Halo Gravitas are handmade wheels tested on the Downhill World Cup

Halo has added to its wide range of wheelsets with the new Gravitas, a handmade offering tested for the extremes of World Cup Downhill racing.

In a market flooded with carbon rims, odd spoke standards and weird nipples it is nice to see that some brands are still making quality alloy wheels using parts that should be pretty easy to find in an emergency. Halo has long been established as a quality wheel maker and the new downhill ready Gravitas wheel is sure to appeal to riders wanting bombproof reliability at an affordable price point.

As anyone with a little wheel knowledge should know, the best wheels are those made by hand and Halo has that boxed ticked. Each J-bend triple-butted stainless steel spoke is 100% hand laced and tensioned to Halo’s own asymmetric rims and new hubs.

Halo states that the new Gravitas range has been in development for the past 2 years including real-world Downhill World Cup testing under UK rider Jack Reading. The production wheelset uses an alloy blend that’s 30% stronger than earlier prototypes sporting a tuned wall thickness that promises a balance of strength and weight while shrugging off impacts. What’s more, Halo is touting their green credentials with the Gravitas rim being recyclable.

Rims are available in either 27.5in or 29in and feature an external 33mm width and internal 27.5mm. Halo mentions the narrower proportions of the rims mean they avoid unnecessary rock collisions while providing large sidewall support. To further enhance their ability to handle knocks and scrapes, the bead hood is thick and square. This also aids tyre sealing and prevents burping on track.

At the centre of the new Halo Gravitas are the new MT and MTC hubs. Halo has developed these hubs to work on virtually any bike using adaptor kits for QR, Boost and SuperBoost support, not to mention Shimano HG, Micro-Spline and SRAM XD compatibility. Even disc compatibility has been considered too.

Of course, a hub isn’t much use if it doesn’t transfer power to the ground and using their Supadrive wedge pawl system the Gravitas wheelset is able to withstand high torque loads, which may also make them suitable for eMTB riders too. The rear hubs use 12 micro teeth per pawl and a 120 point drive ring.

I’ve put the Gravitas wheels through very harsh real-world testing at World Cup downhill tracks for the past two years. In that time Halo have trialled different strength materials to find one that stands up to these tough conditions and I now have rims that will survive tracks such as Fort William while riding flat out and using sub 30psi pressure
Jack Reading

Halo Gravitas Wheel Specs

27.5in and 29in
Boost, Super Boost and traditional spacing
XD, HG and Micro Spline
Asymmetric
27.5mm inner width, 33mm outer width
100% hand-built
Tubeless-ready- tape fitted
120 point engagement (3 Degree)
Wheel weights from 970g front and 1170g rear (27.5”) 1035g front and 1235g rear (29”)
Rim weights 565g 27.5” and 600g 29”
Prices start at £499.98/ $ 685.74/ €575.98 RRP for a pair of wheels and £19.99/ $27.42/ €23.07 RRP for decal packs.
From – http://www.halowheels.com/gravitas/

Halo has already supplied us with a pair to test, so keep your eyes peed for a first ride report and full review.

Andi Sykes

Andi is a gadget guru and mountain biker who has lived and ridden bikes in China and Spain before settling down in the Peak District to become Singletrack's social media expert. He is definitely more big travel fun than XC sufferer but his bike collection does include some rare hardtails - He's a collector and curator as well as a rider. Theory and practice in perfect balance with his inner chi, or something. As well as living life based on what he last read in a fortune cookie Andi likes nothing better than riding big travel bikes.