A well-rounded wheelset.

One could argue that we’re in a golden age of carbon wheels. It feels like everyone is making them, most of them are pretty decent, and it’s up to the consumer to figure out where within the triangle of warranty, price, and weight that they want to spend their money. It’s a great time to buy carbon wheels, but that also means that for brands making them, it’s harder to stand out and make a compelling case.

Hunt does so by using a novel rim technology (H_Core) that it says makes for more consistent, stronger layups, and by hitting a reasonable price point. I’ve been riding the loquaciously named “Proven Carbon Trail H-Core MTB 29 Wheelset) on the Trek Top Fuel this summer, and have found them to be a nice match for that bike.

Hunt Proven Carbon Trail H_Core MTB 29 Details

• Internal Width: 30 mm rear, 31 mm front
• Spokes: 28
• Hubs: Hunt S_Rapid Engage
• XD, HG, MS freehub compatibility 
• Centerlock only
• Weight: Front 796 g, Rear 970 g, Pair 1766 g (with tape and valves)
• Price: $1,499

Rim Tech

Hunt’s big story here is the H_Core rims. You can get them laced up to either the Trail wheels tested here, or a 200ish gram heavier Enduro build. H-Core refers to two “pultruded, highly compacted carbon inserts to reinforce the critical junction between the rim bed and sidewall.”

Hunt says that these inserts help make for a much more consistent carbon layup without the voids or other weak points that would typically occur at the complex junction of the bed of the rim and the sidewalls. Pultrusion is the flipside of the extrusion coin that most folks are more familiar with. Instead of pushing the composite material through a die (think squishing Play-Doh through the little spaghetti maker toy), the fibers that make up these inserts are pulled through to give them a uniform shape and density. It’s a common practice in composites manufacturing, and we use pultruded fiberglass in everything from shovel handles to ladders.

Additionally, Hunt uses asymmetric rim profiles, and front and rear-specific layups and widths to tune the wheels’ ride feel. All rims also feature 4 millimeter wide beads to help allay the possibility of pinch flat.

Hubs

Those rims are laced (with 2x triple butted 1.6 mm spokes in the front, 2x triple butted 1.7 mm in the rear) to Hunt’s own S_Rapid Engage hubs. These hubs use a 3x2 pawl system running on a 90 tooth ratchet ring for 2° of engagement. That’s not quite as tight as some of the fastest-engaging systems on the market, but it feels instantaneous. 

Hunt can supply whatever driver body you’d like on those hubs, for HG, MS, or XD cassettes. However, they’re only available in “regular” boost spacing (148 mm rear) and they’re only available with a Centerlock rotor interface.

That’s…fine. Hunt sells a Centerlock to 6 bolt adaptor, but like many similar adaptors, it’s only compatible, on paper at least, with rotors up to 180 millimeters. That’s better than the ubiquitous DT Swiss adaptors that only go to 160 millimeters, but is still frustrating. I rode the lightning and ran DT adaptors with 180 millimeter rotors, and got away with it just fine, but your mileage may vary.

Warranty and Price

I know a few folks who buy carbon wheels with the expectation of eventually breaking them and capitalizing on the no-holds-barred warranty. At first glance Hunt doesn’t quite fit that bill. The standard warranty covers these wheels for three years for manufacturing defects, but not crashes or impacts from riding. However, they are also covered under Hunt’s H_Care program. This program covers the original owner for the lifetime of the wheels for any riding-inflicted damage that falls within their intended scope. So, don’t run these on a DH bike, or an E-bike, or run them over with your truck, but otherwise, party on!

For $1500 USD, these wheels just about hit the middle of the pricing spectrum. You can go cheaper, and you can spend much more money, but there are plenty of contenders within a couple hundred dollars of the H_Core MTB.

Riding Hunt’s Proven Carbon Trail H_Core MTB 29 Wheelset

That’s a lot of tech and specs, but how does this wheelset ride? Headed uphill, these are a great compliment to a modern fleet-footed trail bike. The snappy engagement and fairly stiff ride feel encouraged me to hammer and carry momentum through techy sections. 

Hunt says that it has taken several steps to tune that ride feel for compliance: these wheels use different front and rear rims, and different spokes to make for a more laterally flexible front wheel. I’d still rate that ride feel on the stiffer end of the spectrum though. These aren’t some noodles that will wriggle their way through pinballing rocks while you’re suspended above them. Instead I got a fair amount of trail feedback from them. 

That’s no dig on these wheels, on the shorter travel bikes that they’re made for, this snappy, in-touch feeling compliments the bike nicely. But I noticed an immediate difference in ride feel switching to these from Forge+Bond’s AM30 wheels. Those are notably muted, while the Hunts feel much more taut.

I found that I liked these wheels more the harder I pushed. They’re completely fine at more mellow speeds, but the more I focused on pushing through my bike and hitting my lines, the more I felt rewarded by the support they offered. That’s similar to my relationship with the Top Fuel - when I’m on my game, committing, pumping, and pushing my speed, the bike and these wheels feel incredible. When I’m tired, out of it, or just not riding well, the combination reminds me of how I should be riding. 

All that to say, these aren’t some sort of ultra-compliant noodles. They fall on the stiffer side of that spectrum, but not overly so.

I haven’t had any durability issues, but I’ll do my best to continue hitting rocks and casing jumps in the name of thorough testing, and will update if anything changes on that front.

For now

Hunt sells a very wide variety of wheelsets, but the Proven Carbon Trail H-Core sits as a nice middle ground, do-it-all option in its line. They’re a great fit for an aggressive shorter-travel trail bike like the Top Fuel, but I wouldn’t hesitate to run them on something more aggressive either. They have a precise, snappy ride feel, and Hunt’s H_Care program provides welcome peace of mind.

Learn more: Hunt Wheels