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e*thirteen's Sidekick hub is designed to help eliminate pedal kickback, a trait found on nearly every full-suspension mountain bike.
Within the clever, neatly packaged design, the Sidekick hub offers in-built, adjustable float, designed to compensate for any chain growth – which is what causes pedal kickback – as the suspension compresses.
This helps to remove any drivetrain interference from suspension performance.
If you’ve ever snapped a chain and ridden downhill, you’ll know this feeling only too well. The suspension feels smoother, and there’s less feedback through your feet and frame, with what feels like more traction through your tyres.
There are downsides, though. The lag created within the system makes technical climbs trickier and even frustrating at times, but if you’re more focused on going down, this shouldn’t be a deal breaker for you.
e*thirteen Sidekick hub details
Pedal kickback is common across almost every full-suspension mountain bike and occurs when the distance between the bottom bracket (and chainring) and rear wheel axle (and cassette) grow as the bike cycles through its travel.
As this distance grows, it pulls on the chain (which can’t stretch), which in turns tugs on the chainring and pulls the cranks backwards.
Not only can it impact on how effectively the suspension design can absorb bumps, potentially robbing the rider of comfort and tyres of traction, it can also make for a more tiring ride.
The Sidekick hub counters this effect using a clever design.
Inside the freehub, you’ll find a ratchet ring (just as you would on many other hubs), and three pawls that engage with the ratchet to transfer power from the pedals.
But the Sidekick hub features what e*thirteen calls a ‘Pawl Pusher’ that helps create the float between the cranks and rest of the drivetrain.
The design means that when coasting, the three main pawls retract, enabling your cassette to spin forwards without pulling back on your cranks as the suspension does its thing.
When you want to put the power down, a lightly sprung timing pawl (used to keep the amount of float consistent) on the pusher engages, rotating the pusher, which lifts the pawls so they’re locked in place on the ratchet, engaging the freehub.
There are three float settings to choose from, depending on how responsive you want the engagement to feel (12, 15 or 18 degrees). The more float you have, the more the hub can compensate for kickback, which should result in a smoother ride.
Adjusting the amount of float is easy enough. You unscrew the non-driveside end cap so you can pull the freehub body away from the hub shell, exposing the red pusher. This can then be clocked by hand, to one of the three positions.
e*thirteen uses a steel axle through the hub for improved stiffness and reliability, while the brand says the ratchet is replaceable, which should help the hub to last longer.
e*thirteen Grappler Sidekick Flux Carbon Enduro wheels specification
The test wheels seen here combine Sidekick hubs laced to E*Thirteen’s Grappler Flux carbon rims, with a price of £1,659.95 / $1,819.95.
These low-profile rims have hookless flanges and a low 20mm profile, designed specifically for enduro, and are said to balance strength, durability and comfort.
They have the very-much-standard 30mm inner width and come pre-taped with valves, ready to be set up tubeless.
The enduro rims have 28 spoke holes, both at the front and rear, and use Sapim D-Light spokes and brass nipples.
e*thirteen include a lifetime guarantee, too, which should give you peace of mind.
My 29in front and 27.5in rear wheel weighed 2,120g for the pair, including rim tape and valves.
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How we tested
I’ve been riding the e*thirteen wheels for more than six months now on my Specialized Stumpjumper 15 Expert long term test bike.
To give them a good working over, I’ve ridden a wide variety of trails, including roughed-up trail-centre loops, natural singletrack and masses of steep, technical, rocky descents.
On top of that, I took in a multitude of different types of climbs, to get a feel for performance on the way back up the trail, too.
Finally, to get a handle on performance, I carried out some back-to-back testing with a set of Nukeproof Horizon V2 wheels – a wheelset I’ve lots of experience with.
e*thirteen Sidekick hub performance
With the Sidekick set to deliver the most float possible (18 degrees), the lag when you put power through the pedals is quite noticeable.
This can make steep technical climbs that require pauses in pedalling tricky, due to the added time the hub takes to pick up, often making balancing during those crux moves trickier.
When it engages, it still feels solid, but it just feels as though it takes a while for the pawls to lock in place.
Those climbs are still doable, but require more practice, precise timing and patience, compared to tackling them with a hub with a rapid pick-up.
Switch it into the middle (15 degrees) or least (12 degrees) float setting, though, and things feel far more natural, almost like riding with a hub with a slower pick-up.
But if you’re only winching up fire roads, none of this will be an issue.
Hit the descents and the Sidekick quickly starts to make a lot of sense, with a massive shift in suspension feel and performance straight from the get-go.
During back-to-back testing, swapping between rear wheels made it feel like I was switching shock and tyre-pressure settings, too.
With the Sidekick hub in place, the back end of the bike feels suppler, as if you’ve switched to a higher-volume shock and increased the amount of travel on tap. The rear wheel feels more free and more eager to move when you start smashing into obstacles.
It means you need to recalibrate your riding, simply because there’s less feedback making its way through your cranks and frame.
Hit a fast section of repeated hits and the Sidekick makes it feel as though the peaks of those square edges have been smoothed.
It’s a little like that point you reach when you have a slow flat. You hit a sweet spot in tyre pressure when there’s still enough support through the sidewalls that it still feels stable, but it’s soft enough to absorb all those annoying, chattery vibrations you’d feel otherwise.
As you’d expect, the biggest difference can be felt with the ‘Pawl Pusher’ set to 18 degrees of float, but even when it’s adjusted to 12 degrees, the difference the Sidekick hub makes compared to a regular one is stark.
The Sidekick helps to deliver more composure and calm to the bike's handling. I found this left me feeling as though I had more time to make those split-section line-choice decisions. Things feel less rushed and hectic.
Dive into a particularly chunky section of trail, where you’re skipping from bump to bump and stoving the rear wheel into some big impacts, and you may experience a little more noise and chain slap. However, with enough chainstay and seatstay protection, this can be tamed.
Handling gets calmed and, when tackling roughed-up turns, traction feels easier to come by as an offshoot.
The pick-up lag will be noticeable when getting on the gas out of slower, more awkward turns, although it’s easy to adapt to this and something I got used to quickly.
e*thirteen Grappler Sidekick Flux Carbon Enduro wheels performance
While some carbon rims can feel harsh or overly stiff, the Grapplers don’t.
e*thirteen has done a great job of balancing precision with comfort, here, delivering a set of wheels that feel as forgiving as a good set of alloy hoops, but with a little more zip.
After many months of hard and, at times, reckless riding, the rims still look unscathed, apart from some lighter scratches here and there.
The only minor issue of note is some noise (similar to spokes bedding in on a new wheel) from the front hub. According to e*thirteen, this is something it was aware of on early batches and, thanks to a slight redesign of the hub flange, has now been resolved.
Setup was straightforward, with my Maxxis tyres blowing up and seating without issue.
e*thirteen Sidekick hub bottom line
Overall, the Sidekick hub has a big effect on suspension feel when descending.
While it might not be right for those who love tackling seriously technical climbs, if you’re looking to improve downhill performance, this is a great bit of kit worth considering.
It’s able to help your suspension feel more free, your bike’s handling more composed and delivers more of a glued-to-the-trail feel.
When things get hectic, the Sidekick helps deliver a calmer, less tiring ride, and buys you extra thinking time to ensure your tyres are exactly where they need to be.
It’s a seriously impressive bit of kit that makes a marked difference to performance.
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Product
| Brand | Ethirteen |
| Price | £470.00, $500.00 |
