This week I’m returning to a wheel I’ve been riding for three years now, the ENVE G23. This is a gravel wheel with a carbon fiber rim with a 23mm inner width. They have only 24 spokes and come with three different choices in hubs: ENVE, I9 or Chris King. My pair have the ENVE hubs.
Now, I have to say it has been a while since I last damaged a carbon fiber rim, so saying that I’ve got more than 2000 miles on these wheels with no rim problems may not sound like much, but this part should. I can tell you I’ve damaged carbon fiber rims by hitting objects with less force than these rims suffered with a few rock hits I subjected them to. Also, given the force of the hits and that I could feel the rim bottom out against a rock on several occasions, I really don’t understand how these wheels have stayed so unerringly true with only 24 spokes.
The rim weighs a scant 330g according to the folks at Enve, a figure that makes me chuckle because the 1990s-era Mavic GL330 rim weighed 330g, was made for tubular tires and didn’t have a fraction of the strength of this rim. This is the single lightest tubeless rim Enve makes.
The front wheel weighs 591g, the rear 715g and the entire wheelset comes in at just 1305g. It hasn’t been that many years since I’d have destroyed a set of wheels weighing that little with the kind of riding I’ve done on these.
Traditionally, the issue I’ve had with uber-light wheels has been that they lack sufficient stiffness in cornering due to the low spoke count. Low wheel stiffness will undermine a rider’s confidence in corners because the wheel doesn’t react consistently. It’s not often a rider can articulate that experience, but our bodies know when there is an issue. Between the remarkable stiffness of this rim and the high, even spoke tension on these wheels they are as stiff as any 32-spoke wheelset I’ve ridden.
The hubs are thru-axle, 12 x 100 front and 12 x 142 rear and take centerlock rotors. And can I just say that I’m really happy that centerlock is finally catching on?
They are available with all of the major freehub bodies or drivers: N3W, Shimano HG or SRAM XDR.
One of the neat things that ENVE has done is to create a series of tables that correlate their wheels with specific tire widths and recommended pressure and I gotta say, what they recommend for a rider my weight is pretty spot on. In some cases, their recommended pressure is even lower than what I’ve run.
Enve recommends running a tire greater than 28mm in width. I’m running a 40mm-wide American Classic Kimberlite currently and the tire measures true to width on this rim.
The wheels come with two valve stems and tape to ready them for mounting to have tires.
Depending on which hubs someone orders a set goes for either $2550 or $3000.
Final thought: A true do-it-all wheelset.