Since the very first Zolla prototypes rolled out for the Two Volcano Sprint in 2019, every wheel we have built has turned on a Trailmech hub. If you own a set of Zolla wheels built before 2026, you own a small piece of Poltava, in eastern Ukraine, where Kostiantyn and his team machined their Vortex ratchet hubs in-house from 2014.
Those hubs were the reason we chose Trailmech in the first place. The Vortex ratchet engaged in six to seven degrees, bit harder the more power you put through it, and simply did not break. They carried riders to wins at GBDURO, The Perfidious Albion and the Two Volcano Sprint, to a Badger Divide record and through multiple Transcontinental finishes. We never had a hub failure in the field.
Production on hold
When Russia launched its full-scale invasion in February 2022 we wrote about what it meant for Zolla. We renamed every wheelset after a Ukrainian city or river, donated from every sale to Ukrainian relief, and, with the help of Trailmech’s European partners, kept hubs flowing for as long as we could.
In 2024 that became impossible. Trailmech’s co-founder and their technical designer joined the Armed Forces of Ukraine. Friends kept the lights on for a while, but with the team serving, production has stopped and the company is, in their own words, hibernating until the war allows them to return. The last of our Trailmech stock has now been built into wheels.
What we’re building on now
We have spent a long time choosing what comes next, and we have landed on two hubs rather than one. Both are made in Taiwan, both are star-ratchet designs in the same spirit as the Vortex, and both are easy to service anywhere in the world.
- Bitex BX160 is our standard build: light, quick-engaging thanks to twin 90-tooth ratchets, Centerlock, and built around standard-size bearings that any mechanic can replace. It isn’t available with a Boost front axle, so our Poltava 29er uses the DT Swiss 350 Boost.
- DT Swiss 350 is the premium option: the hub more ultra-distance racers trust than any other, with DT’s Ratchet system, tool-free freehub swaps and spares in almost every bike shop on earth.
Everything else about a Zolla wheel is unchanged: the same Toray carbon rims, the same Sapim spokes, and the same builder laces, tensions and checks every wheelset by hand. You can read how that works on the wheel journey.
Still with Trailmech
Our wheels will keep their Ukrainian names. We still hold spares for the Trailmech hubs we have sold, and we will keep supporting every one of them. And when Kostiantyn and the team are able to pick up the tools again, we will be first in the queue. We look forward to a time when we can work with them again.
If you would like to support Ukraine directly, the DEC Ukraine Humanitarian Appeal is where our own donations went.
