A few weeks back, Animal had released their new PYN hub guard to the public. Over the last few years, a number of hub guards have become available from pretty much every brand with versions being as simple as slipping it on your axle, to ones that fit your drive side, all the way to ones that work completely off compression and remove your hardware completely. Animal took a slightly different route with their guard and took what they knew and liked and created something that definitely gets the job done properly. I recently picked one of these PYN guards up to give a go and decided it would be a good idea to give you guys a closer look at what makes this one stand out. I also stepped it up a bit more and got a Q&A going with Animal’s pro team rider, Mike Brennan and product designers Frank Lam and Jay about the process it took to create the guard. I don’t think you could get any more detail going on this one, so check it!
Let’s start things off with the Q&A with the guys about the creation of the PYN guard. We talk about everything from the idea to it finally being released so that makes sense to start there…
All right, so I guess let’s start this out from the beginning. When did you guys start tossing around the idea of doing a hub guard?
(Brennan) It was probably around the time the Butcher peg was coming out that we started to mess around with the idea of a hub guard.
It makes complete sense that you guys would do a guard since you are so heavily street influenced. Were there any specific reasons that lead to the decision to make it happen? What were some of key features you guys wanted to work with?
(Frank) We decided to jump into HG’s because we had been working on releasing our own hubs for some time. The central ideas around the PYN were pretty basic. Keep it strong and functional.
(Brennan) This one was inspired by the butcher peg and work in a similar manner. It can be used with or without the plastic.
About how many drawings did you guys go through before you started putting a few samples to test? How many different guards did you guys test out throughout the whole process?
(Frank) We only went did one iteration of the Aluminum Core. Having a thick cross section with nice filleted transitions made it strong as hell.
You guys ultimately went with a 7075-aluminum body and an interchangeable see through plastic for the materials. Did you guys try any other bodies or types of plastic?
(Frank) We had planned to go with 7075 from the get go. I’m not a big fan of cast aluminum because of it’s tendency to have that gummy feeling when grinding on rough surfaces.
The PC cover was a different story. We tried a bunch of different materials including glass filled nylons, Delrin/POM, PC/ABS blends, ETC. We eventually settled on an impact modified PC because it gave us the best balance of grind-ability, wear resistance, and crack resistance.
The PYN guard is designed to remove the existing hardware on a hub and be threaded on to replace the cone nut and spacers, right? Why did you choose that route? Seems like most guards just slide on.
(Frank) That was a personal preference of everyone that works here. It’s fine to have slip on cones and hub guards. But I like the security of having jamb nuts and threaded hardware holding my rear hub together.
(Jay) Traditional hub guards can cause stress on the welds of the rear triangle because the hub and guard together are much wider than the space between the dropouts. With the PYN, this problem is avoided by removing the existing hardware and replacing it with the hub guard.
What’s with the two additional holes on each side of the axle hole?
(Brennan) They are there for a 6 mm allen key. You can tighten and loosen the guard onto the axle.
Start to finish, how long did it take for you guys to go from initial idea of doing a guard, to the release of the PYN hub guard?
(Frank) Start to finish, it took about a year and 3 months. It would have and should have been much sooner. But hub specs and material trials dragged on a bit longer than I would have liked.
What the hell does PYN stand for?
(Frank) Protect ya nuts.
The guard is out now, right? What hubs will these fit on? What are some of the color options available?
(Jay) Yes, the hub guard is available through your favorite mail order/bike shop, or you can pick one up through our online store. The hub guard will work on most threaded axle cassette hubs. The plastic sleeve is available in translucent black, blue, red, and purple.
Do you guys have any plans of making more colors available? The plastic cover can be replaced, right?
(Jay) Down the road we may release some limited edition colors, but for right now we are going to stick with our staple colors. If your hub guard is looking beat, you can buy a replacement sleeve for under $10.
Are there any plans of making a hub guard for the front wheel? Any hints at other projects you guys are currently working on?
(Jay) We are in the prototype and testing stages for the PYN front hub guard.
(Frank) We’ve had to make a few different changes to the design and materials to get the durability we wanted.
We have a Freecoaster friendly version of the PYN in the works and also a 4130 cover for people that want a chromoly sleeve instead of PC.
So that wraps up the Q&A. Let’s go over this one more time. The PYN hub guard uses a 7075 aluminum core that has threads to fit on a 14mm axle and a 2nd spacer piece that sits between the hubs bearing and the guard (see photo below). The guard itself completely replaces the hardware (cone nut / cone spacers) that would normally be found on your hub. The aluminum core has an impact modified PC sleeve that fits over the core and comes in colors of translucent black, blue, red, and purple. The guard weighs in at 2.6 oz. with the sleeve and fits most 14mm cassette hubs. Pretty straight forward and simple.
You can pick the PYN guard up for $22.99 on Dan’s Comp or for $29.99 on the Animal store. You can pick up replacement sleeves for $4.99 on the Animal store as well. If you would rather have your local shop order you one up, have them get ahold of Animal.
I recently replaced my existing hub guard with the blue version of Animal’s PYN guard on my bike so I figured I’d do a little step-by-step how to on installing the guard. Here we go!
Here’s a look at my old hub guard. It did a real good job and held up great. It definitely saw plenty of abuse in the year or two I have had it on my bike now. This one slid on without any threads, so first thing was to pull that off and then remove the cone nut I had in place below. Some of you may remember this how to I did on installing a guard that requires you to replace hardware.
All right, so step two, I removed the guard and my cone spacer. Then I dropped in the insert that goes between the guard and bearings. For some of you newer riders out there, doing this will keep pressure on the roller and off the actual bearings allowing the wheel to spin like the cone nut would do.
Next, I threaded on the guard. You will use a 6mm allen key on the guard and if your axle has a allen key slot, use that, or clamp down on the cone nut on the drive side of the guard and thread the guard on until it is snug and there is no play in your hub. The wheel should spin smooth like there would be a regular cone nut on it.
After that, you can drop the plastic sleeve over the guard to give it a little pop! If you like the look of just the aluminum core, you don’t need to run the sleeve. However, I would suggest it since it helps with grinds. I know my ices slide real smooth with the help of the guard…
The final step would be to slide your wheel back on and tighten that beast down. That blue really does pop! Loving that for sure.
All right, so I think that’s pretty much everything you need to know about Animal’s new PYN hub guard. You can find out more about Animal on their website at AnimalBikes.com.
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What could make this even better… Oh yeah! If you want to WIN this Transluscent black PYN guard for your own bike, head over to our Facebook page and “LIKE” us, once you have done that, SHARE THIS PHOTO! I’ll pick a winner on FRIDAY, MAY 25th!
