ENVE Does a Hook

You read it… and here is the photo.

To me, this announcement is a great story of working within the limits you are forced to work with, and allowing those results to find a positive outcome.

In 2022, after undergoing an extensive wheel test that included wind tunnel and real-world ride testing, the UAE Team Emirates reached out for a wheel partnership. The rest is history. – ENVE

July 3, 2025, Ogden, Utah – With direct input from Tadej Pogačar and UAE Team Emirates—XRG over two seasons, we’re pleased to introduce the SES 4.5 PRO—a wheel that has already amassed 25+ victories this season. It is designed for cyclists seeking the ultimate wheelset, where low weight, aerodynamics, and rolling efficiency meet. – ENVE

The ENVE Rebirth

Let’s start with the rebirth of ENVE. A couple of years ago the industry got word that a “family office” had purchased the brand. It was something that most people feared for the worst; as in, what was going to happen to it? I personally called Neil Shirley the moment I heard and congratulated him on finding his freedom again. Turned out the “family office” was not your typical investment firm and it has been proven so far to be the start of a great thing. This purchase was also around the time that ENVE partnered with UAE.

Truth be told, ENVE had a couple of really hard years before that. In my opinion, they pissed off a lot of OEM partners by going into the “bike” industry and the parent company was not handling the loss of revenue well. They had bought it from the founders for the cashflow and at that time, the cash cow was starting to slow down. It’s in times like these that two things happen. You either have cash and the leadership to dig in, press forward, and punch through or, in the case of ENVE, have your hands tied behind your back and told to swim.

Swim was what the long time employee leadership of ENVE did though. Barely.

During this period, the UAE team partnership was the lifeline of ENVE. UAE was going up against, at the time, the biggest and most dominant force in cycling in the last 10+ years, and that force had what was arguable not only the best riders but the best produced equipment on the market at the time. UAE had what they believed to be the future riders, and money to spend, but what they needed was to get up to speed on equipment. What better partnership than a company that owned all of their manufacturing equipment in-house and the senior leadership had a chip on their shoulder to do something rad. So ENVE and UAE went to work.

This is when some of the history of these wheels start.

Let’s take a sideways walk for just a moment.

Colnago, ENVE, Continental, and the UCI all walk into a bar….(We shall call this the “group.” Keep in mind they didn’t really walk in a bar but probably went to one after.)

The problem at hand was you have a TT frame that has rear seat stays that will only clear a 25mm tire and you have a wheel sponsor that only makes hookless rims, a tire company that has been the leader for years and has its own standards on hookless and the UCI with all it’s rules. These four things must work together and oh you have a perfect flat paved road in the Giro that your star rider needs a certain tire pressure ( lower, not higher) for. Ready.. Set… Go…

So ENVE was forced to rethink things based on the restrictions they found themselves in, not the backpedaling from hookless to a hook that some may think.

Out of those “bar meetings” a couple of things started to happen and ENVE was put to work on the partnership.

The SES 4.5 PRO is the second product in our road line to receive the designation after the SES Aero PRO One-Piece Handlebar. – ENVE

There are a few things out of the partnership that were made that still haven’t come to market, like the ENVE 100mm front wheel. It was born around Tadei and on that wheel in 2024 Tadej Pogačar won one of the Giro TT’s and later the overall Giro.

https://escapecollective.com/pogacars-new-maximal-hacks-time-trial-bike

These have been seen multiple times in the wild, with triathlon pros like Trevor Foley and Marc Dubrick riding them.

Why is all of the this important? Because it shows the why as we get into the meat of this thing.

So let’s see what we got.

SES 4.5 PRO

“Pro” is what ENVE has been focused on for a while now. If we really look at what they are starting to release it’s all “Pro” focused.

SES 4.5 PRO CONSTRUCTION 

Things that came out of the lengthy trip back to the drawing board was dramatic weight savings and what I am calling a comfort hook. Let’s look at some of the specific call outs.

The new rim design saves roughly 50 grams per rim over the SES 4.5. This is where the weight savings come from. 

1. Reduced rim depth 

2. Narrower overall rim width 

3. By removing material from under the Wide Hookless Bead™, pinch-flat and impact performance are preserved 

4. A small hook is created by eliminating material from below the Wide Hookless Bead™ (critical tubeless dimensions are preserved with new channel manufacturing technique) 

5. Low rolling resistance is preserved by achieving inner-rim width of 24.5 mm at widest point of channel 

6. New materials allow for thinner sidewalls and channel 

One thing that ENVE is very clear on is that these wheels are not a replacement of the current SES 4.5 and you will see that in the upcoming Tour de France. UAE riders will be on both sets. They are different tools in the tool box.

Our own photos to compare the two inner walls of the rims.

SES 4.5 PRO vs. SES 4.5 vs. SES 6.7 Compared

This is the rig that we have been testing the wheels on.

SES 4.5 PRO HIGHLIGHTS 

• 23.5 mm inner-rim width meets ETRTO recommendation for 28 mm tires 
• Rim Depth Front/Rear: 49/55 
• Innerdrive PRO Hub 
• ENVE PRO Ceramic Bearings (More on these later)
• Lightweight rim graphics 
• Wheelset weight: 1295 grams (including valves and tape) 

One of the Claims of ENVE is that Tadej Pogačar has prioritized aerodynamic supremacy over sheer weight savings. That was a key driving force, and here’s the data to show it.

Innovation

ENVE has been one of the flag bearers of hookless for sometime now. In fact this is the only wheel now in their lineup that even resembles anything other than a straight internal rim. They were one of the first companies to see the importance of a tire partner for hookless:

The also were the first wheel company to introduce a hookless wheel specifically for triathlon.

Will this new wheel be the next evolution with them? Maybe. Maybe not, but what we know for certain is that ENVE is a company that always pushes for greatness and the people that created that history for the company remains with them currently.

Hookless still remains to be a lot of the future for cycling wheels and tires. As things settle into its wider stance, the public continues to be brought up to speed on the why’s and how’s of hookless, and I do;nt see it going away. But I also don’t really see a world where it’s 100% hookless. I just don’t see the masses using sealant for every single bike on the market. I can’t see a day where my 65 year old mom needs to seat her tires and then add orange seal to her cruiser. But I could be wrong.

The key to everything on this future is the relationship that the wheel and tire manufacturers continue to have. The other key will be shops: our Micro Community leaders. I am in Florida right now and of course, on my first ride here I hit a big chunk of glass. Boom I needed a new tire. So the closet thing to me was a Trek shop so I went to see what tires they had that were on ENVEs approved list. The shop manager didn’t even know what I was talking about when I said I needed it for a hookless wheel. Luckily they had what I needed and when I got back to our place it took me about 7 minutes to get everything swapped out and I was riding that next day.

That incident happened on a set of these ENVE wheels. When my explosion with glass happened it felt no different then any other tire blowout from the past. The tires were still seated to the rim like I would expect until I was able to push it off. I was able to get an approved tire for replacement at a local shop and was able to change it out in less than 10 minutes, and I was able to do it without a compressor. Was this the micro hook? I don’t personally think so but maybe. I also just think that the ecosystem of hookless is getting much more efficient as well as my knowledge base on how it works and how it doesn’t work. We have some tests to do with these wheels but I can say right now: I will be sad to give these wheels back.

I feel like I should be in Miami with this bike.

The 29s I was riding on before (The front is still fine.)

The Tire I bought at the Ft Myers Beach Trek shop.

These wheels we have are truly one in the testing pool 🙂

WHAT NEXT?

Next it to watch the Tour de France and see what happens…. But for those who are wondering these are set to launch sometime in 2026 with the current price tag of $3750 or 4499€.

Tags: