Daan

Happy to help. I actually used a second set of the standard springs, which I put inside the other springs, doubling them up. This was recommended to me by Industry Nine themselves, after I'd broken the drive ring from too much skipping. They sent me a new hub, so I had a spare set of springs from my broken hub. Anyway, I'd ride it first, and if you notice yours starting to skip, you can get a second set springs from your dealer. Or contact I9, they might send you a set for free.

Using oil in mine. Hub did not come with any additional lubricant in the box. Got some Dumonde tech oil and grease here, seems to be in stock: https://marshguard.com/product-category/dumonde-tech/ Also using stronger springs in mine, as with the stock springs, the hub slipped occasionally under light load.

I'd still give the 180's a shot though, if that's what you've got now. Can always upgrade later if they prove too weak; 200 mm will give you 10% extra leverage over 180. And then get a spare, for when you'll inevitably bend one

Congrats on the new bike! TZs are a pretty solid brake, but due to the high pad area pretty sensitive to straight setup and perfectly faced disc mounts. If not perfectly straight, the bite point feels soft. But not less grabby, so a bent disc won't have effect on that. You could try straightening it with an adjustable spanner, but depending on how it's bent, you might do more harm than good. If cleaning rotors and pads with dish washing liquid helped, you could also try cleaning the brake rotors and pads a bit more with some acetone (and sand the pads down a bit). In my experience a 100% success rate for resurrecting dirty rotors (don't forget to clean inside the cutouts too), and has a good chance with dirty pads as well. As far as rotor size goes: 200 mm will give you noticeably more power, but do you need it? I've always been fine on 180, even on a Hex with bigger wheels, and I weigh 91 kg. The few times I've tried 200, they got bent way too quickly, which got expensive fast.

I haven't on the trials bike. Have run Nobby Nics on the MTB in the past, where it's a decent all-round tyre if you don't go too extreme. Unfortunately it only comes in 26x2.4 classic skin (tan wall) with their 'Speedgrip' compound, which usually goes only in the back on a regular MTB, or on the front when you're running a speedy XC machine. So should be pretty fast rolling, durable and hard wearing, but not exceptionally grippy, especially when it's wet. It's comparable to Maxxis Maxxspeed (on a Maxxis Ikon), and better than Maxxis Dual (on a Maxxis Crossmark 2, which sucks in the wet), and the Nobby Nic has bigger knobs than both. Quality 26" tyre selection is getting thinner and thinner unfortunately, even black ones.

Depending on how aggressive a thread you're looking for, Schwalbe makes some Nobby Nics in 26x2.4 with a tan wall.

Acetone

As Ali says, they do feel absolutely amazing and the power is there. The design of the lever is mostly really well thought out (with the glide ring, I believe only Trickstuff does this as well). That's why I still wanted to keep them initially. Even though the finish is just not there for the money (as someone else put it, 'a cast aluminium monstrosity', they weigh a tonne, with tool marks on caliper, caliper halves nowhere near to lining up, poor application of paint). I think you're definitely right, it's mainly Hayes having issues with quality control. If you can look past the poor finishing and have a properly functioning set, they're really good. But spending € 340 for a lottery ticket (with good odds, but still) is not something I can personally recommend. As is support that does not come through on its promises.

Only $100 to bling up your bike with some oil slick? Dude, it's like they're giving it away for free!

Used to use 175 mm cranks on my 24" bike with 22/16 gearing. First used 175 on my Hex as well (22/18), switched to 170 when I needed new cranks. But only because I found them for cheap and because my feet are big, so when my foot placement is subobtimal, I sometimes hit the wheel with my toes. This gave me a tiny bit more room there. I personally notice no difference in any other respect. Your body is generally super quick to adapt to these kind of small changes. So I wouldn't sweat it, just stick with what it comes with.

Update on this: Hayes offered to send me a new lever. So knowing that they're backed with some proper customer service, I figured I'd still give them a go, even though they don't look as premium as their price tag would suggest. Only installed the rear brake for now while I wait for the other lever, and just had a short play in between the rain showers. So... I think I made the right decision in keeping them, as the power is phenominal! I've ridden a lot of different brakes, with a lot of different pad compounds, but have never felt anything like this. Where on my Hex my Magura MT5s, and before that Hope Trial Zones, would usually slip when slammed into an edge that I landed way too low (I weigh 90 kg too), these just remain locked up. Crazy stuff. Super light lever feel too, with very little flex unlike the Magura's, and not such a super heavy action like the Hope Tech3, where simply pressing the lever feels like a finger workout in itself. And, hardly any pad rock, I love the silence! Hope they prove to be durable in the long run too! EDIT: In the end, Hayes never came through with the new lever. Complete radio silence after they promised to send me a new one. Add to that, after having a look at the other brake that'd been sitting in a box for 3 weeks waiting for Hayes' lever, turns out pad clearance between the two calipers is completely different, no matter what I do (reset pistons, lube them, underfill or overfill brake). So one brake engages instantly and is impossible to set up rub free, while the other one is alright with a nice bitepoint and easy to setup. I've sent them all back to the shop, hopefully getting my money back. Absolutely done with Hayes' shit quality and service.

Since Ali's been using them and raving about them, I thought I'd give them a shot. Got them in today and fitted them. First impressions: major quality control issues at Hayes. So, what's wrong: One lever clamp isn't perfectly round, it doesn't fit my handlebar properly. Paint started flaking off as well. I informed the shop I bought them from and proceeded to sand the clamp down till it fit alright, thinking that was it and ready to go. However, turns out a lot of the bolts have been overtightened at the factory. The pad bolt on one caliper was so tight I had to get out my heat gun to get it to budge and prevent stripping the head. Bite point adjustment bolt on one lever had been factory stripped: it's a tiny 2 mm allen key bolt, done up super tight apparently. On the other lever it turns fine, but on this one I can simply rotate my allen key inside the head and nothing happens. Lever feel is nice. But these brakes are very expensive, and you'd expect great finishing quality (the calipers themselve look pretty shabby too, with the two halves sort of but not quite aligning), so I'm quite disappointed. Contacting the shop for a return, hopefully without any fuss.

Great they stand behind their products! Longevity of them is a bit questionable though. At least with the Hydra I had and its replacement. How are the pawl pockets of your old freehub holding up Swoofty, much wiggle room and flared out?

Interesting, also that the Trialtech/Jitsie pads are sintered. On the MTB, I always feel that with sintered pads I need to get some heat into the system to make it perform, compared to organics. Figured with trials I would never get them consistently warm enough to always perform at their best. Is it more hold with sintereds, or have they changed lately?

Actually lucky it's 26, much more to choose from Have a look at Ali C's YouTube channel, he's running some Vittoria tyres on his Hex. Don't know how available they are in Canada though. Besides the Crossmark, the Maxxis Ikon Exo is available with a grippier 3C compound. I may personally try those next (the wider 26x2.35 one), as the Crossmark in the wet can sometimes be a bit sketchy I find.

My bad, assumed it was 24. In that case, maybe look at Maxxis XC tyres with an Exo casing. I've been running a few Crossmark 2s and they're holding up well. Better casing than the Holy Rollers, not as heavy as dual ply.

They don't make Cross Kings in 24" for your Element. You haven't got much choice in 24" streety tyres. I used to run Table Tops and Holy Rollers, the latter were a bit more solid and durable, but as above, sidewalls still very thin. Hookworm as Sam said, but the Conti MacAskill tyre seems the tyre of choice nowadays in 24".

No, I mean a 26" wheel will clearly not fit in the frame.

No. Unless you grind a whole chunk out of the frame.

Thought I'd give this an update. Received a new hub from I9, and built this into a new wheel a few weeks ago. First ride the new hub was fine, second ride gave me the first skip/pop. Couple rides later, 1 or 2 skips every ride, even after I cleaned out the hub of grease and re-oiled it (but there wasn't much grease in there to begin with anyway). Contacted I9, they suggested I install the springs from my old Hydra freehub inside the springs of the new one, doubling them up. They also wanted to make me a custom skinnier axle with a bushing system in the freehub, which they said might prevent skipping (how would this work?), but turned that wasn't an option, as I'm using the bolt-on version. Anyway, with the double springs, the hub is crazy loud and draggy as hell. But it hasn't skipped since (3 rides in). We'll see how that goes. By the way, pawl pockets have already started to flare out, after around 10 rides.

Try a dab of grease below each bolt head as well. Also, I tighten mine more than 6 Nm, as occasionally I got my bar to rotate in the stem clamp on a not so smooth landing. And I totally get you, can't stand any creaks myself either

Sounds familiar. Have you tried cleaning the stem/fork steerer interface, headset spacers and the headset races on the steerer too? I seem to recall with mine that eventually solved it.

Interesting, I had the same issue on my Industry Nine Hydra hub. Skipping only under very light pedal pressure. Pawl seats were very worn out after a few months, and teeth in the ring were ever so slightly damaged. Industry Nine sent me a new hub straight away (great service, and I'm in Europe too), which I've just built into a new wheel. And lo and behold, the new hub also does the skipping. Second ride in, first skip. Not as bad yet as the old one and there appears to be no damage on the teeth yet. Is this something inherent to trials use with these pawl type hubs? I have to say I had no problems with my old Hope Evo hub.

2019 Hex here, the newer generation. A friend of mine with the same Hex made his triple 68/73 RF cranks work with some mods (spacing all the way to the drive side, cutting down the 22t ring tabs a bit); unmodified the ring hits the chain stay, as with my Deore, and likely also with the old Saints (they're all the same spec, old school triples, same chain line). I think Swoofty runs the newer XT double crank, which does fit, but you need to be creative with the bash ring. So for Saints, go 83 mm

A 68/73 and classic 4 bolt ring will be be tight. I couldn't run a (3 ring style) Deore on mine, the ring hit the chain stay. 2 ring version of the Deore does just fit, but can't mount a bash on the outside. Switched to 83 mm Race Face cranks (well, "superboost" actually), which are fine. Chain line is another thing to consider with this setup. On my industry nine rear hub, I have to run the cog all the way inboard for a straight chain, so if the crank were any closer to the chain stays, my chain line would be less than ideal. A Hope hub has a bit more space. For old school Saints which have the classic 3 ring spacing, go 83.