nation

@RadJekyll: sorry for lack of clarity, we’ve had pretty poor experience with reliability, specifically that the innermost hub shell bearing seat is machined out of tolerance causing bearings to walk out or creak a ton. To be fair, the drive mechanisms have rarely presented issues and the hubs are well sealed. People who get a good 1/1 seem to be able to run them forever so I’d wager it’s more of a quality control issue pumping them out in volume at a low cost but still not very confidence inspiring.

@KJP1230: we see a much higher rate of failure on i9 Hydras here at the shop compared to most other high end hubs (except the i9 1/1 which is a total write off for reliability). I will concede that we remember one’s that fail, not one’s that work flawlessly but broken hub axles and cracked drive-rings are normal enough on a Hydra that it’s easy to explain to customers that their broken Hydra isn’t unique. For what it’s worth, we see the most issues on those being run on singlespeeds or high output XC/trail riders (regardless of maintenance habits) almost never on long travel rigs likely because long travel users are way more likely to sit and spin versus hammer up a climb. Pinner Machine Shop make a steel axle for the Hydra that basically bulletproofs it for a small weight penalty.

Have you considered the shareholders?

@kazwei: Ibis has been running BLKBRD Send rims with that profile and structure for almost two years now, not exactly light or very pretty looking but we’ve sold hundreds at our shop and have only seen one dude do any serious damage. Chromag BA30 also have a wide-ish albeit not as wide hook to help with pinches.

@Tambo: username is my actual last name, but thanks. Not been there to try it, only had the chance to at markets in the states.

@Tambo: nationality checks out…

@GTscoob: on a technical note, generally speaking a coil spring will always generate greater “mid-stroke” support than an air spring for a given sag value. In fact in a situation like a telescopic fork or non-linkage driven single pivots where leverage rates remain [almost] the same across the entire stroke, a coil should be more supportive in the 35-65% of travel zone. It seems that people’s experience on coil forks in relation to diving has more to do with the fork being more able to move freely in its first 30% of travel and that unless you’re accustomed to that ride feel, it can feel like the fork is moving more especially in supported corners or under light braking. This in turn seems to be reported as lack of “mid-stroke” when in practice the fork isn’t yet to the middle of its stroke where it would indeed offer improved support vs an air spring. DSD Suspension, Vorsprung, Manitou, and Ohlins have all developed air springs/add-ons that attempt to improve support across the full stroke including the mid-stroke to emulate a coil. I’d certainly concede that coils can struggle with big impacts when ridden incorrectly, and in my experience a coil spring demands more controlled and sophisticated damping to truly offer well rounded performance vs similar air forks.