Review: Industry Nine Solix M UL300 Wheelset

In April, North Carolina-based component brand Industry Nine introduced a line of mountain bike wheels built around the new Solix hub. The hub has been tweaked to lower rolling resistance and cut weight, and has 605 points of contact and .59° of engagement.

I spent some time on the brand’s most unapologetically performance-focused wheel in the line-up, the UL300, and found that for my riding style the Solix hubs don’t give anything up to I9’s higher-engagement Hydra hub. The UL300 wheels offer great ride quality and are very light, but do come with a premium price tag.

Industry Nine Solix M UL300 in a Nutshell

• Points of engagement: 605/.59°
• Spoke count: 24 spoke
• Rim material: Carbon
• Rim inner width: 30 mm
• Rim outer width: 36.5 mm
• Weight: 1388 g
• Front: 644 g
• Rear: 744 g (XD driver)
• Price:
• UL300 Wheelset: $2,395
• Solix Hubs: $695/pair

What’s new?

I9’s Solix hub, first introduced on road and gravel wheelsets, splits the difference between the 1/1 and Hydra in terms of engagement with a five pawl freehub biting into a 121 tooth drive ring, for 605 points of contact and .59° of engagement (.07° of engagement less than the Hydra).

I9 says that every part of the hub has been optimized for lower rolling resistance and weight savings. What that means in practice is lighter leaf strings driving those pawls for less resistance and a quieter freehub buzz, less pawl rotation to engage, and different seals, along with updated bearing preload, and equally-sized drive and non-drive side bearings. The Solix hubs also get updated machining to shave as much weight off the hub body as possible.

In 2010 I bought a secondhand pair of I9 Ultralite 26” aluminum wheels with the original I9 hub. They were silver ano and they were my pride and joy. I never weighed them but I imagine thanks to their size that they probably weren’t too far off the UL wheels of modern times – they might even have been lighter.

Fast forward almost 15 years and everything about the product has changed (except for those straight pull spokes and that conversation-starting ano finish) but once again I’m riding I9’s lightest, most race-focused wheelset.

Weight, Value, and Warranty

With a 30 mm carbon rim laid in Canada by We Are One, the Solix wheelset is fully made in North America, a claim that’s gradually becoming more common among carbon wheel makers but is still worth bragging about. The UL300 is laced up with 24 straight pull aluminum spokes and is available in an array of lovely anodized colors, in standard I9 fashion. The rims are recommended for tire widths from 2.3-2.5” and have a rider weight limit of 235 lbs or 107 kg. The hub is Centerlock only, which isn’t terribly surprising for an XC wheel.

The UL300 with an XD driver body weighs 1388 g for the set, and at $2,395 it’s certainly a premium pick.

Forge + Bond’s similarly made-in-America 25 XC wheelset with carbon rims and a Hydra hub isn’t far off at $2,199 but weighs over 200 g more. ERASE Components, the small Belgian company whose all-mountain wheel I really loved, offers the Carbon XC25 at a similar weight and a far lower price - 1450 Euro or around $1,550. It is important to note that both of those wheelsets have a narrower internal rim width than the UL300.

Meanwhile, Roval is in its own league with their Control SL Team Wheels, which weigh an astonishing 1190 g and cost an eye-watering $3,300.

I9 has a limited lifetime warranty for its complete carbon wheels, for original owners “within the scope of the wheels’ designated use” – i.e. casing a jump doesn’t count, according to their website, but they do have a crash replacement program for those situations. Bearings are considered a wear item and are not covered under the lifetime warranty. This isn’t the most generous warranty on the market but it’s not bad.

Performance

It was a breeze to mount the Solix up tubeless. I did have to adapt my 6-bolt rotors to the Solix's Centerlock interface. I ran the wheels on the Cannondale Scalpel with Maxxis Team Spec Aspen ST to really push the set-up to its logical conclusion, and the combination of ultralight wheels, a stiff frame, and ridiculously fast-rolling tires made for an insanely fast, responsive, and efficient ride.

I’m not a total engagement princess but I do notice lag in lower-end hubs. These hubs, unsurprisingly, had no discernable lag, and I couldn’t tell the difference between the Solix and Hydra, whereas I can feel the difference between the Hydra and 1/1 hub.

The UL300 wheelset rides just the way you’d want a high-end set of hoops to ride. They transmit tons of energy through corners and on sprints and provide that subtle suppleness of WAO carbon rims. While they’re taut and springy, the wheels are in no way harsh and don’t punish you through chatter

Durability

I have experienced a few durability issues with some older I9 wheels, and I’ve heard from other people who have too, but I9 claims that the Solix hub has the most effectively sealed drive system to date. I also tend to trust carbon rims more than the alloy I9 rims that I’ve abused in the past.

Despite my getting too excited on some small trail gaps, and several rides in really rugged mud, the rims are still at 100% and the bearings feel great. If anything changes I’ll report back.

Who is the Industry Nine Solix M UL300 for?

If you can afford to majorly upgrade the bike that you spend a lot of time racing and training on, the high-end Solix carbon XC wheels are a great choice to make you feel very, very fast.