New Hope Fortus 30 SC – Lighter wheels for trail and enduro

Hope has released a new wheel, the Fortus 30 SC. SC stands for Single Cavity, so unlike the Fortus 30 – which is aimed at ebikes and Downhill – the SC …

By stwhannah

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New Hope Fortus 30 SC – Lighter wheels for trail and enduro

Mmmmm, eyeletted rims…

Interesting. The rims alone, at £100 a go, seem like relatively bad value (given Hope’s previous poor form on rims). But the full wheel prices seem very good on Pro4 hubs

Are the rims a loss-leader for Hope to sell more hubs? Canny strategy if so.

Are the rims a loss-leader for Hope to sell more hubs?

I suspect they had to price the rims top end to make the wheel value look good. I can’t imagine anyone is thinking of buying a Hope rim except as a direct replacement for a damaged one because, as you say, their reputation isn’t the best.

If they are only 100g lighter per rim, they are still far to heavy for the money!

EX511 is £100 and would seem like a much better buy.

Weight?

Weights for these aren’t listed other than 100g per rim lighter.

As an assumption it’s 100g lighter on each of the weights below of the Fortus 30….

Rim only weight: 26” – 645g/27.5” – 675g/29” – 720g
Wheelset weight from: 26” – 2230g/27.5” – 2305g/29” – 2435g

So 2105g for a pair of 275 wheels and 2235g for 29er, heavy and way over priced!

So 2105g for a pair of 275 wheels and 2235g for 29er, heavy and way over priced!

And they’ll still sell them in silly numbers. Loads of people bought the old 30s without realising what they were putting on their bikes, they’ll have no issue shifting these

Weight?

Yep.

Hey Singletrack, it wouldn’t be hard to drop them a line to confirm the actual rim weights, would it?

Hey Singletrack, it wouldn’t be hard to drop them a line to confirm the actual rim weights, would it?

STW: Hey Hope, you say these wheels are lighter now? Can you just confirm what the weights are?

HOPE: Hey STW, yes the new wheels are lighter, 100G per wheel thanks to the new rims!

STW: That’s great so what weight are they now?

HOPE: What?

STW: What weight is a complete wheelset?

HOPE: Sorry <crackle> y (crackle) break <crackle> p

STW: Are you there, can you tell me the weights?

HOPE: Sorry, Tunnel bye

Hi, sorry – post covid I’m still not operating at 100%. Weights:

27.5in Rim – 565g

29in Rim – 600g

732/846g with Boost Pro4 in 27.5

765/880g with Boost Pro4 in 29

Well thats a lot lighter than the guesstimates above.

Pretty much comparable with DT350 on XM481s iirc

Hope list their pro 4 rear around 300g dependant on axles, freehubs etc, so to get 880g for a full 29 wheel, they must be using some pretty special spokes.

Hope list their pro 4 rear around 300g dependant on axles, freehubs etc, so to get 880g for a full 29 wheel, they must be using some pretty special spokes.

I also thought that seemed suspiciously light.

1,645g for a 29er wheelset at this price/rim weight is probably incorrect, eh?

Yep. Fortus 26 wheelset I have is 2.1kg I think and they’re noticeably lighter than my Fortus 30.

‘Black Sapim Race stainless steel double butted spokes built with silver brass nipples’ says the sheet.

They must have left the freehub off

So 230g ish per 29 wheel. Something doesn’t add up there.

I reckon 2150 ish for a pair of 29s, based on published weights of the components.

Full small print:

‘Fortus 30mm SC Front Standard and Boost wheels come supplied with 15mm and 20mm endcaps.
Fortus 30mm SC Rear Standard wheels come supplied with 135 QR and 142 x 12mm endcaps.
Pro 4 32 Hole hubs with stainless steel sealed cartridge bearings Four Pawl Ratchet System with 44 tooth engagement (8.2°)
Black Sapim Race stainless steel double butted spokes built with silver brass nipples’

No freehubs mentioned on the sheet I have.

29er rim is 35g heavier than 27.5er
29er wheel is 33g(front)/34g(rear) heavier

Are we thinking that Hope are just making the numbers up?

No idea where those weights have come from, but the stock Fortus 30 in 29 weighs 2435g for the pair. Rims are 720g each in 29 for the normal Fortus 30, if the SC weighs 600g as claimed they’ll be 240g lighter than the stock Fortus 30 so around 2.2kg. So basically still sodding heavy.

Depends how sturdy the rims turn out to be, but the benchmark EX511 rims are quoted as 570g per 29in rim.

So these have got a tough act to follow there.

chakaping

1,645g for a 29er wheelset at this price/rim weight is probably incorrect, eh?

445g for two hope hubs plus spokes? Lol

It’s 1.30am and I am a sadsack, so, maths time! For 29er…

Rims are 600g claimed.
Pro 4 front is 194g for 15mm, J-pull, boost.
Pro 4 rear is 305g for 12mm, j-pull, boost, XD. Both “pictures on scales” from Nobl.
Brass nipples are about a gram each so 32g.

That’s 826g/937g without spokes.
Claimed wheelset weight is 765/880g.

So the spokes must weigh, um, minus 61g for the front and minus 57g for the rear.

OK so, for the 29er it’s probably about 290mm spokes, so for sapim races that’s about 200g a wheel (numbers from: me). So that’d give an actual and pretty realistic sounding weight of 1026g/1137g.

Disclaimer: These are all for j-pull, since as far as I know Hope doesn’t currently do a Pro 4 SP. Obviously their numbers are bollocks but it’s possible they’re doing SP for these and that could drop the weight by a little