Hope has become the latest brand to offer Microspline hubs after Shimano originally limited the number of companies that it licensed the technology to.
As of 1 Jan 2020, the British brand is now offering the Shimano 12-speed compatible freehubs with their wheels and hubs, or as an upgrade to customers with their own hubs. In addition to this Hope has also announced that the new freehubs will be available for people running the older Hope Pro 2 Evo hubs to try and make sure that riders with older products are not left out on the new standard.
Hope originally questioned the move by Shimano to limit the rollout of the Microspline standard back in June 2019 to just DT Swiss, Industry Nine, Newman, and Mavic, but by September this decision had been reversed and
Simano decided to open up the technology to other wheel and hub manufacturers.
PRESS RELEASE: Hope
At Hope we've always believed in making sure our components can be modified to suit every new standard where possible. With the announcement of Shimano's Microspline we lobbied to be granted the licence to produce compatible hubs. After negotiation we've been given the licence and as of yesterday, 1st Jan we are now able to sell wheels and hubs fitted with this new freehub design.
We currently have freehubs in stock and have begun shipping them to shops and distributors around the world.
You're also not left out if you have our older Pro 2 EVO hubs as we have Microspline freehubs in stock to update these older hubs to the new standard.
Also, what other company would make backward compatible parts for ten year old hubs? Incredible!
Then on January 2nd they announce "Hope is joining the 12 Speed Shimano Team for 2020. A lot has changed but seems very similar to my previous team. We are excited to start this new adventure but will still see the 11 speed to at the races."
With that said, it’s mice seeing this option available. Nothing but great success with my Pro 4 hub with Eagle.
My DT Swiss wheel failed.
I was on 10sp w granny at the time. He was on 11sp wide range.
Hope hubs just work. Nothing flashy, just dependable performance. More importantly, when you research hubs there is really nothing except Hope in the price range between £80 and £300 a set. You can get some crappy Novatec hubs for £80 a pair. That or Shimano, but with Shimano you have to buy new centerlock discs and they’re not cheap.
Then you have Hope, for about £200 for the pair.
Then there is nothing else for under £300. I’m not saying Hope are the best or most desirable hubs, but in my opinion they can’t be beaten in value. They run forever and if anything breaks they will have a spare part available until you die.
Given that hubs are tubes with bearings in that hold your spoke nipples, there is really not a great deal of performance to be gained by spending two or three times as much. You can say 44POE is not very good these days but it’s never been a problem for me, and it’s a dependable 44POE.
The only way I can think of they could improve is by making a silent hub.
On the side note I have OEM formula hub that is still running strong and smooth after 3 years of abuse;
Just because you had issues doesn’t mean they’re all shite.
Bitex are a pretty great option, along with DT 350's.
@waki I’ve personally never had any problems with cup and cone Shimano bearings in my younger years. I know you hate them but for me they’re fine.
Modern cup and cone hubs have gotten terrible to get in adjustment though, with centerlock lock rings and through axles making it a pretty fiddly setup.
I never had a problem with cup and cone hubs in drier environments but some problems in wet ones, kind of a bummer when your bearings completely murder the hub shell that they ride on, new wheel day instead of bearing service day.
Hub. The aluminum hub body has a steel ring that threads into it. On the inner side of the steel ring are the teeth that the freehub ratchets off off.
The threads of the aluminum hub body stripped out. I basically was able to pedal on my ride but nothing happened. About six months later I got a call from a guy I do work with and he explained something that happened to his wheel. It was the same thing.
I will say it was within 2 years so they sent a warranty replacement wheel. Problem it the new wheel looked completely different and was a different width rim. I bought a different brand wheelset as I didn't want a circus bike with mismatching parts.
I've had some campy road hubs from the late 80's that are still kicking after many 10,000 of miles. But I would never consider them on a mountain bike. I grew up in a pretty dry place, and would take a trip to Washington state every spring and ride MTB for a week in the early to mid 90's. Dead loose ball BB every time. Modern axles and brakes have made them a total nightmare to adjust, I have a 12 mm through axle 105 hub on my commuter wheels for my gravel bike and I am so pissed at it right now.
Every 20 mm Shimano hub I've worked on was ruined by the time I saw it in a shop. So many, tiny bearings.
To my knowledge even thru axle cup and cone hubs have to have the last bit of play taken out by tightening into the frame. That was the only way to get them to work with QR axles. My 105 hub on my gravel bike is the first thru axle Shimano hub I've owned and that is how I set it up. It is good so far, but I barely have any miles on it.
We have now successfully seen the obvious error in our ways.
I also tend to kill Formula/Novatec too of course. I'm running over ten years in my Chris King though, good value if changing standards doesn't make it obsolete.
If this design has an improved bearing design, it might be worth a look.
Original post was asking who has the Hope pieces available, not who has alternative options. U posting answers to a question that wasn’t asked.
They just called me; it`s official.
Ask me for details.
Don't worry - they'll tell you.
but i would buy dt swiss ex 511, been running them for a couple of years without issues, even with a full and a half season of racing.
Microspline with its more traditional (almost) full length splines allow for more traditional stacked assembly, and in fact the last few cogs on microspline cassettes are stacked. That makes them cheaper - the M7100 cassette is $100, and we'll probably see trickled down Microspline cassettes for less still.
But I do think most of it was just Shimano refusing to use SRAM's standard.
Thats user error.
Not a problem if you follow instructions and use grease
But perhaps you've been lucky enough not to have that issue.
Thats where you’re going wrong, using bullshit instead of good quality grease lol
Not correct. GX and lower cassettes are pinned together. Or take a look at the e13 cassette - thats in two clusters on an XD
They were super helpful and got my freehub out quickly but said they were running low as of Jan. 13
By the way i am running one and it works fine.
Those been around, on amazon too. I’m waiting for a genuine hope piece. If I wanted knockoff junk I’d just put a sun race cassette on.
Good for you.
Original post was asking who has the Hope pieces available, not who has alternative options. U posting answers to a question that wasn’t asked.
Hope has them.
That better!