After a rush of blood to the head I’ve ended up with a very nice second hand wheelset with a ProII hub, problem is I haven’t budgeted for replacing my whole drivetrain just because my cheap (non-carrier) cassette is going to cut up the freehub body.

So, any experiences of how long it takes for significant damage to occur? Long enough for me to save my pennies?

Cheers

It’ll be fine for a while Ian, hardest bit is getting the cassette back off, as the individual cogs dig in. You can buy a steel freehub for about 50 quid, then you can use cheaper cassettes. Works out more cost effective in the long run.

Agree with Nbitf…

get a cassette with a carrier / spider, or try for the ss hub if you have a good deal in the wheelset. You may be able to sell the freehub to someone who has one that has been damaged… because you know what will happen if you do nothing …

But also bear in mind that it can still be ridden now (and for the next few months) as it is without spending any cash

Plenty of life in a hope freehub unless you’re completely mashing the gears and changing at the wrong times. Go to any trail centre or to any moor and you will always hear a hope hub. They aren’t that popular for no reason. Yeah, the cassette can score the freehub but only in the worst cases is it difficult to remove

It´s not just cheap cassettes that do it. I always used SLX or XT cassettes and mine is marked really badly. I called Hope and they said yeah, it happens, it´s not a big deal but if you want we can change to a steel freehub. I haven´t done that because like they say, it´s not a big deal. FWIW it isn´t just Hope hubs that mark, other brands mark as well. So far I´ve had it on Chris King, Hope and SRAM wheels.
Here´s a little step by step I did for removing a stuck cassette from a hope pro II. I hope it helps someone.

Sorry for a thread hijack, but I assume there are similar issues when going SS? I’ll be using a single cog and spacers on a normal sized (not the little ss ones) freehub. Guessing just alternate the spacers every now and then for better lifespan? Or are cogs available with a wider base?

Yep you can get wide base cogs that hardly do any damage to a pro 2 hub. Like mentioned above the cassette will be fine until you try to take it off. Use something like copper slip to make your life easier.

Yep, on-one groove armada cogs are much thicker than standard. Surrly (and probably others) do similar ones too.

You can buy a steel freehub for about 50 quid, then you can use cheaper cassettes. Works out more cost effective in the long run.

Cheeper, but heavier than the titanic, and £50 is probably the price difference of 5 cassettes.

Just use it for a few months until it need changeing, or get a new chain/cassette now.

Yeah, steel freehub on Hope ends up heavier than XT if I remember right. Probably makes more sense to just get on with it, and if in a year or two the hub’s badly worn, buy another alu freehub.

One of mine is absolutely mauled, and it’s never had a cassette lower than SLX on it, mostly it’s been XT. But it still works alright, hard to get the cassette off sometimes and I think the shifting ramps are probably a bit out of line as the cassette’s kind of “twisted”. But no real bother.

Great, reassured.

My riding at the moment is strictly fire road up, descent back down, don’t think I’ll be putting any crazy stresses through the freehub anyway.

Cheers