Hunt Proven Carbon Race Enduro Wheelset Review – UPDATED (Cracked!)

I bought a pair of these as an incentive to get back on the bike after an accident. Absolutely love them; such a beautiful wheel set.

I’ve been riding them for 4 months on local tails in the south and now the trails are dry it’s just epic.

UPDATE: 12/06/23 – Front Rim Cracked

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By singletrackross

Get the full story here:

Hunt Proven Carbon Race Enduro Wheelset Review – UPDATED (Cracked!)

And pinkbike now reporting that their rear rim failed. Damn, sorry Hunt!

I can have a set of DT Swiss 240’s on EX471’s for less money.

-Stronger and more impact resistant
-Same weight
-More compliant (carbon wheels are far too stiff for me)

I have a pair of 481’s on hopes that have completed over 6000miles and 1,000,000ft of descending. No cracks, no dents, a few broken spokes.

OK, before we go any further let’s just get this out in the open and state that the following is a helluva lot better than DTSwiss will offer on their wheels…..

Of course, if a customer’s wheelset was to see similar damage, we would replace the wheelset free of charge through our H_Care replacement program, which offers free lifetime replacement on Proven carbon wheelsets to the original owner” – Hunt Wheels

That is pretty impressive.

DTSwiss’ response to me was a magnificent…

you’ve been unlucky and caught the edge of something (rock or stump etc) firm. As you know with carbon its not the strongest ……..
will be £260 for rim replacement

Why does anyone buy Hunt wheels? I can’t stand them. Having inspected their products I think they are sh1te.

There are so many better brands out there. Hope vs Hunt isn’t even an argument, it’s Hope everytime

Having inspected their products I think they are sh1te.

other than being shite, what did your inspections show up?

I’m with matlockmeat

Poor wheel tensioning from new

Poor quality bearings that don’t last

Rims made of cheese

That’s nearly all the components covered

Even there rim tape comes like it’s been fitted by a kangawhikst hopping

 

I wouldn’t buy a new set of wheels from Hunt, but, for balance…

My Enduro Wides are still rolling after 4 years, with standard Rimpacts. Been living in an unfriendly wheel environment for the last 18 months and they’re still solid. I was skeptical after I trashed my Trail Wides in a month, but these replacements are alright. Factory bearings are shite though.

Whereas my Hunt V2 wheels have taken a bit of a bttering and the rims, spoke tension etc etc are fine.
The V1s I had on a prev bike definitely had softer rims.

Weirdly I’d not touch Hope rims – just ne example of people saying they are soft:

Hope rims – Fortus 35 vs 30 single cavity

All that being said I’ not bother with carbon rims and if I were looking to upgrade it would be DT Swiss all day long.

They can’t be that surprised or very surprised as they claim, pinkbike cracked there’s at the spoke hole too.

My hunt xc wheels have been fine for the last 2000 miles/ 3 years .

Except a spoke pulled through the rim- replaced under warranty.

And the free hub smashed- replaced under warranty.

Price was fair, warranty support was prompt.

We’ve seen great success for the Proven Carbon Race Enduro wheelset during the past 2 seasons of the EWS, plus both rounds of the 2023 EDR so far,

This would impress me if they had a limited number of wheels per year, and a time penalty for a wheel/rim change during an event.

Bearings on my mates’  Hunt wheels gravel offering are shiiite squared. Ohh and there’s something totally amiss with the free hub too.

Hope all the way for me.  Whilst I hear the Hunt customer service is good, I prefer stuff that doesn’t fail in the 1st place, so I don’t have to dixk about claiming, returning, having to pull a wheelie for a week if I want to ride still, etc.

The V1s I had on a prev bike definitely had softer rims.

Were early Hunts Kinlin rims? I saw it suggested but never confirmed. I have Kinlin on my gravel bike and picked up a massive ding out of nowhere that I’ve never quite managed to straighten, previous rims survived worse I’m sure 🙄

The boy has been riding his Hunt alu wheels that come on the Privateer 141 for the last 5 months now, including Dyfi, BPW, Enduros, DHs etc. massive gap jumps and probably a few rubbish landings.

We have needed to have it re-trued a few times and a few loose spokes, but that’s not unusal with how he rides. So we’re in the “yeah they’re pretty good” camp.

Wheels and rim in particular are weird when it comes to how people experience them. Wheels that have no issues just get used, “Yeah, no issues, had to tension the spokes last winter” is dull compared to the rear Roval I cracked. My list goes:

Mavic rim (remember them) not round or flat when I built them, although the end product was fine

Early Stans, no spoke hole reinforcement, “loads” of folks reported that they cracked on forums , mine never did.

The aforementioned Roval. – which was replaced and rebuilt under warranty.

I’m pretty sure there’s probably hundreds of v happy Hunt (and Hope) customers.

I know people look at this stuff but I’m not convinced by carbon wheels for mountain biking. You can probably make it work if the benefits are there for you but the payoff is high in terms of cost and failure risk.

Good hubs and hand built would be my preference.  My hunts that came on a second hand xc bike are ok. Little flexy (which I rarely notice on any bike) but ok. At the lower price point, not sure what else is available and good.

My 2ps worth on wheels…Hunt included…

I was gifted a set of XC wides to race on the – this had been either a Rigid SS and now currently with 100mm forks… i’m REALLY impressed with them..they are light and do appear to be strong… I clatter through all sorts of gubbins, and sometimes ride the SS like a hardcore HT! No issues from them… THey’re only about 160gm heavier than the XC proven carbon I think..

However…i bought myself a set of the trailwides (V1s) which were covered in dings and dents after the first ride (really!) on a 150mm full sus…. Had to straighten the rim out with a wrench… Lost faith in them, and bought Reserve 30mm carbons… (yeah, pricey..but lifetime warranty)..

I will say that I LOVE the reserve carbons… I love a stiff wheel – tracks really well..and light and strong too… Yeah, they were like 5 times the price…. but the Hunts, dying after 1 ride, simply weren’t good value.

I leant the wheelset to a mate – he’s a proper XC light weight boi… the rear actually eventually cracked with him.
Hunt have offered to rebuild back onto another V1 rimset. I can’t be bothered TBH…

DrP

Hunt Endurowide here. Came fitted to a 141 Ohlins edition. I don’t ride as much as I used to but they’ve been battered almost exclusively in the rocky jank of Wharncliffe and they’re still fine.

Trailwides recently bought in the sale for very, very cheap. Build quality seems fine. These will be my long distance, big day out wheels and they’ve got fast 2.6 tyres on. I’m happy for now.

I wouldn’t buy these carbon Proven wheels though. Heavy, expensive and fragile. Now everyone knows that while the brag about seasons of EWS abuse they can be blown up by bike journos. It’s a manufacturers nightmare but I’d rather have these honest reviews out there.

Shame to hear about the hunts. They look nice.

However, for me they’re a solution to a problem I don’t have.

Dt swiss alloy rims. Pick the appropriate one for your application. Have used a mix of 471, 481 and 511 rims down the years, all have been excellent.

Pick the hub in your price range. 350 are great. 240 are nicer but in reality are pretty much the same.

Done.

Carbon fibre – not all it’s cracked up to be?

Carbon fibre – not all it’s cracked up to be?

I’d agree with that. I think it’s the wrong material for almost all parts of an MTB apart from maybe headset spacers. Incredibly strong and lightweight in lab conditions. Prone to unforeseen, catastrophic failure when ridden, crashed and generally manhandled in the real world.

I honestly believe it’s main purpose is to provide manufacturers with something exotic to sell for twice the price of boring old aluminium alloys.

My 2¢: My XC Wide are noodly as ‘owt on anything remotely tussocky let alone rocky but do the job on easier trails. My Trail Wide are far more confidence inspiring and have remained ding-free to date.

For their price I don’t have any problems with either but, and this is petty: I wish they’d take the care to line up hub logos with valve holes when they built them. Wheel building 101 innit?

 

foam inserts make a massive difference to rims for me, carbon sixth element on 2 bikes and dtswiss on another.

my sixth element are scraped to shit but never needed truing,  dt swiss, dented the rim in 3rd ride, had planned to fit a rimpact that week, but didnt have the time :0(

cant beat hope or dt swiss hubs for reasonable money imho.

just got ribble carbon £255 on gravel bike having smashed my sonder alpha wheelset.

they’ve definately quickened the bike and feel superb, so light and so far strong.

just got ribble carbon £255 on gravel bike

Have you used inserts with them?

I’ve still not got round to trying mine yet.

I have the Vel carbon rims on my Topstone and definitely notice the weight difference. Seems they spin up much quicker. I’ve not considered inserts yet but might do.

I still can’t escape the feeling that inserts affect the feel of narrower gravel tyres. I’ve fitted Rimpact and now Vittoria into my 40mm Terreno Dry tyres, and with both I’ve noticed cornering feels far more tentative and have had rear wheels spitting out when I’ve not expected it.

Am going to experiment (if I can be bothered with the mess and faff of taking them out again) with running no inserts at e.g. 45psi or with inserts at 40psi.

Am going to experiment (if I can be bothered with the mess and faff of taking them out again) with running no inserts at e.g. 45psi or with inserts at 40psi.

FWIW I run 30psi on my gravel bike, without inserts and (obviously) tubeless.

DTSwiss’ response to me was a magnificent…

At least you got a reply! My son’s Nukeproof Horizon V2 “Enduro” (arf!) lasted 2 rides. 26th April we asked for help with a replacement. Still waiting.

Why does anyone buy Hunt wheels? I can’t stand them. Having inspected their products I think they are sh1te.

There are so many better brands out there. Hope vs Hunt isn’t even an argument, it’s Hope everytime

I really like Hope stuff but I prefer Hunt wheels. Trail V2s are so strong, comfy, cheap and light, plus easily serviceable, plus the Torque caps are £10.

I can see why someone would prefer Hunt.

@chakaping, yep rimpact 650b gravel inserts went in easily, although as i’ve always found the gravelking sk tyres tend to be very slack, so had to insert a tube to seat one side, then changed valve, inflated to seat both, then break one side put in the insert then swear a little to get it to inflate again,

deflated a few times in the first week, but not had to add air for the last few weeks now.

i ran rimpact on my topstone 700c 38 gravelking sk’d usually circa 35-40psi was a fast bike and handled well, unless it was rough. prefer 650b on my sonder camino

FWIW I run 30psi on my gravel bike, without inserts and (obviously) tubeless.

Wow! I’m 90kg (first time I’ve typed that, have been clinging to ’88kg’ for so long 😭) with 40mm tyres. I think I tried 35psi once and pinch flatted the tyre without even noticing how. That said it’s mainly dinged rims which are driving me to inserts and higher pressures, which is why I’m interested in chat about soft rims.

Just to add a little balance into the carbon wheel bashing, all puns intended, I ride a pair of the DT Swiss ones, luckily picked up cheap(er) from fleabay and they’ve been ace.

But go back to summer last year and a bad set of coincidences had me hitting the side of a moving farmers pick up at about 20mph both him and me.

Yeah, I was fine, but my first thought after turning off all the alarms to not call Mrs was OMG my carbon front wheel! No worth noting I had it square on at speed, dented the wing of the pickup, but wheel was fine.

I don’t do jumps but do do lots of miles, rocks, etc and it’s only on a 120mm bike and yes the odd scrape but nothing catastrophic (yet) so perhaps there is something in it or I am just plain lucky.

For my two pence I love the honest reviews, I love that the customer service is ace, but it just feels like a version one type issue, great idea but got a few issues / bugs in it and everyone seems to have them (yes Hope cheese rims were version 1, version 2 so much better) so pays your money makes your choice perhaps?

James