ENVE Melee (Dura-Ace Di2) review

The ENVE Melee is the American brand’s race bike platform, used by Team TotalEnergies on the UCI ProTour and at the Tour de France.

A pro-spec build is often a tempting luxury purchase, although common wisdom suggests that improved performance is hard to quantify beyond a certain point.

Does going all-in make much of a difference to the Melee’s performance and how does it compare to stiff competition when the price shackles are taken away? In this spec, the Melee would cost £11,965, or around $15,000 / €14,000.

The answer is it compares incredibly well. It remains a consummate all-round race bike with a sensible geometry and ride position many (not only racers) will enjoy.

That said, there are other road bikes that, for the purpose of racing, some may find more focused.

ENVE Melee (Dura-Ace Di2) frameset

The Melee is the American brand’s off-the-peg race bike frameset.

Because the Melee can’t be bought with a complete build, you’ll need to specify that with ENVE dealers or distributors in your territory (more on this bike's spec later).

As it is, the Melee is said to follow ENVE’s ‘Real-World Fast’ design ethos, meaning it’s intended to be suitable not only for the race course, but for covering everyday roads quickly too.

When I previously reviewed this frameset, I wrote it was “logical, then, that ENVE doesn’t measure the Melee against competitors you might see on the WorldTour – to do so would be to compare, if not apples and oranges, then certainly different types of apple”.

Given the bike is now raced on the second-tier UCI ProTour, and at the Tour de France by Team TotalEnergies, my original mitigation now holds less water.

Still, ENVE says the Melee has been optimised for riding at 32-40kph, although it also says it has been tested at faster pro-level speeds.

The frameset is designed to work best with ENVE handlebars and stems.

Compliance is said to be improved by the sloping top tube design, which leaves lots of exposed seatpost, while the dropped seatstays perform the dual purpose of smoothing airflow and improving comfort.

The frame and fork (the latter is shared with the brand’s Custom Road bike) can accept up to 35mm tyres, while the frame fits a T47 threaded bottom bracket with inboard bearings. This is said to be both easier to service and present a lower chance of annoying creaking.

The frame’s claimed weight is 850g in a size 56cm, although that doesn’t account for paint (a slightly misleading claim, because the Melee isn’t sold without paint and paint can account for upwards of 100g worth of mass).

The Melee frameset is sold as a package deal, including frame, fork, ENVE cockpit (one or two-piece), proprietary seatpost, cable-routing guides and thru-axles. You then add the groupset, rolling stock, saddle and bar tape on top of this.

It can fit any electronic groupset or Shimano mechanical drivetrain.

ENVE Melee (Dura-Ace Di2) geometry

The size-56cm Melee I tested brings a 394mm reach and 571mm stack. The former is right on the money with most race bike frames, but the stack is 6mm taller than a 56cm Specialized S-Works Tarmac SL8 (565mm), and 8mm taller than a BMC Teammachine R (563mm).

That said, the equivalent Cannondale SuperSix Evo is even taller, at 575mm.

A steep 73.3-degree head tube angle and 73.5-degree seat tube angle are in the realms of race bike expectations, and should deliver sharp handling and a ride position that's pitched over the bottom bracket.

Of course, your exact fit and handling experience will depend on the dimensions of the components you specify (of which you have almost unlimited choice – budget allowing). This is something Cannondale, BMC and Specialized can’t guarantee for free at point of purchase.

That said, ENVE produces five forks with differing rakes for the Melee, designed to match up to specific frame sizes (there are seven) and optimise handling. A size-56cm bike has a 43mm-rake fork.

ENVE Melee (Dura-Ace Di2) build

This is the second time we’ve had an ENVE Melee in to test.

The first time, the frameset came fitted with a Shimano Ultegra Di2 R8100 groupset and ENVE Foundation wheels – and it emerged a worthy winner of our 2023 performance Bike of the Year test.

This time out, as part of the 2024 pro-bike spec test, the Melee is dressed in much of the top-level componentry you’ll find raced on the UCI ProTour (and at some key WorldTour races, including the Tour de France) under Team TotalEnergies Pro Cycling riders.

Given the ENVE Melee comes with a choice of ENVE finishing-kit components, the Melee arguably offers the most pro-level buying experience of almost any race bike.

At the time of writing, you can opt for the brand’s SES AR, SES Aero or Compact Road handlebars, which can attach to the SES Aero Road stem (available with a -7 or +12-degree angle), or a one-piece SES AR handlebar. These all come in a wide range of sizes.

The latest one-piece aero handlebar, as ridden by Tadej Pogačar, is set to become available later in the year.

You can also choose from a 20mm-setback or inline (zero-offset) seatpost.

To best match my bike-fit data, while erring towards a racier experience, I opted for the following attached to the 56cm frame:

• 120mm ENVE SES Aero Road stem (-7 degree angle)
• 390mm (centre-to-centre) ENVE SES Aero handlebar (79mm reach, 127mm drop)
• Zero-offset seatpost

Working with UK distributor Saddleback to build the bike to a ‘pro-level’ specification, the test bike is fitted with:

• ENVE x Selle Italia Boost SLR saddle (carbon rails)
• ENVE SES 4.5 wheelset (with Innerdrive freehub internals, 60t ratchet)
• ENVE SES tyres (700 x 29c)
• ENVE water bottle cages (carbon)
• ENVE K-Edge Road Stem Computer Mount

Importantly, customers have the option of speccing their own wheelset, tyres, and saddle – so, if you have the budget for something even more exotic, don’t want to use a hookless rim (ENVE’s rims are all hookless), or can shop around for a good deal on certain parts, the end price and specification of the Melee remains largely up to you.

The groupset is Shimano’s Dura-Ace Di2 R9200, albeit with the older RT-MT900 rotors, rather than the latest RT-CL900 models, which we’ve found are less prone to warping and rotor rub.

The build is also ‘missing’ a power meter, which is arguably an essential piece of equipment for any high-level racer. There’s nothing stopping you buying a power-meter equipped crankset at point of purchase, though, for a little extra money, or using power meter pedals.

As specced here, the Melee weighs 7.61kg and would cost £11,965 (the latter according to Saddleback, without accounting for any discounts a customer could find by sourcing some parts themselves).

Prices in the US and Europe will vary, but this equates to around $15,000 (albeit ENVE products tend to be a little cheaper in the US) or €14,000 at current exchange rates.

Of course, those seeking improved bang for buck are likely to be better served by opting for an Ultegra Di2 R8100 or Force AXS-level build, for example.

For comparison, the Cannondale SuperSix Evo Lab71 EF Replica I've also tested costs £12,500 / $14,000 / €14,499, while the BMC Teammachine R is a whopping £14,999 / $14,999 / €14,999.

A Specialized S-Works Tarmac SL8 is priced at £12,000 / $14,000 / €14,000, albeit all those bikes are specced with a dual-sided power meter.

ENVE Melee (Dura-Ace Di2) ride impressions

The ENVE Melee remains one of the easiest race-type bikes to ride that I've come across.

The handling is incredibly stable and easy to get used to, yet sharp and tactile enough to respond quickly when required. It’s stiff, but not uncompromisingly so.

Compliance through the frame and exposed seatpost is excellent for a race bike, and the top-spec ENVE SES 4.5 wheels and SES tyres combine to produce a solid-feeling, but smooth, ride quality.

For those who want a top-spec race bike for use on the open road – as an ultra-premium weekend whip – there are few that can match it.

That said, compared to the rigidity of the Teammachine R, balanced sharpness of the SuperSix Evo Lab71, or all-round excellence of the S-Works Tarmac SL8, the Melee feels marginally more docile.

For the average rider, such as myself, I’d argue this is a positive thing. But if I were asked to ride from point A to point B as fast as I could, I don’t think the Melee would feel quite as rapid as those competitors.

I suspect it’s the downside of making a bike ‘real-world fast’ and considerate of more riders – in doing so, ENVE might have clipped the Melee’s talons slightly, taking away from the more visceral experience of the competitors I’ve noted.

To be clear, the Melee is a very fast bike, and in a highly controlled test, it might be equally fast against the stopwatch. But, for those after the sharpest race-bike experience, they might find a better match elsewhere.

The benefits of the customisable build experience shouldn’t be underestimated, though, because it can deliver a road bike better suited to your individual needs, especially compared to some key rivals.

It’s also worth pointing out that the top-spec build doesn’t transform the Melee as much as one might hope.

While the SES 4.5 wheels are among the best all-rounders I’ve tried, I can’t say they’ve pushed the Melee to drastically new heights from when I tested it with ENVE Foundation 45 wheels in 2023, for example.

Nor does the Dura-Ace groupset make any discernible difference to the overall ride experience compared to the Ultegra drivetrain.

That’s as much a compliment to ‘second-tier’ products as it is an indictment of the law of diminishing returns with top-dollar, top-spec components, though.

The fact is, those looking for the best bang for buck needn’t look at any brand’s highest-spec bikes – the ENVE Melee, in this build, simply affirms that generally accepted (but sometimes ignored) dictum.

ENVE Melee (Dura-Ace Di2) bottom line

The ENVE Melee is a brilliant all-round race bike.

Its main appeal lies in its customisable build, enabling riders to get the fit they want (or need) within reason. It’s devilishly quick and manages to blend easy yet responsive handling and compliance.

It’s the race bike most people – racers or otherwise – should perhaps yearn to own.

That said, it is a little less viscerally exciting to ride than something focused solely on getting to the finish line first.

Given this, although it’s one of my favourite bikes for long, fast road rides, it might not be my number one pick if I was pinning on a number.