If you are a big road rider it can be hard to find a decent off-the-shelf wheelset that will survive under you. The folks at Hunt Wheels apparently have a few rugby player friends who had been thrashing rims and blowing apart freehub bodies before they came to Hunt, so they thought why not do something about it. So Hunt has reworked a couple of their rim brake wheels with a redesigned hub with pawls having triple the engagement and bigger axles, plus some new wide alloy rims that still give a bit of aero advantage while being able to take more abuse. The new Race Aero SuperDura & 4Season Aero V2 wheelsets both come in under 1600g a set making them decent weight, with the SuperDuras rated for riders up to 130 kg/285 lb/20.4 stone…
Race Aero SuperDura
The SuperDura wheels were developed with 116kg pro rugby player and Hunt OpenDev team rider Will Johnson, and another 125kg pro-rugby friend. These two big guys had been blowing lesser wheels apart, and both bought Hunts previous 4Season Dura wheels back in January of this year as winter wheelsets, then decided to take them to ride Paris-Roubaix. That was all before Hunt heard of it, but those 110kg rider limit wheels survived, and working with Johnson in the OpenDev program Hunt set out to build the guys an even stronger wheel with a bit more aero advantage.
The result is the new Race Aero SuperDura wheelset. It gets a new 3×3 multi-point pawl design. That’s a standard three-pawl layout, but each pawl gets a three tooth design that gives it that much more bite on the 48 tooth engagement ring (but not a faster engagement, still at 7.5° pickup.) That apparently has proven to be much stronger, especially in cold weather conditions when grease becomes more viscous or often contaminated. The hubs also got upgraded to larger axles (12mm front, 15mm rear) made from hard and heat treated 7075-T6 alloy to better handle the added rider weight.
The rim brake Race Aero SuperDura wheels also get a new 31mm deep, 19mm internal (24mm external) rim that is laced up with 32 three-cross j-bend spokes out back and sticks with straight lacing for the 28 aero triple butted spokes up front, and alloy spoke nipples all around. The tubeless rim even gets a new for Hunt heat-treated Niobium T-10 alloy for improved durability. All in the £460 wheelset still weighs just a claimed 1595g, with that big 130kg rider limit, and like the rest of their wheels Hunt can ship them to you with tubeless tires, rims strips, valve cores, and sealant already installed for less than you’d likely pay for the tires themselves.
4Season Aero V2
At the same time as the SuperDura wheels, Hunt has also revamped their rim brake 4Season Aero wheels with a new second generation V2 model. They get the same upgraded hubs with bigger axles and 3×3 pawls. Built for year round training, riding & racing the new 4Season Aeros have a 28mm deep profile, with the same 19mm internal rim width & tubeless compatibility. They also get triple butted aero spokes, here in a 24/28 lacing and brass nipples. The £340 4Season Aero wheels stick with a 110kg, and also claim a weight of 1569g.
