There’s a trifecta of wheel news in my inbox today as Eurobike kicks off in Germany.
ENVE M Series
The first is from ENVE who completely redesigned their 7 wheelset M Series line to improve the riding experience by reducing or eliminating pinch flats. The series does so with two patent pending technologies which ENVE calls Dynamic Impact Design and comprise a wide hookless bead and protective rim strip (no tape). Here’s an illustration of their tech and inside that rim structure is a molded spoke hole v. drilled.
ENVE’s tech is prioritized by the demands of XC and trail riders or enduro and downhill and shown in another illustration below.
The XC wheelset weighs 1317 grams.
Zipp Disc Firecrest and NSW
Calling it their most important wheel lineup-introduction in its three-decade history Zipp expanded their NSW to include disc and Firecrest now ships as tubeless with a 650b option.
Zipp 303 Firecrest 650b
As a 650b convert, the 303 is very interesting. It’s all the same Zipp tech, just in the more-volume tire size and at 1595 grams
The industry isn’t marketing riding road bikes off road this way, but we’ve certainly reached peak dropbar mountain biking. See my post about Boyd Cycling for another example and we knew updates were coming from Zipp when they announced tubeless tires earlier this year.
Stan’s Podium SRD
And, don’t forget Stan’s with the Podium SRD. It’s based on the Valor that Mark V and I are running and love. Remarkably, Stan’s pulled more weight of the rim to arrive at sub-1300 grams per wheelset while maintaining the strength, stiffness, and ride tuning.
The best part about Stan’s and is the price at $1995 with a double wheelbag. Zipp’s 650b wheelset is $2500 and the ENVEs are $2800 for the hookless tech and $2900 for the tapeless design.
All this wheel goodness reminds me too, the tragic irony of the sales slump is the product has never been better and it’s the best time to be an enthusiast.
Seriously, if you haven’t upgraded or ridden anything new in the past 3-5, go test something out, you’ll be impressed.
Feature photo: Gruber images.
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