I’ve had a set of Chris King hubs for years. I bought them used from a guy in Lincoln, NE who was the 3rd owner of them, making them about 3 years old at the time. They ran great when I got them, but the new “greatest” hubs were the Stealths and that’s what the last two guys before me bought when they sold the Kings to me.
Picture from the Chris King webpage
I rode these hubs for quite a few years and had them built into a couple of rims. During this time I only had the hubs serviced once, a cleaning. They were great hubs but like everything, eventually you want to try something new. I went with the Industry Nine hubs and sold the Kings to help pay for them. A little while later, I bought the Kings back and had them built into a new set of 20×1 3/8ths for Brody.
At roughly 10 years old the back wheel was starting to feel a little gritty, so I had ORP take the wheel after the Pearland State Race. Chris Rickard told me there was a bunch of things that he could do to the hub, I opted for a new axle and bolts to lighten the wheel up. Other options were a lighter rate spring in the driver and ceramic bearings. With all the options installed, he showed me his rear wheel. Man is it slick, no wonder a certain Olympian from Texas goes to ORP for work on his bike. After pulling the hub apart, a bad bearing was the cause of the gritty feeling, so that was replaced too. Not bad 10+ years and only one of the bearings went bad in that time with almost no work done to it .
We got the wheel back from ORP on Friday and had it on Brody’s bike for Saturday’s local race. It spun like a top. Brody really likes it. He noticed it made his bike feel lighter than the old wheel he’d been using for a week. The Aluminum bolts and axle are looking good and made an already light hub lighter.
Now you might think that if you buy a set of Chris King hubs that they shouldn’t need to be worked on and they don’t. But this is Racing. People buy cars and soup them up to race, even after buying “Race” parts for their cars they have to have them tuned. This is what ORP does to Chris King Hubs, he tunes them. If you’re looking for a Hub that will last a long time, Chris King is the way to go. (I’m still running the I9’s but their only a year old) Want to soup it up, take it to ORP and let them hep you out.
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