Daan

Get some retaining pins (Shimano and Sram pins also fit) and the four individual style of pads will work too in the mt5; I like them because they're much easier to remove and insert.

Use a long pedal wrench or a cheater bar over your Allen key, like an old seat post, and you won't have any issues. There are no threads on my trials bike that go untreadlocked Plus, how often do you remove your pedals?

Together with massive torque, I put blue thread locker on the pedal threads too.

Buddy of mine runs them with Saint levers. I find the levers more solid feeling than my MT5 levers (but that's hardly an achievement), but they have very little lever throw and engage really quickly, which I find feels less nice, or is at least something you really have to get used to. Magura's caliper pistons have less roll back than Shimano's, so it's no wonder the levers engage so fast, especially with the servo wave linkage they use.

It's definitely great they respond so quickly. Hopefully they'll just send me new innards and the tool to replace the drivering so I have no down time, and then I can send the broken stuff back. But yeah, its age, that's the thing that has me quite worried: my Hydra is only 6 months old. And the skipping sound has been going on for at least half of that. Add to that I've seen a couple of Hydra's now that have exactly the same wear, one dude's even cracked the freehub in one of the pawl pockets. So I'm not sure how much of it can be chalked up to tolerance issues, or if it's inevitable they'll all start skipping after not too long. Maybe many people won't notice, as the skipping doesn't really feel like a classic skip, because there's so many engagement points. Plus I think because of the design it won't happen too much under real power, only when there's half power applied, the stage when there's still little flex and only one pawl engages. I sure hope that's all not the case. How does yours look inside?

Alrighty, got a message back from i9, sent them some pics of the drive ring too (on close inspection, some teeth look a bit more shiny than others), and they told me it's definitely missed some engagements. At least we know where the noise comes from then. Bummer. They reckon maybe some pawls where slightly on the lower side of the tolerance spectrum, causing the stretching of the pawl pockets and the engagement issues. Their customer support does sound very responsive, wanting to either fix up a new hub and manually remeasuring the moving parts to make sure tolerance is perfect, or replacing the innards. Hopefully the latter is possible, not looking forward to yet another wheel rebuild. But, at least case closed on the noise. Time will tell how long the fix will last, hope they're right about the tolerance, and it's not the actual design.

Cheers Adam. Will try to keep my mind off the noise. But I have dropped the video in i9's inbox, as as you say, a bit more wear than I'd like to see after a relative short period of time. Might give them something to think about, for their hub design.

Yeah, it has me concerned, especially as it's only like 6 months old. Thinking with the pawls being pushed back in their seats when you put the power on might sometimes make some noise, especially if the timing of the pawls relative to eachother is starting to get a bit off due to uneven wear? And to think I was raving about this hub initially, big wad of cash too.

Tried the multispeed chain, no difference. Before I have peace with the fact it could just be me being too sensitive, a question for the guys that also use an i9 Hydra hub, should you find a moment to have a look: can the pawls in your freehub also move this much? It's way more play than on my Hope hub. https://youtu.be/juzsIhsSMuw

Nope, you don't need any with GXP on 73 mm.

Clean and fresh hub (it's a Hydra btw), everything else still the same, short ride, only one single pop almost right at the start. Usually happens like four times. N=1 is nothing, so we'll see how this develops. As I wrote, hub looked perfectly fine inside (I guess if it was slipping, wear marks should be obvious to spot?), so still have good hope that Adam is right and this just happens ocassionally. Mind you, it hasn't happened under massive power when gapping for example, it's usually when lightly engaging the pedals from a standstill/slow roll.

Haha cheers Adam, you might be on to something. I just hate those little noises coming from my bike, creaking stem, rubbing brakes, pinging spokes, aaargh Good to hear you think it's pretty normal and I'll try and keep the no-harm-being-done in mind.

That's what I thought too, but did a quick inspection and it seemed fine. But to be sure I just took apart the freewheel of the hub again and this time gave it a good cleaning. The teeth look the be in good shape, as do the pawls, no markings of possible slippage. So I find it hard to imagine it's the hub (and I sure hope not, it's a rediculously expenisve Industry 9 hub). Will give the cleaned and freshened up hub a go if it stops raining. I've also ordered in a KMC E9 chain for the sake of science, should hopefully be here this week. Figured they can't be less reliable than the K1SL with its hollow pins and cutouts Will report back here on anything I find.

Got some chain issues going on. Used to use a KMC Z1eHX narrow chain on my Inpired Hex, which occasionally gave me popping/clanging noises from the drive train, like your chain is ever so slightly crooked on the ring's teeth and pops back to the center when putting the pressure on. Now I got a K1SL chain for Christmas, gold obviously for bling, and put it on my street trials bike. This was before I read the death-trap warnings about them Anyway, with this chain the popping noise is more frequent, and it drives me a bit mad. Chain line is perfect. The bike has a chain tensioner and the problem is there with both the stock tensioner (less often), as with the Ali C style simple pushing tensioner I cut from some titanium (more often, maybe not surprising as chain wrap on the sprocket is less). To try and remedy the issue, I've installed a narrow wide chain ring up front, even splurged for a narrow wide Absolute Black sprocket in the back, and with those installed the noise is there less often. However, it still occurs occasionally, usually after a few good bounces or spins and then putting pressure back on the pedals. So obvious first question: is this something that just happens on a bike that uses a chain tensioner (I always had a proper single speed setup before this)? Secondly, I reckon going for a multi speed e-bike chain like the KMC e9 might remedy this issue, but are they reliable enough?

I'm running an i9 Hydra as well, since June last year. So far it's been holding up perfectly, even under a hack like me Had issues with the Hope Pro 4 too, bearing housing way out of tolerance, it ate bearings for breakfast and ran like crap. Hope initially served me off with some BS, but eventually I got my money back and figured I'd do it right this time around and invest in some proper quality. No regrets; yes, it's 2/3 more expensive than Hope, but the machining is on another level, and that instant engagement, wow!

Yeah, these things are always a bit crooked. My OCD couldn't handle it, so I've taken some inspiration from Ali C and made his style of chain tensioner from a plate of titanium. Looks cleaner, weighs less, and makes a lot less noise when bouncing around. Only thing I find with tensioners that occasionally after a rough bounce without pedal pressure, and then putting pressure on the pedals, the chain will sometimes make a single clang/pop noise, like it has come ever so slightly off the chain ring's teeth, even though my chain line is perfect. Guess this is inevitable as the chain has way more room to jump around than with a proper tensioner-less single speed setup?

No worries, good luck! About your brake lever question: the Tech 3 lever is a lot sturdier than the Trial Zone lever (which is a Race lever with a slightly longer lever blade). T3 lever blade feels a bit thicker, and the return spring feels stronger too. It is also more adjustable, but it is heavier. I have both, and the TZ feels fragile by comparison. I wore out the pivot bushing and hole of the TZ lever quite quickly, which gave a lot of unwanted play. Master cylinders are the same size, and I reckon leverage of T3 and TZ lever is about the same too, so not much difference in it power wise. I would personally always go for the T3 lever if I had the choice. Edit: if you're comparing the TZ lever to the older Tech Evo lever, the TZ should give your more power, as the Tech Evo has a larger master cylinder, so less hydraulic leverage.

You don't need a special bleed kit at all for Hope, only a small hose. The funnel on top is just nice to have. Pop your tiny hose over the caliper bleed nipple, and to catch the fluid, either put a cup or bucket or something underneath the end of the hose, or just connect your syringe to it. If you go for the latter, keep the syringe supported, or the hose will pop off the nipple by itself when it starts to fill with fluid. I usually stick it between the spokes with my wheel on the floor so it can't rotate. Then remove the reservoir cap, fill it to the brim, start squeezing and opening the bleed port like in the clip above. Just keep an eye on the fluid level in the reservoir. When it gets low, pour in some more from the bottle.

Yeah, you probably saved me from a load of frustration and money there! I've ordered some cheap Shimano Deore BL-M4100 levers for the MT5 calipers. No servo wave but a long lever for leverage, 0.5 mm smaller master cylinder than Magura for just a tad more power, and hopefully less flexy lever body. Time to experiment!

Cheers, good info. I guess being anally retentive with the bleeding might handle the mushy feeling, but the leaking caliper is no good, especially for the price they go at. Where did it start to leak, past the pistons, or the banjo or bleed screws? For now I've put some older longer MT5 lever assemblies back on (had the short ones from an MT Trail set), the flex is insane, but they seem to stay dry for now.

Cheers, yeah, the Guides are terrible, had them on my MTB, tried them for trials in an emergency, it was scary as hell. Codes might be slightly better though. Formula I've had some really bad experiences with in the past, with two sets of their T1/The One brakes. Fine for regular MTB, but when I put them on my trials bike, they instantly started leaking past the caliper seals. Both sets, so I'm hard pressed it's just bad luck, has put me off them for good. Was thinking the same, basically the only thing that's holding me back. Especially with those pics of broken Shimano calipers in mind... Maybe I should try and find some of those TRP levers and match them with the Magura calipers.

Maybe a long shot, but is anyone using the new Hayes Dominion A4 brake for (street)trials? Using MT5s at the moment, and they've started leaking ever so slightly from the lever plunger/master cylinder. Could swap them out for Shimano levers, but I don't really like their shape/action. Though I'm sending the Magura's back in for warranty, I'm not a fan of the plastic lever bodies, so I thought of trying something completely different. These Hayes look pretty promising, super light lever action, very little 'empty' lever throw, good power (2x 17 mm pistons like Magura, though I don't know the master cylinder diameter). Would be great to hear of some trials experiences with them, or shall I just give it an expensive shot and be the guiny pig? This is them: