If bikes had a heart and soul it’d be the wheels... I guess that makes two hearts. Which is kinda cool, adds a little extra redundancy in case you have a heart attack. Though, you’ll have to be either good at pulling monos or really, REALLY good and endos to cope without one.


For the last I-don’t-know-how-long wheels have consisted of rims, hubs, spokes and nipples. This is a tried and perfected combination that has kept us bicyclists and motorcyclists happy for many a year. So why rock the boat? Everyone’s happy, Yes?

Not everyone. It seems you can still improve on perfection. Take Yeti’s 303 for example. Everyone’s happy with their single and multi-pivot bikes, yet they still brought out a bike that runs on rails.... lunatics. Industry Nine also think that there are still things to tinker with to get better performance out of a good design.  Unlike the 303 however, you don’t need to be a rocket scientist to figure out how their new system works. There are rims, hubs and spokes. No nipples. Well there are, they are just part of their fatter, stiffer spokes. Spokes that screw into the hub rather than nipples attached to the rim.

Why do this? Well for starters it makes a reasonably complex system into a slightly simpler one. Spokes are easier to replace, and no longer required lacing. They still use a three cross pattern, but the spokes don't actually touch each other.

Weight is the other BIG reason. Sure the spokes are burly, but as they are alloy they’re still lighter than your typical steel butted spoke and brass nipple (not too many people use alloys nipples in DH). One of the problems in the past for using alloy nipples or spokes in wheels has been that alloy thread strips easier than steel as it is a softer and more brittle metal. To overcome this i9 have made the thread diameter much larger and deeper.  Since the spokes screw into the hub at the centre of the wheel, the burly thread adds very little rotational weight (weight that adds resistance to acceleration and deceleration). The result can be some seriously light wheels.

Here’s some food for thought: The DT FR wheelset that Peaty and Rennie run weigh in at 2320grams. A Mavic Deemax wheelset that has 28 spokes (that still require nipples) comes in at 2450grams. The I9 FR/DH wheelset, 2150grams.

The Specs

Here’s the specs with available options. The review set had the 20mm thru-axle front, 12x

• FRONT HUB: 20mm thru-axle front // 24mm maverick axle // Lefty
• REAR HUB: 135 QR Axle // 10 x 135 axle // 12 x 135 axle // 12 x 150 axle
• DRIVER: 6 pawl engagement mechanism
• SPOKE: .110" spokes
• RIM: DT Swiss EX 6.1 rims
• WEIGHT: 2150 grams
• COLORS- Red / Black / Silver in any hub/spoke combination
• CUSTOM COLORS- Orange, Blue, Purple, Green, Gold, Blue Pewter, Pink
• OPTIONS: 12 x 150 Rear hub/axle available

Riding

Probably the first thing you’ll notice about the wheels is the noise the freewheel makes. Depending on what speed you’re going it can be moderately loud. If you’re ever heard a Chris King hub it’s almost identical to that. Most of the reason behind this is the “6 pawl engagement mechanism” giving you a freakin’ lot of opportunities to put the power down without delay (pawls are the teeth that grab when you pedal). Most cheaper freewheel engagement mechanisms will engage at between 10 to 15 degrees of rotation before any power is actually transferred to the rear wheel. With the I9 wheels this figure is down to 3 degrees, with 120 points of contact for each full rotation. If you decide that the noise is too significant for you poor little ears you can disengage three of the pawls. This also creates less drag while coasting. I haven’t tried this out myself because I actually like the sound.

On the pedal drag front, it does take a while for the freewheel to break in properly (like Chris King hubs), so you like me will probably find that it takes a month or two (depending on how much you ride) to get them silky smooth.

Laterally the wheels are very stiff. Kind of like going from a chromo hard tail to an overbuilt (banshee morphine *cough*) alloy one.  In this case it’s a good thing because I suspect this directly relates to the reason the wheels rarely need truing.  In fact, since receiving them in December ‘07 I have not put a spoke key to them once. The rim on the other hands tells another story. I’ve got about 7-8 large knocks in the rear from football sized rocks on our desperately-in-need-of-love Toowoomba DH course. The dings of course are quite familiar to DT’s 6.1d rims as they are a softer alloy to avoid pinch flats which is great for racing, but not so great for every day runs rims. In comparison I actually ran a set of 6.1d rims on the same bike with the old 3 cross steel spoke/nipple system with standard hubs.  After about 10 runs I needed to just about true the entire wheel as it was so out of shape. After 2 months on the bike the 6.1D rear rim was replaced completely. Taco’d. After 4 months the exact same rim on the rear is still going strong, though I suspect at around the 6-7 month mark it’ll have to be replaced (that a record for a 6.1?).

Wheel weight also has an impact on riding, dropping your bike’s overall weight and reducing rotational weight is good for acceleration off the line. I’m not exactly a gram spanker (someone who obsesses about grams), but I have to say I was a little excited about the weight savings.  Compared to some tanky wheels I’ve ridden these are feather weights.

Maintenance

News is also good on the tools front, no proprietry tools here, your old spoke key and screw driver will still do all the work. The hubs too are fully servicable, XXIV stock all spares. To tell the truth I've pretty much not had to touch them (with tools) for the last 5 months, when I do it'll just be a quick half or quarter turn on each spoke to tighten things up, whenever that will be. I am also yet to replace a spoke, but for once I am not actually cringing at the thought of it. If I had to hazard a guess as to how long it'd take to replace one it'd be in the 5-10 minute mark. You can do it without removing your rotor or cassette, even the wheel from the bike itself as it just goes straight through the rim and into the hub.

Conclusion

Overall it’s pretty hard saying anything bad about these wheels. Performance wise they tick all the boxes, they’re dead sexy to match. Though I can say one thing, price; at an RRP of $1510 they are on the expensive side, but then again they are top-of-the-line. These are in direct competition with DT  and Mavic’s best offerings so taking that into consideration its quite good.


While the I9 wheels come standard with DT rims, you can request whatever rims you like and they’ll build them up for you. In fact for the Australian market they're looking at doing this at no extra charge. They can take basically all brands of rims as they manufacture spokes to length and have stuck with 32 holes. Personally I’d go these wheels with some Mavic EX 721s. They should last quite a while and still be great for racing.

I for one am figuring out how I can sell my soul for enough dollars to pay for a set of these. Whilst they arn’t for everyone they are definitely one of those bike bits that you want more than need (Chris King head sets for example). However if you’ve got the cash to throw down on your decked out rig, then the money for these puppies is definitely well spent. The bottom line is they're light, easy to maintain and rate very high on the bling-o-meter.

Massive thanks to Ken from XXIV for providing the review set for such a long time (5 months). If you're not after a set of DH/FR wheels Industry Nine have a whole range of wheels for different purposes. Included are a set of Ultra light XC wheel that come in a 1410 grams. Yeow! (I always knew it'd be a sad day when I start getting excited about these things).



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