You had me at fender mounts: The Enve Melee reviewed
U.S. carbon component producer Enve has been very busy in the last few years. Renowned for its carbon wheels, forks and components, the Utah-based agency entered the physique manufacturing market in 2021 with its U.S.-made Personalized Avenue bike. It has produced a model new frameset yearly since, and the mannequin now provides a full line-up of drop bar bikes ranging from a big-tired gravel bike to racing bikes and the newly unveiled Fray all-road model. With 4 bike fashions launched in merely as a couple of years, the company is evolving from aftermarket wheel and component specialists to a full-service bicycle mannequin.
In expert racing, too, Enve has been rising its presence. Tadej Pogačar and his UAE Group Emirates have been utilizing Enve’s SES line of wheels and aero cockpits –the latter notably designed to meet the workers’s requires– to many race wins. Equally, Ivan Basso and Alberto Contador‘s problem, Group Polti Kometa, moreover continues to make the most of Enve wheels and components. Nevertheless when TotalEnergies misplaced Specialised as its instruments sponsor on the end of 2023, Enve stepped as a lot as fill the void and supply the necessary bikes – a big endeavor for a small mannequin that made its first bike physique solely 4 transient years previously.
The WorldTour workers makes use of the Enve Melee chassis, paired with the mannequin’s ending bundle and its full assortment of U.S.-made SES wheels. Having ridden and reviewed every totally different stock model throughout the Enve line-up, we decided it was extreme time for one in every of us proper right here at Biking Weekly to swing a leg over the Melee as correctly.
The Melee at first look
(Image credit score rating: Anne-Marije Rook)
What’s fascinating about Enve’s line-up of bikes is that each model smudges the strains of its designated subject. With its lightweight carbon monocoque physique and shiny, aerodynamic profile, Enve describes the Melee as “a no-holds-barred modern race bike constructed notably to meet the effectivity requires of the self-discipline.” However skilled gravel racer Alexey Vermeulen proved that the Melee may be fully capable of being raced on gravel when he acquired the 2023 Belgian Waffle Journey California aboard the Melee specced with 35mm tires that match with ease. What’s further, the physique sports activities actions built-in fender mounts.
Nonetheless, Enve says the Melee’s geometry and coping with have been “optimized” for 27-32mm tires, and aerodynamics have been a significant design consideration, evident throughout the Kamm-tailed tube shapes and the completely built-in entrance end.
So, let’s have a greater take a look at this not-so-purebred racer.
Check out bike Specs:
(Image credit score rating: Anne-Marije Rook)
Bike Design
(Image credit score rating: Anne-Marije Rook)
Not just like the Personalized Avenue bike, the Melee is accessible in seven stock sizes and is produced ‘overseas’ as a substitute of at Enve’s Utah manufacturing facility. The Melee frameset is made using quite a few laminates constructed from unidirectional carbon fibers following ENVE’s private Supplies Optimised Design (M.O.D.) course of. On this course of, the provides, fiber angles, and weights are chosen and/or manipulated to realize zone-specific effectivity and traits for each half.
“Carbon is the vital factor ingredient, and we use the easiest we’re capable of get our fingers on,” says Jake Pantone, Enve’s VP of Product and Mannequin. “Nevertheless ultimately, the strategy it is subjected to makes it an Enve product.”
The type of the Melee was developed using wind tunnel testing and Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD). The latter is a method that entails simulating airflow spherical a bike and its rider, analyzing parts like drag and pressure distribution. CFD helps optimize aerodynamic effectivity and informs such design components as a result of the Melee’s Kamm-tail-shaped tubing, seatpost, and completely built-in, cable-free entrance end. Furthermore, the tube shapes have been tuned to counterpoint Enve’s private SES-line of wheels and cockpits to ship a full aerodynamic bundle. The claimed weight of the physique is 850 grams for a painted 56cm physique with out {{hardware}}.
(Image credit score rating: Anne-Marije Rook)
The geometry is in line with its WorldTour race bike rivals, with possibly solely the slightest enhance in stack high and a barely longer prime tube than some.
On account of getting produced carbon forks for bike builders for the earlier 17 years, Enve understands how quite a bit a fork, and notably the fork rake, can affect a bike’s coping with. Enve, resulting from this truth, provides 5 distinctive fork rakes all through its seven stock geometries, which is bigger than most companies. This extra effort was made to ensure that the Melee will ship the comparable coping with required of a race bike for even the shortest rider (aboard a 47cm physique) and tallest rider (aboard a 60cm physique).
Enve’s totally different stock bike fashions:
The Fray: launched in April of this yr, the Fray is Enve’s imaginative and prescient of ‘the definitive all-road machine’ – designed for these “who bought right here from freeway racing and in the mean time are looking out for broader two-wheeled targets nevertheless effectivity continues to be important.” The Fray targets to meet the requires of the modern freeway rider by pairing a freeway racing pedigree with all-road choices like wider tyre clearance, in-frame storage and a match comfortable for all-day adventures throughout the saddle.
The MOG: Enve’s first official foray into the gravel bike market pairs lightweight carbon constructing, aerodynamic tube shapes and 700c-only wheels with beefy 50mm tyre clearance, a slacker geometry and fork mounts, making it every a gravel racer and bikepacking companion.
Enve moreover provides an in-depth on-line match calculator to help Melee prospects uncover the becoming dimension. In addition to determining the proper physique dimension, the calculator may even advocate stem measurement, bar width and seatpost setback. This information is vital on account of Enve sells its bikes as a “chassis” considerably than a full assemble.
The chassis consists of the Melee physique, fork, headset and the rider’s collection of Enve stem, handlebar and seatpost, and retails for $5,500 / £5,300. These keen a few completely constructed Melee can work straight with an Enve retailer to select and assemble the specs. As of this spring, Enve now provides the Melee in three colorways: Damascus grey, Aegean blue and Enve black.
One remaining design observe is that Enve opted for a threaded T47 bottom bracket considerably than a press-fit chance. The benefits listed under are that threaded designs are often further resistant to creaking and require a lot much less repairs over time.T47 bottom brackets also have a greater diameter than typical threaded bottom brackets, allowing for compatibility with greater spindle diameters for elevated stiffness and power change.
The Journey
(Image credit score rating: Anne-Marije Rook)
For the goal of this evaluation, I acquired a 50cm Melee chassis in the vivid Aegean blue coloration specced with a Shimano Ultegra Di2 groupset, a two-piece In-Route aero cockpit, and the all-rounder SES 3.4 wheels wrapped in 29mm Enve SES freeway tires. The bike bought right here with a 25mm offset seatpost, which I swapped out for a zero offset seatpost as a substitute. The bike weighed in at a aggressive 7.2kg.
I’ve heard of us title the bike’s aesthetics’ vanilla’. ‘All aero bikes look the an identical,’ they’d declare, and the bike’s minimal branding and slate grey coloration didn’t seem to help. Nevertheless on this new Aegean blue colorway, the Melee can’t appear to stop turning heads. With completely the minimal of branding and paired with tan sidewalls, I really feel it’s an absolute stunner, and I endure from imposter syndrome when utilizing it. Whereas my background is in elite opponents, I’ve by no means raced a freeway race since 2018, so what the hell am I doing aboard a steed that fully screams “I’m fast!”
(Image credit score rating: Anne-Marije Rook)
Nevertheless that’s exactly the place the Melee differs from most totally different WorldTour bikes. Certain, the Melee is fast. Certain, the Melee can be raced. Nevertheless the Melee is quite a bit higher than solely a racing bike. This is possibly the one race bike dentists ought to non-public. Please allow me to elaborate.
I’ve completely the privilege of attending to examine among the many most fascinating bikes on the market, plenty of which are designed for racing. These race bikes generally characterize a mannequin’s flagship product, highlighting its cutting-edge innovation, experience and engineering prowess. Nonetheless, throughout the quest for velocity, compromises have to be made, often in one of the best ways of comfort and coping with. Prime-end race bikes are made for the most effective opponents and often demand a certain stage of proficiency of the rider. Whereas they’re wicked pleasant for succesful riders, they’ll actually really feel a tad restrictive for these lacking certain coping with experience. This is the place the Melee distinguishes itself.
Tire clearance for 35mm on a race bike!
(Image credit score rating: Anne-Marije Rook)
The Melee is among the many many most accessible race bikes I’ve had the pleasure of utilizing. By that, I suggest that it’s straightforward to get along with. It provides a vigorous however very regular journey. You could throw it arduous proper right into a nook, push it forwards and backwards in a splash, and ship it screaming downhill and proper right into a crosswind with out ever fearing a scarcity of administration. The wheels hold planted. The rubber certainly not leaves the asphalt. Some bikes available on the market are attentive to the aim of being overly delicate – you a large number as sneeze and you might be swerving throughout the freeway. The Melee locations you throughout the driver’s seat.
The flipside proper right here is that it’s possibly not pretty as snappy as one other bikes, nevertheless you don’t get any twitchy-ness each. The Melee could also be very well-balanced, offering well-rounded effectivity all by the journey. The aerodynamic properties shine on the flats, the physique’s delicate weight and stiffness present assist to climb with ease, and the common coping with permits you to bomb down descents. It is usually surprisingly comfortable for a race bike, and the wider tires undoubtedly help with that. I would luckily spend all day throughout the saddle on the Melee, which isn’t one factor I would say about all race bikes.
And for anyone who lives and rides throughout the moist Pacific Northwest space of america, I’m thrilled by Enve’s willpower in order so as to add fender mounts to the physique. To me, that underscores the bike’s capabilities previous racing. Enve might have designed the Melee throughout the requires of racing nevertheless it saved the fanatic rider in ideas, wanting the bike ridden – fast, far and often.
Price & Verdict
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Aerodynamic and light-weight, outfitted with mudguard mounts and huge tire clearance, the Melee is a race bike that blurs the strains in the easiest of the best way. From Paris-Roubaix style cobbles to prolonged arduous days of the Tour de France, the Melee is a succesful companion for individuals who demand primarily essentially the most of their instruments. For followers, the bike’s well-roundedness and thoughtful design considerations supplies comfort and conveniences uncommonly current in race bikes.
As a result of the Melee is a top-end bike, you do pay prime dollar for the chassis. At $5,500 / £5,300, it’s pricey, nevertheless in response to top-end race bikes from rivals. Specialised’s S-Works Tarmac SL8 moreover retails for $5,500 nevertheless for that you simply simply get the frameset and seatpost solely; Enve contains a seatpost, stem and handlebar of your choice. Plus, with some good selections in your assemble, chances are high you’ll even can be found beneath the worth of most completely assemble top-end race bikes, which merely go over the $10K mark these days.
