Product

ODYSSEY CLUTCH V2 FREECOASTER – REVIEW

Odyssey entered into the freecoaster market relatively late, launching the original Odyssey Clutch V1 in the summer of 2015. This hub is a little different to other freecoasters in many ways.

“The Clutch Hub is a traditional clutch-based coaster hub design that eliminates all of the problematic elements on ordinary hubs and only keeps the parts that work.”

Odyssey have got it dialled. Their product design has to be among the best in BMX, they’ve pioneered several technologies and seem to hold more patents in their inventions than many other brands. It’s been said that Odyssey (and their family of GSPORT and Sunday) are at the forefront of BMX product design, and we wouldn’t really argue with that.

The first thing you’ll notice about the Odyssey Clutch hub is the silver band on the hub shell. Style and substance here – that is in fact a cover for one of the Clutch’s clever features. Slide that silver band around and you’ll find an allen key screw that allows you to adjust the amount of slack. This means you don’t have to take the hub apart (or even remove the wheel from the frame) to adjust the slack. Extremely clever design work.

“You don’t have to take the hub apart (or even remove the wheel from the frame) to adjust the amount of slack. Extremely clever design work.”

Many freecoaster designs have a tendency to put a lot of pressure on the driver bearing. Odyssey’s internal workings have swerved this problem and they claim their bearing configuration is super durable. That means it will put up with a substantial amount of abuse. I mean, if it’s good enough for the Odyssey team… Broc Raiford, Travis Hughes, Aaron Ross, Justin Spriet, Matt Nordstrom and Gary Young all use this hub. Yeah.

Improvements with the Odyssey Clutch V2 include a new, super-strong full 14mm axle. Version one used a 14mm bolt on the non-drive side and a 3/8″ bolt on the drive side. There’s also more slack available compared to the V1, and refined manufacturing precision throughout. This is a finely tuned piece of equipment, design patented by Odyssey.

For all the technical details on the Odyssey Clutch V2, we recommend you watch the very thorough videos with explanation by George French.