In The Know Cycling

The Hunt 48 Limitless Aero Disc Wheelset generates a lot of interest. When I polled In The Know Cycling readers at the beginning of the summer of 2023, you requested we review this wheelset above all others.

With this in mind, I asked Nate and Miles, my most experienced fellow testers and very fast, accomplished cyclists, to ride and share their take on the 48 Limitless Aero’s performance.

Nate took out these Hunts designed for aero speeds on the 25mph/40kph Tuesday morning Bullet Train ride he leads, a Saturday morning A-group ride he calls, and a few recovery rides on his Specialized Venge.

Miles raced them in crits, two hilly road races, a big day in the New Hampshire mountains, and various training rides on his Giant Propel.

With the goal of the Hunt 48 Limitless Aero Disc Wheelset built into its name, the essential question is, how aero is it compared to the best aero bike wheels that cost a lot more and others whose depth and price are similar to these Hunts?

Neither Nate nor Miles found the wheels great aerodynamic performers on the road. Miles commented that their straight-line speed was underwhelming and that he needed to “keep on the gas” at high speeds.

While, with a rim depth of 48mm, you might not expect them to compete with those 10-15mm deeper, which hold your momentum with little effort, my fellow testers rated these Hunt Limitless no better than the average value-carbon, 50mm deep wheels for their aero road performance.

However, the wheelset’s stability in side and cross winds was very impressive. On two trips up the exposed road that climbs Whiteface Mountain in New York, the winds grabbed Miles and his bike to a degree he was unusually uncomfortable with. But the Hunt wheels were seemingly unaffected, staying planted throughout.

Of course, the speed you can get from a wheelset doesn’t come just from its aero performance in a fast crit, road race, or training ride with your nose in the wind.

The Hunt 48 Limitless Aero, a stiff wheelset, quickly snapped up to speed for Miles on flat terrain but less so when it got steep. Out of corners, up punchy short climbs, sprinting for town lines… all great and better than most value-carbon wheelsets.

Nate didn’t get a responsiveness vibe from these Hunts. As a climber and perhaps more sensitive to his gear when the road pitches up, he didn’t find that the 48 Limitless cooperated with him on even short, modestly steep pitches.

Both agreed that flat, turnier courses with some opportunities for short sprints bring out the best in this wheelset.

While the Hunt 48 Limitless Aero provides the benefits of lateral stiffness, it lacks those you get from vertical compliance – the opportunity to minimize energy losses on all but the best roads and improve the experience of a multi-hour ride.

Even with a pair of the most comfortable tubeless tires we’ve ever tested, the 28mm Vittoria Corsa Pro TLR cotton tires, installed on Hunt’s wider-than-most value-carbon wheels, the descriptors “pretty stiff,” “rigid,” and “unforgiving, bordering on harsh” came back in my fellow testers’ ride notes.

These Hunts and Vittorias do look pretty boss together. Even with black sidewall tires like the Conti Grand Prix 5000 S TR I mounted on the Hunt to measure tire width, the Limitless looks distinctively attractive.

Having experienced the noisier-than-most Sprint hubs that Hunt put on the wheels I tested before, I was curious to hear what the boys thought about the new Sprint SL hubs Hunt has put on these. While it takes a couple of 17mm cone wrenches to release the freehub from the hub axle, I greased it freely but not overzealously to offer a best-case sonic situation.

Miles reported the freehub had “an average, high-volume, tinny sound… in line with similar wheelsets.” (by which he meant Scribe). While the hubs engaged well for him, and he liked the straight-pull spoke design, he was most troubled by the skipping he occasionally felt inside the freehub or from one of the cogs slipping on its splines.

Among other value-carbon wheelsets, Miles would choose the Elitewheels Drive 50D over the Hunts due to their lighter weight, better climbing, and similar performance on other ride characteristics.

Overall, Nate found the Hunt 48 Limitless Aero wheels to be “just average,” similar to many value-carbon wheels he’s ridden, with no stand-out qualities. While he would be OK with them if they came stock on a mid-range bike, he wouldn’t go out of his way to purchase them as an upgrade.

The 48 Limitless 1639-gram weight (with no valves and an XDR hub that’s 20g lighter than an HG) is the heaviest value-carbon wheels we’ve tested, most of which are within a few millimeters of this Hunt’s 48.1mm depth.

While its 22.7mm internal rim width is a bit wider than 21-22mm span of most value-carbon wheels, its external width is far wider than the 28 to 30mm measurement common on all but one of the wheels we’ve tested in this category.

The Hunt 48 Limitless rims have a modified toroidal profile that starts at 32.0mm external width at the “brake track” and curves out to 34.7mm at its widest point before finishing with a blunt nose at the spoke edge.

That profile likely gives it the sidewind stability noted earlier but adds to the wheelset’s overall weight without adding to its relative aero performance. On frames just a few years old with chainstay clearance for tires no wider than 28mm, that nearly 35mm wide rear rim may not fit.

Like most wheelsets in its price range, the Hunt 48 Limitless Aero has strengths in some performance areas but weaknesses or perhaps “limits” in others. If you want to conduct your own review, you can buy, ride, and return them within 60 days for a full refund. Hunt offers a 3-year material and workmanship warranty and a free lifetime crash replacement program for original owners.

At the time of this review, you can order the Hunt 48 Limitless Aero Disc wheelset for US$1444, £1104, €1402 directly from Hunt. These prices are discounted by 15% from their regular price.

See how these wheels compare to others in my review of the Best Value Carbon Wheelset.

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Thanks, and enjoy your rides safely! Cheers, Steve