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Chris King Or Industry Nine?


l33th3tr33

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And the Superstar Components 120 EP hub isn't good enough for trials based on the one on my XC bike breaking after a year... Great warranty support though and it wasn't the freewheel mechanism that failed, the pawl carrier cracked instead. Chris King or Hope Pro II are the only hubs for which there's a consensus that you won't easily kill them riding trials.

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I guess they're not that popular around there. Around ehre in the states they're popular as shit, especially here on the east coast (Made in North Carolina). It's kinda like an East coast vs. west coast thing here (King is made in Oregon). Our shop is the #1 dealer in the state for I9 wheelsets. We sell more I9 custom wheelsets than Mavic wheels. And a wheelset being over $1000usd, that says something. Not one of the wheelsets we've ever sold int he past couple of years has had ONE problem.

As far as the hubs go, if you've ever taken one apart you'll see the pawls are BEEFY AS SHIT. When they tested them out, they pulled something like a semi trailer with it. There was some ridiculous figure posted some years back about their strength. Also, I9 has specifically said "we will warranty against trials and competition use. If you can break it, we will fix it." King won't even touch your wheel if you say "trials" in your sentence. That's not to say that they won't touch your hub as there have been a couple people who have blatantly told them the hub was on a trials bike and it's been fixed, but they do give you grief, and if abiding by their policy, they don't have to help you. Not something I want to hear if I'm dropping that kinda cash on a hub.

I9's are also more like any other hub: pawls, so you don't have to rely on some voodoo magic, or maintenance regimen to make sure it won't skip. If your I9 skips, it's broken and you send it back, simple as that.

Bang for the buck though, it's hard to beat a Hope. Wholesale on the King or I9 is over $100usd more expensive. They are nicer, but the Hope is damn nice, and damn well good enough. That, and I don't have to worry about it skipping like a King. I also know if I tell Hope it was on a trials bike, they won't abandon me. But if you can spare the cash, the I9 is the tits.

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Taken directly from their website:

"Holy 120 engagement points! How strong is your drive mechanism?

The Industry Nine drive mechanism is a fairly simple, tried-and-true pawl arrangement. When engaged, each of the three driving pawls itself has three points, providing nine points of contact to the hardened A2 drive ring. The drive ring has 60 teeth, which would normally allow a 6-degree engagement – among the fastest in the industry. Our proprietary mechanism allows for a second set of three pawls, phased three degrees from the first. This feature cuts engagement time in half, to a mind-blowing three degrees! Our lightning quick take-up has become highly desirable on singlespeeds, twenty-niners, and disciplines with gate starts. We have tested our drive system beyond 700 ft-lbs of torque, which amounts roughly to a super-chipped Ford Power Stroke turbo diesel engine. In over two years of prototyping and testing, we have had zero drive mechanism failures."

http://www.industrynine.net/F.A.Q.

Two years of testing, NO drive mechanism failures. Pretty damn bold, and impressive...

In the past year, we've sold over 9 wheelsets and none of them have ever come back for anything. Funny how all the people who say "they're light, they can't be that strong, not worth it" are the same people who have never even seen the hub in person, let alone ridden a set.

The pawls and track themselves are roughly 1.5 times the width of a Hope. Pretty damn impressive. The drive side bearing is also HUUUGE.

Edited by rupintart
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really cool mechanism they've got there of spreading the pawl face out over 3 different teeth. i'm kind of surprised no one else had done that yet.

Nukeproof hubs use the same pawl design only set into the hub shell and the freehub body is the ratchet ring. I9 stuff looks interesting.

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Nukeproof hubs use the same pawl design only set into the hub shell and the freehub body is the ratchet ring. I9 stuff looks interesting.

The problem with that is that you can only fit a lower number of teeth if you put the ratchet on the cassette body whilst maintaining a reasonable ratchet tooth size, putting the ratchet in the hubshell, like I9 and Hope allows you to increase the number of teeth and as such the number of EP's whilst maintaining a reasonable size to the teeth themselves.

I like the look of the I9 hubs, what is the price for the standard rear freehub or who is the UK importer/distributor? They also make a dishless singlespeed hub for us lot :)

Edited by craigjames
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I've never ridden a set that has the J-Bend spokes though, so I can't comment on how stiff they are like that. I've only ridden the hubs with the AL straight pull spokes attached to Stans's Flow and Arch rims.

I do wish I owned a set, they are nice. Just pricey in comparison to Hopes. All of my co-workers, however, ride nothing but I9s.

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