ENVE Melee

[p nut]

Anyone have ones of these?
It appears to have pretty much everything I’m looking for.
35mm tire clearance
Fender capable
Geo is spot on
Almost zero logos

Little expensive. I may have to wait for a Black Friday sale. But I could honestly sell all my road bikes for this (and maybe the gravel bike).

[XXtwindad]

Are dissenting opinions allowed? Can’t get past the aesthetics.

[p nut]

Originally Posted by XXtwindad

Are dissenting opinions allowed? Can’t get past the aesthetics.

Any and all opinions, of course.
I haven’t seen one in person. But for good/bad, it looks like about every other road bike from other companies. Sort of “bland”. Which I am perfectly fine with.

[Metz]

I had one briefly - I bought it on eBay for just over $2k so I kinda took a flyer on it even though I didn't need another bike. I thought it was really darn good, but it was a 60cm and it turns out I was better suited to a 58cm so did a catch and release to Clean.

It felt fast and efficient, especially in flat/rolling terrain. Kinda meh styling, even in the new bright blue color, but certainly proficient. The integration is pretty slick - easy to live with and adjust. I think you'll be able to land a used one for $3kish. Pros Closet just had one in a 52 that I think sold for that: https://www.theproscloset.com/produc...2-enve-melee-m

[John H.]

I have one and I like it for all of the reasons that you mention.
It is a neutral and nice riding bike.

You can PM me if you want to get deep into the weeds

[rice rocket]

The Melee geo is real agreeable for me, but I couldn't get over the $5500 frameset price.

My local shop offered to put me on Dogma F for cheaper. The geo is almost identical, almost as if Enve lifted the chart from Pinarello.

[weaponsgrade]

I can't recall Enve ever doing a Black Friday sale on their bikes. I could see myself on a Mog, but not at $5,500.

[jimoots]

Originally Posted by weaponsgrade

I can't recall Enve ever doing a Black Friday sale on their bikes. I could see myself on a Mog, but not at $5,500.

If any year will be different I feel like it'll be this one

[Baron Blubba]

I rode one and have one on order. Keep in mind that the $5500 includes seatpost, bar, and stem. Those alone would run you ~$1000.

I’ll go into more detail about why I chose this bike in a longer post tomorrow.

[ridethecliche]

Originally Posted by Baron Blubba

I rode one and have one on order. Keep in mind that the $5500 includes seatpost, bar, and stem. Those alone would run you ~$1000.

I’ll go into more detail about why I chose this bike in a longer post tomorrow.

Ohhhhhh this should be interesting!

[callmeishmael]

Guy on our Tuesday night chaingang has one. Says it's fast and comfortable. Looks nice if kind of pricy for what it is, notwithstanding the bar, stem and post are included. Might change my mind if I rode it; who knows?

[nmrt]

Never ridden a Melee. But it's price is so close to a custom Pursuit that I imagine I would swing for a Carl Strong venture rather than the Melee.

[charliedid]

Originally Posted by Baron Blubba

I rode one and have one on order. Keep in mind that the $5500 includes seatpost, bar, and stem. Those alone would run you ~$1000.

I’ll go into more detail about why I chose this bike in a longer post tomorrow.

Guessing you are not paying retail for that bike...

[Baron Blubba]

Originally Posted by charliedid

Guessing you are not paying retail for that bike...

As a dealer for several very lovely bike makers, with friends who are dealers for almost every other bike brand that is not D2C, I don't pay retail for anything.

My reasons for ordering a Melee:

#42: I didn't pay full retail for it.

#1 - #something:

I don't believe that the Enve is the best pure road bike out there, in terms of speed. My 2023 Propel definitely feels faster.

The Melee, though, just feels great. I admire ENVE for not coming to the table with a thousand claims about stiffness-to-weight and aerodynamics and directional deflection and similar numbers that, in my experience, seem arbitrary in actual field testing.

- The bike is so smooth that there is, until you get used to it, almost a cognitive dissonance between what you are doing and what you are feeling --like riding tubeless or tubulars with low pressure and thinking 'do I have a flat? This is too comfortable!' Then you get used to it and it's just so much fun, and it feels like flying.

- Enve geometry, for me, is dialed. The bike just fits and disappears underneath me except for the times when I go from drops to hoods or vice-versa (or to/from some other hand position or standing to sitting) and think 'gosh darn, that feels nice.'

- The bike has ample clearance for 38mm tires. While this is bike will be, in its initial configuration, be my go-fast road bike, I might very well one day make it my go fast all-road bike. Now, lots of modern bikes currently claim that 35-38mm tire capacity. However, there's a difference between having room for wide tires and actually being an *excellent* all road bike. I think the Melee will be because...

- The handling. A poster above mentioned how it seems like Enve just copied the Dogma F's geo when designing the Melee. I'd agree that there are definitely similarities to how both bikes corner. The Dogma, for me, is remarkable in how it always feels so stable that even when you are diving into a corner or a sweeping curve at high speed, you still feel stable, almost as stable as if you were upright. This is an awesome quality for some people, but I find that this quality also makes the ride, for me, a lot less exciting. The Melee has a similar quality to the way it handles. You enter a corner and it's like the bike throws a grappling hook around the bend that pulls you through at exactly your desired angle. It's incredibly confident when it does this, even at speed, but it is still an exciting experience. The bike as a whole is a fun, peppy, flickable, exciting ride. With stability and true-tracking confidence when I want it...which would be when using it off road.
I actually think this might be a better light gravel bike than the Crux, if you are riding the type of gravel that you don't need anything wider than 38's for.
(That said, I've never ridden the Crux on gravel, have just played with one in the parking lot, so this is speculation.)

- I really like the way it looks. Modern, but still very much a bicycle in the traditional sense. I recently built up a top-spec '23 Madone for a friend and took it for a spin. Bike is *awesome*, but aesthetically, I like bikes that look like bikes, without the sharply angled sci-fi-space-age looking cuts and angles all over the place.

- I know that Enve is owned by Amersports, but I still like the idea of supporting a more US based independent brand than the usual suspects whose bikes I ride.

- My only negative feedback on this bike, and the same is true for the way I feel on my MOG, is that they feel a little long in the back while standing and leaning forward, like the tail of the bike trails a little bit behind the rest of it. It's a little disconcerting coming off of such tight feeling bikes as the TCR and new Propel, where everything feels 100% unified. When seated or standing with my weight more centered or rearward, that feeling diminishes significantly.

- Lots of people comment on how expensive this bike is, but I'd like to make the distinction between 'expensive' and 'costs a lot of money'. Yes, $5500 is a lot of money, even when you factor in the seatpost, stem, and handlebars that come with it, which are top notch and worth $1000 on their own. But compared to other bikes that are positioned similarly in the market, this is really not even scraping the 'expensive' end. An S-Works Tarmac SL8 frame is $5500, and that only includes the seatpost. A Dogma F frameset is a smidge under $7k. A Propel SL or TCR SL (seatmast included) is somewhere in the mid-$4000's. A Cannondale Lab71 frameset is $6k. It should be no surprise that frameset + chassis coming from a company known for selling wheels that cost in excess of $2500 would be priced similarly to all of the above. Quality wise, it's as good as any of those, and distinct enough from all of them to have a reason to exist.

Looking forward to having one of my own. Already ordered the custom paint, which to me is basically the same thing as giving a bike a ring...and almost as expensive, too.

[Clean39T]

Here’s mine in 60cm - finally done!

Red AXS w Med-Cage RD and Force 10-36, plus 35/48 PM.
EMVE 4.5C on CK R45D Ceramic hubs w ENVE 29mm tires.
Integrated 120x42 ENVE bar/stem from an ENVE Custom Road.
ENVE bar tape, cages, and seatpost.
Fizik Argo 00 Adaptive saddle.

Drop is right about 10.5cm w it slammed.

Hopefully will get in a shakedown later today and a real ride tomorrow AM.

This was picked up as a placeholder for the Argo RM-3 I’ve ordered, but who knows, may stick around longer if I love it.