Journal | Hunt Bike Wheels

It is safe to bet that most of us first became hooked on bikes in a woodland nearby our childhood household. The first sense of freedom, the sketchy wooden jumps, skid competitions and endless exploring became what we use our bikes for. Then some of us found road bikes, some found cars and study eventually became full time work. But those who did not stop playing in the woods are now affectionately called 'mountain bikers'.

For them nothing has really changed... only the jumps have become bigger, the trail systems more extensive and the 'home before the street lights come on' rule has gone out the window (for some). The life of a trail is more than just when you ride it; it is hours spent by unknown volunteers who have raked, dug, cut, sawed, shaped and sculpted what some of us call our local trails.

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Climbing is an art. Striking the balance of pushing up a gradient without popping before reaching the summit and being able to stay deep in the red zone requires experience which many cyclist's never master. Climbing is, in this sense, a very personal form of cycling. Passing over the point where the gradient stops pointing upwards comes with a sense of accomplishment... and relief... especially when the summit just reached is atop of some of the hardest climbs in Eastern Europe.

Our very own tech guru, Stan has translated his dad's blog from Bulgarian describing his experience of climbing Romania's climbs. By the looks of it, the hills here look to be highly underrated.... although we will pass on the bears crossing the road!

Going to go against the grain here, but I am a Hunt employee who doesn’t like camping. There, I said it.

I’m not of the same rugged cloth of our fabled (and former) Josh Ibbett, or either of the Marchment brothers who kicked things off a couple of years ago. They all love it. The cold, the damp, I’m not sure what the appeal is – but they dig it and they dig it big. Luckily, during our visit to Eurobike this year I had company in the ‘hating camping’…. errr… camp. Luisa, our new senior engineer, spent most of her time either moaning about having to sleep in a tent whilst visiting a trade show, or listening to me doing the same. My idea of touring just means stopping at a different hotel each night. A TCR contender, I am not.

This is going to be a quick one. The primary (achieved) aim was for me to vent about the sleeping in a tent thing. Beyond that, I thought it would be nice to show you all some of the pictures I took whilst roaming around (usually on the way to the next meeting). Most of the stuff that took my eye was high-end road stuff, but I tried to capture some of the bikes/things that your regular media outlet wouldn't notice! Not forgetting the occasional ‘Alligator’ (this won our internal award for Most Eurobike Bike of Eurobike).

Enjoy!

Ollie Gray

Hunt Service & Dispatch Manager

We first introduced Luisa to you last week but finally got the chance to catch her for the dreaded On The Drops interview. Here is a quick refresher on what Luisa will be doing here at Hunt: 

Luisa Grappone hails from the motherland of cycling, pink jerseys and big mountain climbing (aka Italy), but has made the move to Sussex to further strengthen the Hunt wheel development team as our as our full time in-house wheel engineer. With an MSc in Aerospace Enigneering Luisa has a wealth of experience in the bicycle industry and materials engineering, with many years misspent sweating over hot CAD drawings, carbon fibre lay-ups and crunching wind tunnel data.

So here is our latest On The Drops with Luisa. Please Enjoy!

“Grinduro is a ridiculous event. Nothing about it makes sense. Thanks for blowing it... I’ll be back..."

Adam Craig

When you read something like this the day before you set out for a race, how should you feel? This 'ridiculous event' was exactly where I was heading... not exactly confidence building. 

There has been an explosion in the popularity of gravel riding. Once existing on the fringes with gruelling events like the Dirty Kanza 100 and the Rouge Roubaix, gravel has now become its own and developed well beyond the days of riders modifying their 'cross machines or mountain bikes. And gravel events are no different. Grinduro has been a product of this hype and caught the mixed surface, drop bar, wide tyre fever. Combining the format of enduro mountain biking but on a course suited to this new breed of go anywhere bikes... the race is only a small percentage of the course. The rest is a trip around a spectacular route.

For the first time, Grinduro has stepped out of its birthplace and taken to the Isle of Arran off the west coast of Scotland. The event provided the perfect stage for the HUNT Team to test out different wheel combinations, gain insight into wheel technology in this emerging category and put the wheels through some seriously muddy conditions. 

While race reports provide great information and insight into the race, I am sure there are many, many more out there telling a very similar story... so here you are, the "Doodle Do's & Don'ts" of Grinduro Scotland.   

The Team. Post Grinduro, caked in mud, wet and cold but still smiling! Top Effort.

World traveler and bike packer, Josh Ibbett, has just spent the last six weeks in Europe mostly riding through the Iberian Peninsula. At the time of writing he has caught a plane to New York and now managed to ride up to the Canadian boarder at Niagara Falls. We managed to check in with Josh and catch him for a journal entry on his experiences so far.

Enjoy. 

As Hunt has grown, so too has the number of people putting in the hard graft behind the scenes. Our latest recruit describes himself as ‘just another cycling junkie’ but really does know his stuff. Stan Bolyarov is a Robert Gordon University Management with Marketing Graduate who races road and cyclocross. He has even raced the Bulgarian National Road and TT Championships. To say the least… he is very handy on a bicycle. With experience of Dutch and German markets, having lived in both countries, Stan’s role will lie in pushing forward our website usability to give you the best access to tech information, spares and support you need. He will also be found in the customer service, tech and dispatch areas.

We have managed to catch Stan for our latest On The Drops interview... enjoy!

One of best days had out on the bike we have had with the Hunt Team was filming for the release of our newest wheelset - the Superdura Dynamo Disc as well as our farewell to Josh, our first full time employee. Having a helicopter fly above our heads as we snaked down the South Downs on our Mason Bokeh bicycle was certainly something we had never experienced before (and probably never will again!) 

Last weekend, former Hunt Brand Manger Josh Ibbett, left the UK and headed for the continent to commence his riding trip around the world. At the time of writing, he is currently down near Bordeaux but knowing Josh, this can be more accurately described as 400km radius from the coastal French city.

You can check out the final video by clicking here.

We decided to put together a short photo gallery of the cold morning spent on the Downs trying our best to keep things rubber side up.

We have a few very special things happening at Hunt so in keeping with this trend we thought it'd be best to all out a South Downs bikepack adventure to celebrate, and record it for a film... WITH A HELICOPTER!

Donated to us for a few hours from a (very, very cool) friend of Sarah who works here at Hunt, we gathered at the top of the South Downs armed with a fleet of Mason Bokeh go anywhere, ride anything bicycles, to make a film celebrating the launch of some exciting products and special new adventures for one of our crew.  

A Mushroom, Luigi and Yoshi walk into a bar... no sorry a highly competitive, serious, everything on the line 'cross race...

After weeks in spent training up for their big race, Hunt Team members Josh, Ollie and Dan big race day finally came this past weekend. Performing at the very highest level at the SSCXEU champs meant everything, including racing kit, was throughly thought out to gain that extra 1% advantage. After all, it's the details that matter.