Last week a few souls were dragged from the womb of Crankworx to go and ride on Easton’s brand new downhill wheelset, the Havoc UST 150. We headed south and hit up Squamish for a couple of days of riding. For those of you not familiar with Squamish then believe me when I say that it is worth a lengthly visit. Whistler gets all the attention but Squamish has more riding of all kinds wiggling around the mountains that surround. We took big bikes with us so we could ride the brand new wheelset that Easton have been working on and rode a wide selection of rugged nutty downhill trails and ended up finishing on Half Nelson, Ted Tempany’s masterpiece of flow and shape that was recently seen in Sram’s Brandon Semenuk video.
We weren’t just there to have fun as we were there for the very serious business of trying out the new wheelset. I won’t give a full review here as I want to spend more time on the wheels first and perhaps having more than one Spoke tester rally these will give a more rounded review but look out for a possible review in Spoke Magazine in the future.
Here’s the details on the wheels…
Meeting the increasing demands of freeride and downhill riders, Easton Cycling has launched a 12x150mm version of its highly regarded Havoc UST wheelset. Total wheelset weight for this new option is a remarkable 1,870-grams making it the lightest 12x150mm wheelset on the market while delivering certified UST compatibility.
Easton will continue selling the Havoc DH, a heavy-duty alternative and official wheel of Whistler Bike Park, but the new Havoc UST 150mm takes downhill wheels to a new level by dropping nearly a full pound of weight and adding certified UST compatibility. This new wheelset has been race tested all season on the downhill world cup by Team Lapierre and Team Devinci’s Steve Smith, recent winner of the Canadian Open DH race on Havoc UST 150’s.
The Havoc UST 150 features a tubeless compatible, true UST 23-millimeter internal rim width (28mm external) and is laced with 28 straight-gauge Sapim spokes. Havocs are available with either bold orange anodized hubs and matching water-transfer graphics or in a stealthy gray. The Havoc 150mm is sold as a
separate rear wheel for $555 (US) or with a 20mm front wheel as a complete set at $1000 (US) and is also compatible with 157mm rear spacing through the use of modular end caps. Kiwi pricing will be available shortly but if anyone at Worralls has the jump on pricing then please get in touch with us.
