I'm not going to lie, I was really looking forward to pissing all over the King hubs. I was ready to call them overpriced trinkets, designed for riders that buy thier bikes to match whatever european car they were driving. I wanted to ridicule the price, criticize the lack of options, and crow about saving your money.

You have no idea how annoyed I am that I can't do that now with a clean conscience.

Ok, bit of background first.

Chris King started when Chris decided one day to build a bike headset, back in 1976. Blah blah blah, some stuff happened (read about it here) and today, Chris King makes a bunch of really shiny, impressively colored expensive bits for bikes. The point is, mountain bike (and road) nerds around the world covet King bits, especially the hubs. The headsets are widely considered the best on the market, depending on who you talk to and what your priorities are. The hubs are considered one of the ultimate bike toys, and with good reason. Topping it off is how involved King is in saving the environment, and making sure his company goes to great lengths to be responsible and save the whales, dolphins and some frogs, and oh yeah, the world.. Its really quite impressive, and again, its all on their site.

Check out the Chris King Fun Fact list below, and you'll learn about King hubs.

Chris King hubs are light. 202g for the front 20mm, and about 285g for the rear disc with the alloy freehub body and QR axle.

Chris King hubs are pretty. They come anodized in a billion different colors (well no, but a bunch) and look like jewelery. The perfect example of the King of shiny trinkets bike nerds can rub one out to.

Chris King hubs sound damn neat, like no other hub on the market. The best description is "its like being chased by angry bees" down the trail. They even have a shirt that says it, so it must be true.

Chris King hubs cost a bunch. Check your store, its true. Even on Ebay they are sphincter-puckeringly expensive. That right there is enough for some to ride something else. That said, Industry Nines cost a ton too. And DT. And Hope. And Hadley. And guess what, so is everything else thats high end and shiny. As such, its not THAT out of line, but the King stuff is a bit more then most.

Chris King hubs have a damn neat engagement system. Its bloody fast. 72 points fast, in fact. The King hubs use a proprietary system called Ringdrive, which is incredibly fancy an intricate. Thankfully King has tons of information on their webpage about this, so I don't have to go into details here. Just know that the second you stomp those pedals, you are going forward. The King locks in almost immediately, and solidly at that. Its really hard to go back to a hub with lesser engagement once on something like a King.

Chris King hubs spin well, although with a fair amount of drag to start. Thats pretty fair, there's a lot going on in there. Once they break in though, only a bit of the drag remains.

Chris King hubs are an investment. These hubs might very well outlast you, if you take care of them. Speaking of maintenance...

Chris King hubs need love. This is a fairly obviously statement, but still many people assume you can just get on the kings, stomp away and not worry about anything for years. No. well yes, but things won't go well. You can't do that with a Ferrarri that costs elevently billion dollars, and you can't do it here. That said, maintenance isn't terrible. In the Kings case, this means opening them up and massaging the bits, whispering nice things, showering them in rose pedals, and following the maintenance instructions on the King site. If you're a caveman with hammer fingers, give it to a shop to overhaul and you're golden. Brilliantly, King has put in bearing adjustment into the hubs, so you can remove play and get optimal performance without worrying about bearing slop.

Chris King hubs ride real good. The engagement is stupid fast. You really do stomp down and go. On climbs where you stall it can be invaluable, since there is no waiting for the damn freehub to catch, like on some lower end hubs. Anyone riding Shimano XT hubs or Formula will know what I am talking about. Once broken in, the hubs roll so damn well, although not as well as a well maintained Shimano XTR hub. The drag was an issue at first, with the occasional chain tangle when the freehub decided to be fixed for a bit, but after things settled in, we were all good. Cruising through singletrack is awesome, especially if you can hear the rear hub buzzing behind you. There is just something about that sound...

Chris King don't exactly have the whole user friendly bit quite down, but they are trying. I was all geared up and ready to pounce on the lack of options for axle conversions for the King hubs, when they had to completely piss on my parade. King has just announced that they have 15mm conversion kits for their hubs (Full MSPR is $120 for the axle kits), and 135x12mm rear axles. Of course they now have the 150x12 hub too. But the thing is, it requires a whole new axle. Its great that King offers this way of swapping your axles, but other companies have it down. Look at Industry Nine, Azonic, and a bunch of others. For their front hub, you simply swap out the little end caps, and they will fit every standard on the market, except perhaps for some strange euro one that I don't know about, and don't care. The reason King does it with a complete axle swap is to accomodate the bearing adjustment, which is totally fair. And really, not too many people swap their axles around very often, unless you have a wheelset doing double duty on different bikes. Still, its a nice option to have, and the easier the better. With King, not so easy, and not so cheap either. Add that to an already expensive hub, and things can get kinda pricey pretty fast. And by kinda pricey, I mean testicle explodingly expensive, once the total comes around.

My other beef was with the freehub itself. In short, the alloy freehub is soft. Even using an XTR cassette, we had some decent gouging on the ends. You *must* use a high end cassete with a wide carrier or the freehub will get gouged to death. There are numerous cases out of every store that sells King hubs of the cassette being stuck on there due to gouging, making removal interesting, to be kind. King offers the stainless hubshell to combat this, but then you're adding weight, which kind of defeats one of the benefits of the King hub in the first place. King really needs to take note of Industry Nine, who can offer a much more gouge-resistant freehub body and still remain light by using a fancier class of aluminum.

The final point is the big one. And its the most confusing really, because there is no conclusion and because it all comes down to you.

Chris King hubs are worth the money.

Chris King hubs are not worth the money.

Confused? See, heres the thing.

The real question people want to know is, ARE THEY WORTH IT. Are Chris King hubs worth the expense? Well yes and no. The best analogy I can think of is Chris King hubs are like a really hot high maintenance girlfriend. She looks bloody awesome, and can be the best girl ever sometimes. Shes fun, you guys do fun stuff, your friends dig her, she gets attention everywhere she goes and is on your arm, and she does that neat thing with her tongue. But occasionally, things go nuts. When things go bad with the King, they have the ability to get real bad. Replacement parts are expensive, maintenance for the ring drive can be tricky if its an involved repair, and really, it cost a fair bit to get in there in the first place.

So are they worth it? It depends on who you are. If you are a street or trials rider, with proper maintenance the King rear hub can be your best friend. If you are a trail demon and pedal up hills like a missile, they will make you grin like an idiot every time you stomp down. If you are a DH rider, a Whistler junky, a Bromont bomber...well maybe look somewhere else. The engagement isn't that big of a benefit, other hubs are cheaper and come lighter (Hope Pro IIs come to mind), and really you don't need the added maintenance.

Really though, lets be honest. The main reason to buy King hubs is to join the King Hub cult. There is an unspoken nerd status in bikes regarding certain parts, and King hubs are no exception. One of the reasons you buy King hubs is so other nerds say "ooh look hes/shes got King hubs" and drool. And really theres no real problem with that, depending on who you are, and this is hardly exclusive to King. Its the same reason you buy Industry Nine, DT, and any other high end shiny colored bit, hubs or otherwise. Some are into it, some are not. In terms of performance, yes the King hubs are a bit better then others that cost less. But, they aren't that much better, not compared to the difference in pricing. Really, its like buying mag rims for your car. Performance gain yes, but also for status and because you bloody well want them. And you know what? Thats fine.

I also have to say, after opening the King rear up and looking at whats happening in there, you really can see where a lot of the money goes. The ring drive system is very, very cool to see. The machine work is jaw dropping to be blunt. Everything about the Kings really is just...kingly really. Depending on how big of a bike nerd you are, opening a King hub and peeking at the guts might require a few minutes alone in the bathroom for some "personal time".

So should you buy some King hubs? Well, if you look at what they offer, there are few companies that can offer a product thats similar, or on the same range. The only hub I can think of that compares is the Industry Nine Classic hub, which is a slight bit heavier, but its cheaper (not a lot, but a bit), just as pretty (they have purple!), easier and cheaper to swap bits for different axles, and engage faster (72 for king vs 120 for I9, which really isn't noticeable by anybody but the most anal off-roadies. Or Ninja robots.) But the I9's lack the King mystique, and to some thats a big thing indeed.

Chris King hubs are, and aren't worth it. They are awesome bloody hubs no doubt, really spectacular in both appearance and performance. Whether or not its worth it...thats your call. Once you do it though, you can at least have that giant target checked off your biker nerd to do list. I can say this though, without a hint of sarcasm or exaggeration.

I am a fan of Chris King.

 

 

You can get Chris King hubs from Sweetpetes and Cycle Solutions.