Assembling the First Principles unit (it needs a better name so I'm going to call it The Onion) is relatively straightforward. You'll need a drill and a 1/8" bit, according to Daryl Musselman of First Principles, despite the fact that his instructons ask for a 3mm bit. Their experience has shown that the 1/8 works better. The kit comes with 10 x 3mm Allen head bolts to fasten the Onion to the hub.

Job one was to drill out the 10 of the 16 spoke holes on the non-drive side of the hub. I felt at first like I was performing a sacrilegious act, reaming out the spoke holes of a virgin XTR hub, but in the end it was relatively painless. There is a specific bolt pattern so be careful in order to only drill out the necessary holes.

I was impressed with the precision machining of the unit and the tolerances were very fine. The holes in the Onion easily matched up with those I had drilled in the hub.

There was no recommendation for thread locker but I thought this was a perfect application for some blue Loctite. Tightening the bolts once everything is laced would be a dodgy task. Once everything was together I was ready to lace the wheel. Thanks to Dale from Dizzy Cycles for his expert technical consultation. The spoke length for the new flange is 4mm short of the original spoke length - or, if this isn't a rebuild, 4mm shorter than a manual or website would specify for your chosen hub.

When I began to lace the wheel I discovered that the larger non-drive flange made it difficult to insert the spokes in the drive side. If I had it to do again I would first insert the non-drive spokes and then bolt on the Onion.

I have put the hub through a substantial thrashing in a couple of weeks and thus far it has performed flawlessly attached to an Intense Mag 30 24" rim and a Specialized Big Hit.