Back in the spring of 2004, a couple friends and I went to Sedona for the year’s first mountain bike trip. The day before we left I picked up my first ever set of hand built wheels—Chris King hubs coupled to Mavic 819 hoops.
At the time, one of my friends on the trip was expecting a kid. That kid, who he and his wife named Maggie when she was born, is now a fabulous ten-year-old. I only bring this up because she reminds me that my King hubs have been completely trouble-free over the entire course of her life.
The hubs spent their first four years on my only mountain bike—a steel hardtail that saw a lot of miles during a glorious period of under-employment, abundant ride time and poverty. When I upgraded to full suspension, the hubs stayed on the hardtail in single speed service. Finally, I purchased the King disk adapter for the rear hub and had it laced up for 29 single speed work. I thought about servicing it at that point, but it spun so smooth I didn’t really see the point.
Over this same period of time, I’ve retired one front hub and two rears on other bikes. I’ve been on multiple rides where rear hub failure sent guys coasting and walking back to the trailhead. Friends have shipped $1,000 wheelsets back to the factory with design issues, and I’ve sat at my local bike shop inspecting destroyed hubs from both big and boutique manufactures. Through all that, the basic design of the Chris King hub has not changed, which is almost unheard of in the mountain bike world.
Now entering its second decade of service, the rear hub is finally getting draggy—the bearings are a bit dry—and I finally gave it some long overdue servicing (Chris King recommends service at lease 1x per year). The front hub, however, is still cheerfully wearing out tires on my commuter bike. I don’t know what more I could expect from a piece of hardware that takes so much abuse.