Shout out to ENVE cs

[Julien]

About a month ago my partner and kid went on vacation for a week while I stayed home working and I filled the void and quiet by getting myself into a rabbit hole. I ended up with a new set of Enve 4.5 with Innerdrive hubs which I bought NIB from a fellow paceliner.

After sourcing the Campy freehub body I was having this odd issue where the FH would click in position but as soon as I started to tighten the end caps (Enve uses threaded end caps that need tightening to 10-12 nm) the bearings would seize and there wasn’t any freewheeling. I felt fairly stupid getting rid of a perfectly fine set of wheels in the first place, unable to install a supposedly plug and play FH, and being left with a sexy set of hoops but no warranty or recourse. I went to a couple of shops to see if they could figure out what was happening. They couldn’t.

I reached out to Enve customer service with little expectations and started a back and forth conversation with a guy named Justin. For about a week he went above and beyond to understand the problem, asked for detailed info and pictures, got the hub designer in the loop, but in the end couldn’t figure it out. He then offered to send a new axle kit and FH or to my preference, to ship the wheel to Enve HQ for a repair and rebuild. At this point I told him the wheelset was second hand and not warrantied.

His reply: “We cover defects to second hand owners within 5 years of manufacturing, which this certainly is. You shouldn't have to pay a dime for parts or a fix from ENVE in my opinion and I'll make sure we have you covered. If it’s sending you parts and/or return to ENVE, we've got your back.” Music to my ears.

But it gets better and the story ends with a happy ending: an email followed with a last ditch recommendation to fix the issue following a comment from a colleague of his. What this guy saw from one the pics I sent and what was actually happening was the seal from the FH was slightly overextending outwards and getting compressed between the FH and the hub shell where it should have been sliding in the hub shell and creating the seal. So sure enough as I was tightening the assembly it was preventing any movement. The pics below show the seal being flush with my freehub body; and the correct position that it should have been in to slide in the hub shell. I did as instructed and voila! everything is nice and smooth and the wheels are ready to go now.

I was never so interested in Enve’s products and got this set of wheels on a whim but I am super happy with the support I got from them and will definitely be looking at their components more closely in the future. I also had no idea second owners would get support from the company and I think that’s a great policy. Lastly if you ever need to change the FH on a set of Innerdrive equipped wheels, look out for the seal!

[kgreene10]

Very nice to hear. I purchased a set of Enve 4.5s new from a major dealer which have minor defects. Justin (customer service manager) told me to take a hike. I have been a customer since the Edge days used to hold them in high regard. Unfortunately, I don’t anymore and still feel sorely disappointed many months later.

[Gwerziou]

I'm relieved that no gunfire was involved - you probably meant 'shout out' rather than shootout?

[Julien]

Originally Posted by Gwerziou

I'm relieved that no gunfire was involved - you probably meant 'shout out' rather than shootout?

Thanks, corrected!

[nmrt]

I have had good experiences with Enve CS. However, I shouldn't even have needed to contact CS in the first place had it not been for shoddy Enve quality control on the 3.4 wheelset rims. Saw two wheelsets with similar defects in the rim bed where the bed was not smooth and carbon was jutting out.

Enve replaced the wheelset, no questions asked. But in my years of riding carbon wheelsets, Enve is the only company with such glaring defects.

Do not care about Enve any more. Do not care about their MUSA prices on manufactured-in-cheap-labor countries products.

But the funny thing is, those 3.4 wheelsets were MUSA!

[kgreene10]

Originally Posted by nmrt

I have had good experiences with Enve CS. However, I shouldn't even have needed to contact CS in the first place had it not been for shoddy Enve quality control on the 3.4 wheelset rims. Saw two wheelsets with similar defects in the rim bed where the bed was not smooth and carbon was jutting out.

Enve replaced the wheelset, no questions asked. But in my years of riding carbon wheelsets, Enve is the only company with such glaring defects.

Do not care about Enve any more. Do not care about their MUSA prices on manufactured-in-cheap-labor countries products.

But the funny thing is, those 3.4 wheelsets were MUSA!

One of my 4.5 rims is poorly finished with extra bits of carbon like hanging chads on most of the spoke holes and a very pronounced white line connecting the two halves on the exterior apex. The wheelset is also much, much heavier than they advertise.

As I mentioned, Enve CS was unwilling to remedy in any way. Flat “no”.

Justin took the extra step to tell me I should be happy with the price I paid for the wheels, which, to me, represented a massive stretch of my budget. I really wish I hadn’t bought them. I used to be a huge Enve fan, but no more. Quite unhappy with them.

[StressStrain]

OP, glad this worked out for you!

[prototoast]

My experience with their rims was that they were finished more poorly than other carbon rims I've used, but overall, I've been happy with their performance. But I have their "Foundation" series rims, which I got at a good price. I'd probably be pretty cranky if I paid full price for their premium wheel options.

[ridethecliche]

Originally Posted by kgreene10

Very nice to hear. I purchased a set of Enve 4.5s new from a major dealer which have minor defects. Justin (customer service manager) told me to take a hike. I have been a customer since the Edge days used to hold them in high regard. Unfortunately, I don’t anymore and still feel sorely disappointed many months later.

Define minor defects?

[kgreene10]

Originally Posted by ridethecliche

Define minor defects?

As mentioned above, the finish work is nice on the front wheel and not nice on the rear, which has bits of carbon in the spoke holes like hanging chads on a Palm Beach County ballot and a very prominent white line on the exterior alex joining the two halves of the rim. In addition, weight is supposed to be 1452 +/- 2%. Mine weigh 1515. They don’t say what the +/- refers to but is it’s a 95% confidence interval, then the weight of my wheels is well beyond 3 standard deviations heavier than they should be. That is quite a lot.

I can’t tell you how hard it was to decide to spend the amount that these wheels cost. I did it in part because of my excellent experiences with Enve since the Edge days.

I think Enve should have replaced the rear wheel. They could still as I haven’t used them yet. The writer at In The Know Cycling reported that he complained only about the prominence of the white line on one of his wheels and Enve replaced it immediately. Perhaps you now have to have a big mouthpiece for Enve to respond positively. I know that last statement sound really sour. I feel strongly about giving kudos to stand up companies and excellent customer service and I do so when that happens. But this experience has really soured me on Enve.

[CAAD]

I'm glad they were willing to step in and help. ENVE products never impressed me. They seem to lean on their warranty (why their products are so expensive in the first place) to fix QC issues that shouldn't be happening.

New thread over at weightweenies.
https://weightweenies.starbike.com/f...f=132&t=175449