In the past, riders were faced with a choice between feather-light but aerodynamic shallow climbing wheels or less nimble deep-section aero wheels when the road surface tilted upward. With the new Hunt Aerodynamikist 32 wheelset, officially named the Hunt 32 Aerodynamikist UD Carbon Spoke Disc, Hunt is lighter than all the wheels in the Best Lightweight Wheels Guide except the lightweight Meilenstein Obermeyer, but at the flat Hunt has released a wheelset that also sacrifices pace on flat ground.

The Hunt 32 Aerodynamicist, as its long name suggests, is a disc-only wheelset with unidirectional carbon spokes. It is also hookless and tubeless compatible, but these names were probably not given for fear of sounding ridiculous.

At 32mm deep, they are among the shallowest of the latest lightweight wheels, but by no means the shallowest. For most riders looking for a wheelset that can do just about anything, it is in the right range. The rim widths, 25mm OD and 21mm ID, are in line with the industry's trend toward wider rims and wide rubber.

The rims are specifically hookless. Hunt claims that this allows for a weight reduction of 10-15g per rim and an aerodynamic transition between rim and tire. While this is good news for watt enthusiasts, hookless rims are still far from becoming the standard, and while there are more tire options than before, the choices are still limited compared to traditional hooked tubeless tires.

As with the best lightweight bikes, these rims are rich in carbon fiber for both the rims and spokes, with the notable exception that the hubs are the Sprint SLC set found on other wheels in the Aerodynamist series and are made of aluminum.

Carbon spokes are usually glued to the rim, which traditionally scares many consumers, as spoke replacement is costly and truing the wheel is more or less impossible. In this case, however, the Hunt uses unidirectional carbon spokes, which are essentially standard spoke nipples. Taper-lock technology is employed, which, in essence, means that the spokes can be easily replaced and the rim trued with a standard spoke wrench.

The Hunt 32 Aerodynamicist is the shallowest wheelset in the Hunt lineup, so before the team disbanded at the end of 2021, extensive testing was done under climbers including Fabio Al and Sergio Henao of Qhubeka-NextHash The team was then tested extensively under climbers including Fabio Al and Sergio Henao of Qhubeka-NextHash. If you want to get your hands on this set, at £1,199 / $1,549 / 1,619 euros, it's in the almost, or even quite high, part of Hunt's price range.