User Guide | Hunt Bike Wheels

IMPORTANT WARNINGS

• Every bicycle component has a finite useful life. Bicycle wheels are subject to wear and stress in use. Different materials and components wear or fatigue from stress at different rates with different life cycles which will vary extensively depending on the conditions in which they are used and the loads they are exposed to. If a component's life cycle is exceeded, the component can suddenly and catastrophically fail without warning, causing serious injury or death to the rider. You must frequently inspect components for any signs of wear or fatigue. If you have any queries, always consult a qualified cycle mechanic or contact us using the details at www.huntbikewheels.com. Scratches, cracks, bending, fraying or discolouration are all signs of stress-caused fatigue and may indicate that a component is at the end of its useful life and needs to be replaced. When you see any of these signs, please stop using your wheels and take them to a qualified cycle mechanic for inspection, repair or replacement as necessary. Products may also be returned to Hunt Bike Wheels for inspection*

• Road salt can accelerate corrosion of metal parts. It is important that any road salt residue is cleaned off as soon as possible.

• While the materials and workmanship of your wheels may be covered by a warranty for a specified duration, this is not a guarantee that the product will last the term of the warranty without failure. The warranty is not meant to suggest that the bicycle or component cannot be broken or will last forever. It only means that the product is covered subject to the terms of the warranty.

REPLACING SPOKES

Broken spokes are reasonably rare but can happen from time to time as a part of normal wear and tear. You can purchase replacement spokes & nipples for all HUNT wheelsets to allow a qualified mechanic to replace a broken spoke easily.

CARBON UD SPOKES

The technology used with our carbon spoked UD wheels requires a different approach to truing and tensioning the wheels. It is important to understand the construction and use the correct technique otherwise damage may occur. 

At the hub end of the spoke an aluminium mandrel is placed around the spoke during the curing process and is pulled tight against the (tapered) head of the spoke. The rim end of the spoke is fitted in the same way with a threaded steel mandrel. The steel mandrel has a standard square outer shape, but it is not a conventional spoke nipple.

The square section of the steel mandrel is essentially part of the spoke. The square sectioned mandrel needs to be used to hold the spoke stationary, to prevent twist whilst adjustments are made to the internal nut/nipple. 

The nut/nipple must be accessed from the tyre side of the rim. The tyre and tube (if fitted), as well as the rim tape will need to be removed to access the nipple. 

The rim tape should be replaced after the truing/tensioning process.

Failure to hold the spoke at the steel square sectioned mandrel is likely to twist and damage the spoke. This could cause a failure of a spoke or spokes. Should any damage lead to a failure this could result in an accident that may cause injury or even death.

We recommend that any work required to UD spoked wheelsets is referred to us.

IN ADDITION

• Never clean your wheels using a pressure washer, this will damage bearings and reduce service life significantly. Wash using only water and soap or a specialist bike cleaner.

• Do not use solvents, detergents, paints, or abrasives as these may damage the wheels. This damage may not be visible.

• Do not leave exposed to high temperatures, for example in a hot car.

• Excessive UV light can degrade the epoxy resins in carbon fibre over time. Avoid storing carbon rims in direct sunlight.

• Do NOT apply any lubricant, grease, or oil to the brake pads or braking surfaces. If any of these substances do come into contact with the brake pads or braking surface clean thoroughly with soap and water.

• Some braking noise may occur with new wheels or brake pads, this is normal particularly with carbon braking surfaces. This noise should stop when the pads have been run in (approx. 500 miles)

• You should also check your wheels carefully for damage after any accident or major impact such as running through a pot-hole

• If you are in any doubt about maintenance, inspection, repair or any other aspect of owning your Hunt Bike Wheels then you should contact a qualified cycle mechanic or get in touch with us using the details at www.huntbikewheels.com

BRAKE PADS & BRAKE SETUP

• Do not use latex inner tubes with rim brake rims. Excessive heat generated from braking may cause a latex tube to fail and deflate which may result in serious injury or death.

• Follow instructions provided by your bicycle or component manufacture when fitting brake pads and setting up brakes.

• Braking distances will be increased in wet weather, particularly with carbon braking surfaces. Reduce speed and brake earlier in wet weather.

• Check brake pad surfaces regularly for contamination by dirt, grease, oil or particles that may impair braking performance or damage braking surfaces.

• Check the brake pad wear indicator regularly and replace brake pads when required.

• Brake pads are supplied with all carbon rim brake wheels. Do not use any other brake pads with carbon rim brake wheels. Check the user guides at www.huntbikewheels.com. Replacements can also be ordered through www.huntbikewheels.com

• Never use a brake pad on a carbon rim if it has previously been used on an aluminium rim, the pads will have been contaminated by aluminium particles which will damage the carbon braking surface.

BRAKING SAFELY

• Extended periods of braking may cause excessive heat to build up in your wheels. This can impair braking performance. With rim brake wheelsets this heat may also cause damage to your wheels or cause dramatically increased tyre pressure resulting in the failure of tyres and/or tubes with a risk of serious or fatal injury.

• Temperature build-up will be most severe in the circumstances below:

- Long and/or steep descents
- Riding on hot days
- Higher rider & equipment weights

• Stop regularly on long descents & allow your braking surface to cool before continuing. This is particularly important if you are braking continuously.

• If you suspect your brakes have heated up significantly you MUST stop immediately and allow them to cool.

• Before commencing a long descent reduce your tyre pressure by 10psi/0.7 BAR vs your normal setting. This will reduce the risk of tyre failure as a result of excessive heat build-up.

DISC BRAKE ROTOR LOCKRINGS

Our latest disc brake rotor lockrings can be fitted and removed using two different tools. You can decide to use one or the other, or maybe have both available as a back-up. 

The outer circumference of the lockring engages with a standard 16 notch external BB tool. With our older lockrings this interface was the only available option. These tools are widely available from all bicycle tool manufacturers. A good quality example would be Park-Tool’s BBT-69.2 tool. The BBT-69.2 mounts onto a 3/8” ratchet so you can use a torque wrench to make sure you have achieved the recommended torque of 40nm. Many other variations are available, including those with their own handles, although of course this makes it impossible to verify torque so cannot wholeheartedly recommend these.

On our latest lockrings only, the inner circumference engages with a Shimano TL-LR11 tool. This tool has spanner flats, but ideally should be used with a ratchet/torque wrench. Whilst this isn’t the most common tool (it differs from a visually similar regular cassette lockring tool to give increased clearance), it is sometimes useful to have another option should the outer circumference become damaged.

Previously wheelsets used to come complete with an ultra-low profile lockring and a standard lockring. The ultra-low profile lockring is designed to be fitted to the front wheel as on some bikes clearance can be tight between the fork and the lockring. If you have these lockrings please ensure that the ultra-low profile lockring is mounted to the front wheel.

Our new low profile lockrings are thinner than our previous lockrings supplied with rear wheels so come fitted front and rear. These give sufficient clearance on almost all bikes.

If you are having clearance issues, contact us so that we can supply you with an ultra-low profile lockring.

Whichever lockrings you use, always make sure that there is sufficient clearance and that the recommended tightening torque is followed. Failure to adhere to this could cause the lockring to fail or come loose which could cause an accident resulting in injury or even death.

IMPACT DAMAGE, POTHOLES, ACCIDENTS & HARD RIDING

Hunt Bike Wheels are designed to have a high strength to weight ratio and pass our stringent rolling road, impact and real-life road tests, but they aren’t indestructible. Certain impacts of sufficient severity will damage and or destroy a bicycle wheel. These impacts include those from sharp or square edges such as from a pothole and high energy impacts, such as from an accident or heavy landing, especially if the wheel is impacted from the side.

• HUNT rims can be damaged through impact/s by rocks, potholes and other road and trail obstacles. This damage is not covered under our warranty, but we will be happy to help. Email or call us and we will work to get your wheels fixed at a reduced cost to you as part of our crash replacement policy.

• Excessive force or the improper use of tyre levers during tyre installation or removal can dent and damage both carbon and aluminium rims, this damage is not covered under warranty.

• Crashing your bike can exert forces upon a wheel much higher than experienced through normal riding. This can result in damage to the wheel components which could render them unsafe to use. Even if no damage is initially visible the wheels should be thoroughly inspected after an accident by a qualified and experienced cycle mechanic or us before the wheels are ridden again. If a component of your wheel is damaged, we will happily put this right at a reduced cost to you as part of our crash replacement policy – please email or phone us for details.

• Any accidental damage is not covered under warranty, but if something has happened, get in touch and we will see if we can help.

• Products should not be used outside their recommended usage. For instance, wheels designated for road use should not be used off road. Gravel and cyclocross wheels should not be used on mountain bike trails and mountain bike wheels need to be used within their limits such as cross-country, trail use or downhill.

• The use of a product outside of its intended usage such as riding rough downhill mountain bike tracks on lightweight cross-country wheels could cause the product to fail and serious injury or death to occur.

• Regularly riding near to a wheelset’s limits will fatigue and shorten the lifespan of the product. We recommend that if a wheelset is being ridden in this manner that it is inspected on a more regular basis.

RIM ONLY

We design our wheelsets as a system built up of various components optimised to work together, but our rims are available separately. If you choose to build or have our rims built into wheels, of course, we cannot carry out the stringent testing that we put our wheelsets through. However, here are, in addition to the rest of this manual, our recommendations to help ensure your rims build up into a safe wheelset.

• Make sure that whoever builds your wheel/s is a suitably qualified and experienced wheel builder.

• Abide by the recommended spoke tensions and lacing patterns as listed on the rim product page of the Hunt Bike Wheels website.

• Nipple washers must be used when building our carbon rims.

*Charges may apply for maintenance work, but we will always confirm these with you before any work is carried out.