Hunt 30 Carbon Gravel - Alternatives?

Hi all,

Looking to get some new wheels and was considering handbuilt but the specs I'm considering don't get close to the Hunts at £800.

Requirements are:
700c / 100x12 and 142x12 / Disc / Suitable for Gravel or touring, whilst normally used for road / weight limit at least 115kg / hoping for sub 1600g for the pair of wheels / 28+ spokes for reliability

Keen to hear any experiences of the Hunts or potential alternative wheels.

Cheers
Jamie

I have these Hunt wheels on my Canyon Ultimate, I really rate them.
Rode TCR and did all my training on them. I’ve not had other carbon wheels but did quite a bit of searching before deciding on these.
The only thing I found to come close are Hope’s carbon offering and something bespoke from light bicycle, particularly if you feel you’d prefer something deeper.

Hope and choose your rims . I went stayer.

Naive question, what are the benefits of carbon for a 30mm deep rim? Kinlin XR-31T are reasonably light and cheap, and the measured aerodynamics in wind tunnel seems impressive.

SWAG. 28 spokes + 30mm carbon will beat you up in anything but the smoothest gravel roads

Are you suggesting that such a build is too stiff? So less spokes / shallower rim would be better?

I think the new Zipp 303s might be the ones for me

They're 24 spoke but rated to 115kg rider weight

I think a bit of flex is good on bumpy rides. But many spokes is better if you happen to snap one.

upping this topic because I have same doubts as @JuicyJambon.
In my case, the only additional need is to have a dynamo hub.

I am tempted with Hunt dynamo carbon wheelset but the price is double of the alu version.
Weight-wise the difference is thin...

I like their insurance policy which I doubt can be available on custom wheelset.

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another option for me, if I am going really bling bling, is a pair of stayers with hope rs4 rear and son front.
only reason I would be interested doing this is because stayers offers 45 wide rim on 700c.
price wise is just 150£ plus the hunt carbon...

Do Stayer sell the rims or can they build wheels with the hubs of your choice?

They build custom wheelset with a lot of different options...

I've got a pair of DT350 on Pacenti sl25 that are less than 1600g, they were built by Arup, and they've never needed a nipple tightening. DT ratchet hubs are low friction so accelerate quickly when descending, and they're easy to maintain as the drivers just pop off, I've got two cassettes that I frequently change between as it's pretty convenient.

Thanks,
tbh If I am going for carbon it's for purely aesthetic reason.
I like 40ish wide rim....otherwise, as you suggest, alloy combo are excellent!

lightbicycle but the pricing will be very close so might as well hunt?

Syntace wheels are very good syntace.de

I would feel more comfy buying "close"...

yep, but can't see any dynamo options...

Just to update you all on my choice... which may have partly been driven by vanity, but very happy with it

I went for the new Zipp 303s. I was able to get them from a bike shop that accepted Bike2Work scheme so i made a big saving there that wasn't available on the others. Really enjoying the wheels and they come with the lifetime warranty for piece of mind, as well as support from the shop that sold me them.

Appreciate they don't have a dynamo option.

I have heard good things about the Stayer wheels. I bet they'd be very helpful on a call so might be worth speaking to the directly :)

Thanks JJ

Michael Wacker has Zipp with dynamo so it must be possible. I've got hand-built Zipp 808 though not sure if they still sell rims only these days. I prefer shallow alu rims these days.

I like 40ish wide rim

You mean deep? Because 40mm will be too wide for most tyres.

yep, deep

Went through a remarkably similar decision process and settled on Zipp 303 S as well. Mostly because I’ve always wanted Zipps and never had them before. Wish they’d stuck with the old logos though

AH, FYI

Lightbycicle confirmed me they can do custom Dynamo wheelset too.

I am probably going with this.
Any query about?

• Rims: Falcon pro AR45, UD paintless 32H, hook, disc, standard version, with glossy black valve logo only
  ​- Hubs: 32 holes Son28 Dynamo front (black) centerlock/ 32 holes Chris King R45D (disc) (black) centerlock, shimano road 11S, front 12*100mm/rear 12*142mm
  
• Spokes: black sapim sapim race(2.0/1.8/2.0) round
  
• Nipples: black brass
  
• Lifetime warranty