Douglas F Shearer :: Weblog :: Inside the Hope Pro 2

Inside the Hope Pro 2

Many of you will know of my excitement at getting my Hope Pro 2 rear hub, then building it into a wheel.

Nine months have passed, and it’s been on a lot of rides and some very muddy races. I’d reckon it’s done about 1500miles in that time, so it was time to take it apart for a little service.

Taking it apart was easy, I did it by the method I was told last week:

Take off the cassette and disk rotor, just to make life a bit easier.
Tease off the non-drive side dust cap with a screwdriver.
Holding the freehub with one hand, and whack the now exposed axle with a soft-faced mallet.

That method unfortunately pushes one of the bearings out of the hub body, not ideal. The method used for the older hubs is much better:

Take off the cassette and disk rotor as before.
Grip the drive-side steel serrated axle end in a vice gently. Pull the wheel gently to slide this off.
Now pull off the freehub body with your hand. If it’s a bit tight, put your cassette back on, but only tighten the lock-nut one turn. Use the gap between the cassette and the spokes to pull the freehub body off with your fingers.

Unlike the old Hope hubs, the springs and pawls don’t eject themselves across the workshop never to be seen again. A clever design means that the springs and pawls slide into the freehub body from the side, rather than in the direction of their motion.

My freehub body was manky inside, something to do with it being an early Pro 2. I didn’t have one of the new ones to compare it to, so after cleaning it all up, I put it all back together.

It now sounds smooth again, and the loud clicking is slightly less rough. Well worth doing. I was a little disappointed with the amount of muck that had got past the seals, but I’m going to speak to Hope and see if that can be remedied.

Hope Pro 2 – Still the best hub going!