ENVE Joins Kona Gravity Team

Photos by Andy Vathis

ENVE has expanded their reach in the gravity mountain bike scene thanks to a new partnership with the Kona Gravity Team. This partnership means that team riders Connor Fearon and former World Champion Miranda Miller will compete in the World Cup downhill and Enduro World Series events equipped with ENVE M930 and M730 wheelsets.

In 2019 alone, the M930 was ridden to eight World Cup victories, in addition to a World Championship and overall World Cup title. Since entering the World Cup downhill circuit a decade ago, ENVE’s team partnerships have continued to accelerate the product development process, resulting in more World Cup downhill wins and podiums than any other carbon wheel to date.

Putting the Kona Factory Team on ENVE is something that team manager Mathieu Dupelle had an eye on for some time due to a reputation for reliability and performance that travels through the World Cup race pits when mechanics and athletes talk. “There has been an appeal to form a partnership since a meeting we had in Mt Saint-Anne a couple of years ago. We had the chance to try the wheels and then we did our homework in speaking to riders that had raced on ENVE and got great feedback. It’s the performance and durability that we’ve been missing,” said Dupelle.

Now in their ninth season, the Kona Gravity Team is one of the longer-running programs on the circuit. “Having the opportunity to work with such a storied program capable of achieving so much success in both downhill and enduro is something that doesn’t come along very often. Our current rim technology comes from direct partnerships such as this, so working with Kona Gravity Team and delivering products that are currently winning World Cups is an exciting opportunity,” said ENVE’s Neil Shirley.

For 2020, the Kona Gravity Team had plans to tackle a massive schedule that encompassed the World Cup downhill series and potentially every round of the EWS. With the start of the season postponed and a number of races being rescheduled later in the year, the team will be going full throttle through the end of the summer. “In past years we would have taken a more conservative approach to the schedule, but Miranda wants to do more enduro and Connor wants to do everything. He really enjoys downhill racing, but likes riding enduro because he’s on his bike all week, which is what he loves to do”, said Dupelle.

Be sure to follow the Kona Gravity Team throughout the 2020 season.