ENVE SES 3.4 AR Disc Wheelset

Choosing the right wheel is difficult. It’s not so much the choice that’s the problem, but rather what is it about your cycling style that you want to improve? Climb, hold speed on the flat, tackle cobbles, or even gravel. You can’t have it all. Or can you? Enter the new ENVE SES 3.4 AR Disc Wheelset. Instead of chasing your tail, think about you, your bike and your wheels as a system and choose a wheel that sits perfectly on the line-of-best-fit for all the desirable key attributes of your riding needs. Boldly claiming to be possibly the most versatile wheelset ever, I travelled to Girona to test it.

It’s early April, and whilst many professional cyclists have been training here for some time already (Richie Porte was having coffee in town the day I arrived), for the amateur cycle tourists the season is only just getting started. So Girona feels quiet, sleepy almost as if emerging from hibernation. I can see my breath in the early morning air as we roll from The Service Course, over the Riu Onyar, through the cool shadows and the echoey cobbled labyrinth of Girona old town to grab breakfast at La Fabrica. In the cool morning air, I gave a self-high-five for choosing the long sleeves of my 7mesh Callaghan jersey.

Our route for day one would be a fair mix of smooth Spanish roads and well-groomed dry gravel, interspersed with sections of deep ruts, sand, off-camber descents with sharp stones and washed-out channels. Textbook “all-road”. Potholes lurked for the unaware, tree roots for the unsuspecting and, for good measure, the occasional feral dog, just to keep our senses on edge.

Before long we were well clear of the city, with the hazy outline of the Pyrenees in front and a lush patchwork of farmland on all sides. And then we encountered some more aggressive gravel features. Riding in a tight group made it difficult to spot obstacles, especially on the descents, and in spite of everyone’s best efforts to forewarn and frequent emergency bunny-hopping it was inevitable that we would all hit the occasional pothole or deep rut. The SES 3.4 Disc AR is optimised to run a 28-32mm tyre width and I was set up with the impressively light, yet hardy, 28mm Schwalbe Pro Ones. Still, jarring against the sharp edge of a washed-out hole, the main concern when riding a bigger volume tyre is a pinch-puncture.

That evening we gorged on a feast prepared by Velochef, Henrik Orre, eating far more than was justified for the effort. Or perhaps the wheels had left me feeling fresher than usual. Anyhow, the next morning I would have the chance to burn it off on another loop, focussing just on road. The SES 3.4 AR is aero-optimised for real-world speeds and wind angles on the road, not just for the pro-peloton, at the maximum tyre volume for the needs of modern cycling. The 28mm tyre I was riding had a perfectly seamless transition from the tyre to the rim, creating clean airflow and minimising disruption, so you score the advantage of a wheel that is robust and reliable on gravel but which also holds speed when you hit the road.

Girona was the perfect proving ground for a wheel that boasts do-it-all capability, but there’s more at play here than bravado and marketing spin. With a background in two distinct disciplines - road and XC riding on a hardtail 29er, with the two rarely fused - I arrived sceptical of what I’d read. But not once did I feel like I’d rather be on my hardtail when things got rough, nor did it feel like I was haemorrhaging speed on the road. There are a lot of boxes getting ticked here - reliability, aerodynamic efficiency, lightweight and stability. Think about your own real world, one that’s likely frequented by potholed lanes, punchy climbs, new surfaces, old loose surfaces and tired roads, and this could be the versatile wheel option that meets your ride needs. I travelled to Girona to experience this holy grail for myself and take my word for it, for this was no holiday romance, the ENVE SES 3.4 AR Disc wheel is the real deal.