Gravel Grinder News: Enve Adventure Fork Announced

Gravel Grinder News: Enve Adventure Fork Announced – by Guitar Ted

The Enve Composites Adventure Fork
Enve Composites Adventure Fork

With the advent of adventure cycling came a move to make bicycles more versatile with rackless bags and more points to hard-mount accessories like bottle cages and soft bag racks. Probably the most popular of these innovations is the fork mounted cage system utilizing, typically, a three boss per leg style of mount known as the “Anything Cage” mount, made famous by Salsa Cycles. However; not all bicycles come so equipped, and if you are a custom builder, putting three bottle bosses on a carbon fork may not be a possibility.

Backside view of the Enve Composites Adventure Fork

Enve Composites has answered the call by introducing their new “Enve Adventure Fork” in carbon fiber. This fork uses Enve’s one-piece molded carbon construction for an incredibly light weight of 575 grams. The collaboration with several custom frame builders resulted also in a fork with an interesting adjustable geometry, the aforementioned ‘three-pack’ bosses, and internally routed dynamo and brake line routing. Of course, the fork also uses the now ubiquitous 12mm through axle, tapered steer tube, and flat mount brake caliper mounting standard.

However; it is the adjustable ‘flip-chip’ in the drop-outs that makes this fork unique and versatile for custom bike builds. The chip changes offset and axle to crown measurements which affect handling and tire clearances significantly. This gives a custom frame builder more options when this fork is used for a custom frame build.

Detail of flip-chip axle drop outs on the Enve Composites Adventure Fork
The ‘flip-chip’ axle drop out can radically change handling and tire clearances.

For example, when using the chip in the ‘forward’ position, the offset is changed to 55.5mm from 49mm in the ‘rearward’ setting. This can be utilized to help prevent toe overlap issues with smaller riders and 29″ wheels. Or it can be used to make a design handle with less steering input, since a greater offset results in less Trail, which is one of the major determining factors in how a bike handles. So, a more stable ride handling feel can be attained with a ‘rearward’ chip position.

This flip-chip also changes the axle to crown measurement, basically the length of the fork from the wheel axle to the arch over the wheels, creating more or less tire clearances. In the 55.5mm, ‘forward’ chip position, you can fit a 29″er tire/rim combo with up to a 2.3″ width, and in 650B wheel and tires you can go up to a 2.6″ width tire. In the opposite, ‘rearward’ chip position, which is the 49mm offset, you can fit a 29″ X 2.1 or a 650B X 2.4″ tires.

The Enve Adventure Fork is available now at a price of $625.00 and can be purchased from any Enve Ride Center/dealer partner. See https://www.enve.com for ore details.

NOTE: Images and information used in this post were provided by Enve Composites.

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Author: Guitar Ted

Guitar Ted hails from Iowa. Home of over 70,000 miles of gravel and back roads. An inaugural member of the Gravel Cycling Hall of Fame and Co-creator of Trans Iowa in late 2004- Guitar Ted has been at the forefront of the growth of gravel events and riding since then. Creator of Gravel Grinder News in 2008, he produced the premier calendar of gravel and back road events. GT joined forces with Riding Gravel in late 2014.

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