My years-old Shimano BB died on a ride yesterday (along with my saddle rails but that's another story).

Toying with the idea of investing in a Hope BB replacement due to them being serviceable and able to replace the bearings. But, bearings are around £30 for a replacement set – more than a Shimano BB.

1/ so far by folks experiences, do Hope BB's tend to outlast Shimano ones to make them financially worthwhile? i.e. twice as long. I realise this is highly subjective depending on riding conditions, etc. but worth asking perhaps.

2/ does anyone know of the part number for the Hope external BB bearings, or can link to a product on a bearing supplier's site? Surely other bearings (although possibly of less quality) must be available for them for a couple of quid?

Cheers

Hi

I've just ordered a few bearings from simply bearings (on t'internet). You can search their site with the bore, width and diameter of the bearing as well.

smurf

I've been running a hope BB for nearly two years now, and it's showing no signs of old age, despite being regularly abused with a jet-wash.

I'd get another one, no question, as the bearings seem to last ages, and they're a doddle to replace: no need to remove the cups, just pop the cranks off and pull the cartridge out!

That sounds not bad, I see mentions of instructions being on the hope site for replacing them but haven't looked myself yet (google searching).

smurf – do you have a link to the ones you got? I don't obviously have a hope BB at the moment so have no idea on their bearing dimensions. I just want an idea of pricing before committing to one.

I've been running a hope BB for nearly two years now

are yours Stainless or ceramic?

You can tend to get bearings of the same quality that hope use just by taking a knackered one to your local bearing supplier. My local one in exeter can actually get ones with BETTER sealing although at the cost of increased rotational resistance due to seal friction.

The Hope ones are custom made for hope (by INA). The internal dia is non-standard and I don't believe you'll find them at a bearing supplier (happy to be proved wrong as I have one myself). The standard ones need a plastic shim (Shimano etc), hope don't use a plastic shim but instead use a slightly smaller internal dia and mount straight onto the axle. I'd be inclined to go PACE and buy the regreasing tool, or Chris King and do the same. I own a Hope one and have had no problems, but it hasn't been used much yet.

By comparison I had a Raceface X-type last 3 weeks, I had a shimano XT one last 6 months, the Hope stainless one has been running 18months now with no sign of wear. That's riding 3-4 times a week in some hideously wet conditions and the soil is mainly chalky/clay around Salisbury, mileage wise the Hope must have seen close to 2000 miles. Have just ordered a Ceramic one for my other bike, not sure ceramic will make much difference over the stainless one but it was on sale!
If your a weight weeny though they are quite heavy in comparison to the Shimano offering.

Hone cranks spinning on a Stainless Hope BB for 18 months here, ~30 – 45 miles a week, not had to touch the BB at all, only had a look at it a couple of weeks ago as I had the cranks off to change rings and clean them, BB looked and felt perfect, no slop or grittyness at all I'd Highly recommend one, but then replacement bearings for shimano BBs are dirt cheap if you keep the original plastic top hats, the choice is yours replace the shimano bearings with like for like and you'll be doing well to get 12 months out of them, Hope BB should last an age, and if not ring them up and whinge it's well over twice the chuffing price!!

markyd – are you sure the bearing is custom made? Sounds highly unlikely and I know for a fact the bearings in my race face crank can be replaced eitehr with ones with the plastic spacer or without – its simply a matter of 24 or 25 mm internal diameter. Both are available.

Custom bearings are very very unusual in small scale applications and very very expensive

Mine is over a year old & not showing any signs of wear at all

I do have a note on my workshop board that says "hope bb bearing – 61805RS"

I can't confirm where I got that from now or whether it's correct or not unfortunately

That part number is 37 x 25 x 7 mm

1/ so far by folks experiences, do Hope BB's tend to outlast Shimano ones to make them financially worthwhile?

In my experience Shimano outlast Hope and are cheaper – got fed up having to strip / clean Hope ceramic every couple of weeks – doesn't matter how good the bearings are if the seals aren't up to the job. Gone for CK on one bike and back to Shimano XT on another. Also the Hope bearing sits directly on the axle so when (not if) the bearings start to stick they'll mark the axle as happened with mine.

http://www.hopegb.com/page_mep_force_58.html

http://www.enduroforkseals.com/id254.html

Not sure of the relevance of those links Macavity

Have I missed something?

does the Hope one give the bearing size?
& I can't see Hope bearings listed on that Enduro page

Most OE BB's use a 25mm id bearing and a plastic shim that is .5mm thick (0.5 on either said makes 1mm). I think the hope bearing uses a 24mm id which goes straight onto the crank without shim. This is not available from a bearing suppliers, but enduro make it, found in macavitys links above, same as shimano, raceface and fsa replacements (ie ditch the shim) that enduro provide. I'm fairly convinced that its also the same as that used the new pace one. Only because all the piccies I've sen of the pace one show an enduro logo on the bearing end. Looks exactly like my enduro bearings

I think you are right on the sizing toys.

Been searching round the net for a 24x 37 x 7 mm 2rs bearing of any type and they are very hard to find – the enduro one is the main one that crops up so it is an odd size Gawd knows why they use this – why not make the spindle. so its either use the top hat spacers from another crank set and then plenty of generic bearings with a 25 mm inner diameter are available or the enduro bearing ( assuming 37×24/7 mm is the right size but I am fairly sure it is.)

Yeah there is a gap in the market you bearing manufacturers! Phil Wood makes spare top hats BTW, but try getting hold of them.

I got my endruo ones from BETD and got a free bearing press kit with it. Had to buy 5x enduro BB pairs at £20 each but given that I have 4 MTB's all with external cranks and in my circle of friends the demand has been massive such that I've used all 5 already and am about to order more.

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