Fatsno hub. 6 months old and 1300km, mostly dry (I'm down south). One beach ride the other week. Hosed down after. Never seen a pressure washer. Freehub gone a bit quiet, can't be having that!
Anyway, the seal's intact but 3 pawl springs broken and a rumbly freehub bearing. Hmm, expected better than that really.
Bad news, since Hope seems to be the only option on the market for abandoned 170mm rear spacing standard..
At least you have tons of spares available. Unlike, for example, with El Guano hubs 😉
Try to regrease the bearings, it should work fine for a while. Or just try to get new ones under warranty?
The font made the subject line look like 'Bum Him!' How unfortunate! A particularly harsh punishment...
Hope customer service is legendary though - I'd be surprised if they didn't resolve the issue for nowt. Doesn't solve the overall issue though...
DT Swiss do a 350 Big Ride in 177 that comes with end caps to convert it to 170 mm.
On the flip side, mine are two years old and still going strong. Guess I'd better check those pawls now though 🙂
That's not great but not necessarily that terrible depending on the 1300km in question.
I tend to find the hope hubs are kind of the inverse of shimano - your bearings are more expensive but throwaway, however the freewheel is hard/impossible to replace as a single part but you can keep it going indefinitely with TLC (a bit of corrosion will vastly reduce the life of the springs - keep it nicely greased up.). Greasing up the pawls is a pretty quick job and one I should do more often...
Looking at the parts diagram for the fatsno, it looks like the bearings are standard (or at least they have standard bearing designations). Replacing them isn't a difficult job and there's how-to videos from Hope. If they are the age you say they are then I'd give Hope a ring and see what they say. The biggest problem might be that you have to strip the wheel to send the hub to them then rebuild it when you get it back.
As @philjunior says, popping the freehub off to check the pawls and springs isn't hard. My Pro Evo 2 hubs have done about 10,000km with just one regrease and still run fine. I really ought to check them though.
Ive owned quite a few hope hubs & never experienced any freehub problems yet done 1000s of wet miles in muddy woods. I recently sold a 3+ year old pair of pro 2 evo 29er wheels that have been though plenty of mud & water but running smooth as silk.
Im nearly 2 years in on a pair of fatsno's inc many beach rides without issue too preventative maintenance is the key,I have serviced the freehub & pop outer seals off the bearings to pack extra marine grease into them. Also smear the outside of them before replacing the end caps or axle covers,could just be one duff one among the many that are made.
Just buy 2 new enduro bearings about £4 each (same as hope uses but charge more) & a set of springs it'll be good again, unless the hub physically failed it's wear & tear most likely not warranted.
One thing I will add I never get sprayed water near bearings better off rinsing the sand & loose stuff,with a jug of water after beach rides then just wash by hand 👍
