In this fast-moving world of enduro and trail mountain biking, new technology and engineering breakthroughs are happening all the time. The most recent innovation that HUNT has brought to the MTB market is the latest H_Core technology: a revolutionary new construction method that makes our hard-hitting MTB wheels more durable and long-lasting than ever.

So what is H_Core?

H_Core is made up of a pair of pre-cured, pultruded, carbon-dense, reinforced rings, which are added to our carbon moulds prior to layup. The H_Core rings are added to increase strength in the join between the rim bed and sidewall and to ensure consistent carbon compaction and resin flow in this high-stress area.

What are the benefits of H_Core?

H_Core greatly improves the strength and impact resistance, qualities that are paramount to mountain bikers who like to take on challenging terrain. H_Core guarantees improved and more consistent compaction during the manufacturing process at the rim bed/sidewall junction; poor compaction in this area causes porosity to be present, producing weaker spots (stress raisers) to be present.

In addition to this, we design our rims to be front- and rear-specific, with the front providing greater comfort and tracking and the rear rim engineered to take higher loads and shrug off larger impacts.

How did we test H_Core?

The in-house HUNT impact testing rig has become a celebrity in its own right, with various specialist cycling publications using it for their own testing and review purposes.

For H_Core our test rig was actually updated to allow our engineers to impact test at much higher energy levels. The reason is that we aimed to match and surpass competitor wheelsets that reached extremely high impact scores. The upgrades also proved necessary as we also wanted to ensure a safe failure mode for H_Core products.

With our updated impact rig, we have been able to test, evaluate and redevelop H_Core products to ensure that if they were to break, under extreme circumstances, the failure mode is safe and consistent, and the rider would be able to continue riding and get back home.

Once the results were in, we were blown away with the performance, so much so that all H_Core carbon wheels will come with our market-leading HUNT H_Care, which offers free lifetime crash replacement.

In addition to our class-leading, in-house impact testing, H_Core wheels have been tested throughout the season by our sponsored athletes and test riders across the U.K., U.S., and Europe. Early H_Core samples performed so well that Tom Wilson raced 4 consecutive EDR races on one pair (only swapping as production-ready wheels were then put into testing).

Which HUNT wheels feature H_Core?

We currently offer H_Core in our HUNT Proven Carbon Enduro H_Core wheelset, but more H_Core wheels will be launching soon. Keep an eye out for more updates to be the first to know.