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Industry Nine Fat Bike Hubs Are Back*! But Only for a Limited Time…

Written by Zach Overholt
8 Comments
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Industry Nine hubs are known for their precision, quick engagement, durability, and of course, their wide range of colors. Naturally, that made them a popular choice for fat bike builds, which left a lot of people wondering why they suddenly disappeared.

Good news – they’re back. Mostly…

Industry Nine fat bike hub options 2022

Industry Nine has relaunched their fat bike hubs, but only in the 15 x 150mm and 12 x 197mm configurations with 32h j-bend hub shells with Hydra freehub bodies in XD, HG, or MicroSpline.

Unfortunately, that means that the 170/177mm fat bike hubs from I9 have officially been discontinued.

Note that also this is a truly limited edition, and all orders must be placed to Industry Nine by Friday, December 2, 2022. Meaning you have less than a month to order up your fat bike hubset before they’re gone, again.

Hubs start at $250 for the front and $475 for the rear, and are available in all standard I9 colors.

industrynine.com
Zach Overholt
5,724 articles

Zach Overholt is the Editor in Chief of Bikerumor. He has been writing about what’s new in the bicycle world for 12+ years. Prior to that, Zach spent many years in the back of a bicycle shop building and repairing nearly every type of bike, while figuring out how to (occasionally) ride them.

Based in Ohio, Zach is now slowly introducing a new generation to cycling and still trying to figure out how to fit the most rides into a busy schedule as a new dad.

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Terraform Bicycles
Terraform Bicycles
2 years ago

I have a set of I9 Hydra fat bike hubs. They’re really nice in the summer and super meh in the winter. There is a lot of drag in the winter when the grease gets cold and all those engagement points starts slowing you down. Found an article a while back about a study done at University of Alaska where it showed the Fatback fat bike hubs being the fastest in the winter because of the -40° grease in the bearings. If you’re going to ride the wheelset in the winter, I’d stay away from the I9s personally. They’re so expensive too.

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Zach Overholt
Author
Zach Overholt
2 years ago
Reply to  Terraform Bicycles

I’ve always used the Dumonde Tech Pro X Freehub Oil in my I9 fat bike hubs and never had an issue. The oil works better in lower temperatures, and in my experience, doesn’t stick. Industry Nine recommends either, with the Dumonde Tech Pro-X grease offering the quieter option, and the oil offering the louder option.

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Terraform Bicycles
Terraform Bicycles
2 years ago
Reply to  Zach Overholt

I’ll try the freehub oil this winter. It doesn’t really change the bearing drag though. I’ve A B tested them with a loose ball / low engagement hub and it was a substantial difference.

The winter fat biking I do is essentially Enduro on snow. In the summer, high engagement is really helpful for the techy rocky terrain but in the winter everything is smooth so ratcheting isn’t necessary. 2-3 years ago I was all about having many engagement points. Now I’m finding that on gravel / winter fat biking less engagement points is better (and less annoying to listen to).

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Terraform Bicycles
Terraform Bicycles
2 years ago
Reply to  Zach Overholt

I’ll try the oil this winter. It won’t change the bearing drag though. I’ve A B tested my fatbike I9 wheelset with a loose ball / low engagement point fat bike wheelset and the drag was extremely noticeable on the I9 wheelset.

My winter fatbiking is basically Enduro on snow. Ride up the mountain, ride down. In the summer, high engagement is really helpful for all the ratcheting around the technical rocky terrain. In the winter, everything is smooth so you don’t need to ratchet.

Three years ago my only preference was for higher engagement hubs. Now for gravel / non technical riding I prefer a lower engagement point so the hub is more quiet and high POE isn’t that important.

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Mike
Mike
2 years ago
Reply to  Terraform Bicycles

Got DT 350 fat hubs with 36t ratchet, all covered in DT’s original ratchet grease (the salmon pink one) – rode up to -20C and no problems at all.

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Terraform Bicycles
Terraform Bicycles
2 years ago
Reply to  Mike

If you look at the graphs on this page you can see results from a study done at the university of Alaska. The study showed that fat back and Hadley hubs had the lowest drag, with DT 350 coming in third. Industry Nine, 9 zero 8, and Onyx coming in last with the most amount of drag. 9 zero 8 has a significant amount of I9, but I9 also has a significant amount more drag than Hadley and Fatback, or DT 350.

https://corvuscycles.com/product/fatback-alaska-edition-hubs/

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K-Pop is dangerous to your health
K-Pop is dangerous to your health
2 years ago
Reply to  Terraform Bicycles

As a builder and user of most of the hubs done in this so called “study” something stinks with a heavy amount of inconclusiveness and bias. Not to mention that it’s outdated.

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Brandon Thielke
Brandon Thielke
2 years ago

Stock grease in most hubs is heavy. Many folks in Alaska will clean bearings and free hubs of stock grease and use a cold tolerant grease for winter riding. I’ve used Lubriplate Mag-1 in lots of hubs with noticeable performance improvements below 40degrees F.

I’ve used the stuff on thru axles, bottom brackets and all sorts of other parts too. It keeps equipment running way up north in -60F and works great for bikes.

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