The All New ENVE Foundation Road Wheels

By Stan Portus – 9 April 2020

The ENVE Foundation Wheels draw on ENVE’s world-leading expertise to deliver an aero wheelset that meets the demands of the modern road cyclist and triathlete looking to move into the world of carbon hoops.

Drawing on more than a decade's worth of aero wheel development, the all new Foundation series offers the high performance and craftsmanship you can expect from ENVE.

Available in 45mm or 65mm depths, these hoops are ideal for cyclists and triathletes looking to move into the world of carbon whether they are fast on the flat or looking for something a bit shallower for climbing while still gaining an aero advantage.

To achieve the low drag and high stability performance ENVE has developed a completely new rim shape design for the Foundation wheels, while taking cues from its SES line up. This trickle down approach from ENVE’s top-of-the-line products means the Foundation wheels outperform, or perform similar to, competitor’s wheels that are upmarket in price.

The Foundation wheels feature ENVE’s Wide Hookless Bead technology. The origin for this tech was in ENVE’s M Series but it is ideal for road riding too as it helps disperse any impact from pot holes, curbs and debris over a wide area, reducing the likelihood of pinch flats. The design also means you can run tyres at lower pressure, reducing rolling resistant and aiding ride comfort.

Patented Molded Spoke and Valve Stem Hole Technology results in rims that are light and strong. Because carbon fibre gets its strength from continuous fibres, ENVE routes the fibres around the hole without cutting them which increases the strength of each spoke hole.

ENVE has also design an all new hub for the Foundation wheels. The Foundation Road Hub features ENVE’s core hub technologies. The hub shell uses simplified machining without compromising flange geometry and wheel build stiffness. The drive mechanism uses Instant Drive 360 technology and a 40t ratchet to deliver responsive engagement, minimal drag, and low maintenance performance. The bearings are premium full contact sealed NTN steel bearings. The Rotor attachment is centre-lock.

Cyclist riding bike fitted with ENVE Foundation 65

Cyclist riding out of saddle with Foundation 65

The wheels look to the future of cycling too. They are disc specific, optimised to run with 25 – 28cc tyres, and are designed to run as tubeless. This responds to the kind of build that road cyclists are after more and more with disc specific frames becoming more common and the reservations about tubeless shifting as well. After all, who doesn’t want to minimise time at the side of the road fixing punctures?

If you haven’t quite made the jump to tubeless yet, the Foundation Wheelsets can be run with tubes as long as you use a tyre that is suitable for a tubeless set up.

The Foundation Wheelsets comes with ENVE’s leading Lifetime Incident Protection and 5 Year warranty. The 5 Year Warranty protects buyers from defects in material and workmanship. The Lifetime Incident Protection program protects owners from damage caused to their wheels while riding, crashing, or transporting their bikes. As ENVE says, “Anyone can replace a rim, no one can replace that lost ride.”