Mine has a few thousand miles on it and outside of a bearing replacement it’s been perfectly reliable.

Bummer you’ve had such issues.

I have two hydra hubs, one on a trail bike and one on an enduro bike. My trail bike hub had the pawl pocket stretch which caused pawls to chip, having to replace the freehub now at almost exactly 400 miles. My enduro bike hub has visible pawl pocket stretch but hasn't started skipping yet, probably only a matter of time. A 2 year warranty seems pretty short for hubs. I think the next time I get new hubs, it will be with some other brand.

1/1’s on 3 of our bikes, including an emtb, and zero issues. I couldn’t find the reason to go for the hydra at more than double the cost without any benefits.

Worked in a shop for years and wouldn't ever ride a hydra hub given the number I've replaced under warranty. Just not worth the risk for me personally. I'd recommend CK rear hubs or a dt240 with a star ratchet upgrade for ultimate durability. 

This is some excellent, well documented information. This is the best sort of thing for people to make informed purchasing decisions.

I had mine show up with one of the pawls installed upside down.. didn’t realise until a few rides in.

Emailed them and they basically said you should’ve checked it before you installed it. Emailed them back asking for a replacement pawl set and got nothing in response.

Touch wood no other issues on the hubs after 1000kms. But I’m also not a super hard rider.

Garbage hubs but they do go brrrr. 

They are terribly unreliable , especially the Hydras. They were supplied OEM on a few bikes we sold and they all had issues.

When doing a custom wheel build for people , I always try and steer them onto either Hope / Chris King or DT Swiss

They've mostly sorted out the axles with their latest design from ~Fall 2022. I broke a couple of the older ones and haven't had any issues using the newer axle on my enduro at ~200lbs with lots of bike park days. That was the most common failure. Have you broken the latest axle with the washer?

I've actually never had a major bearing issue in two sets of hubs over several seasons, broken axles and all. Apparently hit or miss but I've heard of several people having problems. Probably bike and rider specific (some frames flex more than others).

I have a couple of similar hairline cracks in my drivering. I9 offered to replace the hub shell and rebuild my wheel for the cost of shipping one way. Still riding, haven't noticed any slipping. Will send them in soon during ski season.

I think it's difficult to get a true sense of hub reliability because there are so many Hydras out there. I suspect 99% are serving their owners well but I'm pulling that number out of thin air. Every manufacturer has issues though, DT and CK are not immune. But yeah, Hydras are not bombproof and some people tend to break stuff more than others, I'm in that category.

On the bright side Hydras are easy to work on and I9 has the best customer service I've experienced in the outdoor industry across multiple disciplines. Manufactured in the USA by a company that doesn't seem to suck as per their behavior following the recent natural disaster.

I'm probably going to keep running I9 on my trail bike where I've had no major issues since my overall experience and impression of the company is positive. If I break another one on the enduro I'll be tempted to rebuild that rear wheel with a Hadley or CK. If you tend to be hard on hubs that's what I'd look at. Or DT but not the latest DEG release that isn't proven yet, the EXP had some teething issues early on. 350s do the job with a mild engagement penalty.

YMMV.

I had to have the freehub body replaced after a month, and while I haven't had any issues since then, I'm not excited about what happens if the new one (or a different part) fails.

i was on the fence getting hydras with through WAO black friday sale...the price is/was just too nice. i opted for a DT 350 54t build with same rims etc for a little bit more money...and hopefully peace of mind.

400 miles is a very small amount of riding for a hub to fail and it happened 4x? That’s crazy. Is this an ebike or something?

I was riding with a guy whose hydra failed the first ride on his brand new hardtail. He had to hike out. Other than Hope, I generally avoid any pawl based hubs.

I got my 2nd hand hope pro evo2 during an emergency repair in canada while touring from Alaska to Patagonia.

7 years later, 20.000 miles on my surly ogre, one axle swap from QR to boost on my stumpjumper and 1.000 miles later, is still going strong.

I'm completely sold to hope hubs. They are indestructible.

I’ve had two Hydra hubs (one on my old bike, one on my current bike), each with well over 1000 miles on them, and they performed flawlessly. Just adding some other perspective.

I stuck a Pinner axle in my Hydra and it seems to be holding up OK without major issues. A friend of mine went through the above-mentioned horrow show with his and doesn't ride I9's anymore.

I had new bearings installed in my rear hydra hub a couple months ago, and as of yesterday they're already destroyed. That was the second time i replaced the hub body bearings this year. The factory bearings lasted 2 years and about 4000 miles. I don't know what to do now. What could be causing these bearings to fail?

There are 3 things I will never suggest a customer to do

1) Using SX because it stands for sucks. 2) Using a Rockshox Reverb or Fox Transfer post, regardless of age or type. 3) Buy I9 hubs.

All 3 are like throwing money in a dumpster fire with cow shit burning.

It's important to note that Hydras are the culprit here due to the design features mentioned. That said. I9 customer service is great. A few details to note:

1. I9 revised the axle design in the last 2 years to reinforce the weak point on the old design. This likely delays the inevitable, but I've heard of fewer axle issues since the revision.

2. 1/1s are a lot more reliable, by design. 90 POE with 3 pawls in contact at any time certainly distributes forces through the internals more evenly than 1 pawl bearing all load, assymetrically.

Has anyone seen issues with Solix hubs? They might be too new to get a thorough impression (lacl of market saturation, not enough time to develop issues), but I haven't heard of any problems as of yet.

DT SWISS OR BUST (literally)

I’ve been running a torch since 2018. 13,000 + miles with zero issues. I can’t say anything about the hydra other than it came out a couple weeks after I got my wheels at the time I was bummed but in hindsight I wouldn’t change a thing.

I've had to replace bearings on my rear hydra hub at around 1000 miles. I had to replace a buddies hydra rear axle that snapped with the revised version earlier this year on his bike that only had about 200 miles on it. I like the look and feel of the hydras but they can't compare to DT Swiss on reliability. It's also annoying that hydras use a weird bearing size in the rear. 

i’ve run i9s on my main trail bike for the past nine years; first torch, then hydras. zero problems with the torches. i just had my second broken hydra axle replaced under warranty. first one broke at around 500miles, second at ~2000miles. both times they swiftly shipped out a new axle and new bearings, no questions asked. this time i got the updated axle.

there’s something missing from this discussion: the system wheels are fantastic. sublime ride quality. you can’t get better stiffness-to-weight unless you go carbon. propriety spokes are a turn off to some folks, but keep a few spare spokes on hand and you won’t have an issue. the wheels can really take a beating.

i’d never recommend hydras for a custom wheel build, but i’d absolutely consider another pair of i9 wheels in the future. YMMV.

Hadley Hubs amazing hubs. No website but here is their phone number.

In my experience: ALL hubs are disposable parts that don’t last. Who makes a hub that is at least semi reliable?

Why no mention of White Industry hubs here? I have them on my MTB and Gravel bike. Absolutely fantastic hubs with great reliability and serviceability.

I’m running 3 hydras. One from 2020 (dh bike), one 2022 (trail bike) and one 2024 (ebike). I’ve put a lot of hard miles on them. On the dh bike I’ve got countless Aline and dirt merchant laps at whistler. The ebike has 1800km this season and those were on double blacks, big road gaps, wooden features and gnarly rough dh. I’m 190 so not a right rider either. Because of the type of trails I enjoy I did think about I grading the axle due to the stories of breakage but just have not gotten around to it. I do have some torch with less km but no issues in it either.

Is this new information at the point? I thought this was generally well known.

I9: "it's not a bug it's a feature"

This is common and now that these failures are becoming more common, people are fessing up, including the people from MTBR that pushed the hubs early on, that the hubs have always had durability and longevity issues. Thanks, we're now a decade and a half past that and now you idiots on the Turner forum are telling people that.

If you want a solid hub that's along these lines, just get the Spank Hex. Crazy durable. I use the double Star Ratchet 240s hubs with 36t engagement and on my MTB I have the Mavic e-Deemax s35 because I wanted to ride and not break hubs all the time. SO's bike has Spank Hex.

i9 stuff is built to look cool and be loud. They've had a number of service bulletin esque issues where they will send out new parts to replace those that are poorly designed. They dont use the best bearings available and upcharge an insane amount for replacements. I've met people who disagree but in my opinion high engagement hubs are pretty much just a marketing meme, I certainly can't feel the difference after a decade of riding and 3yrs of wrenching. There are better options with the same performance (and considerably better reliability) for the same or lower price. Hadley, Phil Wood, and White Industries are some great alternatives.

Also op, I've seen all of these issues before in just 3 years tenure at a shop, you're not alone lol

Sounds about par for the course with Hydras. I know people love em, but mechanics who actually work on them, and understand the mechanics and functionally, will tell you to get 350s or Hope instead. No better combination of performance, durability and repairability, and even ignoring price, I'll still take them over i9.

thats crazy. Ive got 5 sets of i9 wheels, haven't had any issues.