A Deep Dive on the ENVE G SES Wheel Line

I am sure by now that must of you have seen something about these new wheels from ENVE. It’s a pretty massive launch and there’s been a lot of talk about these. But, let’s say you haven’t seen anything yet, and you’re a fan of gravel. Here are some people you should be following, generally speaking, and that would have clued you in: Alexey Vermeulen, Lauren Stephens, Chase Wark, and Ben Delaney.

Now of course these are some of ENVE’s paid sponsored athletes. But one of them who is not a paid pro — Ben is one of my personal trusted sources when it comes to information and reviews and he did some great coverage of this launch.

I’ve been on the information train on these wheels for about eight months now. I was lucky enough to see some of the first prototypes and have been riding them on and off for months. When it came to picking sets for long term testing, I chose the G SES 6.7 PRO and the G SES 4.5. While I can see someone wanting to buy the G SES 4.5 Pro, I didn’t see the need to really test those out when I already had the other Pro.

Over these months I have ridden these wheels with tires from ENVE and Challenge, as well as the new Panaracer GravelKing ZX. For bikes, I used the ENVE MOG and a Litespeed Ultimate G2 FI. And these wheels are rippers to say the least. But I also have some questions.

The Names Have Meaning

ENVE’s G SES (“Gravel SES”) is the brand’s aero-focused gravel line. Within the naming they took the “G” from the historical Gravel line and the SES from the Aero Road line, and smashed them together. The company teased a more aero gravel wheel with the release of the AR40 and has been dubbed an all purpose wheel, thanks to its 25mm internal rim width and mild aero characteristics, meeting the community demand for more aero.

But unlike the AR40 when it comes to these three models, ENVE applied the SES road-wheel design philosophy — dissimilar front and rear rim depth. “Business in the front, party in the back.” You’ll see that in the quick spec looks here.

While each wheel is different, they do share some standards across all three: 700c, tubeless only, Centerlock discs, 12×100 front / 12×142 rear spacing, 3.8mm sidewall, a wide hookless bead, spoke tension, silver or white decals, and your choice of freehub / shifting standard with HG, XDR, N3W, and MS. Oh, and unlike the AR40’s, these are all 100% made in Ogden, Utah.

G SES 6.7 PRO: The Big Kahuna

These are the big one when it comes to the line-up, no pun intended. The G SES 6.7 PRO is a massive jump forward when it comes to laying your cards on the table. ENVE is either going to win with this or not. Because what ENVE is saying is: we think that we need a wider and deeper gravel wheel than anyone on the market. They are going wider both inner and outer rim than any other wheel and deeper then any other Gravel wheel and not just a little but a lot. I feel like if ENVE had made a fat bike wheel we would have seen another letter or number in the “G SES 6.7 PRO” naming. This wheel truly is the one really big standout when it comes to taking from multiple areas in the wheel industry and making a new baby.

With it being such a stand out, they are very purpose driven and they not something you will see used all the time. In my opinion, these are very much the “disc wheel” of gravel. They are awesome when you need those specific boxes checked. But, at $3,100 USD, that price will do two things: it will narrow who buys them, and it will narrow who should buy them. Some people that may want these really shouldn’t buy them because they are heavy, super wide and super deep compared to other wheels on the market within the price range. The G SES 6.7 PRO isn’t truly wanted or needed for a lot of courses even though the wheels themselves are really rad.

What I Like

They are without a doubt fast. Like really fast. You can just feel the speed in the right setting. So If the course is mostly straight, flat and small rollers these would be 100% my choice. When you have these wheels underneath you and the conditions are right, I can’t see any other wheel being faster than these.

What I Don’t

These are a one trick pony. When it comes to cornering, climbing or a sprint finish they are a “disc wheel” on gravel and that is and should be a deal breaker for some. They are big and they are very wide, and will make any tire mounted to it even wider so keep it in mind. For perspective, ENVE’s published tire width of 52mm measures 54mm on this wheel and that leaves no room for error, even on ENVE’s own bike, the MOG.

G SES 6.7 PRO Specs

G SES 4.5 PRO/G SES 4.5 Thoughts

Let’s lead off with an admission: I don’t have any personal riding experience with Pro’s. I chose to not borrow a pair of those because of two things. First, I’m not a good enough rider to really tell the difference in just the hubs and spokes when it comes to gravel. I can tell the difference on road wheels with road tires but when it comes to having a 45mm-52mm tire and loose dirt between me and the contact points, I can’t. And, let’s be really honest, can 90% of the riders out there really either? When it comes to these wheels, that is in my opinion 100% what the difference really is. Spokes, hubs with faster bearings some weight and some dollars.

The short version of my thoughts is this — the G SES 4.5 line is simply an improved/modified Zipp 303 XPLR, which itself is a very popular wheel.

Compared to their big brother 6.7s, these are way more snappy in the corners and climbs and a little more easier to handle in the cross winds. That winds up meaning that they are also way more friendly when it comes to smaller riders. Because of these factors I see these being more of a wheelset that most people are going to want to own. It will be interesting to see what the top riders that have both the 4.5 and 6.7 will choose to ride. I know Alexey Vermeulen chose the G SES 4.5 PRO at Sea Otter this year and when asked, it was all about what I just mentioned above.

And his latest adventure in the mud, wind and rain of Unbound the question will be forever unanswered. Would these have helped him more?

To my knowledge none of the female ENVE sponsored pros have chosen to race with the wider/deeper G SES 6.7.

This isn’t a knock on the 6.7 but rather a matter of choosing the right tool from the tool kit. That being said I could see someone like Lauren Stephens maybe using these for Gravel Worlds in Lincoln this year.

G SES 4.5 Pro Specs

G SES 4.5 Specs

Aerodynamic Performance & Data Claims from ENVE

Nothing would be right unless someone came with some receipts and some claims right?

Percentage drag reduction vs. baseline shallow rim — WAVE 32 kph

The baseline wheel in question is ENVE’s own AG25. Columns are tire size in mm.

Percentage drag reduction vs. baseline shallow rim — WAVE 48 kph

• 32 kph: 8 watts saved over baseline
• 48 kph: 25 watts saved over baseline

G SES vs. Competitor, Both on ENVE HEX 52 tire (drag in watts vs. yaw)

Compared: Zipp XPLR, G SES 6.7 PRO, G SES 4.5 — all on HEX 52. Tested at 32 kph and 50 kph across 0–15° yaw. ENVE’s takeaway: both G SES models beat the competitor with a modern high-volume treaded tire at low and high speed. The 6.7 PRO holds the lowest drag at every yaw angle; e.g. at 32 kph it bottoms around ~34W at 5° yaw vs. the Zipp’s ~37W.

Tread Sensitivity (G SES 4.5): Rene Herse Snoqualmie Pass 44 (slick) vs. ENVE HEX 44 (treaded)

• 32 kph: 1.4 watts penalty for tread
• 50 kph: 8.9 watts penalty for tread
• Takeaway: tread costs little aero at low speed, far more at high speed.

Impact Toughness-to-Weight

Multi-point gravel impact test (wheel struck at every spoke hole; drop height raised each round until first visible damage; cumulative energy calculated). Field: Reserve 40 | 44 GR DT180, G SES 4.5 PRO, Zipp 303 XPLR SW, G SES 4.5, G SES 6.7 PRO. ENVE positions the G SES models high on impact strength relative to their weight, leaning on M Series mountain-wheel tech.

Key Technologies

Wide Hookless Bead — borrowed from ENVE’s M Series MTB wheels. A wider, blunt leading edge dissipates impact energy to cut pinch flats.

Warranty

• Limited Lifetime Warranty — covers ENVE material/workmanship conformance; firsthand owners from purchase date, secondhand from manufacture date. Registration recommended.
• Limited Lifetime Crash Replacement — separate program from the warranty; covers riding, racing, crashing, “or driving your roof-mounted bike into the garage.” Begins at purchase; registration recommended.
• ENVE established 2007, handmade in the USA.

Thoughts on the Aero / Performance Claims

I mean…sure? OK? I wasn’t in the room during testing so I can’t really say a whole lot. What I can say is that we have seen a lot of what ENVE is claiming to either be true or at least consistent from a lot of difference sources. Every single wheel manufacturer is going wider and claiming faster. So It would hold true that these could totally be what they claim to be. The only question I really have is at point will it not be the case. For example, we can see that when it comes to the speed that we would probably be racing a gravel race at 32kph (20mph) instead of 48kph (30mph) we and some of the pros are better off with 44mm tires when it comes to aero alone. A couple of things I find interesting: assuming all of these tests weere using the same tires and width and depth is the thing that is driving the drag and or savings of it, then how or why are the SES 4.5 road wheels testing that much faster than ENVE’s own AR40 Compared to say Reserve 40/44’s which are the same rim depth just slightly smaller in the internal rim side of things? Also, assuming you have a set of SES 4.5 and don’t really see the need to upgrade, I don’t know why a lot of these pro’s have been using SES 3.4 as their gravel wheel choice up until this point as those are clearly a fast option.

When it comes to this line up of wheels, I think it’s a case where N+1 = too many.

Unlike the difference in the Road SES 4.5 PRO and SES 4.5, which is truly different (including a $900 price delta), I don’t see that to be the case here with the G-SES 4.5 PRO/ G-SES 4.5 ($250). Back to my earlier point: do 90% of us really know the difference in hub bearings and spokes when it comes to having a 45mm-52mm tire and loose dirt between you and the contact points? I really don’t think so. But I also don’t really see the need for the G SES 4.5 when the retail price is that high already. If you’re already that high in price I don’t see someone saying “I cant do $250 more dollars” for what is at the end of the day a better package even if they can’t really tell or don’t really need it. To me that’s not what the person that is spending that much money on a single wheel set is thinking. They are simply not thinking with their wallet. So understanding that ENVE needs and does make products for world champions, I don’t see the need to make the standard version.

The last thing I found very interesting was the claim on the Impact toughness-to-weight because up until now the Zipp 303 XPLR SW has been my go to when it came to an aero gravel wheel. I have kicked the SHIZ out of these on the rocking single tracks we call gravel here in Utah with zero issues. So we will have to really start to bomb these ENVE’s with this new front fork I have soon.