I’m probably going to change my commuter next year – ride is min 18 miles but usually 25-30 on the way home. I usually fit in two commutes a week over the better months but it drops to once a week in the winter, and I skip it in icy conditions.

I’m thinking that I could upgrade my current (disk brake) wheels soon, then stick them on the new build later. I’ve got a pair of Hunt trail wide on the mtb and am happy with them, so are they in the same performance/weight/value sweet spot for road wheels? What else is worth a look?

Have a look on Merlin for their deals on DT Swiss wheelsets. I was on a bit more of a budget and picked up a set of Spline 1800 wheels at a good price. Having did this, if I had a bit more to spend the Hunts are also a popular call.

I have a set of hunts. Aero Light Disc I think they are.
They’re fine. Not great, not any better than the other, but also no worse. I’ve had no issues, but know of people who have. Two with the hub after a couple of wet rides and one who is very unhappy with his build, spoke tensions being all over the place and spokes snapping (he’s about 75kgs max).
I would recommend them, as long as you accept the marketing rubbish as rubbish. Mine aren’t aero and I don’t believe they are £ for £ the fastest alloy wheelset in the world.
They are light and look decent and so far I’ve found the performance to be absolutely fine.

Mine aren’t aero and I don’t believe they are £ for £ the fastest alloy wheelset in the world.

Tour magazine always used to do a decent wheel comparison, showing which were best for aero, flex, weight, etc

Do it – for wheels that are a fairly affordable upgrade but still an upgrade, I’ve found them great. Usual recommendations would be Mason X Hunts, or Aero Light Discs I think.

Another vote for DT Swiss here. I have put 5000 miles on a set of rim brake R20s and they only look about half worn. Only spend has been £16 on a set of bearings, which after some mental faffing turned out to be a very simple job to swap out with a couple of sockets and a hammer.

I tried Hunt and had issues, they did everything they could to put it right but in the end I sent them back and bought another set of DT Swiss (Merlin, £200 for a more modern equivalent of the R20s).

I have some hope hubs with pacenti SL25 rims. They have been trouble free for 2+ years and have ridden the HONC twice and local cx league along with club runs on sundays.

I’ve two sets of Hunt wheels for the gravel bike, the 4 seasons disc (fitted with gravelly tyres), and the Mason X Hunt (fitted with road tyres). Both are great, appreciably lighter than the stock wheels that came on the bike. Seem pretty well made too.

Hunt’s customer service has been excellent. Returned the rear 4 seasons wheel after I’d dinged the rim (running too low pressures in bike-packing mode) for a re-rim; their price for the work was significantly cheaper than getting my LBS to do it. In the end, they didn’t have my rim in stock and offered me a newly refurbished wheel free of charge.

Personally I’d go for either DT Swiss R1800 or PR1600 depending on budget, the hubs on the PR1600 are DT350 and essentially bomb proof, the R1800’s are DT370’s and while good are not as nice as 350’s.

If you go for proper after market wheels from the likes of Tweeks Cycles, not OE ones like Merlin, you’ll get front & rear QR adapters, front 100 x 12 & 15mm adapters, rear 142×12 adapters, centre lock to IS disc adapters, centre lock rings, tubeless valves and the rims already taped for tubeless.

To add to the above, I bought mine from Merlin and whilst did not get adapters (useless to me as the hubs were already set up for the correct 12mm bolt through) I did get the centrelock adaptors, valves and ready taped for tubeless (which was a doddle with Hutchinson Fusion tyres and a track pump).

Go handbuilt. Cycle Clinic, Spokesman or DCR.

You’ll probably end up with the same or similar rims as the Hunts but better hubs and spokes. Plus the wheels will be tailored to your requirements.

The Hunt wheelsets are light and stiff but not the most durable in my experience, i have a gravel set and the front wheel came out of true really quickly compared to the heavier axis 3 wheels i had before. Like previous posts i have also heard of snapping spokes.

So if you dont mind a bit of DIY they are a light , stiff wheelset. Good but not great value for money.

These could be worth a look
LOWMASS DISC WHEELSET

Need to open up the rear freehub pawls of my Aero Disc Lights to check everything is still ok, after finding the freehub body moved on the axle ~2mm side to side, turned out that somehow the “finger tight” endcaps of the axle were incredibly loose and needing several turns each to get finger tight again… Which could explain why I was intermittantly losing drive on their last ride!

I’ve got the Mason x Hunt 4 seasons road wheels. For the money there isn’t really much else of the same weight that looks as nice / of the same
perceived quality. It was £100 more for heavier Hope or Mavic equivalents.

I did a deal with the lbs I bought them from at the same time as I bought a road bike from them so they took the standard wheels in part x.

I love the look of the wheels and they certainly feel light when I take them off the bike – the lightest road wheels I’ve had I’d say – even though they are disc wheels and previous bikes have been rim braked.

Unfortunately I banged into a huge pot hole a few weeks after I got them (the pot hole had formed overnight from nothing and I was too close to the van in front to react when the pot hole ‘lept’at me from underneath the van). The front wheel survived, the impact was bad enough to bruise my toes against the inside of my cycling shoes, but the rear wheel didn’t survive undamaged. I somehow didn’t get a puncture but dinged the rim so badly it wasn’t fully round anymore and it couldn’t be straightened out. I was surprised the damage wasn’t worse tbh.

I got a crash replacement rim for a 30% discount and my lbs rebuilt the wheel. So far so good.

Since then though I have snapped a couple of spokes – Hunt supply spares with the wheel – but my lbs swapped the first one out for free. The 2nd time this happened I swapped the spoke out myself for a new one and have checked all the tensions across the wheel and made sure they’re all even. I suspect the lbs have over tensioned one side of the wheel vs what Hunt have advised is the max tension – although it’s not an exact science unless you have a very fancy spoke tension meter.

Hunt supplied spare spokes (triple butted stainless Pillar spokes with brass nipples so I don’t think you can fault the quality of them) for no charge and very quickly so service has been fantastic.

I’m going to see how the wheel goes now – if more spokes snap I’m going to have to put it down to that initial rim damage and assume some damage was done to the spokes in that. If that’s the case I’m going to buy a complete set of new spokes / nipples for the wheel and rebuild it myself from scratch.

So in summary I think they’re decent value for money for the weight / look / service you get vs the bigger manufacturers, but the jury is slightly out for me on longevity – but there are factors with my wheel that mean it’s difficult to be conclusive either way as to the cause of the 2 snapped spokes.

For reference I’m riding a Cannondale Caad12 (mostly for commuting to work) and I’m around 12.5 stone. That’s quite a short / stocky 12.5 stone though, not a delicate tall person.

Spokes snapping sounds bad, my Zipp 404s have never even needed to be trued and I’ve ridden them on and off road all over the place, taking no regard whatsoever towards them. I weigh 80kg (12.5 stone).

Spokes snapping sounds bad, my Zipp 404s have never even needed to be trued and I’ve ridden them on and off road all over the place, taking no regard whatsoever towards them. I weigh 80kg (12.5 stone).

With mine it’s hard to know if it’s my crash related or if they’d have snapped anyway. I suspect it’s the crash.

Just for balance it looks like zip 404 are around £700 per wheel – my Mason X Hunt wheels were £300 for the pair. So it’s not really comparing like with like either!

You could also look at Scribe,
https://scribecycling.co.uk/
I have a test alloy set (Pace) and bought a set of 3850 aero carbons.
Been very happy with both sets of wheels.
Just for balance I also have a set of Hunt race aero and did have a set of Fulcrum 4’s.

So it’s not really comparing like with like either!

Agreed, but I suspect spokes snapping is more down to low quality build rather than the actual spokes being duff.