OGDEN, Utah (BRAIN) — ENVE is now shipping its SES 2.2 wheels, designed as lightweight climbing wheels for tubular tires. The wheels were developed with aerodynamicist Simon Smart and have the shallowest profile of any wheel developed in the collaboration.
The carbon rim shape is 26mm wide and 25mm deep and the rims weigh 281 grams each.
"With our sponsorship of team MTN-Qhubeka, we wanted to provide the team with a special climbing wheel for their first trip to the Tour de France," said ENVE's director of marketing, Jake Pantone. "The SES 2.2 was designed to be invisible to the elements and deliver our athletes confidently through the Tour's mountain stages."
The company said all SES wheel shapes are developed using popular bike frames at the wind tunnel on the Mercedes GP – Petronas Formula 1 campus in Brackley, U.K.
"Developing wheels outside of a bike frame serves little purpose in a world of incremental gains because it is so far removed from the real world use case. By developing rim shapes in bike frames the end result is a faster wheel, optimized for how they are used in the real world," said ENVE's VP of R&D, Scott Nielson. The SES 2.2 shape is optimized for use with a 25mm tire and was designed to be extremely stable in gusty wind conditions.
The SES 2.2 is also ENVE's first rim with a new evolution of its molded-in brake tracks. According to ENVE, their latest brake track achieves virtually equal performance in wet and dry conditions while allowing the rider to use 30 percent less force at the brake levers to achieve the same amount of stopping power when compared to the first generation SES brake track texture.
The SES 2.2 is available as a tubular only but a clincher version will follow in the near future. The SES 2.2 Tubular is now shipping to ENVE retail and distribution partners worldwide. Retail prices range from $2,950 to $3,275 depending on hub choice.
More information: SES 2.2 spec sheet.
