Industry 9 Hubs – Real World Experience?

Just wondering if anyone has the Industry 9 Hydra hubs and what they think of them? Reliability, performance and service interval wise?

Id look carefully at the seals. Will they work for long in British weather, or are they just good for dry dusty Asheville.

I’ve not had any experience of them, but would be very wary of products not made closer to home. Having wasted time and money on a different US make of hub I would now only buy DT Swiss.

But I could be wrong. What about support, they are some distance away. Can you get replacement bearing, do they need special tools ?

I’ve the I9 Torch hubs on my fat bike (I bought the bike second hand as a rolling chassis 3 1/2 years ago) had one pawl that needed replacing and one bearing. The bearing had seized in the hub, this was a front wheel, and needed cutting out. Pretty sure it was a standard sized bearing as there was no delay in the mechanic refitting it. Other than that I’ve not done anything to them.

Not sure I’d go for I9 if I was speccing a build myself. For a fat bike I’d go Onyx for anything else I’d go Hope.

From memory the wheels were built by justridingalong.com

Hi
I have a set of Torch hubs on a 29er Enve build.
Quality seems really good and make a lovely noise.
Had an issue with rear when the hub shell cracked.
The importer said they hadn’t seen it before and sorted me a replacement shell for £150 fairly quickly from USA.
Had to pay for it as the hubs were a few years old and I wasn’t original owner anyway which is fair enough.
Very good support and no other issues
Would probably buy again although not cheap so may go for Chris King if I was spending that much.
Cheers
Steve

Cheers, consensus seems to be better out there for the money.

Superb. I’ve got them on my sixth element wheelset. The noise they make is sweet, and the pickup is very quick. I’ve had no reliability issues.

Can’t comment on hydra but Have used torch hubs for almost 6 years, and can’t fault them. Had to replace the pawl springs once as I packed the rear hub with grease and not the recommended oil, changing them is a bit of a faff as they are tiny and easy to ping off and loose. Replace my bearings every year or so, and use standard enduro bearings that are easy to get hold of. Engagement is fantastic and I’d imagine hydra are better, it’s one of those things you take for granted until you move onto wheels with less points of engagement. Something I have recently done on a new bike and safe to say I miss the instant pick up.

I’ve got Hydras on the Endura S rim. Only a few months on them (riding Peak District filth) but still running smooth and true, and I’m on the heavy/clumsy side. Instant engagement is wonderful. Distributor is down the road to me in Sheffield, so if there are any issues, shouldn’t be too much of a hassle to sort.

On the flip side, I’ve had 2 Hope hubs that have cracked at the spoke beds.

I’ve had three sets, I’d never have them again.

All suffered terribly from bearing failure, the seals went on the freehub meaning every time you took the rear wheel out, the cassette fell off spraying pawls everywhere. When I contacted the importer he said it was a common problem and I needed to buy a new seal kit! Over 18 months of used, I replaced bearings three times in one set, the others were grumbly and I just stopped using them.

Was looking at another in my brothers shed last weekend, seized solid. For the money they’re shocking

Thanks. Weight of experience there pushing me towards DT240.

I always stick to hope or dt Swiss but currently running some tune Prince and Princess hubs but they are on my road bike so they dont get the same stick. It’s early days but they are very nice.

I have a few hope hubs. They are easy to work on and work well, but I also have an Industry Nine 9 Hydra rear hub. (No one should be buying super expensive front hubs. There is no need.)

The difference with the Hydra is the ride feel. If you do lots of technical climbs that involve half turns of the cranks and some precision, then the Hydras or an Onyx is hard to beat. I feel connected to the rear wheel and how it drives the bike with the Hydra, whereas the Hope Pro4 is more of a blunt instrument.

The price difference is daft, but I wouldn’t go back to less engagement now.

I’ve got 2 sets of i9’s they’ve lasted 2 years well, my spare wheels had dt swiss on and I was spoilt by the i9’s pickup that they felt pretty poor.. I’m not recommending i9 but if you’re buying wheels get a high engagement rear hub it feels great on a tech climb.. or you can buy a dt swiss 350 rear hub off me!

My experience is similar to Flange. They go through bearings at a slightly higher rate than Hope and higher than DT. The, 3 chock, 6 point pawl system means the hub and grease need to be clean and fairly non-viscous to get the best from them. This is based on Torch and Classic hubs.

In my opinion, other than colours, they have zero benefits over Hope and a significant drawback – price! If I were looking to buy something blingy and reliable, I’d have Chris King every time. If I wanted something subtle…well, I’d still probably go CK, but in black or silver.

I9, Hope and DT all wear through bearings and will need them replaced at some point, CK won’t. Ever.

If I didn’t have the cash for CK, I’d go DT over Hope as the bearings do seem to last longer, but they also need specialist tools to change them where Hope don’t…

I’ve had CK in the past. Not particularly light and needed quite a bit of maintenance. I’m looking to buy a set of wheels I can take from frame to frame (standards permitting).

Maintenance? You mean the bearing pre-load? That settles down on new hubs after about 600km and let’s face it, having to unscrew a 2.5mm bolt and twist the adjusting cone using the same 2.5mm key by 1/8th of a turn is hardly difficult.

My CK R45 Disc hubs did over 7000km last year. I’ve just re-lubed the bearings and ring drive. it took about 45 mins and needed nothing but a 2.5mm allen key and some RingLube. They probably didn’t need doing, but it’s over a year since they were last done and it cost me about £3 in degreaser and 30p in lube, so why not?

Had the torch, currently have 2 x 240s and 1 x CK hubs, only use the DT’s really as they just work well and are light and strong.

Agree with Daffy – I think my Chris Kings actually came from you and they were ace – mine was a SS specific one and did many rounds of the Thetford winter series without a grumble in pretty biblical conditions(Tunstall anyone?). Can’t remember if it was that hub or another one but I’ve definitely had a set of kings off you in the past..

I also only used the Torch and classic hubs, I’ve no experience of the new Hydra but I think the one I saw in my brothers shed was a hydra and that was goosed! That said, Logan on bikepacking seems to rave about them and he clearly does way more miles than me. The big thing for me was the lack of support on I9 when they did go wrong – basically not interested. I’ve got a set of Halo wheels on my bikepacking bike and I’ve had quite a few issues with the supadrive hub, resulting in them going back three times. However they’ve been brilliant on their customer service every time, even though the wheels are well out of warranty and I’d not hesitate to buy their wheels again.

Shit breaks, especially when you ride it in the wet and muck – for me the clincher is what the support is like when you have issues – Hope and Halo are brilliant. Kings just don’t break..

alexx yhm.

I think overall if I could work out how to re-tighten the CK hubs I would go for another set. Last set I had was 2008 ish so there’s bound to be a video somewhere now on how to do it.