Industry Nine Hydra2 Enduro review: fast-rolling blingy wheels for those who like buzzy hubs

The hubs deserve plenty of attention, but I'll start with the rims.

The alloy rims have a broad construction, with a 38mm exterior width, a 30mm internal width and a pair of rim walls that are 4mm thick at the top.

These ‘Hollow Bead Walls’ are hollow in construction, helping keep weight in check, while the 4mm width should boost puncture protection.

When tyres bottom out on them, there’s a greater rim and tyre contact area, spreading the impact’s load and reducing the likelihood of pinch flats.

The rim is 20mm deep, with the centre of the rim bed 8mm lower than the top of the rim walls.

Graphics are sublimated onto the shot-peened finish, so there’s no chance of logo stickers peeling off.

Specific spokes

The spoke bed is asymmetrical, meaning the spokes don’t exit the centre of the rim. This helps ensure a more triangulated, stiffer build.

Both front and rear wheels are constructed with 32 spokes. These are Industry Nine’s own straight-pull spokes, with a thread that’s machined onto the spoke, which threads directly into the hub’s flanges – no J-bend spokes here, and no nipples to feed through a rim.

Instead, the spoke pushes in, through the rim, straight to the hub, where tensioning is applied as it screws into the thread.

The brand says this gives a solid, flex-free junction. Fortunately, no specific tools are needed to adjust them.

Industry Nine offers its spokes in 12 different colours, if you want to design your own wheelset’s aesthetics.

Central to the matter

The new Hydra2 hubs sit at the middle of the wheels, with the brand saying feedback from more than 100,000 hubs in the market informed the design of the new ones.

Key to the hubs’ performance is a drop in rolling resistance, with optimised seals said to reduce this as much as possible, for a faster-feeling wheelset.

Full-contact lip seals are used in conjunction with proximity dust shields, while their bearings are also said to be built with durability in mind.

Speaking of bearings, there are four in the rear wheel, sat over a redesigned axle that’s 65 per cent thicker, for improved stiffness and durability.

The bearings have additional radial preload, said to reduce drag and improve durability.

Noticeable when you’re freewheeling, the hubs have 870 points of engagement, giving a 0.41-degree engagement angle – that’s extremely fast (many trail and enduro wheels have a 10- to 12-degree engagement angle, with ‘fast’ engagements considered in the 3-degree range.

Redesigned pawl pockets are said to spread force better, offering improved durability. The pawls have three teeth each, while the drive ring is built from stronger steel.

Industry Nine also says that, even with these improvements, drag has been reduced.

The freehub pulls off and pops back on (while rotating) tool-free, making it easy to replace a spoke if needed, but the axle end caps can be a little stiff to remove in my experience.

I tested a 29in front wheel and 27.5in rear on my Last Glen MX long-termer, a 150/160mm trail/enduro bike.

The rear hub was fitted with an XD freehub, and six-bolt disc mount. They arrived taped and with valves in place for easy tubeless setup.

The front wheel weighed 860g, with the rear 952g, giving a total weight of 1,812g.

The bulk of the testing took place in the dusty Forest of Dean during one of the driest springs on record.

While it has not been muddy, the dust has had plenty of chances to work its way in and the ground has been rock-hard.

I’ve run the wheels with an Enduro-casing Continental Argotal on the front and a Michelin E-Wild eMTB tyre out back, also in a tough casing, without tyre inserts.

Even with stiff tyres, mounting proved no issue. The rim walls don’t feel overly tall, enabling the tyre bead to be levered over the top easily, while there’s enough width for the bead to sit easily in the rim.

Although not the deepest, there’s enough depth to the rim well for the bead to fall in there to help get the last of the bead over the top.

Rim taping is good, with no leaks, and I’ve had no issues with the valve hole causing leaks, either.

The tyres popped into the rim without too much frantic pumping.

On the trail

I prefer alloy rims – I like the way they feel in that they’re generally a touch less harsh than a like-for-like carbon rim – and this seems to hold true for the Hydra2 Enduro wheels.

The wheels are torsionally stiff. In high-load corners or pushing through rocky jank, they feel unfazed, with accurate steering and control in all situations (so far).

Load them into a corner and there’s a hint of springiness when you exit, although this doesn’t get confused with any noodly, bendy feelings, fortunately.

As such, they feel as though they contribute to a fun, playful feeling on the bike.

Despite this, they don’t feel like harsh or uncomfortable wheels. My hands feel fresh, and I haven't suffered from arm pump, even on tracks where I’ve felt it on similar bike setups before.

I spent only a short time on the original Hydra hubs, in much more damp conditions, so I can’t compare drag feel. However, these feel fairly fast-rolling.

I like the fast pick-up of these hubs. Yes, if your bike suffers from pedal kickback, it may be exacerbated a touch, and I will soon be running a chain damper to see how that goes.

However, the instant pick-up feels great on technical climbs where you need to ratchet the cranks to get up and over obstacles. Gappy freehubs can feel lazy in comparison.

They hum quite loudly, at a moderately high pitch. I’d put them on a par with Chris King hubs, but they're slightly quieter than a Hope Pro 4.

I’ve had around four months on these wheels, so although I can’t be definitive when it comes to durability, I’ve had no issues so far – no broken spokes, punctures, leaky rims, dents or buckles – despite bottoming out my tyres numerous times.

Pulling the dust caps off, there’s some dust ingress onto the bearings, especially on the front hub’s driveside, but the bearings are still running smooth.