Styx goes Torx

Many of you may already have noticed that over time, we make incremental changes to our products, to keep them as relevant as possible, and improving them when we see an area for improvement. Sometimes it's a big enough deal that we dedicate an entire article to highlight the change, as we did when we updated Alpha One's Dragonfly and also when we updated its Monopost.

Today we have a similar story for you. It's only a small incremental change, but makes a world of difference. And the title says it all. Our well-loved Styx Skewers are moving over to Torx. The T25 head, specifically. Not only is T25 the most common Torx head size in the cycling industry, but it's also right for this application, a perfect substitute for the M4 head previously found on Styx. If you own any tool kit from a major manufacturer, you likely have a T25 wrench already.

Why the change? Simply put, it's a much better bolt head for this application.

When I'm designing, I usually try to avoid Torx-head box, for a few reasons. First, there's the inconvenience of making sure you have that one more wrench handy at home, and handy on bike at all times. Second, its long and flat sidewalls mean that it's more difficult to seat the wrench head unless you are going in almost perfectly straight. So it's just not great for use in tight spaces. So why are swapping over?

Well, all of the "drawbacks" listed above are benefits for Styx. The small size and relatively shallow head depth of the older M4 structure pose greater risks to cam-out, excessive wear, or damage to the bolt. T25 is a big improvement across the board. a deeper head, with flatter walls, and insistence on orthogonal entry means that it's going to be more resilient, more resistant to cam-out, and simply going to last you longer.

Everything else is the same - same materials, same design, etc. Just a new head shape designed to last longer. So, when is this update available? Right now! All pending and future orders will have Torx heads.