Industry Nine Enduro S Wheelset: Customer Review

Have you ever thought about upgrading your wheels on your mountain bike? The wheels on your bike play such a crucial role in your ride experience out on the trail. In this review, one of our customers Chris Alleaume decided to upgrade his wheels to the Industry Nine Enduro S Wheelset. Industry Nine offers all of their wheels in pretty much every configuration out there. Chris went with a 27.5" 15x110mm boost front, a 12x148mm rear, and a Sram XD driver body. Check out how Chris likes his new wheelset.

Overview

I recently purchased the Industry Nine Enduro S Wheelset for my Santa Cruz Bronson CS. The wheelset features aluminum rims, laser etched graphics and the legendary Industry Nine Torch Freehub. By default, the wheelset features a 6 degree, 3 pawl hub body which is easily upgradeable to a 3 degree, 6 pawl body which I did and I can recommend. Have a look for more reviews on this and you’ll understand why you’d want to upgrade the hub body!

The rims have an internal width of 30.5mm and an external width of 34mm. Ok, so what’s the big deal with wider rims? For one, wider rims are stiffer and also allow for more air volume by virtue of them being wider. More air volume means you can shed a few PSI on the same size tire which can cushion your ride a little more. With a wider rim, the tire profile also changes slightly, offering slightly more rubber on the ground which results in better traction.

First Ride

My first ride on these rims was instantly gratifying. I realized I had made a good choice. The awesome sound of the Industry 9 hub, the fast engagement of the 6 pawl upgrade, the firmer feeling and responsiveness on the wheels, and looking down as the laser etched graphics flashed over the edge of the rim as the wheels spun produced a smile.

The below excerpt is from Industry Nine’s website, and I can vouch for the difference it makes in the feeling of the wheel.

The Enduro S wheels “feature an all-new hub design – Industry Nine’s straight-pull steel spoke mountain bike hubset. Steel-Series wheelsets employ a 28 hole stacked hub flange maximizing the spoke bracing angle to increase lateral stiffness. Spokes are laced tangentially to the hub flange, which promotes long-term durability, since opposing spoke forces cancel each other out, removing most of the spoke stress from the hub flanges. This also allows for greater control over bearing press tolerances during the machining phase of hub production, since the hub shell is not under tension.“

Final Thoughts

I never believed what a difference wheels could make until I felt them under me and pushed them hard – this is a sure way to upgrade your ride without breaking the bank on Carbon wheels. I always thought wheels were wheels and the only thing that made a big difference was carbon vs aluminum. I was wrong. The design of the spokes, the width, the material, the hubs – all make a sublime noticeable difference.

Also, it’s worth noting that the team at Worldwide Cyclery built these wheels perfectly and shipped them very well packaged and protected. There’s not much as exciting as getting new stuff for my bike!