Just a while back I reviewed the Easton XC-Ones and gave them a great review. But that got me thinking: I wonder what their all-mountain / light free ride wheels can do? Well I made a quick call, and the nice folks at Easton provided me a test set to do my worst. Ohhh boy I love a challenge, especially when it comes to hitting trails hard (with the bike and not my body)!
Easton’s Havoc all mountain wheelset (MSRP $799.00 USD, $1220.00 CDN), are a ground up design incorporating over-sized bearings and a slick, no tool changing front hub. You can switch between a 9mm QR and 20mm through axle in seconds plus there’s even a 15mm QR option sold separately. All these options make this wheel set a great investment since you can adapt the wheels to fit whatever bike you ride in the future.
The Havoc wheel set is designed to take abuse while staying light enough to trek around without tiring the rider out. At 1930 grams (170 grams heavier than the 2009 Mavic Crossmax SX set) these are not the lightest on the block but by no means will they slow you down. With a 28mm rim and 24 triple butted steel spokes, these wheels are strong and will stay true for a very long time. Just like the XC One wheels, these babies are hand built using the same sonic truing methods to keep a uniform spoke tension.
So the Easton Havocs finally arrived and I was stoked to see what the big difference was between the Havocs and the XC Ones. The photo on the right shows an XC one front hub followed by the Havoc’s front hub. Side by side you can quickly see the size of the hub on the Havoc is nearly twice in diameter to accommodate the larger bearing set. You’ll also notice that with the design of the Havoc wheels the engineers concentrated on making a very stable and strong structure. These units are meant for some seriously gnarly trails!
Surrounding these wheels with a set of WTB Prowler MX tires (26 x 2.30) and heavy duty tubes took no time at all with very little use of tire irons thanks to the proprietary, extra-wide 28 mm rims. Kelso and Blue Mountain were my trails of choice for putting these wheels through their paces.
Just like its little XC brother, the Havoc wheels were super responsive and nearly silent smooth running, thanks to a good set of bearings and a buttery smooth cassette body. The 24 straight pull spokes under high tension also kept these wheels tracking precisely along the rooted trails. On the tight and twisty trails of Kelso’s Extreme trail, these wheels kept pointing and rolling in whatever direction I commanded without giving a millimeter. Coming off some 6 foot drops I didn’t hear a single complaint from the wheels – no creaking or groaning whatsoever, even after some not-so-perfect landings on a few large rocks.
After putting in several miles I found the Havoc wheels kept rolling along without the annoying munching noises that I typically expect from tired bearings. Even after all this abuse, the wheels stayed true which meant riding skinnies and rock gardens was still as satisfying as when the wheels came out of the box. I even found myself styling when going off jumps and drops, something I don’t normally want to do but I just couldn’t resist with these wheels!
To make a long story short, when it comes time for me to select the best wheel set of 2009, I am going to have a very hard time, especially after testing the Easton AM Havoc wheels. You can find these at most good retailers and if you look, you can get these at a great price. For your hard-earned dollar I would have to say go buy a pair of Easton AM Havocs and you won’t be disappointed.
Specifications from Easton:
Size 26 inch
Weight 1930 Grams
Hub F-AMH, R-AMH
Spokes DT Triple-Butted black (24F 3-Cross, 24R 3-Cross)
Nipples F: Alloy Black, RNDS : Alloy Black, RDS: Alloy Black
Once again a big thank you out to the folks at Easton for sending out the Havoc wheelset for testing.
4 Comments
Aug 20, 2009
Thanks for a comprehensive review.
Aug 26, 2009
Aug 26, 2009
Jun 30, 2011