A brand new Hunt Maintain collection of wheelsets hopes to minimize the environmental influence of upgrading your bike. Hunt admittedly aren’t going to avoid wasting the world by barely tweaking how they construct wheels, however they’ve discovered a couple of methods to make 3 of their hottest wheelsets simpler on the setting. The result’s recycled content material in each carbon and aluminum rims made in Europe – the primary carbon rims I’ve seen made with recycled carbon fibers. Plus, silver stainless spokes & uncooked brass nipples that I believe look higher with out pointless coatings. Then, all laced into EU-made hubs in Europe, and surprisingly not far more costly than their Asian-made wheels…
Hunt Maintain inexpensive wheels, however simpler on the setting
Hunt calls this Maintain Section One, a primary step to constructing inexpensive carbon and aluminum wheels in a extra environmentally sustainable means. A venture to minimize the environmental influence of them constructing wheels to improve your bike, however with out sacrificing high quality, efficiency, or worth for the top shopper. Hunt describes the three new Maintain wheelsets as “developed leveraging recycled supplies, much less resource-intensive manufacturing processes, sustainability-focused specification decisions, and shorter transportation distances to cut back [their] environmental influence“.
So what’s new?
Recycled carbon street rim!
Recycled supplies are often a straightforward one to take a look at. And all three new Hunt Maintain wheelsets function rims with recycled content material. However that’s a bit difficult in terms of carbon rims. Carbon doesn’t usually recycle properly – as soon as the thermoplastic resin is utilized, there’s no separating it from the precise carbon fibers.
However the brand new Hunt Maintain 42 Carbon Disc Ti rim takes benefit of a novel carbon recycling course of.10% of the carbon within the rim is made up of a mixture of EU-sourced pre-consumer aerospace & automotive carbon scraps, in addition to a mixture of off-cuts from carbon bicycle rim manufacturing. That reclaimed carbon appears to be shredded and “processed right into a dense fleece” that Hunt makes use of within the outer portion of the rim to strengthen the bead for further influence resistance, whereas virgin uncooked fibers are used for the majority of the rim’s construction. They manufacture the carbon rims through Resin Switch Molding over a wax core. Which means no resin is added till the ultimate step, so scrap carbon can simply be recycled. And the melted wax could be reused greater than 20x as a substitute of utilizing disposable foam, silicone, or plastic to type the interior rim cavity.
The Maintain 42 Carbon rim incorporates a blunt aero form with a 22mm inside hooked tubeless bead, 42mm deep and 29mm huge exterior. Hunt describes it as an all-rounder street rim for 25-35mm tires.
The Maintain 42 Carbon wheels are constructed with triple-butted Sapim CX-Ray blade spokes, laced to 10° engagement Hunt Europa H_Ratchet Ti alloy hubs CNC-machined in Belgium. They after all get a 36T ratchet freehub mechanism and one-piece titanium freehub physique.
Recycled alloy rims, too.
Recycling aluminum is a little more simple. And each new Maintain 6000 collection alloy rims are created from 75% recycled aluminum. General 45% of the full is pre-consumer content material together with industrial scrap like shavings left after CNC-machining, however a full 30% is post-consumer – assume recycled Coke & beer cans.
Hunt builds up the 2 alloy wheels in Europe with Sapim spokes and EU-machined hubs, too. This time the 23mm inside (27mm exterior x 22mm deep) Maintain 4 Season wheels function double-butted D-Gentle spokes and Hunt Europa 48T / 7.5° hubs CNC-machined in France. Whereas the 30mm inside (34mm exterior x 20mm deep) Maintain Path Large wheels mix D-Gentle spokes and French-made Europa Increase 48T hubs.
Extra eco-friendly spokes & nipples
Taking a look at most trendy wheels, it’s a reasonably apparent step in my thoughts to cease making spokes & nipples black. Hunt calls them ‘Zero Coated’ for the entire Maintain wheels. However spokes are made from corrosion-resistant chrome steel anyway. So fashion is the one motive to make use of a ‘electrical chemical coating course of’ to make them black. And silver spokes really feel quicker anyway, proper? As for nipples, it’s the identical factor. Uncooked brass can be naturally corrosion-resistant and successfully self-lubricating, so no useful motive to electro-plate them. And sure, traditional brass nipples look higher in my e-book, too.
Now, in the event that they’ll simply roll that out throughout the remainder of the Hunt wheelset line-up!
Tech specs
Hunt Maintain Section One – 42 Carbon Disc Ti
- Weight: 1497g per pair
- Rim Materials: Carbon Fiber, utilizing 10% recycled carbon fleece in outer rim floor to extend influence resistance
- Inside Rim Width: 22mm
- Exterior Rim Width: 29mm
- Spokes: Sapim CX-Ray triple butted aero blade with Zero Coat chrome steel end
- Spoke Rely: 24 entrance / 24 Rear
- Hubs: HUNT Europa H_Ratchet Ti, 10-degree engagement with one-piece, machined grade 5 titanium freehub physique
- Hubset CNC machined and assembled in Belgium
- Bearings: Sealed Precision Cartridge
Maintain Section One – 4 Season All-Highway Disc
- Weight: 1718g per pair
- Rim Materials: Light-weight 6000 collection heat-treated alloy, made with 75% recycled alloy content material
- Inside Rim Width: 23mm
- Exterior Rim Width: 27mm
- Spokes: Sapim D-Gentle double butted with Zero Coat chrome steel end
- Spoke Rely: 24 Entrance / 28 Rear
- Hubs: HUNT Europa 4 Season Hub set, 7.5-degree engagement, CNC’d 6000 collection heat-treated aluminum alloy physique with 7075-T6 alloy axle and freehub
- Hubset CNC machined and assembled in France
- Bearings: Sealed Precision Cartridge
Hunt Maintain Section One – Path Large
- Weight: 1878g per pair
- Rim Materials: Light-weight 6000 collection heat-treated alloy, made with 75% recycled alloy content material
- Inside Rim Width: 30mm
- Exterior Rim Width: 34mm
- Spokes: Sapim D-Gentle double butted with Zero Coat chrome steel end
- Spoke Rely: 28 Entrance / 32 Rear
- Hubs: HUNT EUROPA Increase 48T hub set, 7.5-degree engagement, CNC’d 6000 collection heat-treated aluminum alloy physique with 7075-T6 alloy axle and freehub
- Hubset CNC machined and assembled in France
- Bearings: Sealed Precision Cartridge
Hunt Maintain wheels – Choices, pricing & availability
The brand new three wheelset vary of Hunt Maintain Section One vary of wheels can be found for pre-order now Restricted portions of the brand new wheels pre-ordered now will make it into buyer fingers from August 2024.
The most costly is the Hunt Maintain Section One 42 Carbon Disc Ti wheelset, promoting for $1449 / 1349€. That’s perhaps a 40% premium over Hunt’s least expensive carbon wheels, however about the identical value as their different mid-tier carbon wheels with aero rims and higher-spec hubs.
On the alloy entrance, the Hunt Maintain 4 Season All-Highway Disc wheelset sells for $549 / 489€. That’s technically cheaper than the common model when it isn’t on sale. Then, the Hunt Maintain Path Large mountain bike wheels promote for $589 / 549€, only a bit greater than their common counterpart (additionally now on sale.)
Subsequent sustainability steps for the model…
Hunt’s been working for years on methods to make all the pieces they do a bit extra sustainable. Since their begin in 2015, they’ve made positive to maintain service elements & spares accessible so your Hunt wheels can final so long as attainable. Hunt additionally began a RE:NEW program two years in the past. There, they provide refurbished used wheels to shoppers, that may in any other case be scrapped.
They’re additionally now sharing particulars of “a company-wide carbon emissions measurement and discount plan” base on the Science Based mostly Targets Initiative framework that may see them cut back direct & oblique emissions from their enterprise by 50% over the following 5 years. Hunt will publically share company-wide emissions and progress knowledge yearly from the top of this 12 months.
Hunt says Maintain Section One is simply the beginning, “Additional sustainability-focused product improvement updates will roll out within the coming months.”
We’re curious to listen to extra about their subsequent steps…
