Industry Nine’s engaging 1/1 hubs get road, gravel versions; new Ultralight wheelsets [Remote Otter]

Industry Nine’s 1/1 hubs have made it to the road, offering an affordable way to build up a set of high performance disc brake road, gravel or cyclocross wheels. Built with oversized bearings and axles, they feature quick engagement and multiple axle options to fit both QR and thru axle drop bar bikes.

There’s also a new UL250 alloy rim that’s getting built into lightweight wheelsets with their higher end Torch road hubs, with both Sapim CX bladed spokes and i9’s own alloy straight pull spokes. Here’s the run down on all this directly from their crew, followed by the tech specs…

What makes 1/1 hubs special?

The 1/1 mountain bike hubs launched in February 2019 as a way of bringing i9 hub tech down to a more affordable price point. To do that, they’re limited to black, and they don’t get the extra polishing of the Torch and Hydra hubs. But they do get a few internal tricks to make them extra durable and stiff. Bearings ball diameter increases, and drive ring is larger, all of which helps them roll longer and stronger.

The design dramatically reduces torsional flex, all but eliminating any chance that a pawl disengages under hard pedaling efforts. We covered this design in granular detail in MTB wheel review, and the tech carries over here, too…definitely worth a read.

Industry Nine 1/1 Road Hub specs

Like the MTB version, the 1/1 road hubs get 90 points of engagement for a snappy 4º rotation. This comes thanks to the same dual-phased pawl system, letting three of the six pawls engage at any given time. That’s quick for “road” hubs, and these are tough enough to be built into just about any kind of drop bar bike you’re creating, including a bikepacking or light touring bike.

Hubsets come in from 400-420g depending on freehub body and axle configuration. Front is 132-138g, rear is 268-282g. Look for standard and XD-R freehub options, with endocarps swapping between 100 QR or 12×100 front, and 135QR or 12×142 rear. Available in 24 and 28 hole, designed for J-bend spokes. Center Lock disc brake interface only. Retail TBA.

And like the MTB 1/1 hubs that were eventually offered as complete mountain bike wheelsets, you can expect 1/1-based road and gravel wheelsets to follow in Summer 2020.

New Industry Nine Ultralites w/ UL250 alloy rim & wheels

Quick note on i9’s naming conventions. For rims and wheels, the number usually indicates the rim’s width. So, for these new ones, you’re getting an all-new, lightweight alloy rim with a 25mm internal width. If there’s a “c” behind it, it means carbon…missing here (keep reading) because this is a new alloy rim. For the wheels, the “CX” means they’re built with traditional Sapim CX bladed spokes, and TRA means you’re getting their Torch Road Alloy system with i9’s trademark machined alloy spokes.

The CX builds are typically a little lighter and more compliant, and the TRA wheels are stiffer for stronger, more aggressive, or just heavier riders.

About the new UL250 rim

Both of the new wheels below use the new 400g UL250 alloy rim, which has a shallower 18mm depth to improve compliance. It also gets an 11% thicker bead wall, which not only makes it stronger, but also provides a broader platform for the tire’s sidewall to land on during big hits. The idea is to reduce pinch flats, which is something they’re doing with their newer mountain bike alloy rims, too.

This UL250 rim replaces the narrower UL235, and they say that extra 3mm of overall width also improves overall lateral stiffness regardless of spoke choice. It’s made for tires ranging from 40-50mm (2.1″-2.4″). They’ll work with narrower cyclocross tires, too, but they’re really optimized for today’s wider 40mm+ gravel tires.

Industry Nine UL250 TRA

Built on their Road Torch Hubs with 60 points of engagement, these wheels get 24 spokes and Center Lock brake mounts only. Set weight is a claimed 1,450g. 700c only.

If you want to customize your wheels with different color spokes, you’ll need to go with the TRA build…use their Ano Lab to create any color combination you want, down to the individual spoke.

Industry Nine UL250 CX wheels

These get their Torch road hubset laced to 24 Sapim CX-Ray spokes. Claimed weight is 1,420g, saving about 30g over the TRA build and improving aerodynamics. You can still pick your hub and spoke nipple color, but the spokes themselves are all black. You can also choose between Center Lock and 6-bolt on these builds.

If you’re looking for carbon rimmed versions of these wheels, they introduced those in March.

IndustryNine.com