Loud freehub went from standard loud ticking to silent last week, then riding Wednesday night, slipped a couple of times then drive goes all together.

Anyone else had it same? What was the outcome?

Emailed Hope who have asked for pics with freehub removed.

springs failed?  full of mud?  the silence was the clue it was about to fail.  easy fix unless you have ripped the ratchet ring by continuing to ride it after the springs went or it was full of mud

Open it up and you’ll soon find out,

Not had chance to open it up yet but i’d be amazed if it was full of mud (came on a 2017 bike). My guess at this stage is knackered springs…

The last Pro3s  I had lasted 5 years without maintenance and the only signs of age was the quieter freewheel sound.

Sounds like pawl springs, as above just pull the hub off and have a look.

The move to a faster engaging system on the Pro-4 was always going to reduce service intervals, the faster a Pawl hub engages the more, smaller, finer teeth they have to use and, all other things being equal, a finer mechanism is always going to be less reliable than a chunkier but slower engaging system, especially once something gets in past the seals.

Increasing the number of pawls to increase the points of engagement helps with spreading the load but at the cost of adding more things to go wrong.

Not saying this is an inherently bad thing or that Hope made a bad call, faster engagement is good and the Pro-4 is a great hub, but there is an inevitable trade-off in terms of servicing compared to the slower but near ‘fit and forget’ Hope hubs of old.

I may be misremembering but I thought the pro4 had a bigger ratchet ring- same size teeth spread over a bigger circle= more engagement per degree.

Could be wrong though.

As for the op, I’m going with springs as well.

I consider hope pawl springs as a consumable really, like a chain or cassette.

springs failed?  full of mud?  the silence was the clue it was about to fail.  easy fix unless you have ripped the ratchet ring by continuing to ride it after the springs went or it was full of mud

Almost exactly this.

Although full of mud isn’t necessarily a problem. The inside of mine looked like an archaeological dig when I took it to bits a few weeks ago as it has gone silent and slipped once. It was caked in mud, only one pawl spring was in one piece and was the texture and strength of biscuit. One other was in two pieces, the others were nowhere to be seen (only suggestive reddish smudges in the mud). I had neglected it somewhat.

Anyway – took it to bits, cleaned it up and no problem. The ratchet wasn’t damaged and everything else is replaceable.

My top tip – google Hope freehub ziptie fix or similar and you will find a way of bodging small cable ties as plastic leaf springs. Seems like a bodge, but in my experience is actually an upgrade.

I only have two complaints about Hope’s excellent hubs:

1. The springs – leaf springs are a very imperfect solution.

2. The main seal can get a bit brittle and not seal very well.

My maintenance schedule is probably sub-optimal however.

Unless the ratchet is knackered, it should be an easy to moderate fix. If the ratchet is knackered, all may not be lost (I believe they can be replaced), but it feels to me like it would involve specialist tools and a lot of leverage(!)

How different is the ratchet in a Pro4 to that in a Pro 2 Evo? I’ve the latter and it’s done over 10,000km in four years and is still on its original set of springs. I can’t say it’s had an easy life and has been submerged and generally subjected to good old Yorkshire muck. I’ve removed the freehub and checked things and regreased just twice – last May and a couple of weeks ago.

My Hope road hubs (can’t remember which model but they are about four or five years old) have done a similar distance and began slipping a few weeks ago – never had the freehub off on this hub.

My mate had a Pro4 fail recently I was really shocked as my Pro2 has done much more running 😅Luckily it happened the Wednesday before we were doing the West Highland Way on the Sunday I phoned Hope when mines went & they sent out new Springs F.O.C. Hopes are great 😘

& the Ratchet Ring can be replaced but has to go back to Hope u have to be very unlucky to. Strip one

Cheers for the replies people.

It was the pawl springs after all. Agreed on the green seal tho, very brittle. Ordered new springs (pawls were like new), new green seal and seal fitting tool which came to about £13.