New Hunt 48 and 60 Limitless Carbon Spoke Disc wheels are lighter and race ready

Hunt has unveiled two new wheelsets, updating the popular 48mm and 60mm Limitless Disc wheels with carbon spokes. Other changes include lighter hubs and Hunt is claiming "all-around performance" which is backed up by wind tunnel data in the brand's bid to offer "transparency" to its riders.

Credit: Christopher Stricklen

Hunt says its Limitless range has been developed to meet the technical requirements of its supported road racing teams, and when we reviewed the original Hunt 48 Limitless Aero Disc Wheels back in 2020, we absolutely loved them; in fact, they scored 9/10. Has Hunt managed to improve them even further? 

48 Limitless Carbon Spoke Disc (From £1,449)

Credit: Chris Hurd

The shallower of the two new wheelsets is the 48 Limitless Carbon Spoke Disc, and as the name suggests the wheels are 48mm deep front and rear. These claim to offer superior aerodynamic efficiency and crosswind stability when compared to other sub-50 mm wheels, with added responsiveness and lower system weight than the outgoing 48s.

Like all of the Limitless range, the 48s use super wide rims which measure 35mm externally and 22.5mm internally both front and rear. Hunt says this proprietary, patented shape and construction method utilises a co-moulded low-density polymer (density of 0.7g/cm3  vs carbon fibre pre-preg of 1.6g/cm3) in the outer rim to achieve an extra-wide profile while keeping the overall rim weight low.

The wide rims are said to result in a supremely aerodynamic wheel with stable, predictable handling characteristics, especially in turbulent crosswind scenarios. The rims are also optimised for 28mm tubeless or clincher tyres.

Credit: Chris Hurd

One of the major changes is, of course, the carbon spokes, and this isn't the first time that we've seen Hunt using this technology. To give one example, the 32 Aerodynamicist UD Carbon Spoke wheelset that we recently reviewed also featured them, and impressed with the stiffness-to-weight ratio.

Hunt says the spokes weigh just 2.7g a piece and offer excellent strength and responsiveness. The brand also says the TaperLock system "offers riders fully serviceable carbon-spoked wheels that can be trued like any other, with significant increases in power transfer."

You can read more about the technology here... spoiler, the in-house testing revealed that using carbon spokes resulted in a wheel with 6% greater lateral stiffness despite using four fewer spokes.

So just how much weight has been saved? Well the combination of those carbon spokes and new hubs (more on them in a minute) means that the 48 Limitless Carbon Spoke Disc wheelset now has a claimed weight of 1,511g, which is 109g lighter than the steel spoke variant.

Unlike many brands, Hunt has released data from its wind tunnel testing alongside the wheels. This shows that, contrary to popular belief, the brand has found no aerodynamic penalty using UD carbon spokes compared to traditional bladed ones. 

The other graph shows the Limitless 48 aero performance compared to some of the best road bike wheels on the market. At first glance, the results don't look over endearing towards the Hunts, with many of the other wheelsets resulting in less drag.

It should be noted that many of the competitor wheels are significantly more expensive at RRP, and that the majority of riding time (~90%) is spent between the yaw angles of -10 and +10 degrees.

Credit: Chris Hurd

Like much of the Hunt range, the 48 Limitless Carbon Spoke Discs are offered with either EZO or CeramicSpeed bearing options, costing £1,449 and £1,799 respectively. The EZO bearing option is available to purchase now, but you'll need to wait until March 2023 for the CeramicSpeed version.

60 Limitless Carbon Spoke Disc (From £1,499)

Credit: Chris Hurd

The deeper of the new releases is the 60 Limitless Carbon Spoke Disc. These are 60mm deep front and rear and are slightly narrower with an external and internal width of 34mm and 21mm respectively. 

Like the 48s these are hooked, tubeless wheels and feature carbon spokes, reduced weight compared to the older steel spoked version and the new Sprint SLC 7.5 hubs.

The new hubs retain the 7.5°engagement thanks to multi-point pawls, with 48 ratchets within the hub shell. They once again use the centre-lock disc rotor system and are available with Shimano/SRAM 8/9/10/11 speed, SRAM XD/XDR and Campagnolo freehub options. 

Credit: Chris Hurd

Paddy Blake, Hunt's lead product and commercial manager, said: "We've spent a lot of extra time developing our Sprint hubs.

"Thanks to refining the CNC process and utilising cold forged 7000 series alloy in the hub shells, we've managed to drop a significant amount of weight while retaining the same durability and strength of our original Sprint hubs. Because of this, we can confidently say our front hubs are weighing in around 95 grams, and the rear hub comes in at 220 grams. We're looking forward to hopefully bringing these reworked hubs out to inline and newer products in the coming months."

This weight saving combined with the carbon spokes has resulted in the new 60 Limitless Carbon Spoke wheels weighing in at 1,551g, just 40g more than the new 48s despite the extra 12mm of rim depth.

Hunt has once again published aero testing data alongside the release of the wheels, with yet more data to support that the carbon spokes won't slow you down, plus some more favourable wind tunnel testing results compared to the competition. 

The results of Hunt's testing show that overall the 60 Limitless UD was the fastest of the wheels tested over all yaw angles, but it should be noted that this wheelset is also the deepest. Even so, this is impressive given the price of the wheels if you trust Hunt's testing methodology.

> Review: Zipp 404 Firecrest Tubeless wheels

> Review: Roval Rapide CLX

Credit: Chris Hurd

The 60 Limitless Carbon Spoke Disc wheels are also available with EZO bearings (£1,499) or a CeramicSpeed (£1,849) option for £350 more. Unfortunately, there will not be any 60mm options available immediately at launch, with the EZO option coming in October and that hefty wait until March 2023 for the CeramicSpeed wheels.

www.huntbikewheels.com

Are you tempted by Hunt's latest offerings? And do you think the 100g weight saving is worth the extra money? Let us know in the comments section below...