Hope (Pro 3 road) hubs: Reviews ???

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runningrunningjump
Posts: 200
Joined: Tue Jun 28, 2011 10:43 pm

by runningrunningjump

I realise this conversation is really old, but I couldn't help noticing there are very few reviews of hope road wheels anywhere online. I'd like to do my bit for the boys at hope and give them my recommendation. Also few of these posts are actually written by people with experience of hope road wheels.

I build a winter road bike for myself 12 months ago, I made it up out of a mix of old bits of eBay (frame, saddle, bars etc) and new bits (chain cassette etc) and there was only one thing when starting this is was sure of, I was buying a set of hope road wheels.

There are a few bits of any bike that get totally distroyed with hardcore winter use. Both MTb and road; drive train (buy a good chain and keep on cleaning it and replacing it), and wheels!! There are few wheels that can take constant winter use.

I've distroyed loads of shimano cup and ball hubs, I think the best one was a new 2004 orange patriot MTb, which came with deore hubs, these stripped and checked after two muddy months were totally wet, rusty, pitted and dead. The other shimano hubs I've had last little longer.
I've killed a set of dt Swiss hubs 370's I remember, but they did take two years of hard abuse! Very good.
I abused a dt Swiss 240 rear hub for two years and it loved it! Was still like new afterwards with no servicing. Soldnthat bike. Great rear hub that was.

Mavic; killed a bottom of the range set of mavic road wheels aksiums or something like that, rubbish, and heavy, lasted one winter.
Killed a set of krysium elite's in two years.

Hope. I've had probably 6,7 sets of hope wheels in various forms. All have lasted well.

I love hope hubs, you can build up either killer wheels with 36 plane gauge spokes and never damage them, I had a free ride bike with hope xc hubs and halo rims and did some massive drop offs and they loved it! Three years and no servicing required.
I've bought really old hope wheels off eBay before and following the hilarious YouTube video of the two welsh dudes bashing the bearings out of them on an old workmate I've brought them back to life for under £30. Great!
I even rang hope once to ask for advice expecting them to give the "go to your dealer" line, but was met with; "yeah man, do it yourself! This is how to do it!" great attitude.

So onto the hope road wheels; I bought the hope hoops, pro III 32 spoke mavic open pro. £250-£300 I remember. All black which is great for a understated winter bike. They weigh about 1600g which is amazing, I bought a 2008 trek madone with 1600g race lites which were totally dead after one winter, spokes snapped, nipples snapped, they flexed like hell, the hubs died, I put it down to their light weight, but these hope wheels are that kind of weight, so spin up well, climb well etc, but are rock solid, like a good set of MTb wheels. My wheels have covered about 2000 miles in nothing but bad weather, if it's nice, the summer bike comes out, they've seen mud, rain, snow, rain, more rain, salt, more rain. They are still like new. End off.

I really welcome hope getting stuck into the road Market, I see they have a few road wheel builds now. I think mixing this robust, no messing about approach to light weight, or aero rims very exciting. Ok so they are not super light, but the weight penalty in in the middle of the wheel (hub) so not so bad.

The only potential problem for some people people will be the clicking sound, it is rather loud. I actually really like it for some reason. But I can totally understand why some don't.

I hope this helps.

If you want a set of wheels for your road bike or MTb and you want the hubs to simply last forever, get bits very easily, buy from people you can call on the phone and get to speak to a normal bloke, and if you feel slightly warm inside spinning along with your loud clicking sound knowing you've helped a small Uk business through this recession just a little bit, then buy hope.

Wingnut
Posts: 2196
Joined: Sat Jun 23, 2007 12:41 am

by Wingnut

I've had Hope hubs on two pairs of wheels for over then years. Front flange broke in the SunTour when I lent them to a friend who is a current pro but the hub was an early ultralight version, replacement still seems ok. I was considering the current Hope hubs for another set of wheels but apparently they're not 11spd compatible if I ever choose to update from 10spd?


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Sam
Posts: 323
Joined: Fri Dec 29, 2006 5:07 pm
Location: Gothenburg, Sweden

by Sam

What about the aluminium freehub body, does it get easily dented by the cassette?

FreaK
Posts: 852
Joined: Sat Aug 27, 2005 5:57 am
Location: mOntreal

by FreaK

well yes, any alu freehub body will. if you know a way around that without going to a super expensive alloy like 7068, i'd love to know, and so would campagnolo, and zipp and extralite and....

i miss my Ti freehub White Industries, but i sure don't miss trying to keep the bearings properly preloaded blech!
it's actually possible to come to the conclusion even before realising it makes no sense at all
-
tymon_tm

Wingnut
Posts: 2196
Joined: Sat Jun 23, 2007 12:41 am

by Wingnut

My Hope hubs all have Ti cassette hub bodies? Didn't realise they're now aluminum...


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JensW
Posts: 759
Joined: Mon Jan 24, 2005 9:41 pm
Location: Uppsala, Sweden

by JensW

FreaK wrote:well yes, any alu freehub body will. if you know a way around that without going to a super expensive alloy like 7068, i'd love to know, and so would campagnolo, and zipp and extralite and....

i miss my Ti freehub White Industries, but i sure don't miss trying to keep the bearings properly preloaded blech!

'
american classic has clips that you put between the cassette and the body, that helps a lot against marks in aluminum body

runningrunningjump
Posts: 200
Joined: Tue Jun 28, 2011 10:43 pm

by runningrunningjump

Just to reply to a few comments since I posted.

Free hub body being cut into by cassette. In my real experience with 6-7 sets of hope rear hubs over 15 years, I have had a little free hub cutting, but it has never been serious, and not anywhere near the level of damage that would stop you getting a cassette on and off. The worse free hub for this I've had is a dt Swiss 240. Even that was not a show stopper.

I find low grade cassettes (105, deore, SRAM 970 etc) cut in more as the main body becomes a little loose on it's rivets and then rotates slightly causing a lot more cutting. If you are worried about this issue, use a cassette with a solid Ali spider such as SRAM XO these plus a tiny amount of suitable grease has prevented any damage on my latest hope hubs (and mavic and dt Swiss for that matter).

As far as American classics are concerned; I actually almost bought a set of their wheels new, (I bought a set of mavic r-SYS in the end), but the shop who stocked them even talked me out of it saying the hubs don't last well, and the flex a lot. Checking online reviews confirmed this. So I'm not sure American classic should be compared with hope road wheels IMO...

I put my trust in hope for all weather riding where wear is high and relyability is paramount. And mavic on race/ sportive days, as there is almost always a mavic service tent/ van and they are always very happy to give your wheels a once over; checking spokes, cassette etc, before you head out for 100+ miles! If you have any other brand, your on your own I guess...

Is that important to you? Maybe not, however, I do remember being in the que to start the dragon ride 2010 a tough 5+ hours in the saddle, which everyone trains hard for and in the middle of the summer, with great views, when a competitor five guys away from my had a problem with his wheel, we were told to start and he was left at the start line on his own without his mates or any chance of starting at all... If that was me, I'd rush back to the mavic van and hope to be in with a chance of catching my mates up 10 min later, rather than putting the bike back in the van and going home.
Of course another plan could be to take along my trusty hope road wheels and if I have a problem in this way, I could rush back to my van and swap the hope wheel in....

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mr_tim
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by mr_tim

runningrunningjump wrote:Of course another plan could be to take along my trusty hope road wheels and if I have a problem in this way, I could rush back to my van and swap the hope wheel in....


Unless its a campag bike that is... the spacing doesn't work for a lot of bikes - so you'd pop your hope wheels in & then chew through your seat stay. Let alone if its 11v speed which doesn't work either.

Honestly, its nice that Hope has fans & that they're reliable wrt shimano kit, but for campagnolo hope stinks & that's putting it nicely.

The hope campag hubs need to come with warnings and/or decent customer service to back up the badly thought out kit they are pushing out to unsuspecting customers.

js
Posts: 1003
Joined: Tue Nov 18, 2008 9:57 pm
Location: Canada

by js

Wow - that's a lot of Hope love going on there.

I've had my pair for two seasons now and have used them for cyclocross and winter training rides, as well as summer rides too - so it's not all crap. In general they've been pretty solid, trouble-free hubs and I don't hesitate to recommend them for others looking to do similar 'classics wheel' builds, as price/weight/performance seem to be quite well balanced.

The negatives that I've experienced - the rear hub has never spun very freely, either when free-wheeling or moving with the cassette, there seems a lot of drag, certainly more then my other DT or Shimano hubs. This is particularly upsetting because the seal protecting the freehub does quite a poor job, certainly worse then my other DT or Shimano hubs - I have to clean the hub out every month or so, but on the plus side, it's a fantastically easy disassembly process (it's just the cleaning that's a bit of a pain) and you don't even need to take the cassette off.

One final note to say that the QR's are not something I would purchase again. I've never had a QR that spins as freely as the hopes do when in the locked position - it's not completely free movement, but in my opinion, this is a part that shouldn't move AT ALL once locked down and on the Hope QR's, the security is light enough that the QR cam can move by itself during a ride, to the point where the QR is rattling and the front wheel is loose. Unacceptable.

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StuTheWeak
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Location: Springdale, AR

by StuTheWeak

Wonder if a White Industries H3 would compare to a Hope hub...has a steel axle and softer aluminum shell which is suppose to be tough. Anyone have experience with both?
Specialized Allez 06' "Rain Bike" 21.50lbs
Neuvation F100 11' "Road Bike" 16.80lbs
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LionelB
Posts: 1595
Joined: Sun Oct 05, 2008 8:09 pm
Location: Aix en Provence

by LionelB

mr_tim wrote:
Unless its a campag bike that is... the spacing doesn't work for a lot of bikes - so you'd pop your hope wheels in & then chew through your seat stay. Let alone if its 11v speed which doesn't work either.

Honestly, its nice that Hope has fans & that they're reliable wrt shimano kit, but for campagnolo hope stinks & that's putting it nicely.

Can you please elaborate on that? I am looking at a new wheelset for Campa 11s and Hope was on the list.


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mr_tim
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by mr_tim

LionelB wrote:Can you please elaborate on that? I am looking at a new wheelset for Campa 11s and Hope was on the list.


11v cassette overhangs on the spoke side so it rubs the spoke elbow & also over hangs on the lock ring. I was using 11-23 and 12-25 at the time.

The overhang on the locknut to the DS became an issue once a chain was running on the lowest sprocket - the chain met & touched against the frame seat stay as the lock nut wasn't 'out' enough to provide clearance.

That said - maybe they have updated things since then... maybe drop them an email to see if they've revised the spacing to get it compatible...

LionelB
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by LionelB

When was this? the hub was supposed to be campy 11 compatible at the time? many companies re-visited their designs a bit.

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mr_tim
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by mr_tim

Yeah it was supposed to be compatible at that time. Last time I looked no revision or mod had been made.

Drop them a line to check - maybe they've sorted it out.

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