Review: Nukeproof's $563 Horizon V2 Wheels
The Horizon V2 wheels are built around Nukeproof's own rims and are rated for enduro and downhill use. Compared to the Horizon V1, the new wheels offer an improved freehub ratchet mechanism offering 102 points of engagement for a faster pickup, Enduro bearings and front/rear specific rims in place of off-the-shelf WTB hoops. The hubs are available to suit all major axle standards and freehub options.
The Nukeproof EWS team switched from Mavic to Nukeproof wheels last season, so they have racing pedigree to keep the Sam Hill fans happy. The main selling point is the price - at $563 / £400 a pair they're among the most affordable enduro-ready wheels.
The Nukeproof EWS team switched from Mavic to Nukeproof wheels last season, so they have racing pedigree to keep the Sam Hill fans happy. The main selling point is the price - at $563 / £400 a pair they're among the most affordable enduro-ready wheels.
Nukeproof Horizon V2 specs
• 30mm internal rim width, 35mm external
• 29 or 27.5"
• All major axle and freehub standards catered for
• Weight (actual): 2071 grams (918g front, 1153g rear, 29" Microspline)
• 102 points of engagement (3.5° engagement angle)
• Spokes: J-bend, 32 front & rear
• Price: $351.99/£250 (rear) + $210.99/£150 (front) = $562.98/£400
• nukeproof.com
• 30mm internal rim width, 35mm external
• 29 or 27.5"
• All major axle and freehub standards catered for
• Weight (actual): 2071 grams (918g front, 1153g rear, 29" Microspline)
• 102 points of engagement (3.5° engagement angle)
• Spokes: J-bend, 32 front & rear
• Price: $351.99/£250 (rear) + $210.99/£150 (front) = $562.98/£400
• nukeproof.com
Specs and details
Like a growing number of wheel manufacturers, Nukeproof has opted for front and rear specific rims. They both have the same dimensions (30mm internal, 35mm external width, 21.6mm height), but the rear rim has a thicker sidewall for extra dent resistance. Nukeproof says the 29" rim weighs 510g for the front and 540g for the rear. For context, a DT Swiss EX 511 enduro rim has a claimed weight of 570g, while the XM 481 has a claimed weight of 525g but is sold as an all-mountain rim. If you were to damage a front rim, you could replace it with the stronger rear rim with the same spokes and aesthetics.
Speaking of which, the matte black finish looks to me like a high-end wheelset, while some manufacturers want to visually differentiate between their top-end and lower-price options.
The hubs use Enduro ABEC 5 bearings throughout, which have double-lip seals and a generous amount of grease to help them run for longer in wet conditions. The freehub ratchet is a conventional six-pawl design with three teeth per pawl to help prevent skipping. Between them they engage the ratchet ring a total of 102 times per revolution, resulting in a pretty snappy 3.5° engagement angle.
The spokes are J-bend for easy replacement and the same length front and rear, although the drive-side spokes are shorter so you'll want a spare of each size (not included). The wheels come pre-taped and include Nukeoroof's nifty valves, which have wrench flats on the nut to help secure the seal tightly and valve caps which double as valve core removers.
Performance
Installing tires from Maxxis and Schwalbe without a tubeless inflator caused zero issues (as you'd hope these days) and I had no leaking of air past the tape or valve throughout six months of testing.
I've spent a lot of time back-to-back testing different enduro wheels in the past, and in my experience the differences between them in terms of ride feel and harshness is extremely subtle at most. But the Horizon wheels never did anything odd like flex unpredictably during heavy cornering loads, nor did they ever make any disconcerting noises when battering through rocks (this can be a problem particularly with wheels laced such that the spokes don't touch as they cross over). They were usually last thing on my mind when riding, and that's about as much praise as you can realistically give to a wheelset.
Similarly, the effect on wheel weight on acceleration is often overstated. Yes, a gram on the rim has up to twice the impact on acceleration as a gram of non-rotating weight, but since the difference between a heavy and a lightweight trail/enduro wheelset is perhaps 300g, the effect on acceleration of a bike and rider weighing close to 100Kg is small. In fact, saving 300g of wheel weight will improve acceleration by somewhere between 0.3% and 0.6%, depending on whether the weight is saved from the hub, spokes or rim. But the Horizons's 2,071g total weight (including valves) is competitive for the price. To use DT Swiss as a benchmark once again, a set of their E 1900 Spline wheels weigh 2,106g on my scales.
The freehub ratchet is on the louder side, but not so much that it becomes obnoxious. It's plenty quick enough that you'll never notice any significant freehub lag when stamping on the pedals. The bearings felt tight to begin with, but they soon loosened up so the wheels spin freely and take a long time to come to a halt when spinning in the work stand.
I pulled off the end caps on both hubs a few times to check for water ingress or bearing roughness and found no issues.
Durability
I had issues with the first version of the Horizon V1 wheels skipping and damaging the pawls, but had no such problem here despite some deliberate pedal-punching to make sure. After a full winter of use in the UK, the bearings all feel smooth with no roughness when spinning them individually by hand. There's no visible wear on the internals and very little dirt ingress despite plenty of filthy weather. It's also nice to see that Nukeproof offer a range of spares including bearing kits, adapters and freehub pawls on their website for reasonable prices, along with clear instructions on hub servicing. Along with those J-bend spokes, this means they should be pretty easy to live with long-term.
Denting rims is a bit of a lottery but despite a few audible rim-on-rock moments over the last few months both rims are dent free. The rear wheel has a very slight wobble which I measured to be about +/-0.5mm. More importantly, all the spokes remain well-tensioned (at least, to the specifications of the "ping" test). That's not necessarily surprising for an enduro/DH-rated wheelset after six months use, but it certainly bodes well.
Pros
+ Well-priced
+ So far reliable and easy to live with
+ Quiet and fuss-free in the rough
+ Fast freehub engagement
Cons
- Cheap and strong, but not exactly light. (Bontrager's maximum holds true.)
Pinkbike's Take:
 | A product that just works and does so for a reasonable price may not be the most attention-grabbing strap line, but that's exactly what the Horivon V2 offers. Sure, they aren't particularly light or flashy, but after six months of wet-weather use they haven't put a foot wrong, so for the money I feel confident enough to recommend them. |
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193 Comments
Hope £280 no tubeless (an no stock!)
Spank £290 tubeless set up
Good value I'd say
thing for me is that 450 bucks is a relatively big spend anyways. so id rather save up a bit more for the hope hubs and the nicer rims. but if youve just f*cked up a set at the bikepark or whatever and you need cheap replacement this is the set to go for i quess. theyre heavy, but you can trust them.
having that said id never put enduro wheels on my bike. i ride XC
@nozes: Like the incredible hulk when you smash them to bits?
I have a Boost fork, but not a Boost rear hub and needed bomber wheels but the only FAST engaging hub in 142mm x 12mm x 27.5" had to be a custom build.
I could not find a wheelset online with a rear wheel for less than $500 in the rear spacing I needed that was a matching set, let alone set up tubeless.
Anything I found in 142mm is now gravel spec.
THANK YOU NUKEPROOF ofr upgrading the wheel spec & giving older bikes access.
Had them since September and haven't had to true them yet. I've already exploded my Roval rear on my DH bike twice in a month.
but, when a wheel comes cheaper set up out of the box an one doesn't....or like the Spank simmilar price an set up out the box I guess some people might pick that. Especially when that wheel is in stock ready for despatch but, the Hope has a 4 week lead time.....
An I'm a Hope fan boy
I have these and they’re amazing. The rear detensioned a bit after a few months of hard riding (measured with a tension meter, not a “ping test”), but a few minutes on the spoke wrench and they’re back to true and normal. In my experience retensioning is a normal part of the new wheel process usually.
This is a fantastic wheelset at an amazing price.
Every wheelset was either 100mm front/142mm rear or Boost front/rear.
I have no experience with Bontrager wheels but PB just had an article about their new $350 set. They are more trail-oriented but also lighter, so I can't imagine using thicker-walled rims to make them "enduro" would add $200?
@msusic You're talking facts here. I absolutely get paying up for something fancy/light/superior material/boutique/better in whatever way. But the fact people here let themselves be told the region of $600 like these or the WTB Proterra is "cheap" for the most basic set of strong but heavy alu rims on rebranded catalogue hubs made and assembled using cheap labour is astonishing.
Was able to buy them direct from a US Nukeproof dealer down the road @ridesmoothbro . Just walked in and picked them up and he can handle service if ever an issue so another plus.
From what I could tell, I would assume that Factor, Bitex & Nukeproof (probably Hunt Bros too) are virtually the same product. They all have that steel cleat embedded in the HG cassette body to prevent grooving the body & maybe??? maybe the same engagement?
Novatec manufacture hubs for Factor (who have boots on the ground in Georgia - very good people). Novatec also produced the V1 Horizon hubs, but NukeProof used cheaper internals while using the same hubshell as Factor. The nice thing here is you can upgrade your V1's to the same internals as Factor and they will be pretty much issue free after. Novatec also manufacture hubs for Hunt.
Bitex have been around for quite some time, and they look to be reasonably good performers for the price. You do have a distributor for Bitex in NC I believe.
NukeProof V2 hubs are an off the shelf hub, using the same internals that you can see Spank, SuperStar, Atom Lab, Boyd, Dartmoor and a number of others have or are currently using. The tell tale sign is that signature 102 points of engagement. NukeProof and CRC has a good history of leaving customers high and dry when things go sideways, and especially after they discontinue a product, so it's good you got them from a local dealer. They refuse to support customers with V1 hubs as far as I can tell from people who have contacted me for help with those hubs.
Factor, those guys provide amazing support. Second to none, in my experience.
Regarding weight, while light hoops do allow slightly faster acceleration (as noted), heavier hoops maintain rolling speed better over chunk, etc. So the weight penalty is negated a bit. What matters for most people is whether the wheels hold up to abuse.
I’m surprised about Spank though. I was under the impression the first gen Spike and Oozy hubs were made by Novatec but then Spank went their own way. I though the Hex drive hubs were made in house actually. You learn something new every day.
If I could have got a set of Factor hubs from a local spot I would have done. I like them better than Hope, but Hope are made and available locally plus they have the spares backup for as long as you want. It’s pretty unbeatable for someone based in the UK. So, not pissing on Factor or Novatec at all. The Novatec Neutron hubs I had on my Mega were shite though, but so would anything else have been at the price I’ll wager.
As for Spank, if you google their freehub, you will see it's identical to the NP one above. I think Spank did some work on their hubshell/axle/axle ends in house perhaps, but not the engagement. Atom Lab has run this freehub for years before Spank used it, and I believe were involved in its original design.
Hope are great. I wish they were more available in North America since COVID. Impossible to get them in any quantity. But as you mention, spares and replacements are usually easy to get, and usually at a fair price.
If you destroy your wheels and want robust wheels that can take a beating and don't cost much you have huge selection of affordable take offs for 1/3rd of the price (any bike brands out there has similar wheels on cheaper bikes) and people are selling them for 150-200 euros.
Being creative and shopping around you can get take off Newmen SL A30 rims + Laser or DLight spokes and ZTTO ratchet hubs (DT copy) with robust 36T ratchet rings for 250 euro! Very robust wheelset that weighs 1750gr with tape and valves (I built one myself).
If you really want to upgrade, you're more likely to go for a more premium wheels such as DT 1501 or 1700 series which again can be found as take offs or on sale in the case of 1700 for close to these OR you can get tried and tested combo with 350 hubs, butted spokes and XM/EX rims for as much.
www.pinkbike.com/photo/20328394
www.pinkbike.com/photo/20061696
I've had good luck with Bitex hubs tho. They are solid.
Ben tried to get me something at the time, but he didn't have stock of my specific wheel when I pulled trigger. He had it for a minute...but then it got bought.
And yes, I believe the Nukeproof dealer has expressed that if you buy a Nukeproof direct from Chain Reaction, you can't just go to the Nukeproof dealer for resolution. You have to turn to the big blue website which gets tough for the "click/buy/break" club. Nukeproof seems to support his customer base very well.
Heck, I'm in Asheville and could drive 15 minutes and put physical hands on I9 1/1 wheels, but they're not 142mm.
Fortunately Factor will step up, and supply me with internals to help these people. There is a cost of course, but you get a reliable 120 poe in return, so it's a fix and an upgrade. Microspline is also an alternative for these V1 hubs that NP has not cared to introduce for retrofit, and I don't know why as they should easily sell them to make a buck while keeping people supported. They could also offer these 120 poe upgrades kits too, I'm sure.
Good to hear your friend and his customer base gets support. Hopefully people buy from him and not CRC!
And that Ben, he is a good fella.
As an entry point into wheel building, I thought they were really good - much better than my old SRAM hubs where the driver would fall out while trying to lace up spokes. They're not expensive, and for riders who aren't: a.) going huge; b.) riding through rivers of mud; or c.) putting out Nino Schurter quantities of torque - offer reliable performance and good engagement.
I'm well below the average weight here and my jumping days are mostly over,so I can get away with a lighter wheelset.
What I don't want is the industry pushing heavy everything leaving some people like me without options,just to avoid warrantys.
Yes, there still are some losses because no tire is absolutely perfectly flexible, but the added suspension benefit greatly outweighs this. Every bump you feel is energy being taken away from your ride.
tolerances are shit, from bearing recess not being parallel and causing the through axle to jam, it gets even worse if you assemble complete with free hub as it won't align properly, even with the slightest amount of preload when you tighten the axle with the wheel on the bike it becomes even worse. pauls tend to bite and the ratchet marking the frehub body from flex and/or misalignement, the freehub seal moves out of it's position and gets mangled between the hub and freehub, the drag is on another level. bearing quality is shit, comparing that with a cheap dt swiss m1900 rear hub that fits perfectly together after 4 years of use they are pricey and bad quality. They can't compete with the build quality of a hope pro4 in any way, not even close. As for the v2, have not tested them but I'll take my chances with something different, like cheap dt swiss
This is a solid mid-level pair of wheels, just below something like the Pro 4 / Ex511 wheelset I have - and anything above that level is marginal gains IMO.
And as I commented elsewhere here, 2kg to 2.1kg is on par for 29in enduro wheels. Any lighter for this kind of money and they are very unlikely to be strong enough.
(edit: no, I didn't downvote b/c I think you have a valid point)
Less money spent = more time to play.
You also have a fantastic feel for your bike and know if something is going to go wrong the more you tinker with it.
In addition, no one will ever take the time to get your bike *perfectly* tuned except you.
That being said, yeah, sometimes you just plug and play.
Homebrewing is a good analogy here; the more time you put in, the better the product. Does it save money? IDK, you probably just drink more.
Also, I love hand picking bike parts, from frames right down to spoke nipples. There is only one thing better than buying high quality bike parts, and that is buying high quality bike parts and feeling like a got an awesome deal. Paying full whack definitely takes the shine off the purchase for me.
Talking about bike parts is also very enjoyable and satisfying.
These seem like an awesome option for a wheelset ready to go. Guess I've never really done a deep dive on wheels though, I just want something that lasts haha.
And OneUp droppers. Current version is light, long and (relatively) cheap.
And Deity Deftraps. Lighter than TMacs and rear entry pins make it better for rocky terrain where pins routinely get mangled.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=K9AGFgoFtyU
They’re also awfully expensive. At that price I’d do Onyx hubs.
So far the only issue I have had is that I managed to induce one solid ding/flat spot in the rear wheel. This was user error in that I was riding a Michelin Wild Enduro tire that had a slight/tear leak. Since then I've added some Michelin DH34's to the sled and the wheels have held up great. I know I'll need to replace the rim before I start downhilling with them as they'll get all buggered within a run or two due to the flat spot and uneven tension, but so far I'd say that these qualify as mountain bike wheels. The same couldn't be said for the V1's.
I'm aware that the weight of these wheels is not in the 'light' category, but NP claims that these are good for DH use. Based on my experience so far, I see no reason to doubt that these would be capable of DH use.
Had a NP Neutron front for a while now an it's held up,tubeless set up works though needed a tube to seat the tyre no biggie.
Just bought a Horizon rear for my new build. out of the box.. very impressive for the £
Just a bit concerned that 102 POE sounds worryingly high, as I've found less POE hubs have proved more reliable in the past. Hopefully it's a proven hub design from Novatec (and not one of their exploding ones from a few years ago)?
youtu.be/7i8534rlCMs
I swapped the XT M8100 derailleur with another one from my other bike. Still creaking. Then I took the cassette and chain from the other bike and put them on and it’s still creaking. Still trying to investigate where it’s coming from but so far based on the process of elimination, it’s pointing to the hub or freehun
Wheels seem really nice and went up tubeless with a track pump and no sealant. Still holding 3 days later (i will add spunk)
For me the most concerning thing is NukeProof has a history of not supporting their product in the event of failure, as seen on the V1 wheels. I've supported a good number of V1 customer NukeProof left high and dry with repair/upgrade parts for their hubs.
DT star ratchet hubs have a little less coasting drag but these engage faster. Depending on local trail conditions these are an attractive option.
I’ve built a lot of wheels over the years and seldom do because good prebuilts are cheaper most of the time.
That said, DT hubs and EX511s make for a bombproof build and are a pleasure to tension up.
"Over 250 people currently viewing this item" if CRC store app is to be believed.
I would love to see the math and source for the $400. The cheapest place I know of for an end consumer to get DT Swiss is Bike24, and just the hubs and rims from them will cost $500, and that excludes and consideration for tax and brokerage fees. Hubs are also hardly in stock at the moment, and the ones you get for $500 will have 18t engagement (no thanks!). Also doesn't include spokes. And obviously you have to own the tools.
Do you mind breaking out the $400 for me?
www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ
(you can probably guess where that link takes you)
Surely he must be, because I can't build a wheelset with DT 350/EX 411 for $400 CAD!