Hope Pro 2 Evo freehub bearing explosion – why?

Was riding along the other week when my Hope Pro 2 Evo freehub stopped free-wheeling. Whipped the cassette along with freehub off at the side of the trail and cleaned out a load of shrapnel, then stuck it back on and limped home.

When I stripped things down properly at home, it turns out that the two smaller, inner freehub bearings had comprehensively disintegrated leaving just the outer races stuck in the freehub body. The whole bearing collapse has also scored the axle deeply and written that off too.

The whole destruction process was remarkably quiet. I was also amazed that even with the dead bearings, the hub still just about functioned after my trailside clean out.

Anyway, contact Hope by e-mail and they said ‘ send us the freehub and axle and we’ll replace them’, which is great and hats off to them for standing by their product.

What concerns me a little is why it happened in the first place and if there’s a way of preventing it from happening again. Google tells me that it’s a recognised occasional issue with the Pro 2 Evo rear hub, but doesn’t really come up with any solutions beyond regularly popping the freehub off and checking the inner race of the bearings for cracks.

Any ideas? Are their any more durable bearings I could fit in place of the standard Hope stainless ones? Would Enduro MAX bearings be tougher in this application? The standard bearings are pretty small, so the actual balls are tiny.

Thoughts welcome.

I had something similar, outer  bearing shat itself a couple of times, replaced both times. Little while later both inner bearings collapsed. Freehub had done 3000miles, so not complaining!

The bearings are quite small, pro 4 runs a bigger inner bearing.

How old were the bearings?

regularly popping the freehub off and checking the inner race of the bearings for cracks.

This.

They’re not particularly well sealed IMO, I’m hoping the pro4 on my Bronson is a bit better.

<div class=”bbp-reply-author”>legend
<div class=”bbp-author-role”>
<div class=””>Member</div>
</div>
</div>

<div class=”bbp-reply-content”>

How old were the bearings?

Inner bearings were probably a year old (ish), outers failed at 9months and then 11months in, followed by total failure of the inners.

</div>

How old were the bearings?

Mine had been in for a couple of years on a mountain bike, with the freehub having been off and cleaned / lubed a couple of times. However the bike’s not particularly heavily used – 945km according to Strava – I’ve got the same hub on several other wheel-sets with more miles on and nothing similar’s happened.

Not to self: maybe time to check some freehub bearings all round… ‘years’ has never struck me as a useful metric when it comes to component failure. Hours or km ridden makes more sense to me.

I guess the mode of failure is along the lines of dirt / water gets in / bearings seize / axle spins in side race and scores / more play / impact forces develop / things crack and die… you can tell I’m proudly not an engineer 🙂

The freehub bearings in the ProII’s aren’t the best, mine would always make a squeaky sound like a dry chain does when it was replacement time.  Usually replaced 2 sets for every set of hub bearings as a rule.

The Pro 4 hubs are a much better design and have already lasted well past the time I’d normally change them before. I do ride all year round and in all weathers so give them a bloody hard life!  It’s the reason I have Hope hubs on both bikes.

I don’t ever really  think of mileage as a metric in such failures, bearing failure is accelerated by the amount of soaking, hub deep in bogs, jetwash blasting etc that the bike encounters. Wash that grease out out there, and no bearing will last.

FWIW it was generally always the inboard freehub bearing of the 3 that failed first, ie the one nearest the wheel hub. Easy to pop freehub off and check.

Thanks all. I shall listen more carefully in future… 😉

There is a secret replacement freehub body that runs on bushings for people that munch through them. Truth.

Mine did it on the second day at BPW.  I think it was caused by the rear maxle being slightly loose and the little bit of play killed the bearings.

when mine did it I fitted them from new Sunday , rode across Scotland from KoL to Montrose then we went to ride braemar –aviemore the next day and I couldn’t freewheel beyond glenfeshie…… Was a long ride back via glen bulig with  no freewheel.

Even after all that all I had to do was replace the inner bearing and away we went. Been fine since and many thousands of miles.

<span style=”font-size: 0.8rem;”> Suggests that luck and perhaps how they are fitted has a part in it. </span>

Also worth noting as per hopes recommendation to replace the freehub bearing that sits at the end of the body with a chrome vanadium not stainless . stainless doesn’t rust but isn’t as strong as chrome vanadium .

The tiny balls soon get chewed up.imo the kinetic bearings are perfect for this one application as there are large cv balls not small balls in a retainer .

Cheers for the thought on the Kinetic bearings, I’ll do some digging. Anyway, big thumb’s up for Hope’s customer service. I mailed the freehub and axle to them and they sent replacements FOC a few days later. All back together now and working fine.

I also whipped off the freehub from my other Pro 2 Evo rear hub, which is on a cross bike, and the bearings in that were fine, thought the springs and pawls benefitted from a good clean-up and re-lube.

There is a secret replacement freehub body that runs on bushings for people that munch through them. Truth.

I can see why, it’s always worked so well for Mavic after all.

as always, if you can grease them when you get your hub…

I got one of those special freehubs which runs on a bushing. Not had any issues