Just got an email with a picture at the end showing a 40/42 ring converter and a promise of its existence by Christmas, as an owner of the hope T. Rex this cheaper (hopefully) version makes me smile, combined with their narrow wide rings I think they’re onto a winner.

I’d still rather buy Hope than Superstar.

Various reasons along the lines of better product (IMO), better customer service, nice to deal with.

I’m sure they’ll sell well though.

Christmas is a long way away to save a tenner or so…..

It will be like nw rings, give it a few months and every component company will have them.

Will sell well regardless as I am assuming pricing will be keen.

Got an e-link to the email?

my superstar narrow wide ring seems to better made and longer lasting than the raceface version it replaced

its pretty good to have a choice of uk made products !

though if shimano made an 11-40t 10speed cassette id be turning japanese in a flash

Good stuff, superstar are coming on.

If shimano get their act together we won’t need to use these crappy converters at all….

Agreed though, good to see several uk manufacturers of parts now, looks like works are getting in on converters too – hope, ss, works, middleburn, plenty of choice – renthal soon too surely.

Link to email ad- it’s down the bottom

For what it’s worth my hope is still going strong but around Christmas I expect I’ll be looking for a replacement, I’ll definately be getting my narrow wide from there

40/42 ring

Are you psychic? It was only a heavily cropped picture/CAD image

Bah, as above its a half finished cad image….. Not even a prototype.

Well ok that’s a guess but it’s design is identical to my hope T. rex so why wouldn’t it be a 40/42 sized ring

defo a range expander from that pic, seems good to me!

Yea it’s a big cog but only a quick cad mockup – until it’s in the metal don’t hold your breath – just get a hope one now and pay the extra tenner!

One of the cad guys at work could knock that up in 10 mins, easy when you copy a hope one – making them to the correct tolerances isn’t so easy….

They are saying they are working on go pro mounts too, that’s pretty cool as kedge ones are mega bucks.

For a company that has it’s own in-house CAD/CAM facility and a CNC machine, if it’s a CAD model today it could be in the metal tomorrow 🙂
As someone who uses one of their I/O chainrings I’d be happy to buy a cassette adaptor from superstar.

The only thing that’s holding me back is that Shimano / SRAM must be kicking themselves that they don’t do a 11/40 cassette and if they did, which let’s face it, they’d be stupid not to, the entire cassette convertor market would be wiped out overnight. Also there’s no way I’d pay more for the big cog than for the rest of the entire cassette.

if it’s a CAD model today it could be in the metal tomorrow

It could and if all they have done is copy the rest then it will probably work ok. I’d expect them to do some decent testing on non paying customers before selling it. That takes time.

davewalsh – Member

if it’s a CAD model today it could be in the metal tomorrow

I hope not.

I’d like to think that a company trying to build a reputation for high-quality machining would spend more than 1 day testing their fixturing, tooling, speeds and feeds, coolant, etc.

knocking up a CAD model is the easy part.

Theres a bit more detailing than the I/O chainring, shifting ramps etc but their chainring works well enough that id take a punt on the range expander

To be fair One-up and Hope were one of the first with a commercially available product and had to put in the development effort.

All of the other guys are going to be sitting about with a vernier and cad software copying them….

Still, its a good thing for us lot, cheaper bits and more choice and none of them made in china. Win.

Still, its a good thing for us lot, cheaper bits and more choice and none of them made in china. Win.

And if we can go from 1st go proprietary idea to mass copies in 12 months who will R&D the next good thing.

I’d expect them to do some decent testing

LOL

mikewsmith – Member

Still, its a good thing for us lot, cheaper bits and more choice and none of them made in china. Win.

And if we can go from 1st go proprietary idea to mass copies in 12 months who will R&D the next good thing.

This is a problem I have brought up before, but not many seemed to agree with me…

Easy to measure and copy something, just look at all the nw chainrings now – easy to copy, easy to make, no wonder it was the first ss ‘homegrown’ product.

Anything not patent protected or too difficult to make on a cheap cnc machine will get copied pretty quickly only it used to be Chinese / Taiwan.

Yep, I do read a lot of threads in here that seem fairly short sighted, knock off chinese carbon frames, copied sunglasses, zero R&D parts and chasing whichever bike shop will cut their margins so fine they can be the cheapest forgetting that there is very little loyalty in the price war.
Then again people are quick to dismiss innovation as profiteering too.

the Oneup converter is still the best I have tried… I had a Hope jobby and didn’t really get on with it.

To be fair One-up and Hope were one of the first quite late to the party with a commercially available product and had to put in the[b]coppied someone elses[/b] development effort.too

FTFY

Gtot o agree with the shimano comment through, even if it was just steel on an alloy spider like SLX/XT and marginaly heavier it would be a winner as they could divide 11-42 evenly rather than having a gap in the middle.

On the other hand they pride themselves on making flawless systems, so they’d want to release a new mech too. But still, they did it with 10s XT-Deore rather than trickle it down year by year, so maybe they’ll overtake SRAM by releasing the cheeper models simoultaneously with XT when it trickels down from XTR.

thisisnotaspoon – Member

To be fair One-up and Hope were one of the first quite late to the party with a commercially available product and had to put in thecoppied someone elses development effort.too

Who else had a commercial option available? As in on a mass scale to shops / through a business not small numbers sold through a forum or similar.

I really do hope shimano push a 11-40T cassette through range, I can easily live without the 42T.

I’d take the 10-40 though.

It is funny how some folks won’t buy the Superstar one as they’ve copied the idea but are happy to buy Hope… Same with narrow/wides. (even weirder the number of people who seem to insist SS are copying Hope?)

I won’t buy the SS one as they have appalling customer service and the rest, with most of their stuff still being imported and branded up as their own. Nowt personal really.
Hope gives me shop support and all those things.

Good for them I say. I bought a N/W ring the other day and really impressed with the quality look of product and packaging (yet to fit though).

the Oneup converter is still the best I have tried… I had a Hope jobby and didn’t really get on with it.

in what way?

Who else had a commercial option available? As in on a mass scale to shops / through a business not small numbers sold through a forum or similar.

One-up amongst others (no idea who got there first).

Does it matter who made the most the quickest? They still copied someone else idea. You can’t on the one hand knock superstar for (potentialy) making copeies of them £10 cheaper than Hope, then on the other laud Hope for making copies of One-up rings.

OTOH one up and others (absolute black etc) weren’t really on anyones radar before this so at least they’ve now got name for themselves even if their products and original markets have been taken by the big boys next time they release something it’ll get the free publicity in fresh goods etc.

Does anyone of these properly address the gap so created? The XT cog (can’t remember the teeth number 15 or 16) helps but it’s still very noticeable and irritating.

One more product in a relatively small area of market place, can’t be a bad thing, if SS manage to combine the direct marketing thing with the UK manufactured thing as they seem to be attempting then I think it starts to mark them out from the crowd.

There do seem to be a few more negative vibes being thrown their way than are really warranted IMO. OK a few dodgy batches of Brake pads and ordering bits out of a Chinese catalogue is in their history, you can’t change the past, but I’d say they are one of a very small number of companies actually trying to change/evolve/grow what they do and what they offer, rather than simply carrying on in the same vein, success or failure they should be applauded for trying…

None of the companies named so far in this thread actually invented thick thin rings or cassette extender rings…

crankrider – Member
To be fair One-up and Hope were one of the first with a commercially available product and had to put in the development effort.

OneUp had theirs a long time before Hope

Bikerumor had OneUp in Novemner last year, with Hope a full three months later

Exclusive: Take Your 11-36 Cassette to the Next Level with OneUp Components’ 42t Sprocket

Frostbike: Hope Gives Your Cassette Big Teeth with the 40 T-Rex Adapter

Who else had a commercial option available? As in on a mass scale to shops / through a business not small numbers sold through a forum or similar.

General lee? and before them I think some fella was bashing out lazer cut stainless sprokets via ebay in 39-41T sizes

One-Up and Hope might have polished the idea up a bit, refined the shift gates (although a bit of interogation of Shiman/SRAM’s cassettes probably helped them there too) but more than anything their “Win” was based on speed to market, promotion and making sure they sold it in #enduro approved colours…

Ultimately SRAM demonstrated the viability of big sprockets for MTBs…

So if it wasn’t OneUp, who was it?
I was under the impression they were the first to launch a 42t single ring range extender. Pretty innovative.

The General Lee was the only product I can think of that was earlier but it was 40t I think, required 4 new cogs and was double the price.

Edit: Was a bit slow typing.
Also their Rad Cage is further development of the idea. It shows they are really thinking out of the box.

None of the companies named so far in this thread actually invented thick thin rings or cassette extender rings..

Get out of here with that talk…dont you know Hope invented everything that is great and good in mountain biking!

Get out of here with that talk…dont you know Hope invented everything that is great and good in mountain biking!

Well obviously… but just supposing they didn’t

I’m pretty sure This fella was bashing out these things before almost any of them… Not pretty but its all about the tooth count.

I’ve got the one 42 up with the new rad cage thing on a xt shadow mech….. It’s impressive tbh.

Octoporn at the ready…

Image from SSC FB feed.