British wheel brand Hunt, which offers a fairly broad wheel lineup from road to CX, gravel, and MTB, now introduces a race-specific wheel for gravel in addition to the more common carbon gravel and the racy top-end Limitless gravel

The company will also release a race-specific wheel for gravels.

As gravel racing has developed as its own discipline apart from general gravel riding and bikepacking, brands have been playing catch-up to offer options that fit the performance needs of the most demanding races such as Unbound. The new 40 Carbon Gravel Lacing and 25 Carbon Gravel Lacing, along with hookless rims, bring aero benefits to a lower price point. Will these two wheelsets make our list of best gravel wheelsets?

The biggest topic is that the 25mm and 40mm deep option rims are now hookless. The brand had already dabbled with hookless rims on the road, but went back to hooked in 2018 to allow customers to use a wider range of tires. Now, especially in gravel, the width of tires available in hookless is no longer a drawback, so Hunt is trying hookless again, noting that it can also make rims stronger, about 15 grams lighter, and more aero.

The 40mm option has an outer width of 30mm and an inner width of 25mm, slightly narrower and slightly shallower than the top-of-the-line 42 Limitless Gravel wheelset; the 25mm option has an outer width of 33mm and an inner width of 26mm, slightly wider, and its depth makes it the better climbing of the two wheels It is often thought to be for use, but this is not necessarily the case.

The fact that the 25 is 3 mm wider on the outside and only 1 mm wider on the inside leads to the conclusion that the sidewall is at least 1 mm thicker at the tire/rim interface. Hunt points out that this rim is designed for impact resistance and compliance rather than the aerodynamic efficiency of the 40; the 25's more robust construction than the 40's results in a weight reduction of only 3 grams (1383 g vs. 1380 g), despite being 15 mm shallower. 25's rough orientation is, also evident in the recommended tire width: 35-65mm, vs. 28-65mm for the 40 [ostensibly the same wheelset except for the rim differences, including Hunt Sprint SL 7.5 hubs, centerlock discs, and Pilar PSR XTRA spokes. Also, there is no 650b configuration, which is becoming more common. [The 40 will be available the third week of August and the 25 the second week of July. Prices are 899 pounds (about $1,125) for the 40 and 879 pounds (about $1,100) for the 25. For more information, visit Hunt.