CoreBike2015 Part2 – Hope Technology

News

by 16

Hope has recently stolen most of the internet with news of its new (finally) forged and machined cranks. They were on proud display at Core, but there was more on show too.

Looking back, even to Eurobike 2014, where Hope last showed its cranks to us it’s clear to see that the axle system (which was shown as a polygonal/triangular interface) has been replaced by a much simpler 30mm round axle and splined interface. here you can see the removable spider and the lock ring. The tool is included too.

Splines!
Here are three stages of production
Forging on the left, then machined and finally polished before anodising.
The cranks will initially be monochrome, but colours will be coming later this spring.
Talking of which – red is going to be the limited edition colour for 2015, after purple’s had its go.

 

Tech3 lever in red. Looks good, ja?

The Hope Cassette

We first saw Hope’s integral cassette back in 2010 and it’s still never made it into production. Interest seems to be building again within the company as it showed a new, improved prototype. This time, it’s a 10-40 ten speed cassette. The first seven sprockets are steel – machined from one piece of billet (like SRAM does with its XX1 cassettes) and the last three are aluminium. There is a proprietary cassette system that will only work with Hope hubs, but it should make this retrofittable to anyone with a Pro2 EVO hub.

Yours may not be green

 

The purple bit is the lockring assembly. Interestingly it’s ten speed and not 11.

There’s another benefit of the seven-speed steel cassette – it will work on downhill race set-ups.

Seven speed one-piece cassette

 

 

Singletrack Weekly Word

Sports Newsletter of the Year finalist at the Publisher Newsletter Awards 2024. Find out why our newsletter is different and give it a go.

Chipps Chippendale

Singletrackworld's Editor At Large

With 23 years as Editor of Singletrack World Magazine, Chipps is the longest-running mountain bike magazine editor in the world. He started in the bike trade in 1990 and became a full time mountain bike journalist at the start of 1994. Over the last 30 years as a bike writer and photographer, he has seen mountain bike culture flourish, strengthen and diversify and bike technology go from rigid steel frames to fully suspended carbon fibre (and sometimes back to rigid steel as well.)

More posts from Chipps

Comments (16)

    sam_underhillsam_underhill January 28, 2015 at 12:12 pm

    “There is a proprietary cassette system that will only work with Hope hubs”. Really? That’ll catch on then.

    TomTom January 28, 2015 at 1:41 pm

    “There is a proprietary cassette system that will only work with Hope hubs”. Really? That’ll catch on then.”

    If the price is right, yeah it will. They’re not looking to compete against the XT / 1050 but any enthusiast level rider using hope hubs + range expander will be a guaranteed sale if they can keep the price under £100…

    Nick EvansNick Evans January 28, 2015 at 3:03 pm

    Bet they can’t get close to £100!

    nasher@rivierabikenasher@rivierabike January 28, 2015 at 6:01 pm

    Now can I get those cranks just polished as I hate hope graphics

    whipdaddywhipdaddy January 28, 2015 at 7:02 pm

    Fairplay to Hope for the cranks-look really nice. I would just say that Middleburn have been making the RS8 X-Type Crankset (very similar pre-load system etc) for a good few years available with loads of spider/ring options and now with direct mount widenarrowwide style teeth in Hardcoat ano, polished silver arms too nasher! Manufactured in Britain to. Just sayin…

    whipdaddywhipdaddy January 28, 2015 at 7:04 pm

    “too”, sorry

    ricardo666ricardo666 January 28, 2015 at 7:32 pm

    Nasher, I’ll polish the cranks for you, might take a couple of years thou !

    ir_banditoir_bandito January 28, 2015 at 11:26 pm

    ARGH! “machined from one piece of billet”
    No! that’s saying a piece of a piece and makes no sense.

    “machined from one billet of steel”

    The PinksterThe Pinkster January 29, 2015 at 9:02 am

    I like the look of that cassette, would be very tempted if the price was right, which i have a horrible feeling it may not be.

    stilltortoisestilltortoise January 29, 2015 at 10:54 am

    I’m assuming this means it is impossible for the cassette to get stuck on the free hub body (or more to the point there is no need to detach them because they are one); a plight that has beset my rear wheel and meant my bike is in pieces and not being ridden.

    ChippsChipps January 29, 2015 at 11:38 am

    There isn’t really a cassette body for the sprockets to be stuck on, so it should be good for that, yes. That is a problem with alloy cassette bodies and sharp steel cassettes. Using a hammer to get the cassette off your £1200 wheelset just seems a teeny bit wrong…

    stilltortoisestilltortoise January 29, 2015 at 11:47 am

    ^tonight’s job :-/

    timraventimraven January 29, 2015 at 12:42 pm

    “I like the look of that cassette, would be very tempted if the price was right, which i have a horrible feeling it may not be.”
    Me too, it would probably be my way in to 1 x 10 too. IMHO, Cassettes are a disposable item and need to be priced accordingly, I know they stil have to make a profit though.

    ChippsChipps January 29, 2015 at 3:52 pm

    “ARGH! “machined from one piece of billet””
    Sorry about that – is that like saying Shimano SPDs?
    I’ll edit it if it bothers you that much. I’m not a machinist 🙂

    SadoldsamuraiSadoldsamurai February 1, 2015 at 6:42 pm

    Will this fit wheels still running on the antiquated 135mm hubs…

    cybernautcybernaut February 2, 2015 at 2:42 pm

    Don’t use a hammer! To separate steel cassette from alloy freehub use 2 chain-whips

Comments Closed