We all know Hope makes some rather exotic finery out of Barnsoldwick in the North of England. Everything from nice brakes, hubs and even lights to name but a few parts. But what about trophies. Hope Technologies pin up boy Neil Arnold explains all...27 year old Neil Arnold first shot to fame on the front cover of Smash Hits Magazine back in 2003 when he was in a boy band. Just think Back Street Boys meets Take That, but not quite as good. These days he is one of the main boys up at Hope Technology in what could possibly be one of the most traditional or names for an English town, "Barnoldswick"..
As Hope can wave their magic wand and almost make anything. They were the first company we asked to make the trophies for the Halo BDS.
If Hope can make fancy custom rotors then they can make a trophy with their hands tied behind their backs.
To start off with, the trophy plates are laser cut from stainless steel, from the same sheets that the Hope disc rotors are made from. They are then linished (de-burred) and cleaned/polished up.
The aluminium bases are machined from a solid bar, chamfered around the top edge and have a hole drilled in the center for the plate to mount. The bases are then washed, polished and anodised. Anodising takes around one hour from start to finish.
You can't do this with a potato cut in half.
The plates are sent away for printing (thanks to NM Design for this) where they are mounted in a huge flatbed UV printer. It takes about 30 minutes to print the whole lot and it’s pretty cutting edge as it uses white ink in the print process!
Mmm.. that’s about it, except waiting for the organisers to decide what they want on them, change their mind and then tell us something completely different on the deadline date...
We then pop them in the van and bring them to the race, displayed and ready to distribute to the worthy winners.
Marc Beaumont with his Hope Trophy
Hope TechnologyStill want a Hope Trophy, but not racing the Halo BDS? We always have one rider miss the podium come presentation time. The rule stands if you are not there then I'll run into the crowd and pick the littlest dude I can find...
Check the lucky guy on the right, he even gets to keep the prizes.
The finished article
Stay Unclipped.
Si Paton..
Descent-Gear.com Nukeproof Snap 4x Frames GBP 349.95 Posted
I still have one of their "disc brake rotor" trophies from my 3rd place in Master Class at Aston Hill DH way back in 1993
hell i think the ones i made in the shed for my series look nicer
www.pinkbike.com/photo/4552663