A faster engagement option, magnetic pawls, less weight, and a lower price of entry.
Sidekick is the hub that eliminates pedal kickback. It decouples the drivetrain from the rear suspension while you coast, so the chain stops fighting the suspension, the freehub goes near silent, and the freehub drag drops to almost nothing. Sidekick 2.0 keeps that mechanism and reworks everything around it: magnets instead of springs, 9 degrees at the short end, and a rear hub at £229.95, about half the original's launch price.
What changed
A 9 degree engagement option. The deadband is the free rotation before the hub engages when you start to pedal. It's now adjustable between 9, 13, and 18 degrees, without tools, where the original range started at 12. The gravity-focused Sidekick GR keeps the original 12, 15, and 18 degree range.
At 9 degrees, the hub feels close to a traditional fast-engagement hub, and it still removes kickback at the start of the travel, where the harshness comes from. At 18 degrees, the suspension gets the most freedom.
Magnets instead of springs. Wire pawl springs were a common wear point in the original freehub. Sidekick 2.0 replaces them with magnets, which do not fatigue. Pro models add nickel-plated pawls for lower friction and a harder-wearing surface.
Lighter and stiffer. Oversized aluminum axles cut weight by up to 38% against the original hubs while increasing stiffness by up to 50%. The lightest version, the Pro SP, is 275g. Improved bearing and axle preload also reduce friction while pedaling by 25%.
A lower price of entry. The Sidekick rear hub is £229.95, about half the original's launch price. The Pro, with upgraded EZO bearings and the nickel-plated pawls, is £319.95. Front hubs start at £82.95, and the Pro SP is the 275g one.
Sidekick 2.0 on the trail and on the bike. Photography from the 2026 hub launch.
The drag numbers
Sidekick pawls retract completely while you coast, so there's no ratchet buzz and almost no resistance. For 2.0, re-engineered bearing press-fits and low-friction seals cut coasting drag by a further 30% against the original Sidekick. We measured the result on a precision spin-down stand against the other high-performance hubs on the market, and published the method and the data in a full test report on our support site.
The short version: in the complete wheel test, Sidekick 2.0 showed 51% less total coasting drag than the DT Swiss 350 DEG. In the isolated freehub test the gap grew to 88%. At 30 km/h the Sidekick dissipates 0.18 watts while coasting. The DEG dissipates 1.55. That's energy taken straight out of your rolling speed, and the Sidekick gives up almost none of it.
Austin Dooley won the Red Bull Tennessee national at Windrock by four thousandths of a second. His read: "There's no drag on it when I ride it, it's insane!" His margin was four thousandths. The drag gap we measured against the DT Swiss 350 DEG is 1.37 watts at 30 km/h.
Race miles and guide miles
Sidekick wheels have raced World Cup downhill and enduro for several years. For the kind of miles racing can't supply, we also partnered with several guiding companies, whose bikes now log thousands of miles across rugged, remote terrain, season after season.
Every Sidekick 2.0 hub is easy to service at home and fully rebuildable, and most maintenance needs no tools. The bearings carry a lifetime, no questions asked warranty, and the rest of the hub is covered for ten years against defects under Infinite Ride.
The full story of how anti-kickback works is in our explainer:
Every Sidekick hub is rated for MTB and Class 1 E-MTB use.
Sidekick 2.0 hubs are available on their own or built into complete Sidekick Flux wheels.
