I bought a set of Hope Hoops a short while back and fitted the 20mm adapter to the front wheel. I’ve noticed a slight amount of side-to-side play (maybe about 2-3mm) in the wheel when it’s fitted to the forks (Fox 36 TALAS), even when tightened as far as I dare.

When the wheel is off, there’s quite a bit of play in the 20mm adapters on both sides of the hub. They are able to move around 1-2mm from side to side (as you look at the hub from the side, so looking down the axle), and about the same movement in and out. I’m pretty sure the O-rings are fitted properly.

I’ve just rang Hope who say they’ve not had any other similar enquiries, so I’m now wondering if what I’m seeing is normal.

Before I send the adapters off to Hope, can any fellow STW’ers share whether their wheel has a little bit of play from side to side, and whether their 20mm adapters have movement when not fitted to the fork?

Many thanks in advance.

Kevin

Yep I had the same on mine. The wheel was ok in a different fork (Pike) but I never really got to the bottom of it as the fork died. I think a few people have said similar experience on here and other forums.

Thanks confused. Just done a trawl of the web and as you say, there are quite a few reports of similar issues. No real consensus on whether it’s the 20mm adapters or the bearings either not seated correctly or worn. I’d be very surprised if they were worn – they’ve only done 30 odd miles in dry conditions…

Has anyone been able to find the root cause, or get the issue resolved with Hope?

Before I went 15mm I used to find that my 20mm adaptors rattled around a lot when the wheel was off but once in the forks with the Maxle done up there wasn’t any play

I’ve just rang Hope who say they’ve not had any other similar enquiries, so I’m now wondering if what I’m seeing is normal.

Someone at Hope is spinning you a line!

I’ve seen many Pro 2 front hubs fitted to 20mm axled forks now that get very sloppy/wobbly very quickly, whether it’s the bearings, the adapters, or whatever. Some of them on other STW forum users bikes too, so might be worth asking what they’ve managed to do to fix the problem.

Mboy, I think I completely agree!! I’ve now e-mailed them with links to various forums (or is it fora?) and asked what they suggest.

Someone at Hope is spinning you a line!

Agreed, certainly some people I’ve spoken to at Hope are very much aware of the problem.
Ensuring the bearings are seated correctly is the first thing to do.

Well just been out to the garage and used an old drift I had for Hope XC hubs to give the bearings a few gentle taps. Re-fitted the 20mm adapter and put the wheel back on the fork. Hey presto, pretty much all the play has now disappeared. There’s still a tiny amount of play that’s just about noticeable when the bike is upside down and I move the wheel from side to side, but I’m pretty convinced I’ll never be able to tell once on the bike.

So thanks one and all who replied! Still waiting on a response from Hope. Will post back when I hear from them.

I’m having the exactsame problem with my pro2 15QR hubs (the spacers had play from new). I rang Hope and was prettymuch fobbed off with “mmm, not aware of that, try tightening the maxle harder”!
On the 15QR the spacers are just held in with a rubber o-ring so not surprised there’s some play. Seems are crude design to me.

Just a thought that may be worth looking into. I’ve had problems with play in a Hope XC hub that I over-hauled. After much frustration it turned out to be the NEW bearings which were not made to the high tolerances required i.e. the play was in the bearing itself.

kevin1911 Are you saying that you had lateral play with the pro11/fork, and you drifted the bearings further into the hub body which cured it?

I’m interested as I have 2 sets of Pro11’s one which has this problem with my Pike, and the other newer hub which is fine.

Yep, lateral play in the front wheel when I put the 20mm adapaters on and fitted to a Fox 36 TALAS. The thru-axle couldn’t be tightened further without risking stripping the threads.

A few people suggested the bearings might not be all the way home in the hub, so I gave them a few gentle taps with a drift and all lateral play has since disappeared.

Got a mail back from Hope (a guy called Chris) asking me to call him direct – but as my prob was now fixed I haven’t got round to it. I also had the first guy tell me “hmm, not heard of that”, which judging by the number of posts I’ve seen on the subject sounds like it probably isn’t completely true.

Good luck

Cheers kevin1911, hopefully be able to sort my older Pro 11 this way, and totally agree Hope must know about it. Just try a search on Google, loads of posts about it!

[whispers]Order some enduro max bearings from BETD.[/whispers]

These have sorted the problem out on two of my Pro2 hubs with different froks.

Cheers singlespeedstu!

Keep reading about play in these wheelsets, and what with the alloy freewheel that seems to get chewed up even with alloy carrier casettes … I’m being put off! 😕

Am I right in thinking the older XC or Bulb hubs are better than Pro 2’s, do they have Ti or steel freehubs?

😐

I had this problem with a set of Pikes and a Hope Hoop. Turned out the Pikes had a Lyric Maxle (or one that was a few mm longer whichever fork it was meant to be for). Got the Maxle swapped – no problems.