Yet another Hope hub has bitten the bullet. 2 of the free hub bearings have completely vaporised.
Is the circled bit part of a bearing?
Yes. It's about 7/8 of the inner ring. You can see the groove that the bearings run in.
Yeah, inner race of freehub bearing. IME those or the drive side hub bearing in next to it always go first as they're pretty poorly sealed.
Generally one goes, but the other supports it, so you don't notice at first, then it goes too, and you open up n it's carnage!.
Dunno if pro4 are any better sealed.
Inner bearing race, should slide off the axle (may required a puller). Outer race should still be in the freehub (blind puller works wonders, or careful use of a punch if you can access).
If you can get it all apart and nothing is damaged it should be new bearings and good to go, however I would strip everything, clean and inspect before you buy anything in case the axle or hub shell is damaged.
Definitely worth dropping Hope a line. I know it's something of a cliche, but their customer service really is excellent. When the freehub bearings on my Pro 2 Evo disintegrated taking the axle with them and leaving the outer races of the bearings jammed in the freehub body, they replaced both the axle and freehub body FOC. All I had to do was send them the damaged parts first.
If there's scoring under that inner race you'll need a new axle and potentially a new freehub body if you can't remove the rest of the bearing. The disintegrated bearing parts must have gone somewhere, so it's not unlikely that they'll have caused damage.
Apart from them tiny bearings this is what came out of the free hub.
I'm guessing the outer bits of the bearings are still in the freehub.
Hmm, should I change my 11+ year old Pro 2 freehub bearings - or have I got a 'good' set...?
It takes a 10 minutes to pop the freehub off and have a look, IMO it's worth it, as if they go when out on a big day, it's a pain in the arse. Mine decided to give up the ghost in the middle of Strathpuffer solo, had to keep pedalling as if I freewheeled it caused no end of chain wrapped mess!.
I only lasted a couple of laps after that, my own fault for not getting to it before hand.
I only took fthe cassette off to sell the wheels.
Second hope hub this year to go tits up.
If you have pro2s definitely worth a look. They had a habit of exploding but as mentioned Hope are always great at resolving. We've sold hundreds of pro4s and not seen one go kaput as yet so the issue seems to be resolved (as a specific issue - not to say you can't toast a bearing).
Second hope hub this year to go tits up
To be fair to Hope they haven't "gone tits up" they've worn out. Bearings are a consumable item 🙂
I pop the freehub off regularly for a clean and look. Changed out the main hub bearings twice, had to replace a few pawls and springs over the years - but so far the freehub bearing spares I bought over a decade ago are still somewhere in a box...
From experience, bearings don't seem to be Hope's strong point.
To be fair to Hope they haven’t “gone tits up” they’ve worn out. Bearings are a consumable item
To be fair to the OP the problem isn't so much that they've 'worn out', it's more that the way way the hub works seems to mean that it's easy to miss early signs of wear, which in turn means they then disintegrate, which is slightly different - when mine went, the freehub was still functional enough to get me home once I'd cleaned out the shrapnel. But as above, Hope customer service is excellent.
The bike pedalled perfectly with no creaks.
As I said above, I only discovered it when I was taking the cassette off.
To be fair to Hope they haven’t “gone tits up” they’ve worn out. Bearings are a consumable item
This.
From experience, bearings don’t seem to be Hope’s strong point.
IME it's the sealing of the unit, not the bearings per se.
The bike pedalled perfectly with no creaks.
Aye, there's 2 bearings butted in there, one will take the full load before it goes too.
Are there any indicators that all is not well?
It pedalled backwards with no problems.
Should the ratchet side bearing be changed periodically even if it feels OK?
Are there any indicators that all is not well?
I don't think there are tbh, that's why I always popped the whole cassette and freehub assembly off every now and again. The only early sign I had once was skipping gears, as the cassette was slighly loose on the drive side hub bearing. doesn't skip at either end of the cassette, but the middle 4 or 5 gears did.
Interesting stuff. I'm doing the yearly MTB stripdown and rebuild next month, might buy a bearing puller and just swap 'em out while I'm in there. No complaints here on Hope bearings, mine have done crazy mileage.
The bearings will normally develop play due to wear, or become rough due to corrosion prior to exploding.
When you clean and lube the freehub pawls/springs you can turn the bearing inner race to check for any roughness (should feel totally smooth to rotate). With the wheel on the bike you can check wobble the cassette to check for play.
They are small bearings and not deep groove in a high load position so once they are worn out fail spectacularly.
From experience, bearings don’t seem to be Hope’s strong point.
Yet whenever I see people bang on about how amazing Hope stuff is, it's all about bearings. Despite pointing out they're INA bearings you can get from decent bearing suppliers without the Hope brand on. Then it's about how easy they are to service. Sure, because the bearings need doing, just like any other.
Had Crank Brothers wheels that were very similar service method to Hope and about as durable on bearings. There were tonnes of things crap about the CB wheels though, but the hub bearing durability was normal.
All my DT wheels though have had zero bearing replacement and even a set that was running for 5 years I pulled apart the hub thinking the bearings will need doing but nope, they were buttery smooth.
My Pro 2 hubs have been going for five and a bit years, nearly five and a half. I'll occasionally take the free hub off and check the bearings and regrease the pawls and springs but I've not had to do anything other than that. I don't do jumps but they get submersed somewhat regularly and still feel smooth.
The only "Hope" bearing I've replaced was one in the BB which had done around 12,000km so can't complain at that.
I'm not sure 'years' is a very useful measure of bike use. I have a bike that gets ridden about once a decade. Its brake pads have now lasted about ten years, which tells you pretty much nothing about their actual durability.
@BadlyWiredDog - the Pro 2 hubs have done over 12,000km in those 5+ years as well.
in what world is that possibly a warranty issue??
its lack of maintenance plain and simple, the cassette would have been wobbling like a good un with freehub bearings that worn out.
Amazingly with lots of heat and a centre punch the outer races came out.
New bearings and I should be good to go.
Dont really want to spend Hope prices if I can get them cheaper. Anyone got a link?
Ha, mine's done exactly the same thing. Now to see if I can get the outer races out... What did you do, just warm 'n' whack? I don't have a blind puller...
I removed an outer race a couple of days ago by just working a flat blade screwdriver in the small space between the rear of the bearing and the inner shelf of the freehub.
If you dig the seal out first it gives a bit more room to get the screwdriver in.
For the difficult inner one I pointed a hot air gun down the axle hole .
Then using a brand new ,thin ,really pointy centre punch I hit it from the ratchet side. Amazingly it came out first go. Previous attempts without heat couldn’t budge it.
Freehub is alloy, bearing is steel, so if you heat it the alloy will expand more than the steel, heat gun, hair dryer, mug of boiling water, water you have.
Cool. Looks like that's my job tonight!
Dont really want to spend Hope prices if I can get them cheaper. Anyone got a link?
Go to your local bearing stockists (one in every town) and they’ll sell you some decent ones. I get SKF bearings which cost me £10 from a local place in Leeds recently for the 2 main bearings in a rear hub.
How can I tell if I have a pro 2 or a pro 2 evo?
The hub just says pro 2.
If it just says "Pro 2" it's a Pro 2.
Bought bearings for £13 and tools for £8.
Once I'd worked out which bits were rubbish and which to keep the whole process was dead easy.
Whacked new pawl springs in as well , £4 and the wheel is as good as new.
Hope wheels may not be as indestructible as I'd always imagined but the serviceability of them means I'm a fan all over again.
Rode my bike tonight and not surprisingly it goes like a dream.