I just bought one of the last 2020 Venge framesets in Australia and I’m in the process of building it up. I can’t decide on a wheelset. I’ve narrowed it down the the new Roval Rapide CLX or the Enve SES 7.8. Given the CLXs are relatively new, it might be hard to find comparisons, but does anyone have experiences between these two?
Other than the functionality of the wheelsets I am looking at the warranty…Roval offer a lifetime warranty on their wheels, whereas ENVE’s is limited to 5 years. Given the wad of cash I am outlaying for this build, I do not see myself moving on from this bike within 5 years…is it worth going the Roval option (if only for the warranty piece of mind?)
Last year I built my Venge with Ultegra Di2 and Roval CLX 50. Best road bike I’ve ever ridden, I thought I was not possible to make it better until I tried my Enve’s 7.8 from my tri bike on the Venge. It feels like a rocket on the flats now and climbs well and don’t feel the extra weight. But if you have lots of climbs you’ll probably enjoy more the CLX50 or the new Rapide CLX, but as for me the Enve’s are staying on the Venge during the rest of the summer.
HED Vanquish. Both Specialized and Cannondale licensed the HED rim profile patent to make their wheels fast and the HED wheels tend to be very tire agnostic.
Im running clx64 with 25mm tyres. Very fast but not comfortable in the hills. I am now trying my hed 4 with 28mm and it has transformed the bike for comfort. It does limit the bike a bit when you use such a deep wheel.