension travel bikes to fit being 105-150mm. The depth and the unique layering technique is what makes these rims so ridiculously strong considering their light weight. All rims are now made with the much tougher and sensible hook-less design, making the point of contact between rim and tyre strong and sturdy. They are available built with Chris King Hubs, wheels being built in-house at Saddleback UK. I personally went for the ever reliable and great British Hope Pro 2 Evo hubs, keeping a tad of UK patriotism and loving the distinct Hope freehub whir, beautifully amplified by the carbon, the Hopes come in at sensible prices, look and work brilliant and never let you down. These wheels also came built to perfection, incredibly stiff, with the use of bladed spokes.

So lets talk about that price, 850GBP per rim, there’s no getting away from the fact it is a hell of a lot of money, so what do you get out of the rim for your hard earned dosh? Well basically its all about the build process and quality, their engineers set out to produce the strongest, fastest, stiffest, lightest and most reliable wheels on the planet. Through materials, tooling and finite processes, their engineers focus on designing features into each wheel that addresses the traditional weaknesses of carbon rims and ultimately result in a wheel that is strong enough to train on yet light enough to race on. Of course there too is the safety net of a top notch warranty, once purchased these rims come with five years worth of it, plus a lifetime (50% retail cost) crash replacement promise, so I guess that softens the blow of the big spend. They look extremely cool, setting off the blingest of bikes, but if mountain bikers will pay it, people will make it!

With such a laterally stiff rim and built onto the fast rolling hopes and super strong bladed spokes, the ride of the bike was just transformed, even stiffer than that of the tested cheaper carbon competition. They seem to feel like a turbo when accelerating the bike and the lack of flex in big suspension bottoming corners is astonishing. These wheels have taken everything I have thrown at them and I don’t say that lightly. They have been used to test the new Continental Barons and both Michelin mud and rock tyres at various locations across the UK. Their biggest hammering was at the wheel killing DH tracks of Antur Stiniog. This place kills wheels, tyres and bikes, the noises they were making as they pinged from rock to rock was terrifying, but they took it all in their stride. The latest test was that of the weekend of EWS Tweedlove, with more loose rocks and huge roots than many a DH rim could endure, they took that too, no bother.

Are they perfect, you may be thinking, can they be knocked for anything, well I can try, but it’s not much of an effort I’m afraid. The special rim tape, which comes with the wheels is simply Gorilla tape (known as duct tape in the UK) it comes sized to fit the inner rim perfectly, but it works so well and is mega sticky. The ENVE valves just simply push through the tape and hey presto you have your tubeless ready wheel. Some tyres (especially the new Michelins) can be real tight to get on, so special care is needed as not to scratch your decals if you use the scary metal levers, I have broken 2 plastic levers on the Michelins. Where the valve is held on by the small alloy threaded washer (recessed for a rubber seal) I did lose air a couple of times out of the rear wheel, this was quickly fixed by adding one more rubber washer for a better seal, this was on the advice of Saddleback UK.

So would I recommend these rims to anyone, well in short, yes. The thing with ENVE rims is quite simple really, you are not going to try and do the big sell to your average 2.5k bike buyer, they just won’t be interested in a set of wheels worth more than their bike. But when it comes to the bling buyers, the tackle tarts (like me!) the ones who just purely want the best and to be seen with the best, if they can afford it I don’t really think they will need much persuading to be honest!

Hope hubs 155GBP rear, 55GBP front, for more information check out www.hopetech.com

for more information, check out Enve.com

Words: Jim Buchanan Pics: Doc Ward, Jim Buchanan