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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!
On friday morning our router in the flat decided to have a small fire to itself. It does now mean we have a shiny new wireless router with more toys, so we are all up and running again.
Only problem I’ve noticed so far is that the loading of my main blog page is painfully slow, with generation times of around 2 seconds being reported. Not so good! I’ll have a look at finding out what is causing this once the stress of exams is over.
Got the Hope floating disk rotors I mentioned in my last post, I’ll have a picture of them up soon.
Had a cracking ride up the Pentlands yesterday evening, good to see so many other bikers out enjoying the dry conditions.
Did one of my favourite loops up over Maidens Cleuch (Drainage Ditches/Rocky Mountain 1) from the Ranges Road singletrack, up Back Glen, then down Beach Avenue (Exponential), then down the long woodsy singletrack to Balerno. Near the bottom of this last piece of singletrack there is a muddy patch that is impossible to avoid, and slows your speed down from about 20, to 5mph.
I spied a new line yesterday, so decided to give it a go. Towards the left there is a pile of small rocks and big branches, and I thought I could scoot straight across the top of them. I misjudged it, and having not slowed like I normally wood, I ended up being ejected over the bars to land on my feet. The front wheel was totally stuck in the mud, and the frame had swiveled round so the rear wheel was touching the ground on the non-driveside.
I was laughing, and took a picture to laugh at later. Then I went to move off…the back wheel wouldn’t go round, it was locked solid. I could move it backwards some of the way, but it would always jam at the same point. Turns out that my rear brake rotor had been smashed against one of the aforementioned rocks, and had split on the outer edge (see pic above). Not having a 4mm allen key to remove my pads, I had to bend the rotor back by hand to get it in a rideable state.
All the rubbing was creating lots of extra work for me, so thanks to Murray and Vo who I met at Bonaly, and who gave me a loan of an allen key to remove the pads and allow my wheel to run freely.
I’ve now ordered a pair of Hope floating rotors, so hopefully no more rotor troubles for a while.
Finally got my Pro II built up this week. Between the weight savings of the hub, and using DT Revolution spokes, I’ve saved 160g over my previous wheel! I was 4 short when it came to blue nipples, but I made up the defecit using purple pink ones. And the best bit? It sounds total awesome!
My forks are waiting on some spare parts, so I have a Giant Reign 2 on loan at the moment. Is a stunning bike, and combined with my new wheels it is even better! :o)
Some pics of the wheels, click for big:
Now that I finally have my new rear wheel built up, it’s time to sell the old one. Specs are as follows:
- Hub – Hope XC Rear 32hole Blue w. Titanium Freehub body. Dated 07/2002. Complete new bearing kit fitted 11/2005. Freehub serviced 02/2005.
- Rim – Mavic X517 black. New 05/2005. Never been used with rim brakes.
- Spokes – DT Swiss Competition 2.0/1.8mm dia. Silver. New 05/2005.
- Nipples – DT Swiss alloy. Anodised Blue. New 05/2005.
I’ve owned this hub since new, and it has had 2 rims including this one on it in that time. As far as the alloy nipples go, they look ace with the hub, and I haven’t had the seizing/breaking problems that seems to be the urban-legend these days. Wheel is true to +/- 1mm. Hub bearings have no play in them, and freehub is freshly packed with grease. I replaced a few bent spokes while I was servicing the freehub, so the wheel is in pretty good condition.
NOW SOLD. Thanks for looking.
Pics below can all be enlarged by clicking on them.
Just picked up my new Hope Pro II Rear hub from work. Is so nice and spangly (and trademark blue) I though I’d give you all a look!
Will get a rim and some spokes, and hopefully have it built up later in the week.
