So the bearings in my Hope SS hub felt stiff to start with, a sign of durable / well-sealed bearings that will loosen up, I thought. After 8 months use, just checked the bike over (not for 1st time tho!), the bearings are junked. Rough and very notchy.
What are the most durable replacements? Cost not the issue, I just want them to last well.
This is my first quality sealed bearing hub as I've always been a Shimano cup+cone user and it's not an impressive start, to be fair the bike does get a lot of use though. 2nd rear tyre is nearing the end of it's life and got through 1 xtr + 1 xt BBs in the same period as a scale. So it may not be unusual. Any comments from longer-term Hope users? Thanks.
I did try some wheels manufacturing ceramic bearing last year but they
Failed even sooner.
Now stick with branded ones skf or enduro.
It's easy to change them often and keep it silky smooth
I got my hope hub bearings from Keasea from the forum, he has a shop on ebay
He supplies the same quality double rubber sealed Fag/Ina , SKF bearings that Hope use but loads them with grease to help keep the crap out and them running smooth.
So far after a winter of abuse in Aberdeen they are as good as the day I fitted them.
One thing i would mention is fitting them properly is as key to long life as sealing and greasing. You can use sockets to fit them, many do with no issue but i got the hope tools as they were not too expensive and they made the job a brease.
Thanks, rustymac I may give those a go then. Maybe I'm expecting too much but I was hoping to fit a king or similar BB and some really tough bearings to my hubs and get 18mths + out of them. Trying to make this bike super-simple and durable, prefering to spend £ on things that keep it running than bling now.
Hope generally fit SKF bearing, which you can obtain via any local bearing distributor. Bike shops, charge a premium for the same bearings. I was also disappointed with the bearing life of my Hope hubs. They had only been used for XC races and after 30 hours of racing the back ones had gone.
Good news is that they are low cost, £10 a pair and only took me 15 minutes to do the complete job from wheel out of the bike to riding again.
Compared to shimano with the constant readjustment of the cones, they are a lot less maintenance.