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Chumba Cenote x Wheels Manufacturing
A Copper-to-Blue Singlespeed Showpiece for ENVE Grodeo
There are bike shows, and then there’s ENVE Grodeo.
Every June, ENVE turns their Ogden, Utah headquarters into a two-day love letter to custom bikes and dusty roads. Friday is the Builder Round-Up open house an invite-only gallery of some of the most creative frame builders on the planet, complete with factory tours, food trucks, and a lot of nerding out over details. Saturday is the GRODEO ride itself: a big, self-navigated ~90+ mile gravel loop in ENVE’s backyard Wasatch mountains that’s more about community, challenge, and good times than a finish-line clock.
This year, we teamed up with our friends at Chumba to bring a very particular flavor of fun to the show: a Chumba Cenote singlespeed, built around our SOLO-XD Single Speed Conversion Kit and dripping in Colorado Copper, black, and blue.
What Is ENVE Grodeo, Anyway?
If you haven’t been, Grodeo is ENVE’s version of a perfect gravel weekend. The Builder Round-Up on Friday is an open house where a couple dozen builders roll in with their wildest road, gravel, and MTB creations often with new ENVE bits bolted on and hang out with riders all afternoon. Think art show meets factory tour meets mini festival.
On Saturday, the GRODEO ride heads straight into ENVE’s local mountains on a big backcountry loop long climbs, chunky descents, and a course that’s more “choose your own adventure” than taped-off race track. It’s fully supported but self-navigated, limited to a relatively small field, and intentionally not a traditional race. You can ride it as hard or as chill as you want; the point is the experience.
It’s the perfect backdrop to show off a bike that’s built to be ridden hard and stared at.
Why Chumba?
If you’ve followed Wheels Manufacturing lately, you’ve probably seen our growing relationship with Chumba USA. They’re a small, rider-owned brand building metal bikes in the U.S. gravel, mountain, and all-road platforms designed for real-world riding, from local gravel laps to big bikepacking missions. Chumba Bikes
Chumba’s whole thing is:
Made in USA frames in titanium and steel
Ride-first geometry—progressive without being silly
Custom spec and finishes so each build actually reflects how you ride
We’ve already teamed up with them on previous show bikes, and every time the collaboration feels natural: their frames and finishes plus our bottom brackets, thru axles, and small parts make for bikes that are both beautiful and meant to get dirty.
So when the opportunity came up to do a Cenote gravel build for ENVE Grodeo, we knew we wanted to lean into something a little rowdier and a lot more colorful.
Meet the Cenote: Built for Modern Gravel
The Cenote is Chumba’s progressive suspension-corrected gravel platform designed for the kind of events that mix fast gravel, broken jeep roads, and honest singletrack into one big question mark of a route. Chumba Bikes
A few highlights from the frameset:
Geometry that blends concepts from their Terlingua, SL, and Yaupon platforms
Longer front-center, slightly slacker head tube angle, and a touch steeper seat tube angle for confident handling with a short stem and wide bar
Built around a 40 mm suspension fork like the Cane Creek Invert, while still playing nicely with other big-name gravel forks
Sliding dropout options that let you run UDH, T-Type, singlespeed, or a traditional geared drivetrain
Clearance for big rubber (up to 29 x 2.0") while still feeling lively with 700 x 40–50 mm tires Chumba Bikes
In other words, it’s exactly the kind of bike that belongs at Grodeo and it’s an ideal canvas for a singlespeed build.
The Color Story: Copper to Blue to Raw
For this ENVE Grodeo show bike, Chumba absolutely went off on the finish.
The Cenote frame carries a copper-to-blue and raw motif:
Rich, warm copper tones up front
Deep blues that echo anodized components and ENVE graphics
Raw metal peeking through to remind you this thing is meant to be ridden, not just photographed
The finish ties directly into our Colorado Copper parts and the accent colors on the build, so from a few feet away the bike reads as one cohesive piece, not a frame plus components bolted on after the fact.
Wheels Manufacturing Touchpoints
To tie the whole bike together, we kitted it out with a handful of our favorite pieces:
SOLO-XD Single Speed Conversion Kit for XD/XDR hubs in a mix of Colorado Copper, black, and blue
A Wheels Manufacturing seatpost collar in black for a clean, low-profile clamp that lets the frame finish take center stage
Colorado Copper headset spacers to pull the warm tones from the frame straight up into the cockpit
Colorado Copper T47 Bottom Bracket for rider who appriciate a little color with those smooth pedal strokes.
The SOLO-XD kit is the heart of the build. If you’re not familiar with it, it’s our adjustable singlespeed conversion kit for XD/XDR freehub bodies—designed so you don’t need a new wheelset just to go singlespeed. You get:
A machined cog
Lockring
A stack of spacers that let you fine-tune chainline and visual balance
On this bike, the trio of copper, black, and blue creates a subtle gradient that echoes the frame finish while still doing the boring stuff well, like holding chain tension and keeping engagement quiet and solid.
Why Singlespeed at Grodeo?
Could we have built the Cenote with a wide-range 1x drivetrain and called it a day? Absolutely.
But Grodeo is the kind of event where singlespeed just makes sense:
Long day, big climbs, chunky terrain
Everyone’s there to test themselves and their gear a bit
The vibe is more “shared adventure” than elbows-out race
Rolling into a non-race race on a singlespeed gravel bike is a statement: you’re here for the challenge, the simplicity, and the stories you’ll tell at the end of the day.
The Cenote’s progressive geometry and suspension-corrected front end give it plenty of control on the rough stuff, and the SOLO-XD kit keeps the drivetrain about as simple and reliable as it gets. Pick your gear, commit, and go turn pedals.
Chumba x Wheels: More Than a One-Off
For us at Wheels Manufacturing, collaborations like this go way beyond a show weekend.
We love working with partners like Chumba who:
Share our obsession with precision and durability
Believe in domestic manufacturing and small-batch craft
Want to build bikes that will still feel relevant and rideable years down the road, not just look good on a show floor.
The Cenote singlespeed for ENVE Grodeo is another chapter in that story a rolling example of what happens when frame builders, component makers, and events like Grodeo all pull in the same direction, make bikes that riders actually want to take out and thrash.
Where You’ll See It Next
We’ll be sharing more detailed photos and build notes from the Chumba Cenote ENVE Grodeo bike across our channels soon. Keep an eye on:
Wheels Manufacturing blog and social feeds
Chumba USA’s channels for their side of the story
ENVE’s Builder Round-Up coverage to spot the bike in the wild ENVE Composites USA
In the meantime, if this build has you thinking about:
Going singlespeed on your gravel bike
Adding a bit of Colorado Copper flair to your current ride
Or spec’ing Wheels parts into a future Chumba build
…reach out. We’re always happy to talk gear, builds, and bad ideas that might actually be good ones.
The Highs and Lows of the Colorado Trail – As Seen on Bikepacking.com
This summer, Wheels MFG marketing manager (and resident trail masochist) James Flanagan finally lined up for the Colorado Trail Race on a full-suspension bike built around a Wheels drivetrain and a prototype chainring. Bikepacking.com just published the full story and video, following his highs, lows, storms, hike-a-bike, and all the little moments in between when a neat CTR plan meets real Colorado trail. It’s less “I crushed it” and more “here’s what actually happened out there.”
For us, it’s the perfect mix of real-world product testing and honest storytelling from someone who lives and rides where our parts are made. If you want to see our components getting a proper Colorado shakedown and ride along for James’ attempt, you can check out the full feature and video here:
👉 The Highs and Lows of the Colorado Trail – Presented by Wheels MFG
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