Hunt has established itself as a major player in the aftermarket wheel game through its comprehensive range of great-performing wheels that don't bust the bank and today the brand has launched an all-new range dubbed Sustain Phase One. This initiative focusses on reducing the Hunt's environmental impact while producing top-quality hoops.

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To do so, Hunt has unveiled three new wheels with two appealing to the off-road market but all are hand-built in Europe and each has undergone extensive testing by the brand's in-house engineering and development team. This includes an impact test that uses a burst of pressure testing to 150 per cent of the maximum PSI. Of course, the wheels are also tested by Hunt's athletes in the real world.

One area that has changed in the name of environmental friendliness is spokes. Hunt admits that anodizing rims and hubs is an important facet of creating durable wheels as it helps protect surfaces from wear while boosting longevity. However, the electrical chemical coating process provides no practical or performance benefits to spokes apart from how they look.

Because of this, the three Sustain Phase One wheelsets use what Hunt calls Zero Coated Spokes which are raw silver J-bend spokes paired with brass nipples that the brand says are self-lubricating and naturally corrosion-resistant.

2024 hunt all road spo.jpg, by Liam Mercer

As well as a carbon road-going wheel (learn more about that from our friends at road.cc), Hunt is rolling out a Sustain Phase One 4 Season All-Road Disc wheel, and a Sustain Phase One Trail Wide 29 mountain bike wheel. Both wheelsets are based on the original Hunt wheels but they're built using 75 per cent recycled aluminium with 30 per cent of that being sourced from recycled post-consumer alloys from drink cans and the like, and the other 45 per cent is sourced from the industrial sector, so it uses off-cuts and swarf from CNC machining.

The 4 Season All-Road Disc wheelset claims to tip the scale at 1718g and is built using that mostly recycled 6000 series heat-treated alloy. The rims feature an internal width of 23mm and an external width of 27mm, it uses those Sapin D-Light double-butted Zero Coat stainless steel finished spokes and get a spoke count of 24 front and 28 rear. The freehub is taken care of by Hunt with a 7.5-degree engagement and 7075-T6 alloy axle and freehub.

The Trail Wide 29 gets a lot of the same but is claimed to weigh 1878g and is equipped with 28 spokes at the front and 32 at the rear. The internal rim width measures 30mm while the external rim width comes in at 34mm. These wheels then use a similar freehub but features Boost spacing.

2024 hunt trail wide spo logo close.jpg, by Liam Mercer

All of this comes as part of Hunt's aims to gain accreditation from the Science Based Targets Initiative which is a global partnership of organisations that helps companies measure emissions and set credible greenhouse gas emission reduction targets. With this, the brand will publicly disclose company-wide emissions and track its progress annually starting at the end of this year.

From there, Hunt has committed to reducing Scope One and Two by at least 50 per cent, so these address direct emissions from sources that the company owns like buildings, vehicles, and equipment as well as indirect emissions from things like energy that's purchased and used in the company's operations. The brand is then working with manufacturers and supply chain partners to reduce Scope Three which covers all other indirect emissions that occur in the value chain.

Hunt's efforts come as part of an aim to reach net zero CO2 emissions by 2050.

For prices, the Sustain Phase One 4 Season All-Road Disc will set you back £449 which is a £30 saving against the existing wheelset. The Sustain Phase One Trail Wide 29 wheelset is priced at £489 and that's a £10 increase.

• www.huntbikewheels.com

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