Bought a pair of Hope Hoops Pro 3 SP-X3 wheels in October.

The free hub has stopped clicking so I’ve put it in for service on Hope’s advice at my local bike shop.

The tech just rang telling me the hub is full of muck, the pawl springs have broken and the bearings are on their way out.

He said he’s seen lots of the new Hope hubs like this it’s a design issue and said I should be looking at servicing it every 6 weeks over summer.

Pretty disappointed at this news. The wheels weren’t cheap and I thought Hope hubs were bullet proof and virtually service free.

Anyone else has problem with the Pro 3 (or other recently Hope hubs)?

My hopes have last around a year without servicing. I suggest warranty and try again

See?

Hope are worse than shimano 😉

Yes, I am asked for it to be sorted under warranty. Still a little concerned that this will be an enduring issue…

I have kicked the arse out of mine for 18 months and no problems other than broken spoke.

Margin Walker – Member
I have kicked the arse out of mine for 18 months and no problems other than broken spoke.

Same (including a load of 24 and 12hr races) and i didn’t even break the spoke.

24 month of abuse on my hope hoops wheels here. Everything is working just fine

Thanks for the feedback. Reassuring.

How often do you strip theme down, clean and regrease the free hubs?

I found I was having to replace the bearings in a rear Hope Pro 3 every 8 months or so riding a lot in Wales. Totted up what I was spending in bearings 🙁 and bought a CK rear hub. In the last two years all i’ve had to do is tweak them up tighter twice 🙂 . Soon going to have paid for themselves in not buying lots of Pro 3 bearings 🙂

I should be looking at servicing it every 6 weeks over summer.

That’s nonsense. He’s probably after your money. Get yourself a Hope Pro2 guide to hub servicing and just do it yourself.

If you’ve been riding through muddy and gritty ground, and it’s packed around your cassette it’ll have probbaly pushed past the seal and into the hub – hence why it went quiet.

The grit would have worn away or broken the pawl springs, they are about £2 to buy and take 10 minutes to replace.

The bearings supplied by Hope should be or some of the highest quality around – but if you’ve got mud and grit pushed up against the seals it’ll still cause any bearings to wear.

The bearings you’ll most often replace are the same as the front two and about £20 for a set.

So if you learn to do it yourself it’s about £22 to do.

I’ve battered mine, and ridden them a lot, I’ve replaced the bearings twice and the pawl springs once.

I’ve jumped mine quite a bit recently, and they only ever gone out of true twice – once was a broken spoke, and I just needed to retension the new spoke, and the other was a loose spoke, which again I just retension.

By far the best built set of wheels I’ve had.

Anyway, 6 weeks for a service in the summer? Why? What’s getting in the hub that needs replacing? the grease isn’t coming out of the seals….

I have a set of disc less pro 3 hubs on my touring bike, different conditions granted, but I’ve done about 6000 miles with no issues.

A bit late I know but….

My pro iii rear eats pawl springs and the outer freehub bearing for breakfast. The problem started I think when hope changed the endcap design – there is now a gap / hole between the cassette and the outer freehub bearing – the race / bearing seal is now easily visible (and to the weather).

On the other hand my pro ii and my SS switch hubs have been fine in the same conditions. I keep the pro iii for “special occasions”.

BTW Pawl springs cost me around a tenner from my lbs – less online (there are more needed needed than in a pro ii iirc). The bearing is cheap but a bugger to get out.

I had a Pro3 road hub, bearings in freehub lasted maybe 6-8 months before they got rough, central bearing in the hub completely seized after 10. The problem is the axle in the Pro3 is larger but the hub is the same size, so your getting smaller bearings, remember ISIS anyone? Also the sealing dosnt seem to be as good and despite them now being ‘stainless’ they seem to rust up more than the old Pro2 bearings. Funnily enough ive also just had to replace 2 pawl springs in a Pro3 freehub, thought it must have just been damaged during re-fitting but obviously not.

hope changed the endcap design – there is now a gap / hole between the cassette and the outer freehub bearing – the race / bearing seal is now easily visible (and to the weather).

It took some questioning, but the tech said he sees lots of the newer Hope hubs with precisely this issue.

Yes, this is what the bike shop guy said. Planning to service them myself and will buy the tools recommended by Hope.

Don’t have a vice so hoping I can pull off the end caps with vice grips. Anyone got any tips re removing them?

Pro3 end caps on the rear should pull off with molgrips pretty easy, if they don’t just wiggle them a bit.

The front, if QR will have a 5mm allen key to remove them – don’t pull them off, unscrew them!

If QR15 or QR20 then they’ll just pop off by hand.

You may find your hub is a bit difficult to pull off, if the hub bearing has bonded a bit to the axle – you can just knock the axle through with a hammer and an old axle, and it should just pop off.

I’d recommend buying a budget hobby vice too, not expensive, but make the job a whole lot nicer.

I’ve had a problem with Pro II evo’s. I bought a bike with the pro II evo hubs in July last year and used it up untill winter then swapped to my winter MTB. When I came to using the bike again which has done very few miles the rear hub was seized. I was quite surprised at this. I’ve used standard pro II’s for years before and had no issues.

@rickon Thanks for the tip re a hobby vice mate. Great idea.

I think the tools are needed for reassembly – Hope video

Yeah, the Hope drifts really help – a lot of people successfuly use sockets to knock the bearings back in, but if you misalign them you could damage the race.

Number 1 tip for putting new bearings in…. pop the new ones in the freezer a couple of hours before – it’ll cause them to contract so you can almost push them in by hand 🙂

My pro iii rear eats pawl springs and the outer freehub bearing for breakfast. The problem started I think when hope changed the endcap design – there is now a gap / hole between the cassette and the outer freehub bearing – the race / bearing seal is now easily visible (and to the weather).

Same for the Pro2 Evo. I’ve posted about this before on here – Hope have changed the end cap to reduce drag and instead destroyed the sealing. After a wet weekend at Cwm Rheaedr & Brechfa the brand new, never-been-ridden, bearings I’d put in (after the previous ones died in 6 months) had had most of the grease washed out & were squeaking. The pawl area showed signs of significant ingress of water. For a hub designed to be used in the UK, this is frankly rubbish.

I now remove the cassette before cleaning it & remove the rear wheel from the bike before cleaning the frame to keep “avoidable” water away from the rear hub. At £40 a set for replacement bearings every 6 months I’ll be going with a different brand next time.