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It’s not often a bit of kit arrives for testing and manages to deliver more than a small jump in performance.
For me, the e*thirteen Sidekick rear hub did just that this year.
Designed to tame drivetrain influence over your rear suspension, it’s packaged neatly and offers some straightforward adjustment, but, more than anything, it made my bike feel better, the trail less hectic and delivered what felt like more grip when I needed it most.
- Read more: e*thirteen Sidekick hub review
Suspension-boosting performance
Just as I said when I reviewed the Sidekick hub not that long ago, despite being somewhat sceptical when I first slotted the e*thirteen wheels into my long term Specialized Stumpjumper 15 Expert test bike, I was immediately impressed by the differences I could feel.
Although the Stumpy’s Genie shock feels incredibly smooth, the Sidekick rear hub elevates things further, helping to reduce any influence your drivetrain (pedal kickback, chain flail or whatever you’d like to call it) has on the bike’s suspension.
This, in turn, reduces feedback through the bike when skimming over repeated hits, making the overall ride feel calmer and reducing the impacts you need to deal with.
Not only that, though, but this sensation seems to boost suspension sensitivity, which makes it feel as though there’s more grip on offer.
During early rides, the difference is enough to have you questioning settings and pressures.
Naturally, like anything, you get used to improvements such as this, but carrying out back-to-back testing helped highlight the shift in performance.
While it might be subtle on some sections of trail, get into the really rough stuff and the gap in performance compared to a standard rear hub (especially one with a relatively quick pick-up) widens.
The Sidekick hub isn’t perfect and won’t suit everyone.
The lag in pick-up, especially in the biggest ‘float’ setting, might make for the smoothest ride going, but it can make ratcheting up technical hill climbs much trickier compared to riding with a regular rear hub.
For me, though, as someone more keen on descending than climbing, that doesn’t really matter quite as much. Yes, there are times when it can become irritating, but I’ll take those cons in my stride when I consider just how good the pros are when I’m belting down a hillside.
I know many will argue that a product such as this only highlights issues with bike and suspension design, and brands should be fixing the root cause of the problem rather than masking them later down the line.
But until – or if – bike brands can completely remove the effects of your drivetrain on the suspension performance, kit such as the Sidekick hub, Ochain and Rimpact chain dampers are here to stay.
And, because they make a positive difference for the most part, I’m all for them.
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