The UK’s Hunt wheels just announced a bunch of new options for road, gravel and cross with now six wheelsets each for rim or disc brakes from entry level aluminum road training to high end carbon race wheels. All of their wheels are tubeless-ready and can even be delivered pre-installed with tires for those who don’t want to go through the mess of sealant or the hassle of getting a bead to seat. The new wheels are available for pre-oder now, with deliveries from the first weeks of 2016. Click past the break for a breakdown of the new disc offerings, details, and pricing…
At the core of the launch is a much wider disc-brake offering, including a new lightweight alloy wheelset and another affordable wheelset designed for the greater abuse of gravel and cross. But while Hunt has been all about putting together wheels to suit the regular rider, they’ve also gone upscale with their first carbon-rimmed wheels for both rim and disc brakes. The rim brake wheels carry over with the addition of new wide tubeless-ready carbon rims in 38 & 55mm with braking surfaces, but let’s dive into the disc brake wheels which are the most unique…
Aero Light Disc
One of the new disc wheelsets is the £460 Aero Light Disc. At just 1449g, it is one of the best weight/value/performance wheels on the market. It uses a moderately wide 17mm inside x 28mm tall blunt aero aluminum rim and gets built up with 24 front & rear straight-pull aero Pillar spokes laced to Hunt’s own Race Season Disc lightweight hubs. The hubs themselves are centerlock with alloy flanges and UD carbon center (and include a pair of 6-bolt rotor adaptors.)
They use oversize bearings with low friction inner seals, and come setup for QRs including a nice set of high-quality internal cam skewers (not the junk skewers most comparable wheelsets include to try to save a few grams and a few bucks), but also include 15mm front thru-axle adapters. Kits to convert to 9 & 12mm front and 135×12 & 142x12mm rear thru-axles are also available separately. Freehub bodies get a reinforced steel spline insert to keep from being gouged by cassettes and are available for Shimano, Campagnolo, and even SRAM XD drivers.
4 Season Gravel Disc
The guys behind Hunt do a good bit of riding and exploring off the beaten path and are pretty happy with the growth of the gravel segment. Their wheels have been tailored towards the cyclist who wanders off of the asphalt from the start, but one of their newest wheels takes that a step further. Their new £350 4 Season Gravel Disc wheelset builds on their award-winning Hunt x Mason 4 Season Disc wheelset (on which Hunt’s brand manager Josh Ibbett recently won the 4239km long 2015 Transcontinental Race in just under 10 days, and which we have on review for gravel and a bit of cross testing.)
The new 4 Season Gravel uses the same basic hubs as the wheels we have on test, but steps up to 28 spokes front & rear and uses a slightly wider 24mm external/19mm internal aluminum rim. The wider rim gives even more support to gravel or cross-sized tires at lower pressures, and of course with tubeless setups. The triple butted j-bend spokes get external brass nipples for max durability, but in a wheelset that still comes in at just 1589g claimed weight. The wheels get double-sealed, oversize bearings to survive the worst conditions, and the same full thru-axle adaptability as Hunt’s other disc-brake wheels.
38 & 50 Carbon Wide Disc
On the carbon front, Hunt still aims for every-day rideability. The new 38 Carbon Wide Disc, for £950 a set, is a modern light all-around wheel that balances the aero performance of a wide u-shaped profile with the stable cross-wind handling of a low to mid depth rim, with a total claimed weight of 1529g. The 38mm deep x 26mm external/18mm internal rim gives extra volume to regularly-sized road tires for more grip, better comfort, and lower rolling resistance.
As with all of Hunt’s wheels, the 38 Carbons are fully tubeless ready, and come with tubeless rim tape and valves. They get built up with the same carbon-centered Race Season Disc hubset as the Aero Light Disc wheels, this time with triple-butted aero-bladed Pillar spokes. So with the same hubs you get the same excellent thru-axle and cassette compatibility.
A 50mm deep carbon version is also available in the 50 Carbon Wide Disc wheels that step up to £1000/pair for riders looking to eek out even a bit more of aero benefit or might be looking to some of the new aero bikes coming to market with disc brakes. The 50 Carbons share all of the same tech as the 38s, but weight just a bit more at a claimed 1612g for the pair.
Just like the rest of the Hunt range, it’s possible to have any of the new wheels delivered with Schwalbe One Pro Tubeless Road tires preinstalled. For just £100 more, you get to pick 23, 25, or 28mm rubber and have the set preinstalled with sealant without having to worry about the setup yourself. And at £60 a piece retail for the tires, not including the sealant, it’s hard to pass up. For those looking to do more gravel or cyclocross riding Hunt will also set up any of their wheels with WTB Cross Boss tubeless tires £65 a pair, or Vee Trax CX tubeless tires as well for just £55 for the pair.
All of the new wheels are in Hunt’s preorder process now. That means, place an order online now for any of their 2016 wheelsets, put down 20% (fully refundable up to delivery, plus a week), and pay the balance when they are ready to ship out in January 2016. While pricing is all in British Pounds, Hunt ships all their wheels worldwide for free. The price includes standard VAT for the UK and EU, but other countries are of course subject to local import fees and tax.
