Enve Fray 2024 review: Still fast, but extra versatile

I've been covering Enve products almost as long as I've been in this business. The brand has always been a beacon of premium carbon engineering but Enve has also always been an aftermarket parts supplier. At one time there wasn't a better carbon fork on the market and hand-built carbon wheels from Utah are a mainstay in the custom bike building scene. Then in 2022, Enve changed the game a bit. 

Following on the heels of the Enve Custom Road bike, the Enve Melee hit the market as a very American take on a road race bike. The Melee is distinct from European race bikes with a slightly taller headtube, more flex, and room for tyres up to 35mm and fenders. Not only did it establish Enve as a brand worth considering for the best road bikes buyers guide but it started Enve down a new path. 

Since the Melee hit the market, Enve has slowly been expanding its range. The next follow-up was the Enve MOG which offers an equally unique take as the Melee but instead of road, the focus is gravel racing. Today, Enve is expanding the brand's range again by offering something that doesn't quite fit the established categories. 

The Enve Fray is a new take on the bike you ride every day. It's not quite a race bike but it's certainly not an endurance bike. It's fast and responsive but it's optimised around a setup that better matches how most people actually build a bike. 

If you want a fast bike but a Euro racer isn't quite your jam, keep reading to see if the Americans have a vision that aligns with yours.

Design and aesthetics 

So if the Fray defies categorization and isn't a race bike, a gravel bike, or an endurance bike, what is it? The short answer is that it's a Melee with a 2cm taller headtube and room for a 40mm tyre. There is also a long answer though. 

The longer answer is that it's a bit more complicated. Some might call it an endurance bike but that assumes that it's designed for something drastically different than the Melee. Instead, it's worth considering what the vast majority of people do with a race bike and especially an expensive one. 

With a retail price of $5500 for the core parts of what a Melee is, there are not that many people who actually race it. This year you can see the frame in the pro peloton but for almost everyone else, it's a fast and fun bike to have adventures on. Those who actually race are more likely to be on something like a Cannondale CAAD13 which costs less, is responsive, and if you crash it, the frame might not crack and if it does it's a lot less expensive to fix. 

Instead, most people ride a Melee for enjoyment. Something I wrote about as I discussed Shimano Dura-Ace was how amazing it is to have access to the same thing the best athletes in the world ride even if you only take it to the hills on the weekend. With that in mind though, most people aren't willing to compromise comfort too much. Your average race bike has a stack of spacers and these days you’ll see bigger tyres too. 

Enve built a bike for exactly that use and the result is that the Enve Fray heavily overlaps with the Melee and it’s only in the optimisation where the two differ. 

The Melee can fit up to a 35mm tyre but it's actually designed for a 28mm. The Fray can instead take up to a 40mm but it's designed with a 35mm in mind. Enough to take on most "light gravel" as well as whatever terrible pavement, or chipseal, your winding country roads actually use. 

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The Fray also has a taller headtube. A taller headtube and no spacers is often one of the biggest advantages to going for a custom bike. The Fray makes that possible with a production bike. If you run a bunch of spacers, you can now run a few fewer and you'll have the same fit. 

Then from there, Enve expanded on the details that matter to non-racers. Like the MOG there's in-frame storage. It's got the same patented and over-engineered anti-rattle system as the MOG and you still get the two neoprene bags that keep things organised and rattle-free inside the frame. There's also braze-on mounts for a bento box on the top tube plus a third bottle on the downtube. 

Pulling from the racier side of the equation, the Fray is aero-optimised in the same way that the Melee is. Although aerodynamics take an average 3.3 watt hit, that mostly comes from the taller headtube. Like other Enve frames, routing is all through the bars into the headtube and there's no exposed cables. 

The frame weight is pretty close to the Melee too. The Fray hits the scales at 900 grams for an unpainted 56 and it's likely much of that comes from the taller headtube as well. The Melee in the same size is only 50 grams lighter. 

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The build

Enve has been adding colour options to all the bikes since they launched but for the first time, the Fray is actually launching with choices. As before, you can't purchase a built bike from Enve. Instead you'll work with an Enve retail partner who will source a chassis in your choice of Salt, Ash, or Venom. Better known as off-white, not quite black, or sparkly colour shifting green-esque. 

With that choice made, you can then pick the chassis in sizes 47-60 with four fork rakes to match the frame size. Bottom bracket is a T47 standard and, as introduced with the Melee, there is a fit calculator tool to help ease size choice. The full chassis will also include frame, fork, headset, handlebar, stem, and the same D-shaped aero seatpost as the Melee. The price also matches other Enve bikes at £5500 / €5799 / $5500 for the complete chassis. 

Largely that means the particular build I spent time with isn't that important. Although some retailers will offer complete builds, I would call the Enve sales model semi-custom and you are always able to get the exact sizes you need. To make that even easier, there are more available Enve accessories today than in years past. The Fray can include a two piece bar and stem with either a positive or negative rise and a G-series, SES AR, SES Aero Road, or Compact Road handlebar. There is also the choice of a one-piece SES AR bar and stem system and all the options work with a K-Edge outfront mount. There are seatpost options in 3 lengths and zero or 20mm offset. When it comes to the drivetrain, "the Fray is designed for use with ROAD cranksets designed with a 43.5 and larger chainline" but you can choose 1x up to 55-tooth or 2x as small as SRAM 46/33. Shimano GRX 48/31 is not compatible nor is SRAM T-Type but the hanger is a SRAM UDH solution.

For the sake of understanding my experience, I was on a bike with Shimano Dura-Ace. The gearing was 11-34 with a 50/34 crank and I had Enve SES 3.4 wheels fitted with the brand new Enve 35mm tyres. The handlebar on my test bike was the one-piece AR bar wrapped with Enve bar tape and the saddle under me was the ENVE x Selle Italia SLR Boost Superflow. Rounding out the build was the Enve C.I.M bottle cage that is designed for gravel but also the only one I've found that stays silent with Bivo bottles. I brought my own Garmin Rally CX200 pedals and put a Garmin 1040 Solar on the excellent K-Edge outfront mount. 

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Performance

As I got on the Fray, the first thing I started doing was attempting to categorise the bike. What is the Fray and who is it for? Initially I was under the impression that it was an endurance bike and I spent an entire ride trying to decide if performance endurance was a category anyone was looking for. Given the premium price of the Fray that didn't seem to fit. 

The problem I was having is that the Fray isn't for me. When I get a new bike I cut the steerer tube as far as I can and put the stem on without any spacers. Most weeks I do at least one 6-7 hour ride and more than half the time it's on a race bike with 28mm tyres. I also carry everything in my jersey pockets and don't use bags on my bikes. I recognize that's more and more unusual today but it works for me and it means the Fray makes little sense. 

What's more typical in 2024 is the way a good friend sets up his Enve Melee. Often we are riding together and while mine has a slammed stem with 28s, his has 35mm of spacers and he's running 32mm tyres. It's nice that the Melee works just as well with my setup as his but if he were to buy a bike today I would absolutely recommend he look at the Fray. The ride feels almost exactly the same but he would have a smaller spacer stack and geometry optimised for the tyres he's already running. 

With that in mind, I find it relevant to ask what you give up by choosing the Fray instead of the Melee? That's what I really focused on during a week of riding in the coastal hills of central California. What I found is, very little. 

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I did have a bit of trouble getting comfortable in my preferred performance position. The taller headtube means a shorter reach and I like to be stretched out with my hands on the tops of the controls. Adding 2cm felt too tall and a bit cramped initially but, even for me, that's a position I use sparingly. Generally, it's for flat and straight TT-type riding where I seem to excel these days. 

When the road turned up, that feeling disappeared. Holding the controls behind the tops and climbing on luxury gravel with occasional spikes up to 17% gradients, the Fray felt like the Melee. It had all the flex and playful snap I appreciate in that bike and as we transitioned to broken pavement and equally steep descents it again felt like the Melee. 

Later in the day, I found myself in a second group that formed as we fell off the front wheels on yet another big climb. We'd already burned a lot of matches so we chatted and covered miles without too much urgency. The Fray felt ideal and when I responded to a friendly attack on the next hill - just to be clear by responded I mean I triumphed thank you very much - the Fray was just as ideal. 

The Fray isn't an endurance bike and it's not a gravel bike. The Fray is a road race bike that's built to better match how modern road cyclists actually use their bikes. It's fast and playful, like all Enve bikes, but it's also a little taller and comfortable running bigger tyres to transition on and off paved roads.  

Value

Enve marketing calls the Fray sales model a chassis but that's only half the story. Yes, it includes the bars, stem, and seatpost but that's mostly an acknowledgement that it makes no sense to sell modern bikes as a frameset alone. The days of buying a frame then adding a fork, and touchpoints are quickly eroding. Most brands with highly integrated designs embrace a similar model. Technically you can still use bars and stems from other brands but I doubt many people will do that. The only real difference is that Enve doesn't set full bike build price points.

With that in mind, it makes sense to look around at other frameset price points and that puts Enve perfectly in line with the competition. Specialized S-Works, Cannondale Hi-Mod, Look, and Cervélo frames all cost about the same with only minor differences depending on the inclusion of the bars and stem or not. There are outliers like the Colnago C-Series or the Cannondale Lab71 but, generally speaking, this is a premium bike and it's priced as such. 

It is nice though that you don't have to deal with predetermined builds and corporate purchase agreements. When I reviewed the Cannondale SuperSix Evo Hi-Mod I found it frustrating that there wasn't a power meter included and getting certain colours was dependent on choosing a specific spec. Enve avoids all that by selling a frame and letting you build it up and that's always my preference. 

The bigger question about the Fray in particular might be if you are getting better value because of a greater range of uses. You'll have to decide if that's true but I don't think so. Yes you can put a 35mm on the Fray and take it off-road but you can do that on a Melee also. The Fray isn't about adding capabilities compared to the Melee, it's about providing choices to match how people are actually using bikes. 

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Verdict

During my time exploring the capabilities of the Enve Fray, the brand took an evening to give a press briefing covering the details of the new bike. During that presentation, Jake Pantone, VP of Product and Brand, talked about using his Melee for the legendary Enve lunch rides (total smashfests) and grabbing the Fray for the weekend ride. I don't think that makes much sense for most people though. 

What makes the Melee unique among race bikes is that it's a little taller with room for bigger tyres, fender mounts, and with a bit more flex than is normal. The Melee is already an American take on a race bike that's perfect for going fast one day and riding from sunrise to sunset the next. The Cannondale SuperSix Evo is also a bit like that. If you own, or could own, either of those bikes and you are comfortable slamming the stems and running 28mm tyres, then the Fray isn't for you. The Fray is for anyone that wants a bike like that but instead wants to run bigger tyres, use a few spacers, and maybe add some storage to the frame. Admittedly that is a lot of people. 

The Fray makes sense either as an only bike or within a stable of different bikes for different riding experiences. I also own a Look 795 Blade RS and that bike consistently surprises me with how much stiffer, lower, and longer it is than the Melee. The Look is a much harder bike to spend all day on. The front end is so low that sitting up is a laughable concept and it would make a perfect companion to the Enve Fray. If you don't work for Enve, grab a more traditional European race bike for short and fast rides, an Enve Fray for fast long-distance riding, and a gravel race bike like the Enve MOG or Time ADHX 45 for off-road adventures.