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How reliable are they, long term?
I'm after a 135mm spaced non disc rear hub with a Campag freehub for my tourer, the list of people that make one of these is fairly short.
Don't want to be stuck waiting for a new axle when I'm away, especially somewhere in foreignland.
I have one original ProII still working fine
I have various ProII's all working fine never failed
I have new ProII Evo's all working fine....
The axle failures were mostly to do with Maxle and bolt through rear ends not the std QR's which I'm guessing your tourer is.
Bearings can be had from any bearing shop.
I run 4 sets of Hope hubs. As with all mechanical things they will wear out and break, I've broken Shimano axles free hubs and bearings I've also broken a Hope axle, however Hope I can buy a spare shimano its usually a new hub/wheel. This has always been on MTBs
For the road Go for the Hope, I love my Pro 3s 🙂
on a standard QR you'll be fine.
Take some spare pawls and springs 'cos they're small and weigh bugger all and bearings are standard sizes if you do have a failure so should be available locally.
Check the bearing for the hub you're looking at. Pro II bearings are standard metric items. Pro II EVO uses one non standard bearing. Older bulb hubs used standard bearings and a ti freehub body.
ah, didn't realise the Evo's were an odd size, only had XC's and Pro's.
The bearing life is poor but otherwise pretty good. I've had problems breaking axles and pawl springs but the axles was a specific design flaw that you shouldn't need to worry about with QR, as above, and I've not broken a pawl spring with the new design.
No match for a DT240 but then, they are much cheaper.
They are a super popular hub so there is bound to be more people come forward with various issues. I initially had poor bearing life but Hope replaced the hub and rebuilt the wheel for free. So, besides an initial hiccup I can't complain. I haven't ridden the hub a huge amount but it has been faultless for 10,000 muddy off road km on one set of bearings
Hope axles will cope fine with big touring miles, as will the bearings and as above, you can easily get replacements most places.
The newer style of leaf spring on the pawls is a bit of a weak spot for the long term, I'd expect to snap maybe one spring (out of 4 per hub) every 3-4k miles off-road. Easily sorted with simple tools but watch out for sharp swarf, the leaf spring disintegrates into a dozen fine shards that slide straight through your skin. This shouldn't put anyone off using Hope and the hub will still work fine without one pawl, although getting the shrapnel out early would be sensible.
Also, I'd add that Hope hubs are super easy to work on without tools or too much brute force. Just pull off the QR end caps by hand then pull off the freehub by hand and you have access to regreasing/ replacing pawls/ whatever. Getting hold of spares should be also far easier than some of the less popular brands
The ProII axle was prone to fatigue failure in some situations, the EVO axle was beefed up, perhaps at the expense of the bearings (larger int diameter) to accomodate the axle if I remember correctly.
Their great advantage is that they're easily serviceable, a few spares weigh nothing, customer service is very good.
I'm using a ProII on a tandem I've just built but took the precaution of making a QR axle in Ti for it - didn't need boring 15mm to take a through axle either.
The bearings in my road bike's freehub lasted only 1500 miles but I suspect they were badly fitted, very cheap & easy to fix though.
I've used Hope XC, Pro and Pro 2 hubs on my mountain bikes over 10 years. I've had no trouble at all and have found them super-reliable.
Thanks all for your help - gonna go ahead with a Mono RS hub I reckon - that'll keep me busy for an afternoon with a rim and a box of spokes.
Ive got a hope xc thats been on all my bikes since 2001 1 bearing change 4 years ago. The fridge god claimed a pawl spring and i replaced it with a cut down pen spring. Its still going strong tho needs a new rim now.
I've had a set of Bulbs forever,
So far 2 bearing kits and ratchet/freehub on rear and my 1st bearing replaced on front this weekend.
I have replaced all the bearings myself with hammer and screw driver.
Wheels will spin all day.