Industry Nine Hydra Rear Hub [Rider Review]

Our "Rider Review" article series features the honest reviews from verified purchasers of Worldwide Cyclery. They contain the photos, thoughts, feedback & overall review you are looking for. 

Investing in a quality hub for your MTB is one of the best upgrades you can make. Improving engagement while reducing weight and making your bike sound awesome are all benefits of a high end hub. Sam recently treated himself to Industry Nine's Hydra hub and has been loving it. Read on for more!

Overview

I really only began mountain biking about four years ago. In that time, I have gone from, “You mean the seat can go up and down with the press of a button??? (mind blown)” to, “My hub only has 32 points of engagement, I can feel the pedal lag on techy climbs, it’s time to upgrade.

Last spring, I made my first bike upgrade to a carbon frame trail bike that I plan to keep for a long time. I intentionally got a “cheap”, basic spec version knowing that I am the kind of person who loves to tinker and build. So, I started basic, did a lot of riding on the bike all last summer, and this winter dove into some serious upgrades.

The first of those was rebuilding both my wheels. After doing some (way too much) research and reviewing, I settled on getting the Industry Nine Hydra hub for my rear wheel. The combination of the low weight, extremely high points of engagement and the ease of serviceability made it my top choice. Fortunately, I also had a 15% off coupon to Worldwide Cyclery sitting in my inbox, otherwise, I was about to rule it out based on the price.

The basic hub that came on my bike had only 32 points of engagement, and it wasn’t long into doing some technical climbing that I really realized how much that can be a detriment. This really came into play last fall when I rode in Moab for the first time. I found the 11-degree lag in pedal engagement very frustrating doing poppy climbs and hopping over rocks and boulders, where that lag ended up making me spin my rear tire or miss the timing altogether and fall over.

The 690 points of engagement on the Hydra hub means essentially instant engagement on pedal strokes. This had me very excited.

I don’t consider myself a weight weenie, but I am weight conscious. The listed weight on the Hydra hub is 286g, although I got 291g on my scale. This isn’t the lightest rear hub available, but it isn’t the heaviest either. Considering the extremely high engagement, I felt like the few extra grams over some competitor hubs were worth it. However, I was appalled when I took my wheel apart to rebuild it and found my old hub weighed 461g. That’s about a third of a pound I was instantly able to take out of my rear wheel by adding the Hydra hub.

A long time ago, I learned that I am the kind of person who likes to take things apart, learn how they work, and put them back together. I think it's fun, my wife thinks I’m crazy, and my daughters just shake their heads and roll their eyes. This was my first attempt at building a wheel with my new hub. If you haven’t built your own wheels before and are a bit intimidated, you should be. I was too, and it wasn’t exactly easy. But after watching countless videos, taking some notes, and doing some decent prep work, I got the job done. I found it extremely fun and the result very rewarding.

This may be an unpopular opinion, but I’m not crazy about extremely loud hubs. After doing a bit of research, I discovered how easy it can be on the Hydra hub to add a dab of grease in the pawls and around the drive ring to take the sound down a bit. I have found this only lasts a few rides before the sound starts to creep back up. Fortunately, the freehub is very easy to pop off, do a quick clean, and reapply grease. This is just a great excuse for me to keep my freehub clean and greased every few rides.

Final Thoughts

All in all, the reduced weight combined with the instant engagement and ease of serviceability make the Hydra hubs a winner in my book. I would definitely recommend them.