Pardon me for a bit of a tale but I am a Chris King fanboy for life.
I bought my first King hub in '99 at Mountain and Beach, Classic front. Followed it up with the rear in '99. At the time it was so easy to break down the hub with a couple of 5mm allen keys but I was dumbfounded as to how to service the driveshell bearings so I gave them a call (CK when they were still in Santa Barbara) They asked me first off what serial number I had and informed me that the Ringdrive was aluminum and that they would supply me with an upgraded steel version. They asked me where I lived and at the time they were pretty convinced that no-one in Vancouver had the tool and offered to lend it to me to do the service. When they told me how much it would cost to buy at the time I jumped on it. I still have the original printed service manual they sent with it but I have misplaced that original Ringdrive assembly but I do remember it was red.
When disc brakes came around (2001?) I made another phone call. They were in Redding Cali. at that time. They offered me a good price on Universal Disc Hubshells and disc adaptors. I had the tool so it was a no brainer to convert. After cleaning and boiling the hell out of the original shells I turned them into salt and pepper shakers because they sold the base caps and shaker caps to cover the bearing holes as accessories.
Those original bearings had been in the Disc hubshells until 2014 when the ring drive side no longer needed the tool to extract it and would just fall out of the shell. I had already purchased a 20mm front Disc a few years previous but replaced the "wornout" rear with a new 135mm ISO. That old Unversal Disc Shell is now a chilli shaker because well...
The next year my frame shits the bed and Boost was the only option. King had not yet produced their boost rear. The ISO hub was a bench warmer for over a year until they had developed new shells and axles. The 15yr+ bearings went into the "old" ISO hub and were sold to a very happy new to him owner and I have been running the Boost hub on the "old" ISO bearings for 4 years now.
King makes a ridiculously durable product and they follow that up with amazing product support. I can't see myself running anything but the Angry Bee in my lifetime.
March 13, 2020, 9:20 p.m. - bikesandbarley
Pardon me for a bit of a tale but I am a Chris King fanboy for life. I bought my first King hub in '99 at Mountain and Beach, Classic front. Followed it up with the rear in '99. At the time it was so easy to break down the hub with a couple of 5mm allen keys but I was dumbfounded as to how to service the driveshell bearings so I gave them a call (CK when they were still in Santa Barbara) They asked me first off what serial number I had and informed me that the Ringdrive was aluminum and that they would supply me with an upgraded steel version. They asked me where I lived and at the time they were pretty convinced that no-one in Vancouver had the tool and offered to lend it to me to do the service. When they told me how much it would cost to buy at the time I jumped on it. I still have the original printed service manual they sent with it but I have misplaced that original Ringdrive assembly but I do remember it was red. When disc brakes came around (2001?) I made another phone call. They were in Redding Cali. at that time. They offered me a good price on Universal Disc Hubshells and disc adaptors. I had the tool so it was a no brainer to convert. After cleaning and boiling the hell out of the original shells I turned them into salt and pepper shakers because they sold the base caps and shaker caps to cover the bearing holes as accessories. Those original bearings had been in the Disc hubshells until 2014 when the ring drive side no longer needed the tool to extract it and would just fall out of the shell. I had already purchased a 20mm front Disc a few years previous but replaced the "wornout" rear with a new 135mm ISO. That old Unversal Disc Shell is now a chilli shaker because well... The next year my frame shits the bed and Boost was the only option. King had not yet produced their boost rear. The ISO hub was a bench warmer for over a year until they had developed new shells and axles. The 15yr+ bearings went into the "old" ISO hub and were sold to a very happy new to him owner and I have been running the Boost hub on the "old" ISO bearings for 4 years now. King makes a ridiculously durable product and they follow that up with amazing product support. I can't see myself running anything but the Angry Bee in my lifetime.