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Any cheaper and good quality items out there before I spend lots of money on Hope?
Shimano SLX are superb quality for the money and can be found super cheap.
They have the usual Shimano quirks (cup and cone bearings, no XD compatibility and a bit porky) but if you can keep on top of looking after them they'll outlast anything else you'd be able to get for the cash.
As above, my SLX hubs have 15,000 miles and no maintenance on my commuter/cx/gravel type thing. Now on the wife's town/paths bike and while they're a bit rumbly if you hold a stay/fork leg and concentrate (not surprising!) they roll along perfectly well.
Or Novatec.
I was looking last week and found some good deals on DT Swiss 350 boosts but in the end I found some hand built wheels that worked out the better option.
I had a look recently. The 28h bit is the pain. Ended up going with Novatec D792 from Ebay. Mine were none boost but did see there were some on Ebay and Aliexpress.
Thanks all, Shimano would work if I was ready to go 12sp, but I'll probably wait til next year at least.
I've been looking at novatec on AliExpress but they're not quite cheap enough in the format I need.
Will probably end up forking out for Hope, or waiting and keeping an eye out for used hubs.