One of the heaviest disc wheels on the market, and also one of the most expensive. Unless it is by FAR, the fastest, I don’t see the point?
Does the same applies to other wheel manufacturers (Zipp Super 9 vs 808, Mavic Comètes). The only information I’ve found so far was that the 808 Firecrests are up to the Super 9s in drag up to 12 deg yaw @ 20 mph.
Aero advantages but only if you’re fast enough…
ENVE says the SES Disc Rear Wheel “is the outright fastest wheel available”, but only beyond speeds of 27mph / 43kph, so unless you can complete your local 25-mile time trial in 55:30 or less, ENVE says you’re better off with its SES 7.8 wheelset.
In a press release from ENVE, VP of product and consumer experience Jake Pantone said: "It is true that our SES 7.8 wheel is a faster/better solution versus a solid rear disc for most athletes. It really comes down to the course profile, their level of experience and the average speeds the rider will achieve.
“For riders that will average over 27mph / 43kph, a rear disc will prove a faster solution on certain courses. If you’re riding under those speeds, the SES 7.8 will be a faster solution as it was developed and optimised for the lower average speeds.”
maybe I’m not fast enough… on my sprint cycling leg my PR is on a Enve 7.8 rim brake…foloowed by Zipp Super9…then HED disc. Eventhough I can get a pretty good deal on the Enve disc/disc I decided to go Roval321 disc… looking forward to besting my PR…but I’m on a different bike this year as well.
No. It does not apply to other wheel manufacturers. In fact it doesn’t even apply to Enve. I (and many others) don’t trust anything Enve says about disc wheel aerodynamics. For a long time, they held onto the notion that disc wheels were slower. That was primarily because they didn’t make a disc. Now that they do make a disc, they couldn’t exactly come out and say, “Oops. We we’re wrong all along. Discs ARE faster. Please buy our new disc.” Instead, they came up with the “discs are only faster for the fastest athletes” mantra.
