Am I right in thinking that alloy freehub bodies (as on Hope Pro 2 hubs) will get mashed by cheaper cassettes that don’t include alloy carriers?

CRC’s custom Hope Pro 2 wheel builder is offering me a variety of cassettes from the basis Deore up, and I want to make sure that I get something appropriate.

They’ll get mashed by any cassette tbh, but steel unspidered designs will do it quicker and more aggressively.

XT level cassettes are fine.

One steel freehub is going to cost around two discounted 10sp xt cassettes.

If you’re looking at 26″ I have a pair of Tech Enduro wheels, brand new on the classifieds. Could save you a fair bit.

vincienup – Member
They’ll get mashed by any cassette tbh, but steel unspidered designs will do it quicker and more aggressively.

^^^ This.

Does depend also on the alloy though. Some will be tougher than others.

Couple of examples on my bikes, Crank Brothers – swiss cheese and eaten fast. DT Swiss – much tougher. Both I’ve run with steel as that’s all I had at the time. Running both now with alloy spider cassettes though (and the CB hub flanges get mashed by SRAM cassette screw heads, so it demands nothing less than XT really).

Hope freehubs are made of cheese two. Novatec hubs are not bad either. Two chain whips is how i deal with cassette removal if the freehub gets a bit mashed. Then file the burrs down and fit the new cassette. Its not a problem.

Another alternative with Hope hubs is to spec them with a steel freehub body, if you aren’t worried by the weight of a steel cassette, why go for the lightweight freehub?