£2500 Road Bike Wheels - Worth It?

Enve Rear
I won't attempt to explain the weird science surrounding the weight of road cycling wheels.  This is a comparison between two sets of carbon wheels I am lucky enough to own.

Nor will I genuinely attempt to answer the "is it worth it" question because that's so subjective. Particularly in a time of austerity when spending that amount of money on wheels will seem, to some people, obscene.

Yet there is a genuine difference between riding two different carbon wheel sets and that's what I'll try to explain.
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I confess at the outset I did not pay full price for either. One of the perks of being a journalist is we build connections with lots of people and companies.

In other words, we can blag swag.

By a startling, circuitous route I happen to own an astonishingly lovely set of second-hand but barely ridden Enve wheels. They are the SES 3.4 clincher 45mm wheels with Chris King hubs. Having checked online, it seems that full retail price on this pair is a staggering £2500.

Sit down. Breath. That's right. Two and a half thousand pounds for a pair of wheels. 

Fitted with a top of the line SRAM Red XG 1090 cassette (RRP £240) 11-32T 10-speed, Schwalbe One tyres and lightweight inner tubes they ought to delight the weight weenies, and when I put the rear wheel on the scales, it did. 1259g.

Even though you could find them cheaper online these are, by any standards, very expensive wheels.  So rather than knock seven shades of sh*t out of them  on training rides around home, I decided to keep them for 'best'. I want to use the Enve for events, for special rides and for overseas holidays.  For everyday use, I switched to a different set of carbon wheels.

Hope Carbon 30
Long before the Enve wheels came my way I bought the best carbon wheels I could afford. Advised by my excellent local bike shop Nevis Cycles I chose a set of Hope Carbon 30 Road Wheels (British built for British roads) and paid a more sensible, but still expensive, £800.  

Fitted with a slightly heavier but much cheaper SRAM PG 1070 cassette (£67) and normal Specialized Roubaix tyres, these must surely carry a huge weight penalty on the Enve wheels?  

Well, the Hope set are heavier by 288g on the rear wheel and 183g on the front wheel.

At this point some of you will be open mouthed at the amount of money some cyclists spend on kit because people really do buy this stuff at full price. 

Others will be amazed that £1,800 buys you just 471g of weight saving, that's only the weight of a small water bottle. Yes I know rolling mass counts for more that static weight, but hey, £1,800 buys you a whole frickin bike. A damn good bike.

So to the big question, are they worth it?

Obviously I can't answer this for you because it depends on the depth of your wallet and/or the discount deal you can do - buy online and the difference drops to nearer £1000.

After reading stuff like this forum thread from the US I wondered whether I would feel any difference between the two wheelsets.

My answer is an emphatic yes.  Forgive me if I go all Clarksonesque for a moment.

Let's imagine bike wheels are coffee.  The off-the-peg set which came with my Roubaix are the instant variety - close to the real thing... but not quite.  My Mavic Open Pro aluminium wheels would be a nice cup of good filter Arabica, possibly cafetiere.

They care comfortable, secure, guided me through my Raid Pyrenean and La Marmotte Sportive last year.  You couldn't call them "exciting", but you don't want that from these wheels.  If I do ride LeJog when my leg improves, it'll be on these wheels.

Carbon wheels may look similar but the flavour is entirely different category, like coffee made under pressure in a good espresso machine.

So the Hope hoops are an Americano made the way I like it, with the hot water and hot milk on the side.  It's still called coffee but tastes totally different to what's gone before.

And the Enve wheels?  You know exactly where I'm going with this. They are Doppio.  Doppio with the finest crema.

OK - that was all deliberately overwrought, I know.  Here's a more practical simile.

Regular aluminium wheels feel like regular production cars and the more you pay, the better they go. The stiffer carbon wheels feel like sports cars.  The Hope wheels are like comfortable roadsters, while the Enve wheels feel like a track car - a stripped out, feel-every-bump, fast as hell Lotus.

I'm not convinced the Enve wheels are much faster for riders like me, but boy do they feel fast.  They urge you on, insist you push harder on the pedals. Yes, they are hideously expensive. But they're gloriously wonderful.

Please don't rant about the amount of money people choose to spend on their hobby - I'll just delete the comment.