Just over a couple of hills from Singletrack Towers is Hope Technology. The factory runs 24 hours a day and the clever bods there seem to work a similar amount on making clever new things. We took a tour with Alan who showed us some of the highlights.
First up is the new R8 light (£450 including all the different brackets and mounts) – it uses eight Cree XPG LEDS with user-selectable beam angles and a claimed maximum output of 2000 lumens. There are two modes: Race and Trail. Race concentrates on high power and vision, while Trail mode is more economical with the juice and also offers flashing mode (not something you ever want to be able to select in the panic of a race situation). The top-mounted backlit LCD screen glows green for race and orange for trail, with both modes showing red for low battery. This screen shows battery condition, beam pattern and mode. There’s a new bayonet QR mount too, with the option of a helmet mount or a head harness for you adventure racers.
There’s an R4 light too with half of the LEDs – which still offers 1000 lumens (65% more than the Vision 4, while being half the weight…) Price for that is £250
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Cyclocross discs… Hope made a hydraulic actuator for disc brakes many years ago for touring cyclists. Now, with the introduction of discs on cyclocross bikes, those kind of gadgets are going to be in demand again. The Hope system uses a stem spacer-mounted pair of hydraulic reservoirs. Cables enter through the piston and attach with a grub screw. Pull the cable brake and the piston activates. Simples! Expect to see Paul Oldham using this system on his Three Peaks cyclocross bikes. Price for the system will be around £300.
Work on Hope’s integrated rear cassette and hub is going on apace. It is now playing with a six speed cassette for 4X racers and downhillers. The cassette integrates into the hub, with the pawls built into the cassette. As there’s no cassette body, there’s not need for lockrings or axle clearance, so Hope can make them with anything down a 9T sprocket. Oh, and it’s super light…
And here’s the XC version. We’re not sure about the Irn Bru orange spider colour, but as always with Hope, it’s subject to change and fickleness… Even to the point that Hope hasn’t decided whether it’s going to do nine or ten speed first. The six speed version will be the first out and available in the spring.
Wheels: Hope is getting a good reputation for its Hope Hoops wheels, using its own hubs, with wheels built in the UK on a number of different rims. A very popular option is with a Stan’s rim, so much so that Hope now buys bare Crest rims direct from Stan’s and then polishes, anodises and etches them to match and then builds them up using Sapim’s new Super Spokes. This wheel is called the TwelveNinetyFive which implies that the wheelset comes in at a very light 1295g a pair. The wheels will cost around £650 a pair.
Hope’s Tech lever has had mixed reviews – partly due to its bulk. But also because it wasn’t perhaps as powerful as people were expecting. Hope has worked out that some of that power was being lost in the lever/piston interface (finger pulls on lever, force goes through lever, brass barrel pivot, bolt and through to the piston. Hope has now done away with the brass barrel in the lever and replaced it with a roller that works directly on the piston. For the same pull, Hope reckons that the power has gone up by 15%.
In addition, the XC racing X2 lever also gains a 15% increase in power – this has been achieved by moving the lever pivot closer to the piston bushing without adding weight. This lever will also be available with an M4 caliper at the other end. New levers are out in October.
9t cog + mud = ?
36/9t 10 sped cassette and a 30t chainring…..yes please
Hmm, will those new power-increasing lever bits fit on older X2 lever bodies, I wonder?
That’s what I want to know. Having just bought a new set of X2 brakes, can I get them adapted with the new gubbins, to make them more powerful ?
The X2 lever change is to do with where the pivot is in relation to the piston pivot (there’s no roller on the new X2) so I would assume that the lever body has a different pivot position. I may be wrong though…
sssimon, let’s start a facebook group for some incentive to Hope… or rather to crank manufacturers, I would die for a 30t chainring.
It’s really good to buy more stuff from smaller manufacturers. By supporting them we have diversity spawning things like Hope’s cassette or thanks to that, instead of making existing products more complicated and lighter. For instance I’m sure that big guns like Shimano or Sram have absolutely no profit in supporting 1×10 setup for XC and AM. I think they are less than happy that sales of front mechs and shifters will go down.
6-spd. Its the new 10-spd.
Will this mean that if I want more powerful brakes, I’m going to have to buy a new lever body ?
6-spd cassettes, ss rings, bashguards.. nice! Please make the 6-spd cassette with modular cogs, or at least a 12-32 option for trail use. Better chainline, stronger rear wheel, it’s been done before but it’s a good idea.
OK the X2 needs a new lever but is the tech lever upgradeable ?
I used to be super excited about the 9-36 10spd but then i realised the sram connectors can’t be undone on the 10spd chains!
So, Hope, what options are there on the cassette for 9spd? #worthatry
@dirtbiker100 – the Clarks removeable 10 spd link is your friend…
http://www.chainreactioncycles.com/Models.aspx?ModelID=56349&utm_source=google&utm_medium=shopping&utm_campaign=Google-Products-UK
i thought (in fact i know) that the “old” vision 4 was/is 960 lumens.
where’s this increase of 65% to 1000 lumens information come from?
Why do those wheels cost £650? Surely the parts cost less then that?
6 speed only gives you a stronger wheel if the wheel hub has wider flanges. Putting 6-speed on a normal rear hub has no benefit other than weight saving.
Surely a dedicated 6-speed rear hub would have been a better product to come out with?
andytpickering. It’s to do with generated lumens versus measured lumens.
The new quad has a generated output of 1446 lumens and a measured of 1000 lumens!
Confused?!
Most light manufacturers give a generated rating which isn’t a true reflection.
🙂
sssimon, let’s start a facebook group for some incentive to Hope… or rather to crank manufacturers, I would die for a 30t chainring.
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XTR M985 Race can run a single 30t chainring in either position, works well with a 11/36 cassette
There’s space for 6spd on the wide flanged SS hub that Hope make. Given that this has Pro2 EVO internals so is multiaxle compatible I’m guessing that’s where the 6spd will go first?
Packer, I was assuming the 6spd would go on a specific hub with wider flanges since it’s aimed at DH use – be daft no to! ) if it is retro-fit to a hope SS hub even better..
Yes, yes the lights and cassettes are lovely, but what about those bashrings? How much, when and where?
*drools*