Well in my experience they seem to be.

I bought one 3 years ago, did 2 rides with it, creaked like crazy so i changed pedals, suspension bushes as it couldn’t be the BB as it was a “high quality” Hope one
Eventually I gave up and put a Deore one in and creak vanishes!

Sent it back to Hope who looked at it said thee was nothing wrong and sent it back to me and it has sat on the shelf since.

my Deore one eventually collapsed and i thought i have that hope one on the shelf I’ll put that on, and surprise surprise under heavy load it creaks like a biatch.

Emailed hope just to give them feedback as I’m not expecting a replacement even though it covered less that 30 miles but no response at all.

Last thing I buy from Hope sadly as their hubs seem to be good

Anyone else had a problem with one of their BBs?

Nopes, all good.

BB shell been faced?

6 years on one of them?
Might give it a grease

I bought one for the fat bike and it needed a bit of tweaking to get it right. The RF XC cranks seemed to side load it too much and although it felt it would last forever it seemed quite draggy compared to the rattly-loose but free-spinning RF BB. I got it spinning freely then it started creaking 😐

It’s OK now but it’s taken prob 100-150 miles of riding to bed it in

I’ve had two and they’ve both lasted really well. Probably not as long as the five Shimano BBs I could get for the same price, but there’s an extra value to a fit and forget component.

Yes BB been faced will try some more grease but that was done on install.

I have just bought a £15 shimano one and i expect that will cure the problem

Do you over tighten the pre load? Watch the hope BB installation video.

Best BB I’ve ever owned. Every now and then I pop the bearings out, clean them, pop them back in grease them. It must have paid for its self.

If you don’t want it, I’ll take it off your hands for postage

Is it a HT11 BB?
If you want to get rid of it, I may be interested. Drop me a line if you are.

Just replaced a RF 30mm with a Wheel Mfg – bigger bearings running nice and smooth with proper seals, not hard plastic washers. Only downside was having to buy another BB tool! Uses Enduro bearings, so should be easy to replace – unlike the RF ones.

I’ve the stainless steel one on my hardtail. It’s done 8000Km in over two and a half years since I replaced the original RF one which fell apart after 1500Km. I’ve taken it off to clean and check twice in that time. Not had to do anything else to it.

Had a Shimano BB on my road bike that needed monthly cleaning and greasing. Replaced with a Hope ceramic. Not had a squeak since.

Stainless one here – most robust HT2 style BB I’ve used.

Well in my experience they seem to be.

I thought that, and TBH still don’t think they’re that hot.

I got through two sets of bearings before being advised not to tighten them as much as you would a Shimano. Since then I’ve just finger tightened using the circular Shimano tool and have had more luck. I still have to clean it out every so often as those plastic ‘seals’ creak when crap gets behind them.

So on the whole I’m not impressed. I don’t like the disposable element of Shimanos, but they’re pretty bombproof while they’re working, and I can normally make them last quite a while (unless I do the Dyfi Enduro, which has killed a Shimano BB practically every time I’ve done it). I would buy a King as their hubs are brilliant, but a friend bought one of the earlier BBs and didn’t have much positive to say about it. I would hope things have changed, but it’s a lot to invest if they haven’t.

Fitted one to my 2013 Fargo. That was about 12,000 miles ago. There was a clicking noise after about 10k miles but that turned out to be a loose LH crank arm.

Done 2 & 1/2 years in one of their 30mm ones so far.

Since then I’ve just finger tightened using the circular Shimano tool

Which is all you’re supposed to do. What were you doing previously?

They last thousands of kms for me. Well worth the outlay, I suspect you are fitting incorrectly and overloading preload.

Mine didn’t last well, chucked an old shimano one in and it lasted less than a month, ive purchased a new bike since, but will revive the old road bike soon

Need to fix other issues on the bike first though!!

The biggest mistake most HT11 users make is to overdo the preload on the bearings. The preload is just to take out the slack on the cranks, no more.

Hope BBs are widely reckoned to be amongst the best you can buy.

Rubbish?

In 20yrs of mtbing – IMHO that reputation is justified.

Which is all you’re supposed to do. What were you doing previously?

Using the same tool, but tightening it as I would a Shimano – ie until ‘snug’ – which given you can’t get a vast amount of torque through it (I imagine the very reason for its design) is little more than the recommended Hope ‘take out slack’, but obviously more than enough to compress and damage bearings.

Done 2 & 1/2 years in one of their 30mm ones so far.

Isn’t that a bit of a squeeze?

Oldest is 10 years. Very occasionally pop the bearings out, clean, regrease and reassemble. Race face and shimano are disposable, imho, which goes against the grain.

Just starting the fourth year with mine. Grit can get under the plastic (top-hat) washer and make them sound a bit rough. But so far a quick strip down and wipe with an oily rag has been all that’s required.

Hope BB (£80) are shite mime lasted 3 months. New XT ever 18 mouths for £15 can’t go wrong at that price.

metal on metal is always a candidate for creaks.

Hopes are okay but nothing special. The plastic cap is pretty basic so water/crud will get in. Then it’s just a bearing, so that’s as good as any cartridge bearing.

The main thing is that the bearings can be replaced, easily and pretty cheaply (see BB90 bearings on ebay). I run a Hope BB on my all-weather commuter and it eats about two sets a year, on average.

I think as also pointed out the Shimano crank does open up lots of chances to over tighten and cause damage. User error will still kill a good BB if the application has design flaws

How do you get through two sets of bearings a year on a commuter? Is your commute across the Bonneville salt flats?

The only BB I’ve trashed is a RaceFace one. I think mine was made of Brie rather than the standard Cheddar.

I know it’s been said, but it bears saying again, the ‘preload’ cap should be tightened, literally only until the play has gone, no further. It almost isn’t preloading at all, it is *just* removing the play.

The specs for Shimano say 0.7-1.5Nm, that’s very very very low and I have not yet met anyone who is not an actual mechanic or experienced (practical) engineer (and many who are) who realises how NOT tight that actually is.

Any BB bearing will suffer if it gets contaminated and despite best efforts with sealing External BBs are more prone, but correctly lubed and correctly installed they can be almost as durable and long lived as many internal cartridge units. Personally I’m still a square taper fan and use them on all my high mileage and filthy conditions bikes, but I have HT2 stuff that has lasted exceedingly well as well.

I think as also pointed out the Shimano crank does open up lots of chances to over tighten and cause damage. User error will still kill a good BB if the application has design flaws

So why are Shimano BBs fine when ‘over-tightened’ (or – more realistically – slightly preloaded), but Hope’s are killed? It could be argued Hope hasn’t designed particularly well around the application method.

Personally I’m still a square taper fan and use them on all my high mileage and filthy conditions bikes…

There’s a lot to be said for them. 🙂

onlysteel – Member
Oldest is 10 years. Very occasionally pop the bearings out, clean, regrease and reassemble. Race face and shimano are disposable, imho, which goes against the grain.

You can (could?) get replacement bearings for RaceFace BBs

So why are Shimano BBs fine when ‘over-tightened’

I wouldn’t sya they are ‘fine’, they might be marginally more tolerant, but they normally meet an untimely end well before they are due, whether this is a direct result of over pre-loading, or compromise of the seal contact due to overloading, or a mix of both is up for debate though. Correctly installed HT2 last exceedingly well, over pre-loaded ones last less well, with the amount of ‘less’ being dependant on how much crap they see, and how much grief you give them IME.

but Hope’s are killed? It could be argued Hope hasn’t designed particularly well around the application method.

Pass, perhaps the bearings they use are less tolerant for some reason (not necessarily inferior, just picky about ‘correctness’ to work optimally), or again, it could be a seal contact/compromise issue allowing earlier contamination. You could argue it’s a design flaw, but then that’s an argument around designing for the spec vs the installer.

If it’s all assembled to spec it works fine, design is sound, but if your installer/user is a big source of error then perhaps you do need to design and account for that, but how far do you go? or do you just say ‘install this properly or else’ and then deal with any fallout that comes from it?

It’s like C+C bearings in hubs vs cartridge all over again 🙂

If installed and adjusted properly C+C can give better life, less rolling resistance and are cheaper over the long run, but install or adjust them badly and they die a horrible quick death. Cartridge bearings remove a lot of the installation/adjustment requirements but have trade offs, you personally work out which setup works for you and what aspects of ownership and performance are a priority to you.

* Disclaimer -> User of C+C AND cartridge hubs, Square Taper AND External BBs, Rim AND Disc brakes, recogniser of nuance and champion of personal choice 😉

Pimpmaster Jazz – Member

So why are Shimano BBs fine when ‘over-tightened’ (or – more realistically – slightly preloaded), but Hope’s are killed?

TBH I’ve always found it’s the other way round- shimano are pretty sensitive to it, Hope seem to shrug it off a little better (which isn’t really helpful, because it means people keep doing it). But maybe the 30mms are less good?

I’m not really a Hope fan but ime the BBs are pretty solid.

totally underwhelmed by the one Hope HT11 BB i bought, Stainless bearings were rough from the start and it only got worse gave up after 3-4 rides and went back to Shimano. Got a new frame and fitted some new bearings to the hope as i though i might as well use it, lasted maybe 5 rides. gone back to Shimano. Shame as Hope make some ace kit.

Struggled to find a good reason to spend £80 on a Hope HT2 BB over the cheap XTR’s on Rose bikes a few years back, but with the new PF46/41 BB on my current bikes, the Hope units have been fantastic & made me wonder if I wasn’t missing a trick with their HT2 BB’s.

Stainless bearings were rough from the start

Did that not alert you to the fact something might be wrong before you even started?

+

fitted some new bearings to the hope as i though i might as well use it, lasted maybe 5 rides

Hope bearings again or some others?

Can’t help but think something else was going on here either way as no BB should ever be that bad…nor would I have let that go without contacting the manufacturer/retailer if I’d spent £20 on something that failed that early, let alone £80

You could argue it’s a design flaw, but then that’s an argument around designing for the spec vs the installer.

😆

I realise this and am playing devil’s advocate a little.

Purely from my experience though – and just taking up the slack appears to have remedied it – I wasn’t impressed with the lifespan of the Hope bearings, considering the price. But yes, the counter argument is I almost undoubtedly overtightened, even if only by a little – as said, I imagine the Shimano tool is specifically designed so you can’t. I’ve always been a little anal about facing surfaces to make sure that components like BBs work as designed so I was annoyed at myself when I found out what I was doing wrong. However, going back to the original argument, I’m not entirely happy with the speed Hope bearings died as the assumed result of extra torque applied, which probably isn’t a lot more than Hope/Shimano recommend.

If it’s all assembled to spec it works fine, design is sound, but if your installer/user is a big source of error then perhaps you do need to design and account for that, but how far do you go? or do you just say ‘install this properly or else’ and then deal with any fallout that comes from it?

Ultimately I suppose it is down to the end user, especially if there was instructions (I bought a second-hand BB and new bearings, so not guilty your honour – ignorance is bliss). But then we circle back round the the whole ‘should the margin of error be that small?’, bearing in mind most home mechanics are not specifically Hope trained, but will probably have installed and removed Shimano (or other OEM) BBs in the past?

I suppose this is why there’s still something to be said for C+C. 😉

Absolutely get where you coming from, and I think some of it is down to where/how you pitch your product too.

I know bicycles aren’t exactly that high tech in the grand scheme of things, but if you look at any other industry when you look at ‘high end’ and precision parts there is an expectation that they need more careful fitting and adjustment, if your primary goal is a particular performance metric your design decisions are going to be very different vs if you’re designing for field serviceability or home installation.

In an ideal world you’d have a super lightweight product, with incredible sealing under massive temperature and load conditions, that could be installed by a 5 year old with a plastic hammer and never wore out, but real life dictates compromises amongst some of those parameters.

I don’t have all the answers, but I do think external BBs in general have added additional requirement/expectations on the fitter and installation that didn’t exist* with simple internal cartridges.

*but DID exist with older C+C BBs, although they were a little more robust agricultural in nature and the big balls had some additional benefit…