Following on from an earlier thread about a strange noise from my rear wheel it got very loud and scary today coming down out of the Mendips.

I’ve discovered that the driveside bearing of my rear Hope Pro II Evo hub is seriously shot. The non-driveside bearing and the cartridge in the freehub seem fine. I don’t really want to spend over £27 for a complete (front and rear) bearing set from CRC and just need one cartridge to replace the shot bearing.

Hope’s tech. document lists the bearing as S61903 17×30 stainless bearing; can I just Google S61903 and buy one, or is there anything else I need to know?

Look for a 61903 one which states ‘2RS’which means it has 2 rubber seals. Or words to that affect.

Cheers, I think that Wiggle do them.

TBH, I’d look at replacing both sides in the main hub.

widely available from any bearing manufacture or bike shop (normally)

Wiggle do Hope bearings listed as S6903 (rather than S61903); would these be the ones?

Theres loads on ebay under Hope Pro 2 Evo Bearing kit.

V reasonable.

Cheers, I’ve ordered some.

Do I need to worry about using Mobil XHP222 grease as per the Hopetech videos or will any decent bicycle grease do?

I’ve removed the drive side cartridge, the inside is rather sparkly and full of flecks of metal.

I’ll take Carlos’advice and replace both sides.

TBH, once you’ve cracked a cartridge bearing hub open, it’s usually best to swap all the main bearings. As there’s a moderate risk of damaging the ones you’ve left in when you dismantle the hub. Bearings *tend* to fail at a similar life span as well, you’re going to have to crack it open again in a month or so anyway (Unless it’s a known issue with that hub, some hubs have one bearing that is either massively over specced, or massively underspecced due to space requirements.)

And for the cost of the bearings, its a bit daft not to. If you shop around i reckon you could get a complete set of decent quality bearings for any hub for about 15 quid.