New Enve wheels, new noise

actusreus

Got a new pair of the Enve 3/4 clincher wheels with the Schwalbe One tyres installed yesterday, and took them for a 20+ mile spin today. The wheels are incredible, and delivered all I read about them, but I got a noise I never had with the stock Mavic wheels. The noise sounded essentially like the sound generated when braking with these wheels (to me it sounds like a missile approaching its target ), and occurred every time I got out of the saddle and was winding up -- when the right crank arm on each downward stroke was around the 6 o'clock position, but only with the right leg, never left. I couldn't tell if the noise was coming from the crank or the front wheel. I also heard it when I would increase pedaling intensity in the saddle, but it wasn't as loud in comparison to when out of the saddle. My mechanic had to change the brake cables to accommodate the wider rims, but needless to say I didn't use brakes when I was out of the saddle winding up. Any ideas what can be causing the noise?

AK_jnr

Sounds like standard erm... aero air whooshing noise, for lack of a better term. Haha

cheschcat

Wheels or frame flexing most likely. Check your rear brake is centred and check the wheel is seated correctly and skewer is tight. Also, are you using lightweight skewers? Sometimes they simply aren't stiff enough. Finally, how much do you weigh?

actusreus

Thanks, guys. I weigh about 165 lbs or 75 kg. The skewers came with the wheels so I assume they are optimized for this particular wheel.

I don't think it's air whooshing as the noise is generated only when the crank arm is around the 6 o'clock position when out of the saddle, or "cranking up" so to speak. It doesn't seem to be dependent on speed, just intensity of pedaling, so I'm inclined to agree that it's probably the wheel flexing. I'm going to take it to the mechanic today and see what they have to say.

mugensi

Its the rear brakes rubbing on the braking surface as the brake pads aren't centred properly. You may also need to open up the brake pad gap a tad using the barrel adjusters after you've centred the wheel and make sure the QRs are proper tight.

actusreus

Was told by the store it was the wheels and the brakes breaking in, and give it time. I guess we'll see.

BarleyPointer

It would be a little odd for such quality wheels to induce brake rub, unlike some other French manufacturer I could mention :evil: But it could be the skewers, I wonder whose wheels I had that the QR skewers made a noise..? lol

It might be worth giving all spoke/hub joins, spoke crosses (if any) and spoke/rim interfaces a drop of some wax type lube.

I had some new carbon tubular wheels and the creaking was fecking annoying. They are now silent PERFECTION....

Good luck

okgo

Enve are terrible for flex, I've had to slacken my rear brake right off to stop it. They're also terrible for needing bearing adjustment. To be honest, for the money, they're piss poor compared to the Zipp's I used previously.

okgo

actusreus wrote:

Was told by the store it was the wheels and the brakes breaking in, and give it time. I guess we'll see.

That is total fiction to get rid of you FYI

mugensi

BarleyPointer wrote:

It would be a little odd for such quality wheels to induce brake rub, unlike some other French manufacturer I could mention :evil: But it could be the skewers, I wonder whose wheels I had that the QR skewers made a noise..? lol

It wouldn't be odd if they were on a flexi frame though which may be the case here....non?

okgo

MugenSi wrote:

BarleyPointer wrote:

It would be a little odd for such quality wheels to induce brake rub, unlike some other French manufacturer I could mention :evil: But it could be the skewers, I wonder whose wheels I had that the QR skewers made a noise..? lol

It wouldn't be odd if they were on a flexi frame though which may be the case here....non?

Mine are on a S Works Tarmac, notoriously stiff. And they do it. They're pants.

blueturtle

I am running a set of Enve 3.4 clinchers with a Cervelo r3sl frame. Absolutely no flex.Brilliant pair of wheels.Previous wheels where Zipp303s,a different kettle of fish,forever adjusting pretension on rear wheel usually after every ride.

okgo

Funny as that's exactly what one of London's busiest wheel builders said of Enve when I got it back from yet another rebuild.

ugo.santalucia

okgo wrote:

Funny as that's exactly what one of London's busiest wheel builders said of Enve when I got it back from yet another rebuild.

The views on high end rims are often skewed... there's a lot of money to make in selling Enve rims (and wheels), while Zipp rims are not available to buy and Zipp wheels don't follow the independent retail channel. I think the only independent workshop who have access to all the fancy rims are Wheelbuilder.com in the US, it would be interested to have their opinion... which will probably be that of universal endorsement... :roll:

okgo

He doesn't sell enve wheels all that often but does repair them all the time, I didn't speak to him about zipps, but I had a set of 303 firecrest (after those old ones you saw) that were fantastic and never needed attention. Enve's need looking at after every race.