The new Ultralight CX Carbon wheelset from Industry Nine. © Cyclocross Magazine
Industry Nine is a company in North Carolina with less than 20 employees, all dead set on following a passion to produce beautiful performance wheelsets. We’ve been testing a pair of Industry Nine i25 Torch wheels and have a lot of great things to say in a review that will be out soon. Just in time for Sea Otter 2014, though, the company revealed the Ultralight CX disc and Ultralight CX Carbon disc wheels.
The new Ultralight CX alloy wheelset from Industry 9. © Cyclocross Magazine
Both sets are built around the same beautifully sculpted hubs used on the Industry Nine i25 disc wheels with 24 straight pull Sapim CXray bladed spokes on both the front and rear. The spokes of the front wheel are cross-3 on the rotor side, and radial on the other. The rear wheel takes a different approach, with cross-3 lacing on the drive side and radial on the non-drive rotor side. As long as there are some tangential spokes to transfer the hub-centric force to the rim, it doesn’t seem to matter much which side they’re on. With the front wheel, the dish is on the rotor side, so the pattern makes spoke tension a bit more even. The rear wheel is almost dishless with the flanges moved in equally by the cassette and rotor, so put the tangential spokes on the power side.
The rear hub on the new Ultralight CX Carbon wheelset from Industry 9. © Cyclocross Magazine
The Ultralight CX uses a 385 gram Ultralight mountain rim with a 21mm inside width and a 25mm outside width with a short wall profile and a bead-locking shelf giving it all the trappings of a good tubeless rim. The wheelset comes pre-taped, and includes a valve stem ready to mount your tubeless tires. We know road tubeless is not equal to cyclocross tubeless: Since the tire pressure for cyclocross is so low, there’s less to hold the bead in place.
The in-house front hub on the new Ultralight CX Carbon wheelset from Industry 9. © Cyclocross Magazine
The profile of the Ultralight CX rim is the same as the i25 we reviewed, and we’ve seen great ’cross tire performance with it, so we would expect more of the same. The wheelset is said to be 1350 grams light and carries a recommended 180 pound rider weight limit.
Ready for tubeless new Ultralight CX Carbon wheelset from Industry 9. © Cyclocross Magazine
The real hot ticket item for bigger riders or weight weenies, if they can afford it, is the Ultralight CX Carbon. You save 30 grams for the wheelset and gain durability with a 220 pound recommended rider weight limit compared to the 180 pound limit on the alloy version. The rim is manufactured by Reynolds Composites for Industry Nine. The dimensions are slightly different than the Ultralight CX aluminum rim, with a narrower inside width of 19.5mm, though the outside width is nearly the same at 24.5mm.
Though the carbon version is lighter and stronger, it will set you back $2450, while the aluminum Ultralight CX wheelset retails for $1175. Choose wisely.
Check out all of our tech goodies from Sea Otter 2014, and keep checking as we start to get rolling into the long weekend.
