ENVE

M735 Industry Nine Torch 27.5in Boost Wheelset

No one wants to walk out of the woods on a ride. Whether it's from futile attempts to get a tire to hold air, or worse yet, a taco'd rim, mechanicals will certainly kill your ride buzz. ENVE wants to prevent this which is why its engineers spent 2 years redesigned its enduro rim which it uses on its M735 Industry Nine Torch 27.5in Boost Wheelset. The M735 is gravity-ready and lets you run lower pressures without resorting to heavy inserts or super-duty tire casings. Add in Industry Nine's fast engaging Torch hubs and you have hoops that are super reliable, lightweight, and ready to send it.

The M735 is influenced from the M70 that came before, but it redefines its self with an updated profile that pairs better with modern tires to absorb trail vibrations and chunder that come along with harder riding. This new profile also accommodates ENVE's new Protective Rim Strip that offers protection from pinch flats and rim damage at a lower weight. The use of the Protective Rim Strip enables us to ride with the tires and pressures we desire, instead of resorting to uncomfortably high tire pressures that slide out in dusty berms, or heavy DH tires that are a burden to climb with. On top of tire protection for pinch flats, the Protective Rim Strip also adds protection to your rim its self, giving you a bit of peace of mind when you overshoot a gap and land flat.

The M735, like its predecessor, uses downhill-specific carbon laminates that come from the M90 line to give aggressive riders a rim they can rely on for hard-hitting laps in the park, or backcountry adventures following deer trails. The downhill-specific carbon layup offers the resilience you want for big hits and still climbs with ease when the chairlifts close for the day and you've got to pedal to get your laps.

Moving forward from the M70s, the M735 features a shallower, but significantly wider rim, at 41mm externally and 35mm internally. This wide rim asks to run wider tires from the 2.5-inch wide-trail tires up to a 2.8-inch plus tire to offer you a greater contact patch that keeps you locked in on the dusty berms that threw you off-trail in the past. The beefier tires are more supple on the ride, adding a little extra squish to your suspension to soak up rocks and roots, but do come along with a weight penalty. The wider rim, along with the Protective Rim Strip adds about 130-grams of weight above the M70, but we're willing to forgive a little extra weight when we know it's backed by a rim that won't leave us stranded 30-miles from nowhere.

ENVE's designers utilize its patented technology to create tough, stable wheels for all riding condition. Using a patented process of molding valve stem holes and nipple seats, they earn ENVE's reputation for incredible strength-to-weight ratios. ENVE's carbon fiber is meticulously laid around each hole to maintain a continuous fiber, maintaining continuous fiber integrity, resulting in increased rim rigidity while keeping weight lower at the spoke face. When you lace this system up to a hub the result is a system that facilitates more uniform, and higher spoke tension than standard molding. In addition to their meticulous layup, ENVE uses a process that removes the inner bladder from the carbon fiber bolding, which results in lower weight compared to other composite manufacturers who leave the rim-molding inner bladder inside the rim when the wheel is complete. The tedious process of removing the bladder adds expense but lands you with a lighter rim with superior weight distribution and better balance.

Of course, when we think of ENVE wheels our focus is on the rims, but it's worth thinking about the hubs they're laced up to, and ENVE leaves it to Industry Nine for those duties. Solid engineering and precise machining give I9 its legendary status among mountain hubs. Our favorite feature is its lightning fast engagement system that propels you forward with little lag so there's no waste of power. This model uses boost spacing for stiffer tracking up front and more responsiveness in the back. The hubs and rims come together in Utah, where they are laced up to create an impeccable wheel with the longevity you expect from a class-leading wheel system.