For the last few winters I’ve had a permanent weekly slot booked in at my local, Don Valley Cycles, for wheel repair. Like a rolling monthly subscription with 2 wheelsets in rotation constantly being straightened and rebuilt with new rims. I’ve been running Mavic Open Pro UST rims on Hope hubs with Sapim CX Ray spokes and generally been fairly pleased with them.
I’d go through an average of 5 rims per winter. Normally the rims would be retired due to an impact that caused irreparable damage but if they survived long enough, the grit stone slurry mix in the Peak District combined with constant braking on the rim would wear them out in less than 2 months anyway. I always thought this was an inevitability of the riding I like to do on my CX bike. Lets just say its not a style of riding that is easy on the bike.
Unfortunately this winter I found myself without a functioning wheelset after a bad run of rock garden casualties, so I messaged Ollie at Hunt and asked to buy a set of 4 Season Aero wheels (their cheapest wheelset) to use and abuse while I sorted the other wheels. We got talking and I explained about my perpetual rim replacement system and he offered to send me a set of Hunt’s Race Aero SUPERDURA wheels to try. In January a pair arrived in the post and they were chucked on the bike.
That was the last time I touched them.
