Industry Nine SOLiX M TR300/290 DUO Wheels
Blister’s Measured Weights:
- SOLiX M TR300 Front: 677 g
- SOLiX M TR290 Microspline Rear: 804 g
- Wheelset: 1,481 g
Bolted To: BTR Ranger
Reviewer: 6’, 170 lb / 183 cm, 77.1 kg
Test Location: Washington
Test Duration: 6 months
Intro
I was, frankly, a bit surprised when Industry Nine announced their SOLiX line of mountain bike wheels. Their longstanding flagship Hydra hubs are already pretty light, and developing an entirely new hub platform to cut a few grams seemed like it might be an exercise in marginal gains (they also trimmed off a few points of engagement, though the SOLiX hubs still have a massive 605 of them).
[For a lot more on the design and specs of the SOLiX hubs, and the various SOLiX M wheel options, check out our First Look.]
Still, the specs for the full wheels looked awfully compelling — a 29’’ Trail bike wheelset with 30 mm (front) / 29 mm (rear) inner width rims that weighs less than 1,500 grams is really damn light. So I was quite curious to see how they’d ride, and how well they’d hold up. After several months with them, I can now comment on both:
Mounting & Installation
Most modern wheels have sorted out rim profiles to make tire installation fairly straightforward, and the SOLiX M TR300/290 DUOs are no exception. I ran a few different Maxxis Exo and Exo+ casing tires over the course of my testing, and they all mounted and seated without much fuss.
The one-millimeter internal width difference between the front and rear rims didn’t make an appreciable difference to mounting or the resulting tire profile, but both were easy to work with. I did damage the rim tape on one wheel during a tire installation (despite not using levers) and the tape that Industry Nine uses feels a little flimsy, but it survived a couple of tire changes okay before coming undone.
I’m still not the biggest fan of centerlock rotors, mostly because their attachment system has a single point of failure, and they can’t be tightened with most multi-tools. Still, I will grant that they make some sense on a wheelset that’s trying to shave every gram it can, and I had no issues with adapted six-bolt rotors or the native centerlock ones on the SOLiX hubs.
Ride Quality & Performance
We Are One makes the SOLiX M TR300/290 DUO rims for Industry Nine, and I’ve quite liked the ride feel of a number of We Are One’s carbon wheels over the years. Those We Are One wheels use traditional stainless steel spokes, though, and it had been a long time since I’d ridden any of Industry Nine’s signature aluminum spoked wheels. I was curious to see how the combination would come together. My memory of those older Industry Nine wheels was that they tended to be quite stiff, but would the same be true of the 300/290 DUOs?
In short, I’d rate the ride feel of the SOLiX M TR300/290 DUOs as being a bit on the stiffer side of average for a modern carbon wheel, but still in a range where they ride nicely, rather than feeling punishing in the way that a lot of early carbon wheels tended to.
The sharp, harsh-feeling feedback that a lot of carbon wheels of old could transmit isn’t present here — despite doing my testing on a hardtail — but the SOLiX M TR300/290 DUOs don’t feel especially muted, either. They feel more responsive and energetic than super compliant and smooth, but especially for a lighter, shorter-travel Trail bike, I think that’s a nice place to be. The biggest selling point of the SOLiX M TR300/290 DUOs is going to be their notably low weight, and that’s going to appeal to folks who want a really snappy, quick-feeling bike; the ride feel of the 300/290 DUOs matches up nicely there.
Industry Nine says that the SOLiX M hubs have slightly lower drag than the brand’s longstanding Hydra hubs, and while I don’t have any reason to doubt them on that point, I’d be hard-pressed to notice a difference in their actual performance. The slight reduction in points of engagement from 690 to 605 feels completely insignificant — both feel close enough to instantaneous for it not to matter. (We’re talking about a 0.08° difference in engagement speed, from 0.52° on Hydras to 0.60° on the SOLiX hubs.)
Weight
The SOLiX M TR300/290 DUO wheels are very, very light. At a measured 1,481 grams for the pair, including pre-installed tape and valves, they’re also within a reasonable tolerance of Industry Nine’s claimed weight of 1,470 g. (Our measured weight is with a Microspline driver, which is usually ~10 g heavier than an XD one on most hubs, though we haven’t weighed a SOLiX XD driver specifically.)
The SOLiX DUO wheels are about 100 g lighter than the next lightest 29’’ Trail bike wheels we’ve reviewed to date (the Reynolds Blacklabel 329 Trail Pro). I still maintain that the importance of bike weight has been overemphasized for many use cases, but really light wheels and tires (in particular) do make a noticeable difference in how a bike accelerates, and the SOLiX M TR300/290 DUOs feel very, very quick in that regard.
Durability & Maintenance
The SOLiX wheels have held up nicely to about six months of riding. They’re still round and true, and I haven’t needed to pick up a spoke wrench to keep them that way. The freehub grease is a bit dirty, but not to the point that it’s caused any issues, and the SOLiX wheels have seen quite a bit of dust over the last few months. They wouldn’t be my first recommendation for super maintenance-averse folks who want hubs that they can ride for years on end without touching. Still, cleaning and re-greasing the freehub mechanism is quick and easy, and it probably wouldn’t be fair to expect hubs that put such a premium on low weight to be the most rugged options out there anyway.
Given a reasonable set of expectations for what they are — a high-end, very light wheelset aimed at lighter-duty Trail bike use — the SOLiX M TR300/290 Duo wheels have held up nicely. And Industry Nine offers a lifetime warranty for the original owner, which applies to damage incurred during regular use. Here’s how they put it: “If you are riding the wheels within the scope of their designated use, we have you covered. If you hit a tree at 30mph or come up short on a double while riding your road bike at the bike park and break a wheel — we have a great crash replacement program.”
Fair enough. Just note that wheels need to be bought from an authorized dealer or directly from Industry Nine to qualify for the warranty.
Bottom Line
With the SOLiX M TR300/290 DUO, Industry Nine has made an impressively light Trail bike wheelset. While those weight savings don’t come cheap, they do ride nicely and seem quite solid for such a light wheelset.
Industry Nine is pretty clear that the SOLiX M TR300/290 DUO is meant for lighter-duty Trail bike use, and they offer a wide range of beefier wheels for heavier-duty applications. But for lighter and/or less abusive riders on shorter-travel Trail bikes, the SOLiX M TR300/290 DUO is a strong option if you’re willing to pay to cut some grams without resorting to narrow rim profiles or flimsy, noodly wheels.