Inside Industry Nine Components
There is something to be said for things that are still made by hand. So many of the components made in the bike industry are built and assembled by machine "somewhere else" these days. Ten years ago, Industry Nine came on to the scene and started producing rather beautiful hubs and wheel sets. They were unique in that they used thick one piece aluminum spokes. They also had amazing engagement and were built by hand down in Asheville, North Carolina. Today, Industry Nine has proven that their design wasn't just a flash in the pan. They have continued to improve the design of their hubs and drivers, and they still build their wheel sets by hand to spec. We took a tour of Industry Nine with Clint Spiegel and watched the whole construction process. To be honest, it was a little like Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, rainbow colors and all. Just not edible.
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 Clint Spiegel, the man behind Industry Nine outside the company's discrete Asheville, North Carolina, headquarters. It is now Industry Nine's tenth year building some of the best wheels in the business. |
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| Clint still has a very hands-on approach in the design of every product that comes out of Industry Nine. |
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| Industry Nine isn't a name without meaning. It is the ninth business born out of this machine shop in Asheville and the most successful to date. |
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| This is how an Industry Nine hub starts out, with a twelve foot long bar of 7075 aluminum. |
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| The aluminum bar is then cut to length according to what hub it will become. |
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| The first and second turning processes. The blank is bored out, and then a hub starts to take shape. The hubs go through three turning and two milling steps. |
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| More material is cut away in the second turning process. |
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| About sixty percent of the original blank has now been milled away. What we have now can be easily recognized as an Industry Nine hub. |
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| After each step, the hubs are measured to assure everything is on point for the next process. |
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| Next, spoke mount posts are milled out in a five axis milling machine. |
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| Rotor mount holes are tapped. |
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| The hubs are nearing the completion of the milling process. When they are done here, they will go onto polishing before they get their ano bath. |
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| After the hubs are milled, each one is polished by hand. |
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| Polished and ready for the anodizing process. |
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| The anodizing tanks. It's an electro-chemical process that bonds color to the porous aluminum. Think of it as dipping aluminum Easter eggs in dye. |
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| After polishing, the hubs are then loaded onto these trees and lowered into the anodizing tanks for coloring and sealing. |
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| End caps coming out of a black anodizing bath. It typically takes about two hours to anodize hubs; the longer they stay in the bath, the deeper the color. |
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| In a process that is unique to Industry Nine, the driver rings are hardened before the teeth are cut. This makes the steel strong and insures that the part will maintain its shape, but makes cutting the teeth a bit more difficult. That's where EDM wire comes in. |
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| A spool of copper wire as thick as two strands of hair is electrified, and cuts teeth into the hardened steel ring. The process takes longer, about one every thirty minutes, but the resulting part is much more durable. Each machine makes about thirty of these per day. |
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| Spent EDM wire. It will be recycled, turned back into copper wire, and live to cut hardened steel another day. |
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| Pawls are cut out of a solid hardened steel bar. |
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| The assembled Torch driver body. There are always three points of engagement and the system can withstand over seven hundred foot pounds of torque. |
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| Industry Nine is unique in that they use aluminum spokes. The spokes are thicker than steel and, because of their thickness, have a similar tensile strength. They also make for an overall stiffer wheel. These are spokes in their raw state, 7075-T6 aluminum. The spokes are then loaded into the milling machines. Industry Nine has four machines dedicated to making spokes. They churn out roughly 2,000 spokes per day. |
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| From aluminum rod to spoke. One piece, light and strong. |
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| The final step in spoke production, laser etching Industry Nine into the spoke. Usually the tray is full and the spokes are all lined up correctly. This was only for photo purposes. |
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| Spokes of every size and color. Your imagination is the only limit to color combinations. |
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| Every wheel set that comes out of Industry Nine is built by hand. Some are built by a man with a rather impressive beard. |
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| Taste the rainbow. Some incredible bling for your bike, Industry Nine hubs are really quite beautiful to look at. They happen to work pretty well, too. |
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| Besides bearings, rims are the only part of an Industry Nine wheel set that is outsourced. |
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| For those of you into fat bikes, Industry Nine is now building some ridiculously light fat bike wheels. |
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| Industry Nine employees have a pump track out back, which is handy when they are on break. It's also handy for some quick light duty testing. |
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| All wheels are trued by hand and then stressed in-house before being boxed up and shipped out to happy customers. |
MENTIONS @Industry-Nine
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184 Comments
although i have a suspicion that high quality hubs with less engagements can handle more torque, and its not like its something I9 should be worrying about anyway, chris hoy has taken up racing for nismo nissan
Also for those who want their hub quieter you can remove the endcap, slide the freehub out (all by hand) and load up the drive ring and pawls with Dumonde Tech Freehub oil. The more oil, the quiter! we have a machinist who runs his BONE DRY to make them as loud as possible also. To each their own!
Keep up the great work.
Where can i get a tshirt???
just looked at the 29 "enduro" wheel - looks sick, black rim, red fat spokes, mmm mmm
Profile Elites > i9 > King > Hope
What calipers do you have?
Of the newest design I have a pair of 24h 27.5 Trail (120mm hardtail), 27.5 32h trail (Transition Bandit), and 29er 32h Enduro (Transition TransAM). Match your build to your riding style. I ride aggressively, weigh 150lbs and prefer to skip and gap my way down the trail. The 24h 27.5s handled a lot more than I thought, but I wouldn't put them on any bike I was trying to be overly aggressive with. The 32h ones on the Bandit have seen bike park time and a few Enduros. They have held up great and needed a couple twists of the spokes to find true again, and there are a couple good dents in the rim. I would do the enduro rims next time for that bike for added confidence. The Enduro 29er rims are ridiculously stout. I don't even think about them.
I have a pair of the original design with stans arch rims on my DJ bike and I'm happy enough to case the crap out of the rear and it still runs great. I could probably true it a little but the wheel was originally on my Blur LTc in 2011 and has been on the DJ since 2012. They are actually pretty easy to pull apart and service, especially the newer ones.
It used to seem like the price for a wheelset was steep, but considering the cost of carbon, and the price of other comparable quality wheels they are right where they should be. The price of spokes are no worse than Mavic, and you can call i9 up and their customer service is solid because they care!
Wikipedia says Vernier is the correct term. God can't argue with Wiki...
Are you implying that +\- 0.001" (or less) isn't precise? Do you expect them to use a cmm for hubs? Come on.... And that shot is clearly of in process inspection.... Geeeeeeeeez
Don't under estimate a proper digital caliper for inspection. Keep in mind that the inspector's measurement skills are as important as the inspection tool. My company measures to the thou on diameters of an inch to 24" plus every day. This includes inside diameters. Look up mitutoyo, they are +\-0.001" accuracy and common in manufacturing.
For reference: I'm a p eng, in manufacturing for nine years specializing in engineering heavy/ lower volume precise parts for use in dangerous applications. Also with automation/assembly line design experience before my current job. I've spent a lot of time in the shop. Filthy coveralls.
There are fast cmm's, I've seen them... Also semi automated tracing type cmm's. Good for sample inspection.
Ps. I have i9's , they are great.
Except no they're not, they have simply copied Mavic who has been using aluminum spokes for over a decade now.
yup, it was Mavic who basically invented the "factory wheelset" (global system) with Cosmic in 1994 and later the use of aluminium alloy spokes (Zicral material), which many wheelbuilders had thought impossible
I would love to be ably to justify these custom wheels. I have owned Chris king (still do), tune (still do) and Hadley hubs. All overpriced for the normal day to day rider.
I have the chance of buying i9 wheels just now. But lack of spares and crazy prices 2nd hand put me off.
Im all about quality controll. The calipers beside the hub tells the story.
OK it was six spokes and the wheel stayed true.
I have my pair for over 2 years without any issues , and their customer service is simple the Best.
What a stupid comment... so really they make part of the hubs and the spokes? That's fine, just an idiotic way to word it.
Rims are more of what makes a wheel than the hubs are, what a stupid statement. So they make part of the hubs and the spokes?