Industry Nine wheelset: Long term and In Detail

You've seen the pictures and heard the rumors, now we have the scoop on Industry Nine's wheels! Obviously these are the coolest looking wheels in the galaxy but how did they hold up after a full season of DH bike abuse and drive through car wash cleanings?

Read on.....

While the days of hand built wheels using traditional spokes and patterns will never disappear, new school pre-built wheel sets that employ new materials and manufacturing techniques have taken the luster out of those mysterious handcrafted hoops. I enjoy nothing more than a quiet day in the back of the shop with some good tunes, a pile of spokes and a rim, and an old park truing stand. If I've done my calculations right and manage to put the right spoke in the right hole it is one of the most relaxing and rewarding things I've ever done. Sometimes I swear I could do it day in and day out without ever tiring of it. In short, I love to build wheels. That is probably the biggest reason I have resisted buying a set of more modern wheels. For a guy who likes to roll with the latest and greatest and take chances on new products, I have been slow to champion the idea of pre-built and proprietary wheels.


There are other reasons also, and the fact that many of these wheels do use proprietary parts is one of them. I do not like the feeling of being far from home with little chance of being able to walk into the local cycle shop and finding the part I need. Stuff breaks, that's a rule, and when it does I need to be able to sort it out. Other reasons include the need for special tools to perform certain fixes, as well as the greater possibility for things to go south. After all, common sense tells me that the more complicated something is, then the larger the chance for something to go wrong.

Of course not all of the above applies to the entire selection of today's super wheels. Maybe I'm just grasping at straws and starting to show my age. I am a grumpy mechanic after all. That's why I surprised myself when I rang up Industry Nine and pulled the trigger on some custom wheels. I had seen pictures of the Morewood team racing on beautiful sets of blue spoked wheels and soon was lurking the I9 homepage trying to decide which spoke and hub color combo would look best on my Orange 224. Without even realizing it I had convinced myself that I needed these wheels.

---

Options

There are eight different wheel sets to choose from, each built for a different use. Every single wheel set has many color options for both hubs and spokes, including a fade alternative if that floats your boat. Now factor in three different spoke diameters, .9", .100", and .110", that are available for certain wheels. I9 has an affinity for DT Swiss's rims, but can build up your wheels to whichever rim you prefer as long as it has 32 holes in it.
Prebuilt options include an All Mountain set, Enduro, DH/FR, Ultralite (1400 grams!), single speed, and 29" wheels. If you have unique fork you can still join the fun with I9's Lefty and Maverick hub options, on top of the standard 20 mm and QR for the front as well as 135 and 150 mm for the back. Did I mention they also make more traditional hubs that accept J-bend spokes?


My wheels would be going on my DH bike so that meant that I would be using I9's 20mm front hub and 12/150mm rear hub. For maximum effect I wanted my spokes to clash with my hubs. With that in mind I decided on black hubs with red spokes. I don't dislike DT's rims but have had nothing but great results running Alex Supra D rims on my DH bike. They are relatively light at 580 grams, only slightly heavier then the more disposable Sun SingleTracks and a magnitude stronger. Alex may not be on everyones radar for high end rims but they should be, great products.

---

Technical Info

-Spokes

Industry Nine uses aluminum as the material of choice to build their spokes from. 7075 T6 to be more precise. A quick glance at an I9 spoke reveals it has a much larger cross section than a traditional steel spoke. While 20-25% larger across, they still weigh about the same amount as a triple butted steel spoke of a much smaller diameter. The aluminum spokes, with their larger size, are also stiffer than any triple butted spoke could ever hope to be. Wrench flats are machined directly into the far end of the spoke to create a 'nipple' of sorts. In fact, there are no nipples anywhere on these wheels but in order to build, tension, and true the wheels you'll need to be put a spoke wrench somewhere! No special tools, a common 15g spoke wrench is all that is needed. At the business end of the spoke you'll find some rather large threads and no J-bend of a steel spoke.

So why the no J-bend?

The J-bend is one of the two weak points in the common steel spoke, the cut threads on the opposite end being the other. I9 has gone to task on both issues. Of the two spots, failure at the bend is by far the most common. As a wheel rolls along it is constantly loading and unloading the joint between the hub flange and the spoke, directly at the bend. The less spoke tension in the wheel means more slop within the hub flange, and in turn the sooner it fails. Certainly not all common steel spokes fail, but if you have been around long enough then its probably happened to you at some point. They key is to keep the wheel in tension. Industry Nine's (and some other wheel builders) answer is to simply eliminate the bend altogether.


Instead of having threads between the nipple and spoke, like on a regular spoke, I9 has theirs at the hub shell. The threads themselves are actually a larger diameter then the spoke body to further reduce the chance of failure. Picture a butted spoke taken to the next level.


-Hubs

Industry Nine hubs are almost too pretty to get dirty. Almost. Visually they are just about the single most stunning piece of bike kit I've ever seen, bar none. There is no spoke flange in the traditional sense, instead there are eight 'posts' on each side of the hub. Each post has two holes on either side to accept the spoke. It would have been easy for the I9 CNC machine to leave some surplus material around this area, instead the hubs spend a little extra time to finish the job. We've all heard the line about true beauty being on the inside though, which is the case here.


You know something is going on in there as soon as you turn the aluminum freehub body in your hand. Instead of the usual 'tick.....tick......tick' of pawls clicking along as it turns, you'll hear 'ticktickticktick' as the I9 system works away inside. Your next clue is the near instant engagement when you spin it the opposite direction. So what exactly is happening in there?


While it is executed beautifully it is actually pretty simple. The I9 hubs don't use new technology, but they do take the standard freehub pawl arrangement to the next level. The first stage is three spring loaded steel pawls, common to many hubs, but each of those pawls has three engagement points of their own to make nine points of that take hold. That is six more than most hubs. Why not add three more pawls though, each with 3 engagement points themselves and rotated 3 degrees from the first set of pawls? In one direction everything spins free, turn it the other way though and each point clamps down hard on the 60 tooth drive ring. For those that don't want to do the math that adds up to 120 points of contact and only three degrees until engagement. Industry Nine claims to have had zero failures. Apparently their freehub mechanism has been tested to over 700 ft/lb. of torque so I am not going to wait around for one to fail, it may be awhile. You also have the ability of removing 3 of the 6 pawls to create less drag while coasting. Everything above turns on one piece aluminum axles and ABEC grade 5 bearings.

---

The Build

If you order a set of I9 wheels they will come pre-built and ready to roll. For testing purposes as well as time constraints I elected to have mine delivered to me in 68 separate pieces. When I placed my order there was quite a long wait time, over a month actually, until wheel sets were being shipped. The long wait was not due to lack of parts, but man power to put the parts together. It always seems like the more you anticipate something the longer it takes to happen. Regardless, I wanted mine asap and I wanted to build them anyways so I only had to wait a week or so as the boxes made their way from N.C. to B.C..


There are two spoke lengths for each wheel set. One length for drive side rears, and one set of longer spokes for the front wheel and the non-drive side of the rear. The difference in length is pretty big so if you screw it up you are really good. I was a bit nervous about the build before I started, but I soon discovered that wheel building can't get any easier than with the I9's. There is really only one important step: put the first two spokes through the right hole in the rim and into the right hole in the hub. After that each spoke will only reach the hole that is destined to be in. In other words, it's fool proof. As is the case with any wheel build, and maybe more so with the aluminum I9 spokes, use a prep on the spoke threads. I'm a fan of linseed oil as it keeps things from backing off, prevents corrosion, and won't set hard like Loc-Tite will. I also put a touch of grease at each spoke hole in the rim under the 'nipple' head. It's not in the instructions but it seemed like a good thing to do to help to keep things moving freely.


Bringing the spokes up to tension happens much quicker than with regular spokes. Two reasons: the spoke threads are much more coarse than those of a traditional spoke, and the aluminum spokes will not stretch nearly as much as their steel cousins. I started with 1/2 and then 1/4 turns on the spokes and was very quickly using only an 1/8 of a turn at each go. Usually when it happens this fast it's because I've forgotten something, but not this time. Truing and tensioning took half as long is I am used to! I9's instructions included tension values, so use a tension gauge and you'll know when you're done. One thing I did notice while tensioning was that I was unable to use my trusty four sided spoke wrench. It wouldn't fit over the larger diameter spoke so I had to use a three sided Park tool. Not a real problem but when working with aluminum bits I prefer to get as much contact as possible. Make sure to wipe away any unsightly extra oil or grease as dirt will end up sticking to it, install some rotors and tires and hit the dirt.

For those who care, my complete set built with Alex Supra D's came in at 2139 grams (front-962/rear-1177). This compares well against Mavic's high end DeeMax wheels which weigh a claimed 2447 grams. Unless you're building with SingleTrack's or DT 5.1's, both of which aren't known for their strength, the heft will only go up from here on in.

---

8 months later....

So far all I have seen in print is a few pictures of some really shinny Industry Nine parts and maybe a blurb or two. How about the long haul? Do those funky aluminum spokes last? Do the wheels hold their tension like a good wheel should? It's been said before that wheels have the greatest effect on how a bike performs. A shitty wheel set will drag a good bike down and a good wheel set can elevate a mediocre bike to stardom. The I9 wheels are the only set that I've had on my Orange 224 since building them. They have been with me for a summer at Whistler, nearly a full season of riding my home trails in the rain and mud, cased a few good sized gaps, done some epic XC rides, and taken some over the top abuse courtesy of the RedBull Rampage site in Utah. Really, I can't think of a component that I've given a more thorough beat down than these wheels.


The first thing you should notice is how well the wheels go around. The I9 hubs spin smoothly on ABEC Grade 5 bearings, although "smoothly" does not quite do them justice. While an average sealed bearing turns very nicely, most will never be quite as free as a well set up cup and cone system. The I9's low contact bearings were as close to drag free as I've ever felt from a sealed unit. They actually felt far better than any ceramic bearing I've used in the past which was a pleasant surprise. Even more of a surprise is how well they still spin today, 8 months later. Just now I would like to use a knife to pop out the seal and re-grease them as they still spin fine, just a touch drier than I'd like. Some fresh grease will prevent any corrosion and increase bearing life even further. The rear hub also has a locking threaded bearing pre-load adjustment on the non-drive side. I never needed to use this feature but it's nice to have it. When the time does come you'll need one 61808 (large F/H bearing), two 61903 (cassette body bearings), and one 61804 (hub shell, disc side).


There is quite a lot going on inside of I9's rear hub and just as you'd expect, there's quite a lot of noise that comes out of it. I know a lot of riders that take into account the freehub noise before making any wheel purchases and none of you will be disappointed with the sound from I9's hub. With so many engagement points there is obviously quite the racket coming from the back of your bike as you coast along. The noise is not quite as harsh or loud as a Ringle but much more frequent. Instead of a steady solid click its more of a buzz that's nice to hear if you're sporting a beanie helmet and coasting along. I personally love the sound, it's unique and is a head turner as you pass people on the trail side.


It sounds good and works even better. Tested up to 700 ft/lbs of torque, I never had any issues under load. I doubt I put out anything near that figure even when falling from a great height, which I do sometimes. Much more important to me is how trouble free it has been. Each pawl is sprung with a separate flat spring that is held in place with a small set screw, as opposed to one wire spring that wraps over each pawl as found on a lot of designs. Having each pawl sprung individually creates an even more reliable system. I have not bothered to disassemble and clean anything until I needed pictures for this review. Even so, all the bits still moved freely and nothing was gummed up or stiff. Very impressive as even the simplest spring and pawl designs seem to get gummed up over shorter periods of time. Well I've never actually wished for a faster engagement while riding, the near instant pick up of I9's freehub was impressive on the trail. No lag and no delay, its always there when I was ready to stand on it.


I've been very impressed at how well the I9's hold their tension over time. As with any wheel there was an initial break-in period and slight re-tension, but after that they have been going strong. I did a quick check with DT's tension gauge before adding any tension and discovered that each spoke on their respective side had eased off the same amount. No odd ball spokes backed off any more then its neighbor as can be common with regular wire spokes. To be honest I didn't even need the truing stand to add tension as the wheel was still perfectly dished and true.

Not everything was peachy though. Far more than riding, bikes here in town get shit kicked from truck runs. As everyone knows its not uncommon to sacrifice a brake line or at the very least some paint on the ride up. Somewhere in that pile of bikes a pedal managed to take quite a bite out of one the spokes in my rear wheel. It was big enough to notice right away and if it was anyone else's wheel I'd have told them to replace it before it fails. Out of curiosity I left it in made sure to level some extra abuse upon it! It took two months of solid abuse and neglect before it failed at the damaged spot. It broke when I couldn't quite hold my line on a fast corner and ended up slapping a large tree with my back wheel. Not only did I finish my ride, but I did two more rides with it before replacing the spoke. During that time the wheel stayed nearly perfectly true regardless.


You can look at this two ways. Yes, a steel spoke can take more pedals, sticks, and rocks before it breaks. I don't think a steel spoke would have broken or sustained that much damage from the pedal to begin with, it is steel after all. On the other hand, when it finally did fail I was able to not only ignore it but also ride it a few more times before I got around to fixing it. When I did replace it all I had to do was thread it in and bring up the tension in the new spoke to match the others, no fiddling with any other spokes at all.

---

These wheels are not cheap, my set retails for around $900 Canadian. They are my everyday wheels though and I've been very happy with them. There are those people that will balk at the idea of spending that much money on wheels, even though they may appreciate what Industry 9 is doing. Then there are those who want something that stands out, is reliable, and won't mind spending a bit more to get something unique. Keep in mind that there are hub sets out there that add up to more than a complete I9 wheel set as well as far more traditional wheels that don't have as much attention to detail as these gems, yet retail for more.

Want more info? Industry Nine has it here!