ENVE launched their Foundation Collection recently in and effort to bring a more affordable carbon wheelset and we’ve take a look at their R&D.
ENVE are well-know for the US-made carbon wheels and handlebars that have long been the ultimate upgrade to the bike of your dreams. They have now launched their Foundation Collection to bring their wheels to a wider market.
Pete caught up with ENVE’s Jake Pantone to chat developing the Foundation Collection’s AM30 wheels.
What was the impetus for updating your wheel offering?
In short, the wheel aftermarket has changed a lot since we launched ENVE back in 2007. In those days, there were only a handful of reputable aftermarket carbon wheel brands. Today, there are quite a few more options. ENVE is a dynamic company. Whether we are innovating a new rim for the top of the sport, or innovating our business model, we are always looking for ways to be better.
The impetus for the Foundation Collection and specifically the AM30 was to bring ENVE performance to more riders. In addition, as manufacturers, we’ve reached efficiencies that will allow us to handle the additional volume that a more affordable price-point is sure to bring.
Once you’d decided to update your wheels, what happened next?
Regardless the product, all ENVE projects follow the same path more or less. Once we make the decision to start a new project, there is an R&D kick-off where the product team presents a brief to the R&D team. From there the engineers get to designing. Once a design or two are honed in on, we’ll start making prototypes for deeper vetting, lab testing, and eventually ride-testing.
How many people are involved in that process and what do they do?
Whether it’s a wheel or another project, the number of people involved is quite substantial. There is the product manager, lead design engineer, manufacturing engineers, test-lab engineer, graphics team, purchasing team, operations, quality, and commercial. Launching any new product is a big task and many people are involved. In short, it takes a team and focused effort to bring a new product to market.
What did you know you wanted to keep from the original wheels, and what needed to change?
It’s important to highlight that the Foundation Collection is not replacing our premium M Series or SES wheel lines. Foundation is all about providing ENVE’s core technologies at a more accessible, value oriented price-point.
So to list those core technologies or features:
US Made – Crafted carbon, tuned and purpose-built rim shape.
Moulded Spoke-Holes – Stronger and lighter. The AM30 features our first moulded spoke-holes for external nipples.
Tubeless Optimisation – A given these days, but key to performance.
Wide Hookless Bead – Anti-pinch-flat technology, a high-end carbon rim shouldn’t require the user to run inserts or DH casing tires to keep air in them or prevent rim damage. This technology puts the rider in charge of what pressures, and tires they want to run.
With the new AM30, we required that durability be on par with our M7 Series wheels and stronger than anything the competition at any price has achieved.
How difficult is it to nail down spoke number, offset and internal rim width?
In this specific situation, it wasn’t too challenging. We opted for a 28 hole-count. This spoke count balances ride-quality, weight-savings, and reliability. The 3mm offset further improves potential reliability by delivering more even spoke tensions between drive and non-drive spokes.
Our 30mm internal M Series wheels are far and away our best-selling models. Our customers, and athletes are quite happy with this inner-rim width. In addition, 30mm is the rim width most tire manufacturers are designing to. Therefore, 30mm internal delivers an excellent support platform for modern 2.4-2.6” tires.
Do industry trends heavily affect design decisions?
We are constantly chasing a better ride experience. For example, our M Series features anti-pinch-flat technologies. These technologies solve a problem and improve the customer’s experience. Anti-pinch flat is a trend, just look at all the tyre-inserts available. Ultimately our goal is to solve problems with innovation and improve the ride and boost rider confidence in the process.
What’s the process of weighing up using another brand hub, rebadging an existing hub, or designing your own?
Well at this point, ENVE does not have a mountain hub of their own. One of the advantages we’ve had over the years is the opportunity to experience the good, bad, and the ugly of nearly every major aftermarket hub available. From this experience we’ve built a knowledge-base from which to work from when designing of selecting a hub to be paired with a rim.
We opted to spec the Industry Nine 1/1 hub with the new AM30 for a variety of reasons. The primary ones being, reliability, engagement, and price. Industry Nine has been a great partner of ENVE for several years now and their 1/1 hub is an exceptional value.
How much of an impact does having production in-house have on the prototype stage?
Herein lies the magic. We are constantly innovating and the fact that we can do everything under one roof makes this possible. By designing, prototyping, testing, and manufacturing at our HQ in Ogden, Utah; we’ve developed an extensive knowledge-base and relationship with our products that could never be achieved if these critical development steps happened elsewhere. Additionally, the number of prototypes we can create is exponential to what other brands can produce who don’t control their own manufacturing.
Does it take long to get a working prototype in-hand?
If we are motivated, and prioritise all steps accordingly, we can produce a rideable prototype in less than two weeks.
How many prototypes did you make before settling on what would be the production model?
I believe we performed ride-testing on 6 unique laminates with two unique rim-shapes, but those are just the ones we actually rode. In the lab, the number of prototypes is much higher. There were literally dozens of laminate iterations and well over a hundred prototype rims produced to bring the AM30 to final production.
Beyond prototypes, what form did your testing take?
Testing at ENVE involves both lab and ride-testing of ENVE product and our competitors’. In the lab we test for stiffness, impact toughness, tyre fitment, tyre blow-off, spoke/hub fatigue and reliability. In the field we test for and collect subjective and qualitative rider feedback. This testing is done by repeating the same trail back to back swapping between prototypes, current ENVE products, and/or competitor products.
Between the qualitative results achieved in the lab, and subjective and/or qualitative feedback collected in the field, we almost always arrive at a unanimous decision regarding which prototype to advance into production.
How important are athletes to testing new product?
Very. We’ve sponsored World Cup downhill and XC racing teams and everything in-between since 2009. While these partnerships certainly help to validate our products in the mind of our customers, our primary reason for investing in the world’s best riders and teams is to accelerate product development and innovation. These riders push our products to the extreme, and in so doing, highlight the areas where we can improve.
Did you have a Eureka moment when you knew you’d got it right?
We’ve certainly had many of those moments over the years. One in particular was when we did the first test ride of our M525. The wheel just felt so dialled and balanced from the first pedal stroke. We all knew we had a winner.
Same with the first Protective Rim Strip technology currently found in our M7 and M9 Series wheels. When we did the first impact test with this technology and didn’t pinch flat, we knew we’d just taken a major step towards eliminating the dreaded pinch-flat forever. With the AM30, our moment was less dramatic. We had been testing prototypes and bench-marking competitor wheels outside Las Vegas, Nevada at Bootleg Canyon a notoriously unforgiving trail system.
After three days of ride-testing, we had honed in on what is now the final laminate design for the new AM30. Given the AM30’s unique balance between durability, damping capabilities, and responsiveness, we are 100% confident putting it up against anything our competition at any price-point is offering.
