Hunt is launching a new range of Carbon Aerodynamicist rim brake wheels that feature aero technology derived from its Limitless disc brake wheels introduced last year.
The 52mm, 62mm and 82mm-deep profiles have been developed in-house by Hunt’s product engineering manager Luisa Grappone.
“We’ve been able to take the principles found during the Limitless research project [widening sidewall profiles below the tyre interface to improve performance and stability across multiple yaw angles], and apply these to rims that make the absolute most of the space offered inside a conventional calliper brake,” says Hunt.
“An optimum aerodynamic benefit for a drop-bar bike is yielded from widening rim profiles. The reason for this is that it allows for a far more ‘blunted’ spoke bed area, which (depending on which part of the wheel you’re looking at) is both the leading and trailing edge.
“The benefits of blunted spoke bed areas revolve primarily around the predictable airflow, with the wind ‘hugging’ the rim as it passes across it (as opposed to older style V-shaped rims, which would create turbulence in the form of stalls). The wider profile ensures the flow stays attached to the surface as long as possible before the point of separation, which is key as yaw angles increase.”
A rim brake rim provides very different challenges from a disc brake rim because of the width constraints of the calliper, and a different fork design. The 48 Limitless Aero Disc has a profile that measures 34.5mm at its widest point while the maximum width of the new Carbon Aerodynamicist rim brake wheels varies from 28.1mm to 29.5mm.
The tubeless ready rims have an external width of 27mm at the brake track and an internal width of 19mm (62mm and 82mm-deep models) or 19.5mm (52mm-deep model). They’re hooked for compatibility with both tubeless and non-tubeless tyres, and the aero performance is optimised for 25-28mm tyre width.
Hunt says that the 82mm-deep Carbon Aerodynamicist wheelset is faster than tested competitors
(the Zipp 808 NSW is the same depth as the Hunt, the Enve SES 7.8 and DT Swiss ARC 1400 Dicut 80 are both a little shallower) when fitted with a Continental GP 5000 23mm tyre, while the 52mm and 62mm models are both “incredibly competitive”.
Hunt’s results say that its 52mm-deep wheelset proved more aerodynamically efficient than the Zipp 303 NSW (45mm deep) and the DT Swiss ARC 1400 Dicut 48 (48mm deep), but less than the Roval CL 50 (50mm deep) and the Enve 4.5 SES (48mm deep front, 56mm deep rear) when fitted with a Continental GP 5000 tyre in either a 23mm or 25mm width.
Its results say that the 62mm-deep Hunt wheelset proved more efficient than the Zipp 404 NSW (58mm deep) and DT Swiss ARC 1400 Dicut 62 (62mm deep) but less efficient than the Roval CLX 64 (64mm deep) and the Enve 5.6 SES (54mm deep front, 63mm deep rear).
Hunt did its wind tunnel testing at 45km/h (28mph) covering yaw angles of +20° to -20°. The full testing methods, results and interpretation (including details on the wind averaged drag calculation) are set out in a white paper that introduces the Carbon Aerodynamicist range.
All of the wheels are made from Toray T700/T800 carbon-fibre with unidirectional sidewalls and 3K weave bed and spoke areas. Griptec basalt ceramic fibre brake tracks are designed to offer excellent braking and durability.
The wheels use Hunt Race Season Sprint hubs with Ceramic Speed bearings. The rear hub engages in 7.5° when you start to pedal. A steel spline insert protects the cassette body from the digging in of sprockets.
Claimed weights and prices
Hunt 52 Carbon Aerodynamicist wheelset 1,518g £1,189
Hunt 62 Carbon Aerodynamicist wheelset 1,575g £1,249
Hunt 82 Carbon Aerodynamicist wheelset 1,738g £1,329
You can mix and match front and rear wheels of different depths.
Get more info over at www.huntbikewheels.com
65 thoughts on “Hunt launches Carbon Aerodynamicist rim brake wheel range”
Really interesting, and it is
Really interesting, and it is really refershing to see a company release data beyond just a few headline figures, especially when that data makes it clear that the companies products are maybe not the best in terms of performance.
That openess alone makes me more likely to buy Hunt wheels over others. Although I guess that is the results showed the Hunt wheels to be a lot worse than all the others, it’s unlikely they would be published, but one would hope that in such a case the wheels would not be put to market anyway.
On the results though, it’s interesting that there is quite a marked difference in drag when wind is coming from left compared to right, across all wheelsets. Is this a function of the asymetic design of bicycles? i.e. drivetrain on one side, not on other? Presumably a non-disc front wheel tested on it’s own would produce symetrical results.
This video tells you
This video tells you everything you need to know about Hunt.
The wheels are fine but you’re paying over the odds for big, big markups. Seems bizarre to me that wheels in this price bracket aren’t Sapim though…
roadmanshaq wrote:
Quite funny, and spot on for most companies that are just starting out, or indeed for many lower end products whether cycling not.
Indeed, it’s pretty clear that Hunt started the same way, and they have been fairly open about this too.
But rather than educating/sniping/trolling, if it really is as simple as that video, with profits that big, why don’t you do it?!
Also, no mention in video of import duties, VAT or any other form of tax.
In any case, things get interesting when those companies start trying to come up with their own designs, instead of badging up other peoples stuff, which is where Hunt are.
And now I’ll wait to be called out as one of the ‘shouty bike forum aspergers suffering sheep’ the guy mentions in his second video.
joules1975 wrote:
How do you know I’m not? All welcome to buy my Roadman Farsports carbon rimmed, novatec-hubbed wheels for just £900 a pair. http://www.roadmanwheels.cc will be live soon.
roadmanshaq wrote:
pmsl great work team
hunt were a “fake wheel company” but seem to be FWC+ now they are doing their own wheels as well as farsports ones
joules1975 wrote:
He might know his way round a wind tunnel but he’s an absolute arse so I’d not give him the time of day. You only have to read the stuff he apparently made up about Flo wheels to work out that he’s full of sh*t.
If people don’t like the price of fancy carbon wheels the solution is simple: don’t buy them. Trolling and making stuff up to suit their point of view just makes them appear to be a sad git with a chip on their shoulder.
Simon E wrote:
imagine spending your time online defending the ludicrous markups of Farsports-with-stickers reselling lmfao. Think you must be the chap mentioned in the DarkInstall video about how to start a fake wheel company! The entire contention here is that the wheels are not provably ‘fancy’ in any way. It’s money that should go towards quality products, not marked-up stickered China airmail specials.
roadmanshaq wrote:
— roadmanshaq100% wrong (again).
I’m not defending anybody, whether it’s stickered Chinese knockoffs or whatever. Is everyone who buys so-called ‘cheap’ Chinese-made wheels a fake? Being sceptical is a good thing but slagging people off and pinning labels on them with no real reason is not helpful to anyone.
How do you determine which are ‘quality’ products? You seem to think you have a monopoly on this.
Deep carbon rims look ‘fancy’ to me regardless of price tag and brand name.
Good work. I’m struggling to
Good work. I’m struggling to understand the yaw results, though. Why wouldn’t they be broadly symmetrical for positive and negative yaw angle? Either there are strange drivetrain effects going on or that wind tunnel produces non-symmetrical results.
I’m sure they know their
I’m sure they know their market, but it strikes me that they may well be launching a new wheelset into what is rapidly becoming a diminishing niche sector at a time when many of their competitors are discounting end of line rim brake models to concentrate on the growing demand for premium disc braked wheelsets.
Mungecrundle wrote:
Hi Mungecrundle, thanks ever so much for your feedback.
Whilst it’s clear to all to see the direction things are heading (as well as being clear to not all but most, the benefits of running discs), we totally agree with you that there will most likely be a place for rim brake wheels & bikes for some time yet.
For example, a couple of guys in the office here are (seriously) obsessive time trialists, with £10k+ bikes that might only see a few hundred KMs a year. We know riders of these bikes don’t upgrade too frequently because, simply put, they don’t need to. So, we don’t think they should be disadvantaged because of this. Similarly, plenty of guys out there who have invested in custom or expensive titanium rim brake frames over the past 10 years aren’t simply going to want to bin them now that discs have come to the fore. It’s their choice to continue to use that frame and we’re humbled by the fact these riders may choose us for their next wheel replacement as we’ve worked so very hard on the Aerodynamicist range.
Naturally, in terms of our engineering focus and where we’re moving forwards, disc brake is absolutely going to continue taking a greater slice of that pie, but we know plenty of guys with plenty of genuine reasons for running rim brake, and we wanna help those riders too!
Thanks again for everyone’s feedback here (well, most of it), it only helps us make better wheels for you.
Cheers, Ollie (Brand Manager @ HUNT)
Can you get hunt to send
Can you get hunt to send hambini the wheels so he can do a transient wind tunnel test on them, so we can see what they’ve like in real world conditions, thanks
Does anyone know what the
Does anyone know what the industry standard “box section rim” Mavic calc WAD value is?
Legend has it that youre only saving c. 5w between that and a 50mm rim; so to see a spread of 5w between top end rims is surprising. Does that mean DT Swiss rims are no faster than box sections? Or are Hunts twise as good? Or is technology just moving too fast for rumour and hearsay to keep up?
Im asking as a time trialist with a 10 year old rim brake bike 😉
Terence the Tractor wrote:
just google hambini aero wheels and click his blog post on wheels, scroll down to the two graphs
check12 wrote:
Hambini somewhat lost me when they began criticising Aerocoach’s lack of aerodynamic comprehension.
Thanks for the figures though; it roughly alignes with the mid-range of what I was finding last night and explains some of the variation.
Terence the Tractor wrote:
hambini is hambini but I don’t think his aerodynamic expertise can be called into question, glad the info helped
check12 wrote:
He questions everyone else’s results so why not?
It may be sensible not take any one set of results at face value; but equally I’d not accuse brands of lying simply because their wheel performs well using their own testing methodology.
In the end it’s an awful lot of money for a small number of watts saved at race speeds (and even fewer at recreational riding pace).
10w @ 30kmph, 35W @50kmph
10w @ 30kmph, 35W @50kmph savings kyserium vs shimano C50 for wattage differences
You can say what you like
You can say what you like about Hambini, but the fact stands that he conducted a load of wind tunnel research over the course of months with a slightly different approach to how we ride bikes in the wind on the road.
He’s been picked at and criticised and has reacted badly to questioning along the way, there’s no doubt that he’s a little bit of a savant, it hasn’t helped him when he criticises people/companies like Aerocoach, there’s also no doubting he knows his stuff, that he has something useful to contribute (I’d like to see him define an industry standard wind tunnel wheel testing formula) and that he has done one of the only if not the only independent tests on a slew of wheels. However saying that I do feel it also needs to be taken with a pinch of salt as the big flaw for me is the lack of tyre variation.
Since Hambini started those tests, personally I can’t take a wheel manufacturer seriously when they release some testing which says that their wheels are faster than the competitions.
I’d like to have some of
I’d like to have some of these wheel but fear that they’re just too wide to fit an older frame (Tarmac SL4 in this case). Which is a shame.
Rapha Nadal wrote:
I think you’re right unfortunately. A shame as they talk about catering for riders who don’t want to update their frame but then go ahead and make wheels too wide for older frames.
I’ve got an older Supersix HM so I feel your pain, I daren’t buy new wheels for it as I doubt any modern ones will fit. 25mm GP4s are a dream for a lot of us.
I know I should just change the frame but it rides beautifully and writing off a frame worth thousands over 3 years because of changing wheel fashions seems a shame.
Rapha Nadal wrote:
Most of the width is below the brake track. I’ve fitted a set of 19mm wide internal Vision Metron 40 SL wheels into my 2000 Brian Rourke frame, they fit fine. You might be limited to 23/25mm tyres by the brakes, but they’re so much wider and cushier on a wide rim that it’s no big problem.
Here’s the bottom line old
Here’s the bottom line old chap. I’m not going to stop sharing the facts of the matter; that these are cheapo el Farsports wheels with a sticker on them. You can keep whingeing about that or you can move on.
roadmanshaq wrote:
Not whingeing about that, though it may suit you to think that way as you can continue to patronise me and not have to think about what I’m actually saying/asking. No-one minds facts – real ones, that is.
Some questions for you:
1. How much do the Farsports wheels cost in GBP? (including all taxes, delivery costs etc)
2. Are they exactly the same?
3. What happens with Farsports if I have a warranty problem that requires repair or replacement?
4. If these perform similarly to the big wheel brands then could the same accusations not be levelled at them too? And let’s be honest, Zipp have had a fair number of issues. Or is it OK to charge a hefty premium if your name is Zipp, Enve or DT Swiss? And what about wheelbuilders like Strada selling £1300 55mm carbon wheels?
Simon E wrote:
Not so much that they can’t pay someone to come on Road.cc as a ‘brand manager’ and get plum spots in the likes of Bikeradar etc.
Yes.
You don’t understand. These are Farsports wheels. Farsports are the wholesaler. Hunt are the retailer.
[Quote[/quote]
4. If these perform similarly to the big wheel brands then could the same accusations not be levelled at them too? [/Quote] You’re starting to get it!
At least Planet X etc don’t gussy up a load of hokum about shoppy dee whoop wop aero engineering or whatever.
roadmanshaq wrote:
— roadmanshaq Not so much that they can’t pay someone to come on Road.cc as a ‘brand manager’ and get plum spots in the likes of Bikeradar etc.— Simon EYou didn’t answer the question.
Someone from Hunt has contradicted you on this and other points. I think you’re telling porkies.
— roadmanshaq You don’t understand. These are Farsports wheels. Farsports are the wholesaler. Hunt are the retailer.Once again, it seems you’re wrong (or evading the question). I was asking about claiming from Farsports from their own wheels.
I didn’t mention Planet X. Why don’t you make similarly critical posts about the other expensive brands? Is it because your posts are a load of bollocks?
Simon E wrote:
— Simon E Because this PR puff piece is about Hunt and their catalogue Chinese wheels you donkey. They’re catalogue wheels from a Chinese wholesaler posted to the UK and distributed with a markup (always a hoot when a company tries to make out that their not defrauding the revenue and providing a warranty, and promising that they comply with the relevant standard, is some kind of added value). The whole ‘aero engineering’ carry on is made up to justify the silly prices. My local builder can do you a set of (branded) carbon rimmed, Sapim spokes, hope hubbed wheels for £900, all under warranty and built in the shop down the road. Actually scratch that, if they used unbranded Taiwanese rims which are they exact same it’s be cheaper still. This is a shell game and if you’re daft enough to fall for it that’s your problem.
The actual cost of these shoopy dee woop wop hunt aero wheels should be more in the order of £500 and that’s pushing it. See https://www.wiggle.co.uk/prime-rr-50-v2-carbon-clincher-wheelset?sku=100511266&source=igodigital which is identical in specification. Non branded hub, chinese carbon rim, pillar spokes. Spitting image. There’s a 90g purported weight difference which is precisely one mouthful of water. In fact I’d be willing to bet that one’s accounting for 4 wraps of rim tape /valves and the other’s not.
roadmanshaq wrote:
So, your saying that Hunt are lying when they clearly state that their wheels from Taiwan and not China?
roadmanshaq wrote:
Which local wheel builder would this be?
abusivemonk wrote:
— abusivemonk Because this PR puff piece is about Hunt and their catalogue Chinese wheels you donkey. They’re catalogue wheels from a Chinese wholesaler posted to the UK and distributed with a markup (always a hoot when a company tries to make out that their not defrauding the revenue and providing a warranty, and promising that they comply with the relevant standard, is some kind of added value). The whole ‘aero engineering’ carry on is made up to justify the silly prices. My local builder can do you a set of (branded) carbon rimmed, Sapim spokes, hope hubbed wheels for £900, all under warranty and built in the shop down the road. Actually scratch that, if they used unbranded Taiwanese rims which are they exact same it’s be cheaper still. This is a shell game and if you’re daft enough to fall for it that’s your problem.
— roadmanshaq Which local wheel builder would this be?— Simon E
I’m not doxing myself but they only included £100 for labour and shop overhead in their quote so you’d get a comparable quote from any other UK independent outfit. Or you could see Strada wheels who’ll do you a DT hubbed, DT spoked, 55mm carbon rimmed build for £1320, made by hand in the UK. https://www.stradawheels.co.uk/product/scope-r5/
Wheelsmith will do you a pair for about a grand. http://www.wheelsmith.co.uk/product-page/aero-38-50-60
roadmanshaq wrote:
I have owned a fair number of off the peg wheels in the past, but you simply cannot beat decent well specced custom built from a good wheel builder. Paul Hewitt in Leyland builds all of my wheels, and they are awesome. Light, fast, bombproof. Many pre built wheels do look good, but the compromises are usually build quality, weight, over complex spoke and nipples design, and spares availability. Try and get Mavic spares for any wheel over five years old.
I don’t have a dog in this
I don’t have a dog in this particular fight, but if the design/dimensions are unique to Hunt then surely it’s their product?
Otherwise that requires any ‘real’ brand to do all their own manufacturing, which is a bit of an odd stance. I’m sure no-one would say that an iPhone is *actually* a Foxconn phone…
Compact Corned Beef wrote:
I think the matter here is design rather than manufacturing. Did Hunt have meaningful input in the design of these wheels? If so, they can rightly be called Hunt wheels. However, if they just ordered from the catalogue and asked that their branding be put on the product, less so…
chocim wrote:
Afaik, the wheels and rims sold by Hunt are identical to models on offer with Farsports. They sell them with a tidy markup + their sticker on them and I have no problem with that -own one set-, I see it as the premium paid for a no-hassle delivery where all costs are known beforehand and -hopefully- decent warranty.
What I personally find a bit rich is the business model where the buyer orders, then has to wait a couple of months for delivery, hence prefinances the entire purchase by Hunt and makes their business essentially risk-free. And of course they don’t exactly go into painstaking detail about their business model but fair enough. I do think everyone should check out the youtube video mentioned. Sure, it’s over the top but it’s also instructive.
Would I order with Hunt again? Well, after Brexit -finally- happens and the UK becomes a third country probably not. If I have to deal with customs formalities anyway then I might as well order from China (where the helpful lads who sell stuff will cheerfully undervalue whatever is shipped so you don’t pay too much duties and VAT). Same with warranty issues: if it’s outside the EU then it might as well be on Mars (I’m not exactly counting on Boris beeing honest about the comprehesive trade agreement before transition ends).
What Farsports do better is offering a wide choice in hubs/spokes for their wheelsets, I’m not complaining about the Novatecs/pilars from Hunt but would like more options.
Compact Corned Beef wrote:
The problem is not that hunt order from the catalogue. That’s fine by me and completely standard practice. Planet X do exactly that, they are very open that they go to Taiwanese trade shows etc and order straight from factories to maximise cost savings.
Where the problem is is when a company starts making out that they’re shoppy dee wop aero wizards and misrepresent what it is they actually do. Because in my view that is where the line is blurred between ‘marketing’ and ‘deception.’
If you want a ‘hunt wheel’ for a decent cost, go to a talented wheelbuilder with a good supply of carbon rims and tell them you want a DT hub laced with Sapim spokes. You’ll still be covered by his/her warranty and more of your dough goes towards the wheel, not the ‘brand management.’
I think there will be a
I think there will be a market for rim brake wheels for a while yet, and people still want the top end stuff.
Rim brake rims wear out.
If ever Mavic want to make the 26 inch rim brake version of their quite wonderful XC717s I would buy a good handful.
Not being able to obtain good quality rims for my commuter was one of the reasons I have put it in semi retirement.
And the knowledge that my good XC bike has unobtainable 26 inch ceramic Mavic XC717s (one very used 719 as an emergency backup) probably reduces my desire to throw it around as much as she is capable of.
There are carbide rims out there, as well as cheap alloy rims, but you know, quality.
Open Information about bicycle wheels and manufacturing
Hi Everyone,
I hope you’re well and thank you ever so much for your interesting and deep discussion with several insights. Being complete bike geek riders ourselves, just like everyone here on road.cc, is what drove us to want to start Hunt in the first place. From our industry experience we knew that the high spec rims hubs and spokes used for most alloy wheelsets sold at around £700-£1000 were being sourced from Taiwan (not actually that much from China), several were open mold, and all 3 large Europeans wheel/hub companies use Taiwanese made hubs for pretty much all their supply. We knew that tubeless ready, high end bearings, adaptable wheels, high end spokes, good low weights were all things we wanted to serve riders with at competitive prices and so the Hunt 4Season Disc (Hunt co-developed disc specific road rim mold) was 1589g/wheelset and £349 with fully adaptable hubs, half the price of the heavier Mavic and Shimano competition.
You’re absolutely right we considered that a direct to market business model (but with shop stockists, of which we have many) would serve the rider well and we knew it was right to be open about the model and our Taiwan supply (as has always been clearly shown on our website homepage, just scroll down). Our aim is just to supply the best wheels we can for the types of riding that we all do with excellent support and a rider driven approach in a country with good consumer protections.
It’s worth being aware that a very large top 3 European wheel company used open mold rims made in China to launch its carbon wheel range in 2010, but of course the internet did not talk about Chinese carbon rims back then and of course they charged £2000+ for those wheels due to their higher cost distributed business model; expensive = “no questions, it is good!”
Let’s be very clear, closed molds only serve the wheel company, not the riders. There is no technical or performance benefit for the rider from a closed mold if the shape, material and layup are the same, so there is nothing inherently wrong with an open mold product, however the majority of our wheels now feature closed mold rims and hub designs. These Aerodynamicist wheels are developed by Luisa here at Hunt and so this is a clear reason to have a new exclusive mold.
The video linked above was made by someone who understood some bicycle manufacturing/supply chain and then draws several assumptions and inaccurate conclusions. The video does not consider larger wheel companies’ involvement with trading companies and far eastern suppliers or the distribution costs that make their products seem different. The video assumes there is a clear line but really there is far more cross over. All we do is look at what choices serve the rider the best and we are hugely grateful to all the riders who see that and choose Hunt wheels.
Of course, Farsports have many customers but no Hunt wheel has ever come from Farsports and all our wheels are built in Taiwan not China. There is a considerable difference in terms of longevity of technical and bicycle experience between Taiwan and China. All our hubs and spokes are Taiwanese too. Please note these are not Novatec road hubs which have 14 degree engagement, and again many large wheel companies use open mold hubs. The hubs on the Aerodynamicist wheels use an open mold freehub that is very well proven (no-one wants a newly designed freehub system, freehub systems take such high loads that new systems always have teething problems) with a fast 7.5 degree engagement with our own Hunt lightweight hub body. The open freehub system used in many of our alloy road wheelsets (again not Novatec) is shared with 2 of the USA’s largest high end wheel companies. We are about to source some alloy rims from Giant Light Metal in China (yes part of Giant), but they are probably Asia’s largest high-end alloy rim manufacturer and make the highest spec rims for the 3 largest European alloy wheel companies and many major motorbike companies too, so they will provide us some of our best aluminium rims moving forwards.
PRICE COMPARISON – You can’t actually spec this wheelset from Farsports (which indicates we don’t use Farsports of course, or any Chinese trading company) these Hunt rims, hubs and Pillar Wing Aero spokes are all made in Taiwan, not China. I have of course a good and regular understanding of our competitors to make sure we keep serving riders better than other companies. As such I am confident that if you spec up a similar wheelset with fast (similar to 7.5 degree straight pull engagement hubs, oval aero triple butted (not flat) spokes, and Ceramicspeed bearings and similar overall weight, plus then add shipping you will have a very similar if not more expensive wheelset. Especially if the customs decide you will need to pay the import duties due. Of course we do also offer 35 & 50mm Carbon wheels and EZO Japanese bearings rather than Ceramicspeed from £799 and will continue to compete hard on price.
Please note we could ship directly from Taiwan if we wanted to but we are not willing to undercut and evade the UK’s tax system (which pays for schools and hospitals) by not declaring goods for tax purposes. This obviously is applicable to any import into any country and we wouldn’t feel it is ok to lie to about our income to evade tax so why should any of us do so for imports.
Of course we also serve riders with alloy wheels which we all use here at TheRiderFirm, but FarSports and other similar companies only offer higher cost carbon wheels as they are not riders and purely look at it from a business point of view.
We care about riders and want to be able to sleep at night, plus we actually put our lives, and those of our friends and families in the hands of our own wheels. All Hunt wheels pass full ISO testing, burst pressure testing, impact testing, rolling road testing, heated pressure testing and many more and will implement a recall when it is right to serve the safety of riders in just the same way that at least 6 of the largest major bicycle brands have in the last 6 months, just search google. Do you think it is likely that a Chinese company will decide they should incur the huge cost and negative implications of a recall when there is no likelihood of your lawyer being able to take legal proceedings in China? Because of this Hunt wheels have full UK based product Liability Insurance back-up, this cost runs into the £10,000s and requires even further stringent regulations which we follow in our product development, production and testing.
Why would we pay the considerable cost of two highly qualified full time engineers based in Sussex to do no work?
https://www.huntbikewheels.com/blogs/the-rider-firm-people
The Aerodynamicist shapes were developed by Luisa from wind tunnel testing over an extensive period of time. With significant investment in wind tunnel testing and prototyping, these are newly engineered never before used by any wheel company. The 52 is a HUNT owned mold and world exclusive, the 62 and 83 are HUNT engineered also and we have an exclusive on them, but unlike our larger competitors we could not afford to cover the very large mold costs for them. If we had not shared these costs with the rim maker the costs of the wheels would be higher for the riders, we felt this was the right choice as extra costs would only be serving to protect Hunt not serve the rider. Luisa also has vast experience in composite lay-up engineering so worked a lot on the lay-up plan, extra 40T fibres to keep these wide and light, and Chris and Luisa carried out mechanical testing on these rims before finally signing off the layup. I hope this make sense, but of course would be more than happy to discuss openly further. No other wheel company has these wheels. The key difference with us is we have a Canyon style business model and we have always been more open about our Taiwan sourcing and this openness has made us look different, and be more scrutinised, than other more costly distributed wheel companies when the reality is our suppliers are widely shared by these incumbent wheel companies.
Today (election day in Taiwan) Paddy, myself and Pete are finishing off a week working in Taiwan with suppliers, Luisa was here most of the week too. We are working (on a Saturday) in Taiwan (not China) at our exclusive hand wheel builder, set-up just for Hunt wheels. Today’s job is testing de-tensioning methods and specs for the new UD Carbon Spoke wheels. You can see some pics and vids I just took here on my google drive: https://photos.app.goo.gl/acp6UzoQHxNf9CEr9
Big thanks Xenophon2 we’re definitely looking at more specifications and options and how to achieve this and thank you to the people here already riding Hunt wheels with first-hand experience and have provided their honest opinion.
Thank you again to everyone for their feedback it helps us massively. Our job is to serve riders, and so far we work hard every day to do so and we are hugely grateful to all you cyclists who have chosen to ride Hunt wheels. We always want to improve and if we ever fall short please do tell us https://www.trustpilot.com/review/www.huntbikewheels.com Trustpilot reviews all go live and cannot be edited by us and we hugely value everyone’s feedback to help us serve riders and continue to make better wheels.
Thank you again and enjoy your riding,
Tom Marchment
Co- Founder HUNT / TheRiderFirm
Awesome post Huntbikewheels,
Awesome post Huntbikewheels, you might have won yourself a future customer, especially if you keep doing posh rim brake wheelsets!
I’ll be riding rim brakes so long as they are available on the market, so there will always be a minority market at least!
Haha! Excellent post from
Haha! Excellent post from Hunt. A mic drop moment for sure.
Taiwan = Republic of China.
Taiwan = Republic of China. That’s their actual name. People say ‘Taiwan’ to be politically sensitive to the rage of the Chinese Communist Party but it’ll be a cold day in hell before I acquiesce to the demands of student-massacring, concentration camp-running nutters like them.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Two_Chinas
BTW if I were the Hunt brand manager I’d be very wary of ‘denying’ the oneness of China, might incur the ire of the CCP…
The hubs on the prime wheels
The hubs on the prime wheels are completely different to the ones on my Hunt wheels. Those Prime wheels are J-bend spokes, Hunt wheels are straight pull.
I have some Prime wheels with very similar straight pull hubs/spokes but even they aren’t exactly the same dimensions.
Either way, both sets of wheels work, well built and haven’t let me down racing.
Must be demoralising working in the bike industry when some people post with such aggression and not necessarily with a valid basis.
Probably more demoralising
Probably more demoralising being an independent wheelbuilder that creates high quality artisan products here in the UK and watching Chinese catalogue brands charging more than you for inferior products, surely.
roadmanshaq wrote:
Do us all a favour. Pop out and play in the traffic would you. Thanks.
Jimmy Walnuts wrote:
Aren’t you a classy chap. Imagine being so sensitive with your buyer’s remorse that you’d want someone to be maimed or killed. Who hurt you?
roadmanshaq wrote:
Oh dear. Where do these so-called ‘artisan’ wheel builders buy their rims, hubs and spokes from? The same suppliers as everyone else.
And if the “catalogue brands” you despise are charging more then doesn’t that mean that your preferred ‘artisan’ builders are able to compete on price?
Most bike frames have been built in Taiwan for a long time now. UK framemakers can’t compete on price and many UK bike brands get frames made in Taiwan (which is not the same as mainland China).
The UK clothing manufacturing industry was decimated in the 1980s (I was in that industry and saw some of the fallout). Much of what exists her now exploits immigrant workers with zero-hours contracts and shady practices. Many clothing brands, including the high end fancy ones, charge top dollar while their stuff is made for peanuts in no-name factories in the Far East or Indian subcontinent with little or no regulation, employee protection or health & safety precautions. Or do you only buy UK-made items of clothing and rail against the high street and catalogue brands?
I suspect you are posting your bullshit comments from a phone, tablet or computer made in China. Or do you support artisan computer builders in the UK using locally sourced materials and delivered on a UK handmade bicycle?
Simon E wrote:
A: they’re better quality and B: they’re made by hand by reputable known individuals who you can actually go and visit, not the far east magical mystery box. See e.g. the hope hubbed, sapim spoked offers from Wheelsmith (who’ve been making wheels for champion riders for years) for a grand versus the no-name hubbed, pillar spoked Taiwanese wheels sold with a hunt branding sticker on it for an even higher charge.
You’re also factually wrong. Hope manufacture here in the UK. https://www.hopetech.com/ A great deal of DT products are made in mainland Europe including the majority of their spokes, and they make 10,000 wheels a year in their Swiss factory. Maybe you should get your facts straight before you start accusing anyone of ‘bullshit.’ 🙂
I don’t ‘despise’ anyone. It’s just that it’s crap VFM when you buy a catalogue taiwanese wheel which is more expensive and less good than something assembled by hand here in the UK. If you actually paid a blind bit of attention you wouldn’t be as spectacularly missing the point as you are now. Poor lamb.
roadmanshaq wrote:
— roadmanshaqNow you’re praising wheelbuilders and Hope etc when before you were comparing outwardly similar Far East made carbon wheels. You give the impression that you are simply targetting this particular brand.
If a wheel builders use more expensive components made in the UK or Switzerland then that’s their choice just as Hunt can choose to source components as they see fit. If a buyer wants to spend extra with Hunt, Mavic, Zipp or another company instead of Farsports for their carbon wheelset then that’s their choice and most people comparing them will have an idea why the prices vary so much for what may seem to be similar products. Review sites like road.cc and user experiences can sometimes help sort the wheat from the chaff but your posts here help no-one.
Simon E wrote:
Because this is an article about that exact brand. FFS. If it were about a different brand I’d be commenting about that one instead. That’s how this whole thing works.
You seem pretty damn mad that I’m on here making it clear that UK wheelmakers provide superior goods and a lower price than a catalogue lower-spec Taiwanese wheel importer. You can stay angry about it or you can deal with it, your call. Weird how the Hunt ‘brand manager’ and co founder seem to be less mad about it than you.
roadmanshaq wrote:
— roadmanshaqAm I angry? No.
Am I mad? Well, that’s for someone else to decide.
I just don’t appreciate the kind of misleading bullshit you’ve posted here when instead you could be constructive. Why do you care who’s “mad”? Perhaps you’re a bit disappointed that the chap from Hunt hasn’t taken the bait. He may have worked out that responding to you is a waste of his time and you’ll just make a different set of dubious claims instead of addressing rebuttals or straightforward facts.
If you don’t like people continuing to respond to your unfounded or discredited claims and the deliberately inflammatory remarks and name-calling then you could always stop posting them. Twitter is a good place for that sort of thing. Or try sticking to facts, although that doesn’t seem to be your forte.
Here’s a fact: hunt wheels
Here’s a fact: hunt wheels are crap VFM relative to a high quality custom wheelset made by a good UK wheelbuilder. I don’t care about any marketing manager’s smooth comments about how marvellous their Chinese supply chain is, they’re not a patch on a good wheelbuilder using years of experience and top quality parts. I’m not going to stop saying it. Deal with it. Here’s what’s ‘constructive’: we have a great skills base of talented and good-value (much better value than ‘hunt’) Wheelbuilders right here in the UK and the idea that we should just ignore them all and start buying in Chinese factory substitutes is just ridiculous and a kick in the teeth to anyone who values quality engineering and artisanal skills – which you bullshit-edly claim don’t exist here any more. You might like to pretend that UK manufacturing and engineering is dead in a ditch but it isn’t. Maybe a trip to Hope or Enigma would shut you up.
roadmanshaq wrote:
It is not a ‘fact’ it is your opinion.
Your opinion may be as valid as the next person’s. You may be better informed than some, but VFM will always be subjective and so it is hard to describe as a ‘fact’.
We all now know your opinion. Thank you.
I did enjoy your suggestion that another poster was angry. Read your post again and see if you come across a tad angry too?
To give a real example: a
To give a real example: a set of wheels sold by Farsports that have identical parameters as what I purchased with Hunt, except
– no replacement spokes are included with the Farsports set
-need to put rim tape on them yourself and fit the valves (included) yourself
– but they come with DT Swiss 350 hubs instead of Hunt’s Novatec.
Price would be 745 USD ExW.
DDP price to continental EU would be 50 USD more, that’s supposed to include shipping, payment of duty and VAT. Caveat: this means that they undervalue for sure so might be that customs come knocking.
Total price would be 795 USD or 573 GBP, delivered to my doorstep.
Quick calculation assuming that duty and taxes would be levied on that (‘worst case scenario’): 716 GBP. I put the odds of that happening at 20%, certainly no higher.
Hunt price ex shipping is 799 GBP. Of course, the Farsports set has a better hub imo. Then again, forget about warranty.
Up to everyone to decide what risk/reward ratio they’re willing to take on.
FWIW I own a pair of Hunt
FWIW I own a pair of Hunt Wheels, 2.5 years after I bought them I had an issue with the axle, I contacted Hunt about sourcing a replacement and they sent one out a few days later free of charge.
Their customer service was fantastic and I would happily pay slightly more for their wheels in the future knowing that the after sales service is top notch.
BTW there are no import
BTW there are no import duties or VAT on products from Taiwan because they have a comprehensive trade deal with the EU.
matthewn5 wrote:
Boris, I’ve recognized you!
You’re talking nonsense. Even if they could apply preferences for import duty, never for VAT. Utter bollocks.
I thought the guy from Hunt
I thought the guy from Hunt actually categorically stated they don’t use Novatec hubs?
Anyway, a little OT, but might make people wonder about their Chinese/Taiwan/other manufactured products 😉 …..if I was to build (or get built) my own set of wheels for road racing, what rims should I get? Either disc or rim, as I have both types of bike.
mtbtomo wrote:
They don’t use Novatec on the wheelset discussed in the review article but they do on some others. My set has a Novatec hub on it. No complaints so far but well, it’s not Hope, DT Swiss or Gokiso (joking about the last one).
Quote:
If they were DT they’d say so. Otherwise they’re formula, novatec, or some other Chinese design.
Kinlin or DT Swiss are good VFM. Belgian HED are premium, you’ll pay a lot for them. TBH assuming you aren’t unusually heavy and are doing regular road riding I would just use Kinlin rims (Kinlin rims are the actual name for makes such as Halo). They’re what Malcolm at cycle clinic (he brands them as BORG) uses a lot with many happy customers. https://thecycleclinic.co.uk/pages/wheelbuilding
They’re probably what the Hunt alloy rims are TBH, they’ve just got an expensive sticker on.
It certainly makes me angry
It certainly makes me angry when someone comes off with a bunch of lies denying the skills base of the UK artisanal wheelbuilding industry. We have an excellent wheelbuilding industry, from Spa to Wheelsmith to the guys in your local shop. They produce excellent value goods, much superior in value to Hunt’s off-the-shelf and marked-up Chinese imported catalogue wheels. It’s ignorant and insulting. It’s not ‘just an opinion’ anymore than it’s ‘just an opinion’ that it is preferable to be operated on by an NHS surgical team than a bunch of “self-taught” DIY chirugeons. Some things actually just are facts and this is one.
roadmanshaq wrote:
Are you saying that no-one at Hunt is a wheelbuilder and that none of their team knows anything about designing or building wheels and that they’re a badging operation? Because we both know that those things are not true. From what I’ve read here they seem to know an awful lot more about it than you so I’ll take their word rather than your alt.facts every time.
Why don’t you use that righteous anger more positively and get these builders to submit their superior artisan handcrafted wheelsets for road.cc or others to evaluate? Probably because it’s easier to just slag off Hunt wheels and anyone who doesn’t agree with your inflated claims and pompous put-downs.
Simon E wrote:
Ah, but would they be reviewed, if/when submitted?
This should properly be answered by road.cc staff, but on the ‘Media information’ section of the site I read things like:
From Hunt:
“Probably our most powerful reach to seriously devoted riders comes from our work with Farrelly-Atkinson through road.cc and off-road.cc”
Tom Marchment, Founder
Canyon:
“Canyon sees huge value in advertising with road.cc. We regularly run digital campaigns, dealcatchers and competitions with the online publication which always yield great results for us and the team goes above and beyond to make sure this is the case.”
Hollie Weatherstone,
Marketing Manager
From road.cc:
Sponsorship
We can tailor either a single feature or a series of articles to enhance your brand’s image. Ask us about terms for specific features. from £1000
This is right here on the site, no surprises, no cards up the sleeves. But it does make me wonder about that small, niche builder with a limited marketing budget getting an article.
What I’d love to see is some double-blind comparative testing. Totally different sector but a well-known audiophile site (head-fi) used to run a forum on which a section was dedicated to that type of thing, run by a couple of ex audio engineers. The results of some of those tests were unsettling, to say the least. Following which the 2 retired audio engineers with credentials that were beyond dispute, were politely asked to take their tests and comments elsewhere.
Can you remind me if you’ve
Can you remind me if you’ve rowed back on your lies that Hope and DT aren’t manufacturing and assembling in europe yet? I’m losing track of your inconsistencies. Cheers! 🙂
From road.cc:
From road.cc:
Sponsorship
We can tailor either a single feature or a series of articles to enhance your brand’s image. Ask us about terms for specific features. from £1000
would this be flagged as a paid for feature or article / series of articles?
check12 wrote:
Yes: it appears in bold as the very first line of the article if applicable.
Well this got the crank going
Well this got the crank going…