I can't quite find the answer I need on this, and would appreciate some real world experience: I want to get a Hope dropper lever, but I want it to be band-on. I've got old shimano brakes, and I also want it to be compatible with whatever brake lever it is sitting next to, so band on clamp is the answer. However, i'm not 100% confident if it's possible, or which is the correct adaptor. I think there is one when looking at the tech documents on their website, but i'd like to know if anyone has done it and confirm the correct clamp to use.
Thanks!
I considered buying the hope lever - but you had to buy an adaptor just to get it to work with my hope brakes - pretty sure there's no band with it either, any sram-compatible band will work, but I thought it was poor value
Yeah the sram compatible band confuses me...and no doubt it's not good value. It's mainly about looks and it being mostly metal. fallback option is getting a ztto one like I have already, I just don't like the graphics on it! So many levers are matchmaker/i-spec when I just want a band on.
OK - caveat - not done this myself BUT have been down the rabbit hole of brakes / shifters / dropper lever mounts recently and fitted a Hope dropper lever to my lad's bike. As well as fitting a Fox lever directly to my Hope brakes.
I don't 'believe' (happy to be corrected) Hope actually make a band on handlebar clamp. The lever as it is shipped comes ready to fit to SRAM matchmaker brake levers. You need adaptors to fit it to Hope or Shimano brakes!
So what you need is a clamp that is Matchmaker compatible. Funnily enough my Fox lever did come with a band...
There was a thread on here recommending Shimano Deore levers, these are clamp on, reasonably priced and excellent quality.
Or Wolftooth
Wolf Tooth ReMote Dropper Post Lever – Wolf Tooth Components https://share.google/ViQKhW6P2kw1u78Iv
I'd just get a cheap eBay SRAM copy bar clamp, there's plenty in black, gold or red, if you don't like the graphics you could soak it in drain cleaner to remove the anodising then polish it up silver, there's probably some in a plain finish though without any branding on it, that's how I'd run a hope dropper lever if I didn't run hope brakes.
WAs intrigued about the Hope lever, so had a look on Youtube. Ended up watching the whole video as the fella was quite engaging 🙂
at 2 mins-ish he shows the direct mount clamps needed to fit to Hope brakes. So looks like they don't include them with the lever?! (For £60?!) madness.
My bike shop kindly gave me a SRAM clamp when I bought a Hope lever. Yours may have that sort of thing kicking about in the workshop.
Thanks for all the input and advise so far, very useful - i'll check that video shortly! Fox looks a good back up option. If I can figure out the clamp to get then it looks like it'd work, will probably email Hope to check! I'm specific about this lever, which is very expensive, because it's for my 'best' bike and I want the thing to look and function right. I know the shimano stuff is good, I'm just less keen on the looks, and I have silver brake levers so would like to compliment those.
Last option will be to steal the ztto lever from my other mtb!
The OneUp dropper lever which is £45 also doesn't come with any sort of clamp (an extra £15), and the Wolftooth ReMote Pro is £60 with a mount.
I'd consider the Hope one if I didn't have the OneUp already.
For my wife's bike, I just bought an AliExpress compatible band. I think it even came with the matchmaker fittings. I think that they now do make their own band, but the AliExpress one works just as good.
For my setup, I've actually mounted the dropper on the brake housing as well as doing the same with the shifter. It looks absolutely sweet
Noticed my OneUp has the separate clamp .. looks to me like it would be compatible with the Hope lever if you were deadset on getting that
