Karvalo wrote: ↑Wed Feb 01, 2023 2:56 pm
raggedtrousers wrote: ↑Wed Feb 01, 2023 9:34 am
That's not quite true, though. While there certainly are other frames that cost this much (Ostro VAM, C68 are 2 that come to mind), there are plenty that are a bit cheaper (Tarmac SL7, Madone SLR) and they really are pretty similar - they are all far east factory made, come in stock geometry, with stock paint.
And hat's kind of my point: I don't see what makes the Melee stand out in that field, and I'd be looking for more than 'it includes the handlebar' as a point of difference.
A Madone SLR costs more once you've bought the bar/stem. Thing is though, why does just the Melee have to stand out? What makes
any bike stand out in that field? If it's similar enough, good enough and someone likes Enve more than they like Spesh or Trek, what more do they need?
I bought one for the following reasons: first, I like their products in general and especially their customer service. I am based in Utah for part of the time so there is some bias here, but I got to see and ride one before release. Enve also sponsors our bike club, so we have a close relationship. I have had situations over the years where I have crashed in gran fondos / road races destroying braking tracks and sent the wheel off to Enve for repair only to have them send me an updated new wheelset for free. They won my loyalty through repeated great customer service.
It's as good a road bike as any I own - fast, responsive, light, and suprisingly aero to my unscientific measurement. I will post up the build and pics in a couple of weeks as I am switching around a few things. More importantly, I have found myself doing over 50% of my solo rides on mixed terrain between road and gravel. Not super technical gravel which I first imagined I would be doing when I began to ride gravel bikes (Open UP was my first) as I have discovered I actually like to have a real front shock for that (hardtail at a minimum) but packed down I am fine with a 34-35mm type tire gravel. I do this because the area I live in has had an explosion of population growth and the newer drivers are much less accustomed to cyclists on the road, so the number of accidents has sharply climbed. Riding mixed let's me get out of town easily onto better and safer roads and the melee gives me a great road bike experience when I move back to the tarmac yet has plenty of clearance for when the gravel + mud equation is far too much for a nice road only bike in terms of clearance. I ride my pure road bikes for the club days, but the Melee is a good bike for how my cycling is evolving.
For similar reasons, I will probably switch to something like this for the time I am in the midwest though the wider tires there will be used to handle the terrible Chicago roads! Costwise, I bought my Melee frame (not through my club as I found a better deal) at a third discounted online. I added a pair of 4.5 and 3.4 wheels at both 30% from web sales. That's pretty good value compared to the SL7 frame which is never discounted as far as I can see (yet). Additionally, I was able to select the exact handlebar, stem, and seatpost I wanted as Enve supplies these to the dealers, so no swapping downstream. In this way, Factor, another brand I like, is also great. Specialized is still on the " you get what you get" model on the full builds, but one can of course piece together exact specs. That is certainly going to be much more expensive than the Melee. Once the snow melts out here, I will post up more thorough reviews of the ride quality.
Lots of bikes: currently riding Enve Melee, Krypton Pro, S Works Crux, S Works Epic Evo, SL7.
In build: SW SL8