The Hive / e*thirteen for 2014

The focus of the 2013 product launch for The Hive here in Ashland is their TRS Race products, which was done in conjunction with the Ashland round of the Oregon Enduro Series. The TRS products are aimed at all mountain and Enduro riders. Within TRS products there are three product levels. The most cost effective “Base”, the mid-level “Plus” with gold highlights and Gucci “Race” components with red highlights. The architecture of the products are generally similar, but with increasingly exotic materials and processes being used in Plus and Race.

My 2013 Norco Range got a makeover with TRSr wheels, dual guide, cranks, bottom bracket and chain rings.

The group ready to drop in on some delicious singletrack.

TRS Race Wheels

My first impression of the TRS Race (TRSr) wheels when I picked them up was how light they are. The new EXAr rim profile is a 28 mm wide, less than 400 grams a piece, compatible with tires up to 2.5 inch width, improved dent resistance, and claimed to be 30% stiffer than the old rims. The rims are designed to work with regular and tubeless tires. My tires were setup with tubes, the bead evenly snapping to the rim wall at between 30 and 40 psi. Most of the other guys were running tubeless setups and seemed to have no issues.

The somewhat bulky appearance of the Chub hubs is certainly deceptive with the wheelset weighing in at 1560 grams.

Since the hub flanges are taller than normal the 28 regular J-bend spokes in each wheel are shorter and lighter. The hub flanges are pushed as far apart as possible to maximize the spoke bracing angle, and minimize spoke stress. The result is a 1560 gram wheelset that The Hive claims is stiff enough and tough enough for enduro use.

The TRSr wheels use a steel over molding process to create 2 steel splines on an otherwise aluminum driveshell. The intent is to eliminate the cassette mauling the aluminum splines without the weight penalty of an entirely steel driveshell.

The hub uses angular contact bearings, which have to be preloaded to remain tight. The benefit of the angular contact bearings is a stiffer hub than one using conventional deep groove ball bearings, and increased longevity of the wheel since the preload can be adjusted as the bearings wear. The seal design of the TRSr wheels has been improved with what the Hive call an active seal design. Unfortunately I won’t be testing the wheels here in Vancouver to thoroughly test their claim.

I liked the simplicity and elegance of the axle arrangement / preload collar that makes the hub easy to preload and easy to rebuild.

Certainly the wheels felt surprisingly stiff on the trail given how light they are, even in the 27.5” diameter I was running. The wheels I usually run on this bike are substantially heavier and burly enough for use on a downhill bike, and I didn’t notice any additional wheel flex on the TRSr wheels.

Even though I spent as much time as possible going sideways the TRSr wheels held up to all the abuse I could dish out on the Ashland trails. The rims are light though so I’d be interested to see how they hold up in a more abusive environment, like here in Vancouver.

The light TRSr wheels definitely made the bike easier to flick around.

The TRS Race wheels seem well thought out and will likely make for great lightweight trail / enduro wheels. I liked the details in the design to improve wheel stiffness, reduce weight, and extend durability. Availability is scheduled for fall 2013 and the MSRP is to be determined, but the expectation is they will be similarly priced to other high end enduro wheel sets.

TRS Race Crankset

The TRS Race Crankset is an evolution of the TRS Plus crankset. The major differences are reduced weight and increased stiffness through the use of higher quality materials. Although the axle, preload mechanism and spider attachment method aren’t new I thought they’d be worthwhile mentioning.

The TRSr cranks are beautifully made, and I think the graphic design is tastefully done.

The axle is an oversized aluminum axle with a trilobed spline that is designed to bottom out. The Hive guys use this profile to reduce stress concentrations at the peaks of the splines. This according The Hive makes the tapered interface much more resilient to wearing out.

To accommodate the always variant BB shell thickness all the new Hive cranks use a gizmo called Adaptive Preload System or APS. This is an easy to access threaded preload mechanism that when hand tightened, loads the bottom bracket independent of crank bolt torque.

My concept on cross country. I got in my fair share of riding since mounting up the TRSr cranks and so far they’ve been great.

The new M Guidering is e13’s dual width single specific chainring in 28 – 38 tooth versions. The M Guidering was optimized for 11 speed single chainring drivetrains, but will be an improvement over current single rings for 9 and 10 speed drivetrains as well. The dual width teeth are designed to be timed with the chain for better lateral retention. E13 claims that the M Guidering is the longest wearing of any dual width chain ring due to their profile and coating process. Of the guys running the M Guidering at the launch there were no dropped chains I saw.

The new M Guidering and dual chain rings attaches directly to the crank to reduce extra crank material for the spider, to reduce the added weight of chain ring bolts and increase the drive stiffness.

The dual chain rings are spiderless for TRSr to reduce weight and increase stiffness and available in 20/34, 22/36 and 24/38. The 20/34 is interesting in that it is 1 piece, with the 20 tooth granny gear and 34 tooth middle ring conjoined, because a 20 tooth ring can’t bolt to standard granny ring posts. My bike however was setup a little unusually since I had a dual ring setup with a triple front derailleur, which required a bashguard and thus a conventional spider that was lifted from the TRS+ crankset. I understand why e13 went with the ratios they did, but I think for the riding in Vancouver I’d like to see a 22/32 combination or similar.

Since mounting the TRSr crankset on my bike I’ve ridden over 200 kilometres in a variety of conditions with nothing but flawless shifts.

On the trail I’d be a liar if I said I could notice increasing power transfer or increased stiffness. The rings did however shift effortlessly and the APS bottom bracket preload mechanism worked as intended. The TRS Race cranks come in 4 grams lighter than a comparable XTR crankset and a whole lighter on the wallet with the MSRP at $399 for a dual ring crankset (plus $60 for a standard bottom bracket).

e13 Race chain guides

The Hive had two new guides on display. The TRS Race guide and the LG1 Race guide. Both use carbon compression moulded back plates that are stiffer and lighter. Both use the same interchangeable plastics as the lower level guides. The weight reduction is significant with the TRS Race guide weighting in at just 74 grams.

74 grams of delectable carbon dual chain guide.

One of the details I liked regarding the e13 guides is the honeycomb strengthening ribs in the bash guards are designed to deflect the plastic away from the chain ring. The intent is to maximize the chance of the saving the chain ring and that KOM you were smashing.

Once mounted the only indication of the Race level TRS guide is the red accented bolt.

A TRS Race guide replaced my Heim 2 guide. While the added lightness was tough to notice I most certainly noticed how much quieter the new guide was. I’ve got in over 200 km of single track since installing the TRSr guide with nothing but smooth shifts. The guide hasn’t dropped a chain yet even on some fairly bumped out high speed sections. I’ve always had issues with rollers seizing up given the weather here in Vancouver, so it will be interesting to see how well the roller and bearings hold up in the coming months. The TRSr guide will retail for $199 and should be available soon.

This was about as rough as it got in Ashland. But I’ve ridden the TRSr guide a bunch since and it’s been flawless.

The new LG1r carbon guide.

The Hive guys had a couple LG1 Race guides on display as well. Apparently the SRS+ is being phased out and replaced by the LG1 TRC (Turbo Charger), which is essentially an LG1 style taco guide with an additional bash ring. LG1 Race guides will be available soon at an MSRP of $219. LG1 TRC guides will be approximately $30 more than the equivalent LG1 guide. Note that the plastics on the LG1 guides are all interchangeable, allowing you to switch from LG1 to LG1 TRC on the same back plate.

Uncle Todd, the Hive’s product manager, giving us the low down on the new LG1r guide.

LG1 Race Pedal

The Hive also released a Race level version of the LG1 pedal. The pedal architecture remains the same as the existing LG1 pedal models, but focuses on weight reduction. For the highest end model, LG1r, the axle material is titanium and the pin material is hardened aluminum. The wear plates on the exterior remain filled polycarbonate, sandwiching a cast aluminum body. Bearings are IGUS bushings and run dry with no lubricant. The Spin Control mechanism is unchanged that allows for varying degrees of bushing preload to fine tune pedal play vs. pedal drag. The LG1 Race pedal hits the market at a spendy $319 and will be substantially lighter than the 468 gram LG1 Plus Pedal.

The new lightweight LG1r pedals.

Impressions

The TRSr product line looks like a well thought out evolution of The Hive’s current product offering. All the products addressed legitimate problems, felt well made, and performed well on the trail. I’m looking forward to putting some abuse on the new cranks and guide, and will report back if I have any issues.

Coming from an engineering background I asked a lot of tough detailed questions. The Hive guys always had intelligent answers and left me impressed with the degree of thought put in to each of the products.

The Hive guys love bikes and shred hard, and it shows in the thought process they’ve applied to their products.

The riding in Ashland was a ton of fun. With the trails all being so high speed I needed goggles to keep my eyes from watering. The speeds got so high on one trail my eyes were watering inside my goggles … true story.

Suitable conclusion photo.

Tim’s got a Chub for the Hive’s new offerings… anything pique your interest?