Eurobike 2017: Hope Prototypes

August 30, 2017
5 Comments

We heard Hope would be showing a couple of prototypes here at Eurobike, so after a quick stop for some extremely necessary coffee, headed over first thing to get the low down on their new cranks and brakes.

Hope Prototypes - Eurobike 2017
This RX crank prototype is entirely made from aluminium, with the axle bonded to one of the crank arms.
Hope Prototypes - Eurobike 2017
Before you get too excited, this prototype is intended for road and CX duties. At present, Hope don’t plan to transfer this design over to replace their existing MTB cranks, but as always with designs at such early stages of development, everything could change.
Hope Prototypes - Eurobike 2017
Laser etching makes prototypes look pretty swish nowadays, eh?
Hope Prototypes - Eurobike 2017
Due to it being a prototype, they didn’t want to say much about what alloy it’s made from or how, but they did say it was hollow, and stressed the RX is not based on the forgings for their existing cranks.
Hope Prototypes - Eurobike 2017
The spider is the same as the ones on their MTB cranks, though.
Hope Prototypes - Eurobike 2017
Packed inside there is a 30mm axle.
Hope Prototypes - Eurobike 2017
They’ll be available in 170mm, 172.5mm, and 175mm, and will apparently be compatible with many existing bottom bracket standards, listing BSA, BB86, BB30, PF30, BB386, and BBright.

As well as lab testing these prototypes and making sure their kit exceeds industry standards, they of course put these prototypes out for a lot of testing too, both with their staff and with pro riders. Paul Oldham has been running a set of these prototype cranks and apparently says they’re the stiffest cranks he’s ever used. No RRPs for these, because they’re at least a year away from production.

As well as cranks, they had a new V6ti brake, which you may already have seen a few sneaky world cup pit photos of this year.

Hope Prototypes - Eurobike 2017
The V6ti is a beast of a caliper. It looks much smaller than it is in this photo, but that’s a bigger disc than you think…
Hope Prototypes - Eurobike 2017
Six cylinders lay down the power; this is stronger than a V4 and aimed specifically at downhill and ebikes.
Hope Prototypes - Eurobike 2017
DH riders will of course always need powerful brakes, but with eBikes gaining in popularity, the amount of mass people need to stop is growing, especially if they’re carrying things like a spare battery.
Hope Prototypes - Eurobike 2017
In light of higher demands placed on brakes, they’re also speccing this to run rotor sizes right the way up to this 223mm one (they specify it’s compatible with vented or floating rotors). The mount this example is on is radial too, meaning it simply needs to be spaced upwards and will remain on a concentric line with the disc and hub.
Hope Prototypes - Eurobike 2017
The V6ti is paired up with a familiar Tech3 lever.

It’s not the first time Hope have made six pot brakes; they produced various models of the Mono 6 from around 2004 to 2007 (ish!). Downhill may be dwindling a little as enduro bikes take over, but the currently growing category of eBikes means a lot of heavy duty bits still have a viable market. We asked when exactly these might go into production, and we simply told “the V6ti is further out than the RX cranks, and those are at least a year away”.

We’ll update you as soon as we hear more, but for now that’s what Hope have to show us.

David started mountain biking in the 90’s, by which he means “Ineptly jumping a Saracen Kili Racer off anything available in a nearby industrial estate”. After growing up and living in some extremely flat places, David moved to Yorkshire specifically for the mountain biking. This felt like a horrible mistake at first, because the hills are so steep, but you get used to them pretty quickly. Previously, David trifled with road and BMX, but mountain bikes always won. He’s most at peace battering down a rough trail, quietly fixing everything that does to a bike, or trying to figure out if that one click of compression damping has made things marginally better or worse. The inept jumping continues to this day.

More posts from David

5 thoughts on “Eurobike 2017: Hope Prototypes”

  2. They look very similar to a lot of their previous Mono brakes Andy, with a retaining pin and bolt passing through the top of the backplates and a spring between the pads.

    If I said any more I’d just be guessing; sorry I didn’t get the pad details or closeups!

Comments are closed.