Old 03-20-21, 02:12 PM
  #9  
sfrider 
Asleep at the bars
 
sfrider's Avatar
 
Join Date: May 2006
Location: San Francisco, CA and Treasure Island, FL
Posts: 1,743
Mentioned: 2 Post(s)
Tagged: 0 Thread(s)
Quoted: 234 Post(s)
Liked 203 Times in 135 Posts
I think they're probably all all-around excellent. The choice IMO would come down to what you can find for sale and in stock, and if you can get any deals (which in these times seems highly doubtful).

When I got my SES 3.4 wheelset I made a rough list of what I looked for:
- Resistant to buffeting in gusty winds - this can even be a safety issue around here
- Rolls well under lateral loads; this compounds with the previous point but by itself is also a pure race consideration (which is of no consequence to me) in that starting a sprint in a tall gear is aided by rocking to reduce the load (but also of course is inefficient, which is why we'd never ride like that under normal circumstances)
- Reasonably lightweight - we have real climbs, not exactly Passo dello Stelvio or Klausenpass, but nevertheless
- Reasonably aero - if you've even ridden 17mph into a 15mph headwind (= 32mph) you know why you'd want this; not just dead head-on, but at an wider angle of headwinds
- Tubeless clincher - so I can standardize on tires between bikes
- Bulletproof
- To be ridden without any speculation whether I should upgrade or should have gotten something else instead (or, conversely, yes it's a lot of money but it only hurts once)
- And, of course they should roll well and feel planted in corners - but just about any wheel meets this need, even those bundled with bikes

And, so, yeah there are lots of great wheels. But each day spent indecisively looking and hunting for reviews that may not even mention half of the above is a day I'm not out riding them. The SES 3.4's were a recommendation from someone I hold in high regard, so... done.

ENVE has good customer support - mine took a while to build and ship during Covid, but it's not like anything else was readily available either. Each wheelset is built to order, and they were responsive when I checked in to see how things were coming along. Mostly to make sure no balls had been dropped and work was moving along. They always got back to me within the hour.
__________________
"This 7:48 cycling session burned 5933 calories. Speed up recovery by replacing them with a healthy snack." - Whoop

sfrider is offline  
Likes For sfrider: