Bikes Blog
Hunt Maintain: Reasonably priced Carbon & Alloy Wheels Made in Europe, Extra Sustainably
May
A brand new Hunt Maintain sequence of wheelsets hopes to reduce the environmental impression of upgrading your bike. Hunt admittedly aren’t going to save lots of 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 atmosphere. 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 way more costly than their Asian-made wheels…
Hunt Maintain inexpensive wheels, however simpler on the atmosphere
Hunt calls this Maintain Part One, a primary step to constructing inexpensive carbon and aluminum wheels in a extra environmentally sustainable approach. A mission to reduce the environmental impression of them constructing wheels to improve your bike, however with out sacrificing high quality, efficiency, or worth for the tip 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 scale back [their] environmental impression“.
So what’s new?
Recycled carbon highway rim!
Recycled supplies are normally a straightforward one to have a look at. And all three new Hunt Maintain wheelsets characteristic rims with recycled content material. However that’s a bit sophisticated in relation to carbon rims. Carbon doesn’t sometimes 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 singular 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 bolster the bead for further impression resistance, whereas virgin uncooked fibers are used for the majority of the rim’s construction. They manufacture the carbon rims by way of 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 will be reused greater than 20x as a substitute of utilizing disposable foam, silicone, or plastic to kind the internal rim cavity.
The Maintain 42 Carbon rim encompasses a blunt aero form with a 22mm inside hooked tubeless bead, 42mm deep and 29mm large exterior. Hunt describes it as an all-rounder highway 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 in fact get a 36T ratchet freehub mechanism and one-piece titanium freehub physique.
Recycled alloy rims, too.
Recycling aluminum is a little more easy. And each new Maintain 6000 sequence alloy rims are made out of 75% recycled aluminum. General 45% of the whole 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 characteristic double-butted D-Mild spokes and Hunt Europa 48T / 7.5° hubs CNC-machined in France. Whereas the 30mm inside (34mm exterior x 20mm deep) Maintain Path Huge wheels mix D-Mild spokes and French-made Europa Increase 48T hubs.
Extra eco-friendly spokes & nipples
Taking a look at most fashionable wheels, it’s a reasonably apparent step in my thoughts to cease making spokes & nipples black. Hunt calls them ‘Zero Coated’ for all the Maintain wheels. However spokes are made from corrosion-resistant chrome steel anyway. So type is the one cause 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 also be naturally corrosion-resistant and successfully self-lubricating, so no purposeful cause to electro-plate them. And sure, basic 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 Part One – 42 Carbon Disc Ti
- Weight: 1497g per pair
- Rim Materials: Carbon Fiber, utilizing 10% recycled carbon fleece in outer rim floor to extend impression resistance
- Inside Rim Width: 22mm
- Exterior Rim Width: 29mm
- Spokes: Sapim CX-Ray triple butted aero blade with Zero Coat chrome steel end
- Spoke Depend: 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 Part One – 4 Season All-Street Disc
- Weight: 1718g per pair
- Rim Materials: Light-weight 6000 sequence heat-treated alloy, made with 75% recycled alloy content material
- Inside Rim Width: 23mm
- Exterior Rim Width: 27mm
- Spokes: Sapim D-Mild double butted with Zero Coat chrome steel end
- Spoke Depend: 24 Entrance / 28 Rear
- Hubs: HUNT Europa 4 Season Hub set, 7.5-degree engagement, CNC’d 6000 sequence 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 Part One – Path Huge
- Weight: 1878g per pair
- Rim Materials: Light-weight 6000 sequence heat-treated alloy, made with 75% recycled alloy content material
- Inside Rim Width: 30mm
- Exterior Rim Width: 34mm
- Spokes: Sapim D-Mild double butted with Zero Coat chrome steel end
- Spoke Depend: 28 Entrance / 32 Rear
- Hubs: HUNT EUROPA Increase 48T hub set, 7.5-degree engagement, CNC’d 6000 sequence 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 Part 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 palms from August 2024.
The costliest is the Hunt Maintain Part One 42 Carbon Disc Ti wheelset, promoting for $1449 / 1349€. That’s possibly 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-Street 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 Huge 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 the whole lot they do a bit extra sustainable. Since their begin in 2015, they’ve made positive to maintain service components & 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 customers, which 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 scale 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 tip of this yr.
Hunt says Maintain Part 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…