Enve MOG gravel bike: Proof that a fun bike can be capable too

There is a split in the market for bikes of all kinds. Flip through our list of the best gravel bikes and there are options for racing or adventure. If you want a stripped down gravel race bike, you'll find it without much difficulty. Or, if you are more of party pace kind of person, there are also plenty of adventure-focused gravel bikes available. What about everyone else though?

There's a lot of people who like to go fast, whatever the surface, but they are there for the adventures also. Big tyre clearance, dropper post compatibility, and mounts for bags and fenders (mudguards) are important features. Those features aren't worth more than an exciting ride though. Those of us in this group, myself included, want it all. Useability and speed together in one package.

The people behind Enve are in this group as well. The people who work at Enve are fast riders who like to ride on all kinds of surfaces, and in all kinds of situations, and they built a bike for all of us called the Enve MOG. Still, intentions are one thing, does this new bike hold up to the design brief? I spent some time in Southern California evaluating just that. If you are looking for a bike that is fast, fun, and capable, keep reading to see if the Enve MOG is the one for you. 

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Design and aesthetics

Enve as a brand has been busy the last few years. Three bikes in three years is impressive and it happened because of careful planning. If you don't think about it much, you might think that the first did well so the brand designed another, and so on. Most people realise that doesn't make sense given the time involved in taking a bike from idea to the sales floor but Enve has been even more deliberate than most companies. 

The Enve Custom Road was first to market. It is a high dollar bike and Enve walks you through the process of deciding every detail. It's built to order and if you want to go wild with paint, you can go as far down the rabbit hole as you, and your wallet, are willing to. The Custom road is also built in Ogden and that detail is key to why it came to market first. 

In the past, Enve supplied high-quality aftermarket parts for bikes. When the brand saw the market shifting, those in charge, rightly, understood that it was time to build a deeper relationship with their customers. It was time to make bikes but no person and no company does anything overnight. It takes time to get things right and building the first bike inhouse one at a time was how Enve got good at building bikes. The brand then took that expertise and ramped up production with their Asian manufacturing partner. 

The Enve Melee came to market the year after and the design was either simple and clean or basic and lacking depending on how you view it. Today the next step for Enve is the Enve MOG gravel bike and once again, it's either simple and clean, or basic and lacking depending on how you view it. 

For now, Enve is building the new MOG to look like a fraternal twin to the Melee. The logo on the headtube is the same black square with simple text, the name of the bike is in the same place on the upper section of the downtube, and the paint isn't the same but you still only get one colour option. This time, the matte finish remains but instead of the same depth as the Melee paint you get a rather flat sand colour. 

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There's no doubt it's lost a bit of excitement but there are some details and options that bring back a bit. In terms of colour, if you feel like you have to add some, Enve does offer decals that will spice up the logos. I'm told they are very high quality and to aid in application you get a pair for each placement and they are 5% bigger than the paint they are covering. No one is trying to say that's the same as true colour options but if you really want to switch things up a bit, you can. 

A more substantial detail is something you'll find on the downtube. Given that this is a gravel bike, the Enve logo on the underside of the downtube has moved up a bit to make room for a plastic frame protector. The Trek Checkpoint does the same thing but the Enve version has a topographic map showing the route of the Enve Grodeo. There's also the phrase "Not all who MOG are lost." 

That little detail on the frame protector is just a bit of fun but you'll also find a third bottle mount down there. That bottle mount is just one of the full complement of mounts that shows the real personality of the bike in the design. I'll give things away a little and say, this is a go fast bike. That said, you've still got fender (mudguard) mounts, accessory mounts on both sides of the fork, and top tube mounts for a bento box. This bike is also an adventure bike, perhaps in the vein of the Fairlight Secan, but with more of an eye on speed. 

You'll find that same dual purpose design all over the bike. Tyre clearance runs from 35mm minimum all the way up to 50mm for the biggest adventures. The bike is aero optimised but the only real effort there is to run all the cables through the stem into the frame. Unlike at the time of the Melee release though, now you can pick any of the Enve bars and further tune the personality of the bike for race or adventure. If you've gone for adventure, there's compatibility with a dropper post. Alternatively, again, you can go racier with a standard round 27.2 post. You can also tune the ride for adventure or race by choosing 1x or 2x groupsets.  

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The build

Remember, Enve is still building out the brand's capabilities. At the same time, the supply chain still hasn't straightened out. Both of those things mean that, like the Melee, you can't order up an Enve MOG as a full bike. Enve sells both bikes as what the brand calls a chassis. That includes a frame, fork, headset, handlebar, stem, and seatpost and the pricing is $5,500/ €5,995/ £5,500/ AUD $9,999 for those pieces. That doesn't mean you can't buy a complete Enve MOG, it just means that the details of what you get, and the pricing, is a conversation between the retailer and you. Enve isn't included in the discussion. 

What I rode was a size 54 Enve MOG with a Campagnolo Ekar groupset. Although Enve is proud of its six size offerings with three different forks to keep rake consistent, I can't comment on that give I ride one of the most common sizes. The handlebars on my test bike were the Enve AR bars that have a bit of flair in the drops and ovalised tops for extra compliance. The bar tape was from Enve and the saddle was the Enve branded Selle Italia SLR Boost Superflow. Under the saddle I had the Enve G series dropper post with the corresponding G series dropper lever. The wheel and tyre package rounding things out was the Vittoria Terrano Dry tyre in 700x47 and the Enve G23 wheels. 

It's also worth mentioning the new to market Enve C.I.M. bottle cages that made their way onto the test bike as well. Enve didn't go quite so far as to say that this is a gravel cage. What the brand did emphasise is the amount of energy spent testing to make sure it will not eject your bottle. Enve does not recommend using the standard Enve Carbon Bottle Cage on the MOG. There's no good reason to do so either given that the new cage is half the price and made in the US.  

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Performance

At this point of the review you have to be asking yourself about the name. The answer is that it's such a masterclass in marketing that I feel compelled to let you all enjoy it with me. Direct from Enve, "MOG is a noun, verb, acronym, and unequivocally a state of mind for those who push the boundaries of distance and rolling exploration. There's no road too long, no course too tough for those willing to MOG." Makes sense now, right?

Don't worry if it doesn't make sense to you, it doesn't make sense to me either. A colleague and I had both tried to guess and, in an effort to win a bet, I spent the night before the first ride grilling the lead design engineer on the team responsible for designing the bike. Was it a race bike like the BMC Kaius 01? Or was it a stable and luxurious ride like the Trek Checkpoint or Ribble Gravel SL? I started quizzing him on how the geometry compared to the Argonaut GR3. I ran through everything I could think of to try and figure it out but ultimately I was as confused as ever. 

The geometry numbers gave me very few clues in the end. The team responsible for designing it didn't start with the geometry numbers and, I would say, don't find them that interesting. What came through as important is how the bike felt and what it could do. As expected, Enve built it for the people at Enve. 

The team took a custom road and modified it then rode it. That means a bunch of incredibly capable riders spent time riding it on road, single track, and dirt roads then adjusting it and doing it again. At the same time, the carbon layup went through the same process of testing and iteration to get an end result. Given that I know how fast the people at Enve are, this was a clue to me but I had wait until getting on to really understand what the Enve MOG was like. 

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As is my luck this year, California is experiencing another atmospheric river. That meant the trip to Catalina Island got cancelled and I found myself just north of San Diego. It also meant that instead of starting and ending the ride off-road, we started our ride through the city. The upside is that for a lot of people that's how most gravel rides start and I don't always get to experience it during a bike launch. 

In those early miles on the road, I sat in the paceline and nervously felt out the bike. Right away, I could tell the Enve MOG was a bike that wanted to party. I was still feeling out the bike and the group but the stiffness in the frame felt lively. Have no doubt, this is a very stiff bike. So much so that I thought the tires might need to lose some pressure, a sentiment reminiscent of our thoughts on the Factor Ostro Gravel too. 

After a bit, our group hit the Belgian Waffle Ride race course. A lot of the earliest sections were far out of my comfort zone but the 47mm tyres I was running helped with that as did the dropper post. As I went farther, I dropped off the back a bit while negotiating technical sections and the course changed to a very flowey single track with sections of dirt road. 

The more time I spent on the MOG the more comfortable I got with its capability. One of the goals was to keep it lively without making it scary and more and more I found myself searching for my limits. Could I push a little harder here and there and catch the group again? How fast could I take the short sections of chunky rocks? I'm incredibly cautious on technical gravel but I was getting faster.  

One of the reasons I tend to be cautious is that it's easy to get in over your head with unfamiliar terrain. Hit a section too hot and your only choice is to ride it out and grab the brakes lightly. Those early moments when you find yourself thinking "woops" the MOG is stable enough to take care of you. Despite that stability, the Enve MOG is a playful bike.  

Later in the day I was feeling a lot more comfortable with the bike and the group and I was attacking every climb. Sometimes I find I'd rather just put out big watts and get to the top of a shorter climb in a hurry. The thing is, I never feel like that with a bike that lacks snap. This one is snappy and happy to play. 

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Value

There's no question that the Enve MOG sits close to the very top of the market. However, there are still some that come in a bit higher. BMC and Factor will both sell you more expensive bikes and they are both far less multipurpose. You can debate if an ultralight gravel bike or an aero gravel bike is faster in certain situations but you'd need a second bike to do what the MOG can do. 

On the other hand, there are some outstanding bikes that you can get for less money. 3T Exploro Racemax and Cervelo Aspero both offer a lot of tyre choice but truly big tyres will need a 650b wheelset and they both lack mounts. The Ribble Gravel SL isn't as exciting to ride but it has the mounts and lot lower price tag. The Salsa Warbird offers similar capabilities for half the price so you'd want to spend some time looking there if the Enve is on your short list.

One bike that is surely going to see a lot of cross shopping is the Specialized Diverge. The frame price is almost exactly the same with the Enve costing more but including a bar and stem. The Enve also has more mounts, and will fit a 50mm tyre vs a 47mm for the Specialized. Specialized has the future shock though so if suspension is something you want, that will be a consideration. 

Given the premium status of Enve, the pricing isn't a surprise. You get a lot of bike for the money but it's still a lot of money. If you can afford it, you won't regret the Enve MOG but there will be a lot of people who can't. 

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Verdict

If it's important to you that there be a label on the MOG, it's a gravel race bike. You won't see Enve use that title though and it makes sense why. Almost always when you see that title it means limitations. It should also mean you are getting a bike that loves to go fast but that's where it ends. 

The difference is Enve built a gravel race bike that won't hold you back when you feel like doing something else. If you want to take it bikepacking once a year, it's got everything you need. If you want to go for a long ride that might be best on a mountain bike then add a dropper, big tyres, and put an extra tube inside the frame. The rest of the time? A 40mm fast rolling tyre and two bottles is great for a fast day on luxury gravel. 

The biggest downside is that Enve doesn't sell the bike as a complete unit right now. For some people that will end up being a plus but for others it's going to mean added cost. The MOG is already an expensive bike and adding an additional cost for the groupset, in the form of retailer markup, only inflates that. 

You'll also want to think about how much frame stiffness you actually want. I'm obviously a fan of where the layup landed but even with big tyres and low pressure, this is a stiff bike. Stiff enough that I feel compelled to warn you about what you are getting. It won't be for everyone.