Dear Hope Technology,

Thank you for doing such a quick warranty turn around on my broken Hope Pro2 Evo rear hub. I sent it off on Tuesday and it has just arrived back with a new free hub body, new axle and new bearings.

What I would really like to know for my own peace of mind, is why the two inner bearings on the free hub disintegrated after less than five months use?

Given that I have had to unlace the wheel, pay for posting the hub to you, and now I’ll have to rebuild the wheel, I think it would be common courtesy to provide an explanation to me for this premature failure of this expensive product.

I have it in mind to do a ride abroad that will take several weeks to complete. If this fault I have just experienced is a one-off because there was a faulty batch of bearings involved, then I will be reassured and I will take Hope hubs on this trip. If there is some inherent problem with these hubs, then I’d really like to know now, so I can limit the amount of mechanical breakdowns I might encounter in the middle of a foreign country.

Kind regards,

billyboy.

I think youve sent your email to the wrong place mate

It wants to go here 😉 info@hopetech.com

you got the address wrong. this is singletrackworld, not hope technical support…

Christ

Did you ask them if they would sort it still laced up?

Things to note;

1. Pawl springs are rubbish, replace with pieces of high density foam rubber.

2. Use stainless steel bearings.

3. Learn how to repair the hub yourself. Not that difficult.

Dear Billybob

We at Hope can assure you that as long as you remain within the northern hemisphere you will be fine, it turns out that the bearings were installed in the wrong direction leading to the fault you have encountered.

However should your foreign land of choice be somewhere in the southern hemisphere such as Australia we can offer no such guarantees of your safety, not just because of the intolerance of the locals to whinging pommes, but because the bearings rotate in the other direction down there and your hubs are at risk of explosion

yours faithfully

Hope

Pawl springs are rubbish, replace with pieces of high density foam rubber.

I like that idea…do they still make the characteristic clicky noise though?

I’ve three sets of Hope hubs ranging in age from two to six years old and all are performing faultlessly. I did have a rogue Bulb a few years back that kept going wobbly but that was sorted under warranty with a heavily discounted ProII Evo.

Otherwise, I’m delighted with all of my Hope kit.

My hubs are now a year old three enduros and out twice a week in Scottish weather and I’ve not even had to look at my Hope pro2 Evo hubs yet. You must have been unlucky with that hub

I did enquire in the covering note I posted off with the hub, asking what the problem was, but they did not respond to my question.

I think it would be in their interests to answer the question because it is a matter of public confidence in their products. My confidence has been shaken, I was just seeking to restore it by getting an explanation from them. I have always found them to be a good company with decent helpful staff but it is no good if they are selling something that causes everyone grief.

I got a manky grape in my punnet from sainsburys at the weekend, my confidence in the entire chain is now shaken

Can i ask why you unlaced the wheel to send the free hub back?

they are selling something that causes everyone you grief.

I’ve many Hope products I have no complaints about any of it.

What do you expect them to say? “Sorry, sometimes bearings fail before they should.” Or do you want them to do a full metallurgical analysis of the bearings?

What they’ll do is make a note of it, and if they get a suspiciously large number of problems then they’ll change bearings or investigate further.

Just a thought, but when Hope replaced the ratchet pawls in my (very well worn and abused) singlespeed hub, at very minimal and reasonable cost, I sent the whole wheel over to them, thereby sidestepping faff with spokes. HTH

I like that idea…do they still make the characteristic clicky noise though?

Disappointingly silent.

Three years after the disintegrating bearing problem and two sets of broken springs, the foam rubber is fine and the stainless bearings are running sweet.

Dear Hope,

Thanks for that.

Is that, wrong bearing in wrong place, wrong way round?

Or are these bearings directional? Can you only insert them with the one designated side going in?

Kind regards,

billyboy

PS. The journey I was intending is northern hemisphere, so no worries mate!

Bearings fail, sounds like they’ve sorted you out quickly. Nothing to get hung up on.

Why on earth did you unlace the wheel?!

Only had to use Hope customer service once but they were excellent.

Cup and cone might be best for hubs for touring rides in foreign countries if you are ham fisted.

Things to note;
1. Pawl springs are rubbish, replace with pieces of high density foam rubber.
2. Use stainless steel bearings.
3. Learn how to repair the hub yourself. Not that difficult.
4. Don’t but Hope unless you like sending stuff back for repair 🙂

Their stuff is pretty but it does seem to need a lot of looking after.

Speshpaul

Hubs fit in the post easier and cheaper than wheels do!

And to the others…I have always been a Hope fan, but my confidence was shaken by this premature failure. I just wanted an explanation.

Try dealing with a company such as Pace on warranty, who weld broken frames or when they were the warranty centre for DT Swiss, would ONLY replace the exact part that had failed (and even then it had to be proven 101%!).

Hope are exceptionally generous plus you can also deal direct with them unlike many other manufacturers/distributors.

Hubs fit in the post easier and cheaper than wheels do!

After the time and cost involved in dismantling and rebuilding a wheel, I think paying to post the wheel is a no brainer.

‘Dear Mercedes, my wife bought a 2nd hand CLK320 CDI which had one previous owner & 58,000 miles on an 06 plate & FSH. After she’d had it 2 months the auto box developed a problem which cost £1600 to repair. As the vehicle cost in the region of 34K when new I find this unacceptable & would like to know why this happened & as an act of goodwill could I be considered for any recompense? The vehicle was purchased partly on the grounds of the solid reputation of the Mercedes brand. Blah blah blah… Regards, Mr G.’

Reply, ‘Dear Mr G, shit happens, & no. Regards, Mercedes’ (or words to that effect)

Dunno why you unlaced it to send it back, they don’t need unlacing to be fixed.

might have been even cheaper to have just posted the free hub.

I’ll be telling my customers in future that any freehub work requires a full wheel rebuild. 😉

All very funny but I’ve had a lot of Hope rear hub components crack, Shells, Axles and Freehubs. I know of many others that have cracked aswell.

Yes they get sorted under warranty but how about not cracking in the first place?

Ive never cracked anything on Shimano or Novatec hubs .

This unlacing seems to have offended some folk. I build my own wheels, it’s a relatively simple job to me because I was trained to do it. I did not know what the problem was with the hub. The bearings had obviously failed but I had no idea why. It could have been faulty machining or similar on the bulb itself leading to movement that destroyed them. In the which case Hope would have had to unlace the hub. It wasn’t one of their wheels, it was one I built with parts I sourced separately so I didn’t reckon they’d be wanting to do that for free.

And looking at Kimbers profile…he’s in London, not Barnoldswick, so that was probably a spoof reply and I’m still waiting on an explanation.

If I’ve blopsed on some job, I say sorry and give an explanation to the customer.

Is that not the way it should be?

Dear Hope Technology,

I love you, your wheels [XC/Bulb/Pro2/Pro2 evo] have made my world spin for the last 10 years with little or no maintenance or maintenance work completed by the inept monkey that I am. You’ve fixed stuff for free that no other manufacturer would have even accepted a warranty claim on [worn out XC ratchet ring & cracked Pro II freehub over 12mnth old], I am grateful beyond words. That said I’m still tempted by DT’s lesser weight if I do go for some carbon rims 😳

Love

z1ppy

Dear Customer,

We did extensive testing on the product both here and in Moab and it works fine. Apparently you live in somewhere called Europe. I’ve asked around the office and it seems you get a lot of rain over there and go riding in muddy conditions. Frankly we find this a bit strange – we only go out when it’s nice and sunny, which is most days really here in California. As a result I’m afraid that I have to inform you that repairing this product is outside our warranty so it looks like you are up mud creek without a bike. Sorry about that.

Return shipping for your product via our preferred carrier will be $100.

As a gesture of our appreciation of your custom we’ll put in a few stickers for you.

Thank you for your enquiry and have a nice day.

Some American Corp

And looking at Kimbers profile…he’s in London, not Barnoldswick, so that was probably a spoof reply and I’m still waiting on an explanation.

You think?!

so if i go to the southern hemisphere I just need to pop my bearings out and turn them round 180* yes?

😆

Cant believe you unlaced a wheel when it takes about 5 mins to pull the freehub off and knock those bearings out

Wow

It would have taken more than 5 minutes. The bearings had disintegrated leaving the outer casings stuck inside the free hub. The rest was just mangled wreckage.

I just want to know why a hub that cost me £140 (rrp £155..I think) failed after less than 5 months use.

I think it is a reasonable question.

Wear prone component wears out Shokka!!!

Bearings (an off the shelf part) are not infinitely reliable, they will all fail eventually…

I think what surprises me the most though is that the OP actually unlaced the hub from the wheel just to get hope to replace the bearings… Why would you choose to do that? There’s no need to other than convenient postage, but for the time saving unlacing/rebuilding the wheel I’d rather spend more on postage (or add it to your warranty claim against Hope)…

Is worn bearing replacement even a RTB “repair” surely Hope would have allowed an LBS to do the work and verify the warranty claim by inspecting the bearings/sending them back to Hope for inspection? They’d probably have been OK with you doing it yourself TBH…

Seems like you found about the most complicated/inconvenient way to sort a relatively straight forward issue…

Bearings wear out sometimes. Stop whinging, you have annoyed me on my tea break.

I just want to know why a hub that cost me £140 (rrp £155..I think) failed after less than 5 months use.

I think we all got that you want some information from Hope. What I can’t figure out is why in the hell you’re repeating the question over and over on this forum when you could have spent the time actually sending the question to Hope themselves.

Because consumers drive for lighter and lighter products, lighter means less material or less seals. Which leads to more fails. If people weren’t bothered about weight I guess there would be virtually zero failures.

All my wheels have and always have had BULBs. Failure rate after 15 years of thrash. 1 12mm axle.

My god, what a fanny.

Did you bother to give them a call and DEMAND an explanation before taking to the forum or was the simple fact that they didn’t hand write a humble apology and explanation at the earliest possible time for having to repair your hub send you in to such a RAGE that you had to tell us all ASAP?