$14K Limited Edition Allied MTB and New Affordable/Premium Hunt Wheels [Gear Watch]

Oct 05, 2023

Gear Watch Wednesday is a weekly update on the latest mountain bike gear releases and products that Singletracks has received for test. Have gear news to share, or products you’d like us to check out? Email [email protected]

Allied Cycle Works has a new edition of the BC40 inspired by rider Payson McElveen and it is an exact replica of his bike. The Limited Edition BC40 has a SRAM Eagle XX1 AXS drivetrain, a RockShox SID Ultimate with a remote lockout, a SID Luxe Ultimate shock, Roval carbon wheels, and a paint job inspired by the San Juan mountains of Southwestern Colorado. The bike is available as a frameset or a complete build. Neither are cheap.

October is Breast Cancer Awareness month and Five Ten partnered with the National Breast Cancer Foundation and Breast Cancer Now to bring awareness and help fund the organizations. Five Ten incorporated artwork from mountain biker Veronique Sandler into several of their shoes for a limited collection batch that's available starting September 30. $15 from each full-price sale will be donated to the organization, with NBCF seeing U.S. purchases and Breast Cancer Now seeing donations from U.K. purchases.

Rapha has a new rain jacket out and it's made for the worst conditions. The Trail Gore-Tex Infinium jacket was created with Gore-Tex and has a hybridized 3L 30D nylon ripstop material with a C-Knit backer. What does that all mean? Rapha says it has best-in-class breathability with a soft interior and stretch as well as Rapha's signature look.

After years of development, Hunt launched its new Proven line of wheels and they’ve already seen rounds and rounds of World Cup and Enduro World Series races. The Proven line includes the Proven Carbon Race XC wheels and Proven Carbon Race Enduro wheels.

The Carbon Race XC wheels are made for compliance, damping, and control and come in at a scant 1,469g, according to Hunt. These are built for XC rigs with up to 120mm of travel and the wheels feature an updated rim profile. They have a 30mm internal width and a 22mm depth. These feature Hunt's hubs with 5° of engagement and sell for $1,099.

The Proven Carbon Race Enduro wheels have a rear and front specific design and weigh just under 2,000g. They have a 30mm internal width and a 23mm depth. The front rim is built for vibration absorption and the rear is built for strength and stability. The wheels feature Hunt's hubs with 5° of engagement and were raced on the 2022 EWS circuit. They cost $1,099 and have a lifetime crash replacement policy.

The Reeb Cycles SST hasn't been much of a secret, and now it's available for order. The SST is a 120mm trail bike and Reeb says it is the "first trail-ready indication of their investment in aerospace manufacturing experience, engineering, and materials."

The bike uses custom steel tubing and 3D-printed frame components. Reeb says "the SST embodies the rowdy and playful character of REEB's proven steel hardtails while providing enough suspension to hit the big lines." The bike uses a 4-bar suspension layout combined with flexing chainstays for compliance.

Reeb has incorporated more 3D printing into these bikes as it has become more cost efficient, and now they plan to increase manufacturing capability and reduce lead times. Currently, frames and builds are scheduled to deliver 12/2022 through 2/2023.

Shorter cranksets have been trending this past year and Hope wants to go even shorter. Hope started making shorter cranks for e-bikes years ago to increase clearance while pedaling through tech, but they saw more advantages too. After testing lengths down to 140mm, Hope says they found the 155mm length is the sweet spot.

The brand says key advantages include a more centered weight on the bike, the cranks accelerate more quickly especially on sudden steep uphills, there's more clearance, and the cranks are lighter and stiffer. They also say it can change your final drive ratios and they recommend dropping chainring size by 2 teeth for every 10mm reduction in crank length.

WTB just announced their first dedicated set of mountain bike wheels for electric mountain bikes, dubbed HTZ. The wheels are designed to be super durable, with a tougher freehub body to prevent gouging from all that torque and a six-pawl freehub that engages all pawls at once. They even feature an added heat sink at the rotor mount to cool brakes on big descents.

Anything worth doing is worth overdoing… right? The updated Moots titanium computer mount features a quarter turn mount up top and a GoPro mount on the bottom, and is said to be even more aerodynamic than the previous version.