ENVE Composites Mountain Fork [Rider Review]

Our "Rider Review" article series features the honest reviews from verified purchasers of Worldwide Cyclery. They contain the photos, thoughts, feedback & overall review you are looking for.

Gravel and adventure bikes are a great way to get out there and explore new terrain. One important factor to consider when building your gravel bike is comfort. The fork will determine how smooth the ride quality is so you shouldn't look to skimp here. Check out fellow rider Kurt's review of his new ENVE fork! 

Introduction

Bottom line upfront, don’t let the retail price of this fork scare you off! It’s a versatile and lightweight piece of carbon-fiber artwork!

My parts search led me to this fork when I began building a bike around the Bombtrack Beyond + frameset for some mega-gravel/bike packing adventures. Looking around for a quality alternative to Bombtrack’s BPC carbon fork, I knew I’d need something in the 500 millimeter crown to axle height range and a 51 mm axle offset, in order to maintain the intended geometry Bombtrack had in mind for this bike. I decided against the Bombtrack BPC fork due to the versatility of this ENVE fork. The tie-breaker for me was the “flip-chip” dropouts, which allow the user to switch between 44mm and 52mm axle offsets. There are also three bolts installed on each fork leg for bike packing gear mounts, such as Salsa “Anything” cages or Blackburn “Outpost” cages.

Features

With the “flip-chip” in the 52 degree offset position, combined with the axle to crown height at 490mm, I was very close to the stock Beyond + frame-fork combo’s measurements with 51 millimeter offset and 500 millimeter axle to crown.

ENVE thought of everything with this unit. Don’t want to use the included hardware to mount bike packing cages on the legs? Just keep the clean, low profile bolts installed. They nearly disappear into the beautiful finish of the fork legs.

Also, there are small sleeve-like portions on the side of each fork leg where a removable fender can be installed! Hardware for mounting a brake caliper is included with this unit for the user to run brake discs up to 180 mm. Keep in mind, this is a post-mount fork so you may need “post to IS” mounts or “post to flat-mount” adapters, depending on your calipers. You’ll also find a nice compression fitting and carbon fiber top cap in the box. Remember, with a full carbon steerer, you’ll need a compression fitting, rather than a star-nut.

Having previously owned ENVE products, I knew the quality would be first-rate. The fit and finish of this unit are beautiful and I find it rare to have so many options in a suspension-corrected, carbon fiber fork for gravel or bike packing. They’ve really built a great, well thought out, and light gravel/adventure fork in my view.

Final Thoughts

By the way, if you're on the fence about giving bike packing or gravel riding a try, this fork is a great way to convert your hard-tail cross country mountain bike into an adventure beast! The suspension-corrected length of this fork will equate to the approximate length of a cross country fork. Swapping these forks out with a front shock will also take a few pounds off the weight of a hardtail. I’m very pleased with these forks!