As soon as Jeff told me we were spending the night in Ashville on the way to Cohutta, I knew we had to work out a trip to Industry Nine. We were pushed for time as we wanted to pre-ride the course a bit later in the day, but the stop was well worth it. I expected to see a bunch of bling wheels all over the place (and was not disappointed), but I didn't expect to see the machine shop that makes these hubs possible. Also, the positive vibe that only comes from a group of cyclist was evident. There is no doubt that all of the employees of I9 are hard core cyclist from the minute you enter the parking lot.
David was kind enough to show us around the facility. The anodizing process is pretty cool to see, very complex in ways that you wouldn't even think about. It is done in house as consinstancy is tough to achieve with anodizing. All the components of a single wheel build are all anodized at the same time due to these inconsistancies.
Each little box along the wall represents another customers wheel build.
Our gracious host David was kind enough to re-tention Joe's wheel before our tour of the facility.
The machine shop was very busy on the day of our visit, so no pics from that. Huge thanks to I9 for inviting us into their shop for the morning and for sponsoring our team this season. I also want to thank David for showing us around and recommending that killer place for breakfast!!
Great write up David. The visit was well worth the effort and the I9 folks were great. Thanks for setting up the visit!
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