I’ve removed a hope pro 4 rear hub from my old 26” wheels and planned on getting a new wheel built for my bikepacking bike.

However, on dismantling the wheel I’ve found that I have got two stuck titanium bolts.

Tried most things and also a stuck bolt/screw extractor. However this just took the bolt heads off.

I now have two bolts stuck in the hub I can’t remove. I suppose it might need drilling out and re-tapping but don’t have the tools or the skills to do this myself.

Not sure what to do. Is this something a bike shop could do or does it need more specialist attention.

I’ve emailed hope 3 times asking for advise/support but not getting any response.

Thoughts?

Pic. Of the hub

https://instagram.com/p/Bijy-lzgN-H/

I would say that is a job for a specialist engineering shop but even then there's a chance the hub will still end up as scrap. The ti bolt is much harder than the ali hub and the drill will tend to wander into this. Titanium can gaul and this has probably resulted in the bolts getting stuck. I've got access to a proper pillar drill or a mill if needed and I wouldn't bother trying. The cost of getting someone to attempt it is probably more than a new hub.

The cheapest option is probably to but a new hub body and swap over your axle and freehub, sorry. Even if the bolts can be removed the small size and fine pitch of the thread makes re-tapping very difficult and as it's 2 next to each other and they hold the brake disc on why risk it.

And, why use ti bolts? The weight saving is not worth it and they tend to do this, I had a friend with the same issue in a cheaper hub. The bolts supplied with the discs are more than adequate and come back out. I'm not being flippant, but it's not the first issue I've seen with ti bolts.

Galling between Titanium and Aluminium is very common. Find a good engineer. Worse case the hub is scrap.

Didn't type fast enough. Just looked the picture and agree with the above.

There's another 4 bolts holding the disc on - what's up with you?

clamp a drill chuck onto what's left. (its better when there is something left....)

See if you can get a set of mole grips onto the end of the sheared bolts. I'd put a blow lamp on the hub as well in order to break the corrosion weld. titanium is extremely hard to machine so trying to drill out will be tricky. You can buy hub bodies separately so if all else fails this is cheaper option than a new hub.

If you remove the other 4 bolts, then the rotor, there should be a little stub of bolt left sticking up. Try attaching the chuck of a drill to these and twist them out.

Find a local engineering company who has EDM spark erosion machines. They'll be able to remove most of the material and leave you with nothing much more than a tidy up job. Used to be a toolmaker and it was regular practice to remove broken drills and taps this way from tooling steel.
You will have to strip the hub from the wheel and of bearings because it needs to be submerged in fluid (paraffin/kerosene type stuff) and the bearings will get rinsed clean. I doubt the full wheel will fit into most of the machine tanks.