Somewhat quietly, Industry Nine has rolled out their new 1-1 road/cross/gravel disc hubs. Not that we had anything at all to do with them, but this is a product we've agitated for since they introduced the 1-1 mountain bike hubs a while back.
A handsome set of hubs indeed! First off the bat, black is the color in which they come, and the color you can get them in is black. Black black black. Even though I9 has a ton of colors, black is about 50% of what we sell, so this isn't too much of a hardship for most.
Second, centerlock is the rotor fitment available. And let's face it, centerlock is better anyway so no hardship there. Axles are limited to 12 and 15mm x 100 in the front, and 12x142 and QR in the rear. The primary market is 12mm thru axles, and that's about 90% of what we sell for these kinds of build anyhow.
They have wicked fast engagement. I'm sure they tell you somewhere what they are, but functionally it's instant. You can't discern a lag. The transmission is pawl and spring, with offset pawls providing this instant engagement. It's a good system, as the pawl to drive ring engagement is still deep, but the engagement speed is muy rapido. Many of you will know that I think engagement speed is oversold for road/gravel purposes, but there it is.
The sealing is excellent, with a nice lip seal between the cassette body and the hub shell, and full contact seals (light blue seals, shown below) on all outboard facing bearing sides, with semi-contact seals (royal blue, shown above) on inboard facing seals.
Geometry is great, similar to the Torch hubs and even kind of more similar to White Industries CLDs. So far all the spoke lengths for different builds have worked out just about the same as CLDs.
Weight is slightly higher than Torches, again more similar to CLDs - 423 for a set of these, versus 361 for a set of Torches. Again, many of you may know that I consider that difference in a pair of hubs to be just north of completely meaningless.
Drivers are available for HG11 (aka Shimano/SRAM) and XDR. Spacers are supplied with both so you can use them with older drivetrains that have less than the max number of gears. No Microspline™ or Campy as of now, but I might expect at least Microspline™ in the near-ish future. No word on that yet.
Pricing is quite good, at around $110 off of the Torch equivalent. For hubs like this, with these features, made with this precision in the US, it's a smoking deal. The added bonus is that they should be quite a bit more prompt in the delivery than Torch hubs have been since COVID. Don't get me started on how long it takes to get a set of Torches or Hydras these days.
The other bit of news that comes in this packet is that Torch rim brake hubs are no mas. So as we start to put these up in the build options, we'll have to start taking down the Torch rim brake builds. It's a changing world out there.
7 comments
ccjohn – I see plenty of manufacturers making those sizes, but Enduros will be most readily available in the US, and that’s what comes standard in the hubs.
The bearing sizes are not industrial standard? It seems like only Enduro is making 15/18×30×7 and 15×26×7/10?
Hi Bill -
They’re just wildly more convenient. Once installed, they’re all the same. But I recently had to shim an old set of 6 bolt hubbed wheels and holy cats it was a pain in the a** – undoing and redoing 6 bolts 4 times was plenty enough for me to go for good and forever into “centerlock is just better” territory.
Dave
Why do you believe that centerlock is better than 6 bolt?
Thanks,
Bill
Ray – Going all Spamalot, huh? I saw David Hyde Pierce (Niles Crane from Frasier) and Tim Curry in Spamalot on Broadway, it was awesome.
Joshua – Outstanding 5 star question. $110 is the net price differential. The retail price differential is greater than that, but as you prove to know our pricing is all about cost and not about retail sticker price. It’s how the sausage gets made.