Hope free hubs

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Mike
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Hope free hubs

Post by Mike »

So my gears have slowly started jumping over the last few weeks so thinking it maybe the chain I changed it, then the front ring and finally the cassette.... damn thing was still getting worse so I stripped the hub down and I found that the rachet ring and the pawls were very dirty and the grease a bit past its date so having cleaned it and put it back together it's still missing a beat but nowhere near as bad now. One of the pawls is slightly missing the ring and not seating as it should. Iv ordered new pawls, but my question is should the pawls of worn that much so soon the wheel is only about 18mths / 2yrs max. My old hope xc hub lasted ages before I had to change the pawls?? Are these things made of a weaker metal now, if this doesn't work then it has me stumped!!!
ScotRoutes
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Re: Hope free hubs

Post by ScotRoutes »

I have Hope Pros much older than that and never had any problems.
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whitestone
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Re: Hope free hubs

Post by whitestone »

My Pro 2 Evo hubs are almost four years and 11,000km old and haven't skipped a beat. I think I have regreased them once but only because I thought I should.
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AlasdairMc
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Re: Hope free hubs

Post by AlasdairMc »

What type of Hope hub? I’ve got an XC and a couple of Pro 2s (one an Evo), and the XC design seems a lot more robust. The spring pushes the pawl out, whereas the Pro 2 uses those flimsy leaf springs instead. Did it need pawls or just leaf springs as you can get them separately?

I’ve only had to do one Pro 2 but it was ancient, and it was a nice to have as I was replacing the bearings at the same time. I’ve got an Evo with about 5 years use and it’s still going strong and noisy.
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fatbikephil
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Re: Hope free hubs

Post by fatbikephil »

If mud has got into the freewheel it will wear pretty quickly. If new pawls and springs don't work Hope can replace the ratchet ring, not sure how much. The plastic dust seal is the only crap bit of hope hubs - its worth pulling the freehub and cleaning / re-greasing regularly - say 4 times a year or after a particularly gooey trip. The old Ti glides to Pro2's had a proper lip seal behind the freewheel and these were much better than keeping the gick out....
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Mike
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Re: Hope free hubs

Post by Mike »

The problem hub is a pro 4..And yes that green seal is crap
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sean_iow
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Re: Hope free hubs

Post by sean_iow »

Here's mine from a couple of weeks back

Image

And these were the remains of the pawls

Image

It's just once the mud gets past the seal. The bearings were all shot as well. I think it's probably just a result of the amount of riding and the conditions for me. I'm only doing one off road ride a week and my other long commutes I'm doing on the road to try and reduce the wear on the bike. I had to change the rear brake pads at lunch, not ridden the bike since Friday's 4 hour rain and mud-athon.

Image

Made quite a noise when I rode in, I was hoping it would quiet down but after half an hour it was no better. I think there was so much water and mud on it on Friday that it didn't make a noise :lol:
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whitestone
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Re: Hope free hubs

Post by whitestone »

I think you need to properly service and align those brakes Sean :wink:
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fatbikephil
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Re: Hope free hubs

Post by fatbikephil »

If you fill the space between the bearing and the freehub with grease it does help keep mud out. I make sure the green dust seal is well greased too.
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Mike
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Re: Hope free hubs

Post by Mike »

Spoke to a guy at hope today and he said as long as it's clean not over greased the pawls should last yrs and wouldn't expect to change them yet. He said I could send it to them for an inspection bit can't be arsed with that. So it will just have to jump sometimes!
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Re: Hope free hubs

Post by ianfitz »

Mike wrote:Spoke to a guy at hope today and he said as long as it's clean not over greased the pawls should last yrs and wouldn't expect to change them yet. He said I could send it to them for an inspection bit can't be arsed with that. So it will just have to jump sometimes!
They are decent at backing their product. Worth sending it back. In my experience if it’s not right they will fix or replace it.

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ianfitz
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Re: Hope free hubs

Post by ianfitz »

whitestone wrote:My Pro 2 Evo hubs are almost four years and 11,000km old and haven't skipped a beat. I think I hjave regreased them once but only because I thought I should.
And having posted the above I have fully functioning pro 2 and evo, an original ‘hope’ rear hub which will have done similar and maybe more distance - they were all second hand when I bought them!

They have all had new driveside or free hub bearings at one time but no pawls.

The hubs I’ve put the most miles on is a dt Swiss 240. That’s never had anything done to it! It was swapped from Shimano to xd driver so had new bearings then but the old ones were fine.

If I was build a new set of good wheels I’d stump up the cash for another 240 rear hub.
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Mike
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Re: Hope free hubs

Post by Mike »

Ian, yeah i was going to buy a 240 hubs for my new rims but had the pro 2 built into some 26" so stripped them and used em. These are fine its my new pro 4 that sucks... going to take it apart again today and have another look then i might take it in to them at somepoint. I have another 29 rear wheel here but cheers buddy for the offer though!
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sean_iow
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Re: Hope free hubs

Post by sean_iow »

Interesting that it's a Pro 4 that you're having trouble with. Wasn't it a 4 that caused Greg issues on the TD?

Mine are Pro 2's (non-evo) and despite the state of the insides in the above picture it still functioned ok. It has done 5000 miles on the current bike and was second hand of eBay when I built the wheel. I've changed the springs but never had to replace the pawls in one. I've got new seals for it now, DS and NDS, and given how cheap these are I think I'll change these more often, The DS is in particular gets a hard time and is only plastic so once it starts to wear water/mud will get past it.
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Zippy
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Re: Hope free hubs

Post by Zippy »

hmm.

Recently bought a set of Hope 20Five hoops, pro4 hub for the CX / commuting beast. That bike gets a lot of abuse, I cracked a frame though overuse :shock:
Best I keep on top of cleaning in then? This is actually the first hope hub I've ever owned. :|
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Re: Hope free hubs

Post by AlasdairMc »

As with many freehubs, too much grease can be just as bad as too little. If you properly pack it with really thick stuff, the leaf springs won’t be able to push the pawls out onto the ratchet ring so it’ll slip.

The leaf spring design of the Pro2 and beyond is a bit shoddy in my mind as they seem to be made of tinfoil.
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Zippy
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Re: Hope free hubs

Post by Zippy »

This is my dirty freehub photo... just sharing coz, er, I dunno, I had it to hand.

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199 (18-07-2017) by Chris Reeves, on Flickr
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Karl
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Re: Hope free hubs

Post by Karl »

Not a fan of hope hubs. Broke a pro2 evo and pro4. Freehub casing on one and pawls on the other. Not that old either. Won't go back to them now, I'll stick with DT Swiss as they've been super reliable. Some would say they work like clockwork :lol:
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Scattamah
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Re: Hope free hubs

Post by Scattamah »

Hope hubs...clack clack clack crack. That bloody noise!

I don't know if Bonty rebadge someone elses hubs, but they have been very, very kind to me. I've had one freehub replacement and maybe 2 bearing swaps since 2014 and >20K Kms on them. And by comparison with Hope, they're silent. YMMV.

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Mike
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Re: Hope free hubs

Post by Mike »

This has my baffled. Ive cleaned it all out now and re greased only slightly after chatting to hope, iv aso watched the whole thing go around and all the pawls engage properly. So now iv ordered a new chain i wonder if its that slipping ( dont know why it would as its only done about 100 miles ) worth a punt. if this doesnt work then i will try a new mech after that well i give up and ill ride it till something falls apart :lol:
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sean_iow
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Re: Hope free hubs

Post by sean_iow »

Obvious answer, go singlespeed :smile:

Following on from the picture of my freehub above, this one was fitted to the wheel only 20 days ago, it's done less than 300 miles and I'd guess only 50 of them off road, although conditions here are pretty sloppy at the moment

Image

Just put my spare on, with new seals. Note also the wear on the cog, might need to replace that and the chainring and chain soon as well. It's only done 3000 miles but that's not bad. If it was an 11 speed and I'd spent and equal amount of time in each gear that would be 33000 miles so can't complain.
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sean_iow
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Re: Hope free hubs

Post by sean_iow »

Mike, thinking about your original problem, when you say the gears were 'jumping' do you mean changing on their own/not changing properly or that the freehub wasn't engaging and slipping?
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Zippy
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Re: Hope free hubs

Post by Zippy »

Most bonty hubs are DT Swiss iirc
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Mike
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Re: Hope free hubs

Post by Mike »

:-bd problem solved. It turns out it had nothing to do with the hub, it was the chain. Having put a new kmc on its sweet again having changed every other part to eliminate the issue ( I didn't actually buy new bits just swapped around ). Thing that pisses me off though now is the problem chain was a brand new shimano XT siltech one. That's the first time iv used shimano chains in yrs and I say now the last time I ever use one again, what a bag of dog toffee! Lesson learnt stick with sram n kmc :wink:
Just out of interest has anyone else had problems with shimano chains?
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Re: Hope free hubs

Post by Bearbonesnorm »

Just out of interest has anyone else had problems with shimano chains?
No .......... because we know not to use them :wink:
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