Enve Foundation Collection 65 Carbon Tubeless Disc Wheelset

Enve's Foundation 65mm Wheelset takes many of the design ideas of the range-topping SES wheels, and delivers plenty of performance and aerodynamic benefits for a decent price. With easy tubeless set up and what looks to be great reliability, they're a great choice for all-out speed and ticking off those KOMs.

At 65mm deep the Foundation wheels are aimed primarily at time-triallists and triathletes, but after running these on an aero road bike for the best part of six weeks I was surprised how easy they are to live with.

Wheels of this depth can be a bit of a handful on all but the stillest of days, but I found these coped with wind at various yaw angles well. They take a bit of a slap when passing an exposed field gate or the like, and you can feel a breeze pushing against the side of them, but I never felt buffeted around by them.

On all but the windiest of days I found them quite controllable, and there's a shallower 45mm deep option too.

The weight of 1,670g (no tape or valves) with such deep section rims is good going, and means they're not restricted to flatter routes. With good lateral stiffness, they are just as happy in the hills as they are on the flats, so if I was heading out on a hilly loop, I didn't feel compelled to swap them for something shallower.

Any losses against gravity are soon reaped back once you hit the flat or descents, as these Foundation wheels absolutely fly. It's alright quoting loads of data from the wind tunnel, but wheels need to perform in the real world amid tricky weather conditions and overtakes by large HGVs and the like.

Once you get above 20mph these wheels really do surge forward, and if you can make the most of an aerodynamic position on the bike I'd say the Enves will give you a real speed boost relative to your power. Oh, and they make a swooshing noise too, which we all know is worth about an extra 25 Watts, if not more.

They are also comfortable for such deep section wheels. Yes they're stiff and give a firm ride, but it's no way a harsh or buzzy one. Depth as I said is 65mm for both the front and rear wheel, with an internal width of 21mm, 28mm external.

Enve says the Foundations are aero-optimised for 25mm and 28mm tyres, and with both sizes we found the transition between tyre and rim seamless. Tyres are easy to fit too, although our set came without tubeless rim tape or valves.

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Enve has gone for a hookless rim, so there's no lip around the inside for the Kevlar or metal bead of your standard clincher tyre to butt up against, or to stop it blowing it off the rim.

Tubeless tyres don't really need them – they tend to have more robust sidewalls and beads, so they work with just the air pressure keeping everything in place. For this reason Enve recommends tubeless tyres only (with or without inner tubes), although some tyre and wheel manufacturers would argue that standard clincher tyres work fine. The rims come with a five-year warranty and a Lifetime Incident Protection warranty.

Both wheels are laced with 24 Sapim CX Spring spokes, and Enve says that molding the holes – rather than drilling through the rims – keeps the full length of the carbon in one piece for greater strength, which in turn allows for greater spoke tension.

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The Foundation Road Hubs run smoothly and quietly using full-contact sealed NTN steel bearings, rather than the ceramic offerings found on their top end wheels.

The ID360 40-tooth freehub mechanism offers very fast pickup once you start pedalling, and doesn't make a huge amount of noise when you aren't. You'll be heard by the rider who's wheel you're sucking, but it doesn't scream or click madly like some. Centre Lock rotor attachment is the order of the day, as is the acceptance of 12mm thru-axles.

Value

The build quality is very high, and I had no issues with durability or trueness throughout the test period. Everything was set up straight from the box with no pinging of spokes as the tension settles over those first few miles. All this means their £1,850 price tag seems fair to me, although there is some very stiff competition.

The Reynolds AR 58/62 X DB wheelset isn't quite as deep, although performance and weight are similar, and they're a good bit less at £1,350.

Campagnolo's sweet-looking Bora WTO 60 Disc wheels are a bit lighter (sub 1,600g) and come with ceramic bearings, if that is a game changer for you, but they are pricier at £1,928.99.

Hunt's 60 Limitless Aero Disc wheels are £1,189 with steel bearings, or £1,389 with CeramicSpeed bearings.

Overall

Though hardly cheap, the performance and quality here justifies the cost – especially as the Foundations are surprisingly good all-rounders for such a deep set of wheels.

Verdict

Fast in the real world and shrug off crosswinds with ease