Enve’s new SES 3.4 AR wheelset is designed to offer aero efficiency when used with 28mm to 32mm tyres, fitting in with the trend to larger air volume and tubeless running for both road and mixed terrain use and delivering improving rolling resistance.
Plus, the SES 3.4 AR is disc brake only, with a disc brake specific section. With its SES 5.6 deep section wheels, Enve noted that eliminating the brake track let it design a more robust, more rigid, lighter rim with better aero efficiency and it’s brought the same benefits to the SES 3.4 AR.
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The SES 3.4 AR also uses a patented hookless bead design. First seen on its mountain bike rims and also used on its gravel rims, this helps avoid pinch flats when riding at the lower pressures that a wider tyre demands. Enve says that it’s the most versatile wheelset in its range.
SES 3.4 AR adds extra rim width and wide hookless bead tech to Enve's lower section aero wheel range
(Image credit: Ian Matteson)
The new wheelset follows in the tracks of the SES 4.5 AR, launched in 2016, which was one of the first wheelsets aero optimised to work with wider tyres.
According to, Brandt Furgerson, Enve’s VP of Commercial: “The SES 3.4 AR comes in response to the requests from our customers who love the SES AR platform but desired a wheelset that was shallower, delivered greater versatility, and maximized weight savings.
“In other words, the people wanted an SES 3.4, but with the features and benefits inherent to the SES AR platform. “
Like all Enve’s SES wheels, there are different rim heights and geometries between the front and rear wheel to match the different airflow characteristics between the front and rear wheel.
So the front wheel on the new SES 3.4 AR wheelset is 39mm deep and 31.2mm wide externally, while the rear is 43mm deep and 30.5mm wide. Both wheels have an internal rim width of 25mm.
Enve has aero tested the SES 3.4 AR against its existing disc wheels
Those numbers come from Enve’s aero testing project and are designed to reduce drag and increase stability with high volume, performance oriented tubeless road tyres. Enve has produced figures showing a lower wind resistance in its test when shod with 28mm Schwalbe Pro One tyres over its narrower section rims of equivalent depth, although deeper wheels are still more aero, even when using 25mm tyres.
The SES 3.4 AR is designed to work only with tubeless tyres. If you want to put a tube in, Enve says that you must still have a tubeless-ready outer tyre, marked as TLR.
You can buy the SES 3.4 AR with either Enve’s new disc hubs or Chris King R45 hubs, with complete wheelset prices starting at $2550 in the US and £2800 from UK distributor Saddleback. Plus there’s the option to buy the rims only to build into your own wheelset.
Enve says that although wider than its standard SES 3.4 Disc wheelset, the SES 3.4 AR wheels come in at the same weight of just over 1400g, depending on hub choice.
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Paul started writing for Cycling Weekly in 2015, covering cycling tech, new bikes and product testing. Since then, he’s reviewed hundreds of bikes and thousands of other pieces of cycling equipment for the magazine and the Cycling Weekly website.
He’s been cycling for a lot longer than that though and his travels by bike have taken him all around Europe and to California. He’s been riding gravel since before gravel bikes existed too, riding a cyclocross bike through the Chilterns and along the South Downs.
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