ENVE M730 29 Chris King Wheelset

ENVE M730 29 CHRIS KING WHEELSET
ENVE’s M730 Wheelset is the future being made available today. It features ride-optimized carbon rim that brings ample strength to the table, but is still light, and still features a rim shape designed to work with both your tire and suspension needs. If you’re a gravity rider, this wheel puts you ahead of your best self. The wheel comes in several flavors. There’s a 27.5” and 29” diameter to choose from, as well as Boost and standard spacing, as well as DT Swiss 240 and Chris King hubs, as well as Centerlock and Six-Bolt rotor mounting.

The name M730 tells you about the wheel. M is for mountain. 7 is for 70% descending, 30% ascending, aka a wheel that is designed to work with gravity. The 30 is for the inner width of the rim, which is 30mm.

The inner width determines the size of the tire as much as the tire does. They’ve optimized the rim width for 2.3” to 2.5” tires. If you like wider tires, to go with this kind of wheel, check out ENVE’s M735, which is designed to work best with 2.5” to 1.8” tires. To make the wheel strong enough to withstand the forces and impacts of gravity riding, the exterior rim width is 36mm. The depth is 27mm. The shape is gently triangular, providing stiff lateral support without using too much material. The rim walls are hookless and wide, which improves strength. If you choose to go with tubes in your tires, the chances of pinch flats. Amazingly, even tubeless tires can get cut by the rim pinching the tire in low-pressure situations. This design reduces that likelihood by 60%.

Rim weights are 530g for the 27.5” diameter, and 571g for the 29” diameter.

To improve durability of the rim, ENVE designed a Protective Rim Strip, which they manufacture in-house and install on their M730, M735, and M930 wheels. It’s a molded plastic material that is a bit softer than the carbon-fiber rim, and is installed over the rim itself. It comes installed from ENVE and is essential to the wheel. The strip works in place of tubeless tape and also protects the rim from impact damage, as the material goes over the carbon-fiber rim walls. It results is a 10-20% improvement in impact strength. Much like ENVE’s other carbon-fiber mountain bike rims, the strip has a central trough and then lips on either side that help keep the bead from moving around when air pressure is low. The strip is also insurance. It will maintain its integrity, still holding the tire, still holding air, even if the rim gets damaged.

The rim is laced with 32 J-bend Sapim CX-Ray spokes laced in a cross-two pattern. These spokes are light, aero, and incredibly strong. For those three reasons, it didn’t make sense not to go with aero spokes for this application. The spoke nipples sit inside the rim, inside molded spoke holes, which improve strength and aerodynamics.

There are two hub options, DT Swiss 240 and Chris King.

DT Swiss, the 240 model, a light, super-reliable design that runs on smooth, durable bearings. Both Centerlock and Six-Bolt rotor mounting is available. As mentioned, there are two hub options, standard and Boost. For the standard, it comes with a 100x15mm front thru-axle and a 142x12mm rear thru-axle. The cassette body is either a Shimano/SRAM-compatible design or a SRAM XD Driver body. DT Swiss hubs are easily adaptable via pressed-in endcaps, so long as you’re going with standard hubs. For those hubs, you can get an adapter for 12mm front thru-axle or front quick release and rear quick release.

Chris King is available in their ISO hub, Six-Bolt Mounting only. As with DT Swiss, you can choose standard or Boost hubs. For the standard hubs, the front thru-axle is 100x15mm only, the rear 142x12mm only. Chris King rear hubs come with either a Shimano/SRAM-compatible cassette body design or a SRAM XD Driver body.

As ENVE is extremely precise in their work, not only have the specified tire widths that work best with these wheels, but also suspension. They find these wheels work best with bikes that have 130-18mm of travel.

Complete wheel weights for Boost wheels are as light as 1774g for the DT Swiss Centerlock in 27.5” and 1843g for 29”. Standard hubs yield lighter wheels still. That includes the weight of the rim strip, which is already installed. Also included with the wheels are tubeless valves.

The ENVE M730 Wheelset is for those who love working with gravity.