was out giving the bike a service tonight and managed to break 2 bolts.

the first one was the main bolt in the Hope head doctor. Was tightening it up very slowly and only enough to clamp everything when it snapped!!

the second was when tightening the bolt on the Hope seatpost clamp. In order to stop my seatpost rotating the seat clamp had to be super tight…and yes you guessed it the bolt snapped again.

When i looked at the two bolts they both seem to be very soft aluminium and dont appear to be fit for their purpose.

i find this strange as have Hope BB, hubs and headsets and never gave any trouble. Has anyone else had a similar problems?

How much torque were you putting into that head doctor bolt? Surely it only need to be nipped up a little?

Alloy bolts? Are you sure? alloy bolts cannot take much load

Your seatpost is too small and you shouldn’t need to tighten the Head Doctor bolt up tight – it’s only to load the headset bearings.

Head doctor top bolt is not what secures the stem, you load the bearings with it and then secure the stem bolts. The bolt is really only to secure the cap. The stem bolts should be slacked off before attempting anything with the centre bolt. (Hope replaced mine PDQ when I asked about a spare).

Throw the head doctor in the bin where it belongs, fit a SFN, get the correct sized seatpost for your frame and stop being hamfisted.

Hope this helps

and stop being hamfisted.

Agree

Throw the head doctor in the bin where it belongs

Disagree. Have 3 hed doctors and they have worked perfectly for years

As Terrahawk says,The top bolt should never be over tightened,and its the same with the seatpin/clamp. I usually put a bit of lockthread on the (seatclamp)nut,once its dry it should clamp up at the same position everytime avoiding the need for any other adjustment.

A bit of lube in the right places always keeps things working smoothly.

Throw the head doctor in the bin where it belongs

2nd the disagree. Yes, I’ve had the bolt shear away under basically no load, it looked like cheese inside. But so what, it’s better than a SFN anyday and you can always fit a ‘normal’ bolt and top cap.

LOL at Mark. I think the head doctor is much better than sfn. I understand they can be hard to get into non Fox forks though.

🙂

The seatpost is the correct size……do you think i am stupid!! The seat clamp when tightened still allows the seatpost to move when forced.

As for the head doctor……i only used it to pre-load the headset with minimal force and it just went!!

Had you greased the bolts?

Had you greased the bolts?

Bad luck?

I’ve used a hope Head doctor for 9 yrs on my hack bike with 2 forks.

I’ve rang Hope when the rubber keep-seal went-friendly team.

Give Hope a call and I bet they will sort you out pronto.

The seatpost is the correct size……do you think i am stupid!! The seat clamp when tightened still allows the seatpost to move when forced.

If it still moves when the seatclamp is done up tight then it sounds like you have a mis-match between the post and the frame. The post might be notionally the correct size, but tolerances vary – if the seat tube is on the large side, and you’ve ended up with a seatpost on the small end of the range, then you’ll have problems. Have you tried another seatpost, or measured the one you’ve got with calipers or a micrometer?

Head doctor? Thanks but no, I’ve stuck with a SFN or Headlock. No snapping bolts ever.

Have just ordered a new hope headset, might give the head doctor thing a try, need a laugh.

might give the head doctor thing a try,

So you haven’t used a hed doctor but feel qualified to give the advice that you should bin it.

I love STW 🙄 😉

f it still moves when the seatclamp is done up tight then it sounds like you have a mis-match between the post and the frame. The post might be notionally the correct size, but tolerances vary – if the seat tube is on the large side, and you’ve ended up with a seatpost on the small end of the range, then you’ll have problems. Have you tried another seatpost, or measured the one you’ve got with calipers or a micrometer?

Agree, i have a EA70 post in my Ti 29er that kept slipping, swapped for a Thomson and its been stuck perfectly ever since. Same size. I snapped 4 seat collar boats before i tried this.

Hope……any good or rubbish!!

A lot of people on here rave about how good Hope customer service is, if Hope where THAT good, how would anyone know how good their customer service is? 😉

Yes i have used one previously. Beautifully made over complicated solution to a non-problem is how i would sum it up. Cant see the point in going to the trouble of taking the sfn out to use it so will most likely not bother.

If the HeadDoctor bolt was made out of Play-doh you wouldn’t snap it with the amount of preload needed.

If you need to OVER torque a seat clamp then somethin IS wrong, probably the reaming of the seat tube. I have mic’ed many and only a Santa Cruz was cock-on. A Giant was actually a size up (0.2mm) from what was claimed on the sticker on the seat tube. I scrounged an old post of the bigger size and never had any more problems.

Having said that, HOPE bolts are a little dissapointing on the corrosion front, I end up swapping mine out for fit-for-life stainless ones.

Just sending my 09 seat post clamp back for warranty as it had cracked and wouldn’t tighten.

Back to the £5.99 job from CRC (but they only last 6 -12 months) which works fine so no mismatch of size etc. etc. for the doubters.

CRC do replacement Doctor bolts

Isn’t the HD bolt is designed to fail if it’s overloaded to protect the bearings? Like the original plastic Aheadset top caps… before we all got seduced by form-over-function metal discs with unsnappable bolts.

The seatclamp is a piss poor design and im not surprised you snapped it.

User error…

giantjason – Member

The seatpost is the correct size……do you think i am stupid!!

Well you did start a thread asking if Hope were rubbish based on your inability to tighten a couple of bolts.