A customer left me with the rear wheel of a Smart Envision System 4.5 NEW for service.
The "NEW" that comes after SES4.5 is actually part of the official name.
↑The "4.5" on the NEW is in gold lettering.
This time I only have the rear wheel, but
whereas the old SES4.5 had a rim height of front 48mm and rear 56mm,
the SES4.5 NEW is front 50mm and rear 56mm,
and the rim width and shape are completely different.
While it doesn't come through in photos, the front and rear rims of the old SES4.5 and
the front rim of SES4.5 NEW
have a U-shaped cross-section at the inner apex so pronounced you could practically set sushi on it, whereas
this SES4.5 NEW's rear rim has a much sharper V-shaped cross-section.
Whereas the old one was a hooked rim,
the NEW is now a hookless rim with an internal width of 25mm.
Also, I'm not entirely sure how much of this is actually true,
but the rim's claimed weight went from old→489g to NEW→415g.
That's an (if true) extremely impressive height-to-weight ratio, and
ENVE, which had been adding heft to rims out of fear of buckling from brake heat, may
have returned to being a god-tier rim manufacturer again.
My personal EDGE 1-65 tubular (the rim sticker shows 68) has
an actual rim height of 66mm and weighs 378g, so
even accounting for a wide rim and hookless eyeleted design,
a 56mm height at 415g is nearly comparable.
The wheel's claimed weight went from old→803g to NEW→790g, not much change,
which is mainly because the old one had a carbon hub while
the NEW has an aluminum hub.
ENVE publishes their rim's claimed weight, so
you can infer what's inside the wheel, which is helpful.
If it were kept secret, all you could manage is a shallow reading like "a rear wheel around 800g in both old and new versions."
With wheels of nearly identical total weight,
if roughly 70g of weight has shifted from rim toward hub,
then while the overall weight is nearly the same, what's inside is completely different.
The reason it came in is that the chain dropped and
damaged 6 spokes, so they want them replaced.
The reverse Italian lacing bothers me a bit, but
I'll overlook that point for now.
The builder appears to be Japanese, but
the lacing follows ENVE's methods, so it's reverse Italian lacing.
One advantage of reverse Italian lacing is that
in precisely the situation happening now with chain drops,
the spokes don't bend as easily.
When ENVE designed this hub, they were under the Mavic umbrella, so
the freebody is an Instant Drive 360.
The wheel came with an impressive inspection sheet attached, but
it only had minor lateral runout that would show after just three days of riding—
centering was spot-on, and there was virtually no radial runout.
That's a relief. Otherwise I'd have planned to do a proper wheel build
before removing those 6 spokes.
I removed the 6 spokes.
If I represent the rim holes where spokes were removed as ○,
the pattern becomes left-right-left-○-left-right-left-○-left-right-left-○-left-right-left-○-left-right-left-○-left-right-left-○
and these remaining left-right-left patterns
serve as guides for perfect centering, so
other than fine-tuning runout at the end,
from here I just fill in 6 new spokes and
tighten them evenly until the wheel centers itself—
it's essentially complete from that point.
The wheel is centered. I've also trued out the minor lateral runout that appeared during the work.
Done.
↑The replaced spokes... and a defective one I tossed.
↑The 6 replacement spokes.
I found a defective spoke and rejected it.
The orientation of its neck relative to the flats
isn't quite perpendicular—it's pointing maybe 80° sideways.
I'm gonna beat some sense into whoever made that one.
The "NEW" that comes after SES4.5 is actually part of the official name.
↑The "4.5" on the NEW is in gold lettering.
This time I only have the rear wheel, but
whereas the old SES4.5 had a rim height of front 48mm and rear 56mm,
the SES4.5 NEW is front 50mm and rear 56mm,
and the rim width and shape are completely different.
While it doesn't come through in photos, the front and rear rims of the old SES4.5 and
the front rim of SES4.5 NEW
have a U-shaped cross-section at the inner apex so pronounced you could practically set sushi on it, whereas
this SES4.5 NEW's rear rim has a much sharper V-shaped cross-section.
Whereas the old one was a hooked rim,
the NEW is now a hookless rim with an internal width of 25mm.
Also, I'm not entirely sure how much of this is actually true,
but the rim's claimed weight went from old→489g to NEW→415g.
That's an (if true) extremely impressive height-to-weight ratio, and
ENVE, which had been adding heft to rims out of fear of buckling from brake heat, may
have returned to being a god-tier rim manufacturer again.
My personal EDGE 1-65 tubular (the rim sticker shows 68) has
an actual rim height of 66mm and weighs 378g, so
even accounting for a wide rim and hookless eyeleted design,
a 56mm height at 415g is nearly comparable.
The wheel's claimed weight went from old→803g to NEW→790g, not much change,
which is mainly because the old one had a carbon hub while
the NEW has an aluminum hub.
ENVE publishes their rim's claimed weight, so
you can infer what's inside the wheel, which is helpful.
If it were kept secret, all you could manage is a shallow reading like "a rear wheel around 800g in both old and new versions."
With wheels of nearly identical total weight,
if roughly 70g of weight has shifted from rim toward hub,
then while the overall weight is nearly the same, what's inside is completely different.
The reason it came in is that the chain dropped and
damaged 6 spokes, so they want them replaced.
The reverse Italian lacing bothers me a bit, but
I'll overlook that point for now.
The builder appears to be Japanese, but
the lacing follows ENVE's methods, so it's reverse Italian lacing.
One advantage of reverse Italian lacing is that
in precisely the situation happening now with chain drops,
the spokes don't bend as easily.
When ENVE designed this hub, they were under the Mavic umbrella, so
the freebody is an Instant Drive 360.
The wheel came with an impressive inspection sheet attached, but
it only had minor lateral runout that would show after just three days of riding—
centering was spot-on, and there was virtually no radial runout.
That's a relief. Otherwise I'd have planned to do a proper wheel build
before removing those 6 spokes.
I removed the 6 spokes.
If I represent the rim holes where spokes were removed as ○,
the pattern becomes left-right-left-○-left-right-left-○-left-right-left-○-left-right-left-○-left-right-left-○-left-right-left-○
and these remaining left-right-left patterns
serve as guides for perfect centering, so
other than fine-tuning runout at the end,
from here I just fill in 6 new spokes and
tighten them evenly until the wheel centers itself—
it's essentially complete from that point.
The wheel is centered. I've also trued out the minor lateral runout that appeared during the work.
Done.
↑The replaced spokes... and a defective one I tossed.
↑The 6 replacement spokes.
I found a defective spoke and rejected it.
The orientation of its neck relative to the flats
isn't quite perpendicular—it's pointing maybe 80° sideways.
I'm gonna beat some sense into whoever made that one.