Hope Tech Enduro Wheels
We all know Hope have been making some of the best hubs on the market for years now, more recently building them into rims from other manufacturers and selling full wheelsets. As with everything from Hope, their drive stems from the capability to design then make pretty much anything themselves. So with that in mind the guys set out to design their own rims and build wheelsets that are Hope through and through. What they have come up with is triple cavity, welded and eyeleted rim that weighs 510g (27.5) which is just 57g heavier than an Enve M70 carbon.
The biggest step from a manufacturing point of view is the fact that Hope don’t actually make their rims in Lancashire, don’t worry though, Hope were keen to stress that this isn’t a slippery slope towards Far Eastern production. We asked Hope about it and they said that the decision to go to Taiwan for rims was that making them involves, extrusion, bending and welding. All of which are metal forming processes rather than the machining and assembly production method that Hope are experienced in. Basically the same reason Hope don’t make their own LEDs for their lights. They are looking at doing this themselves but with so many different things going on this is on the back burner for the time being.
We saw Hope’s new rims earlier this year at Core Bike Show but they are now out for you to buy and we have got a set ready to roll on a test bike.
TECH ENDURO RIM
The new rims have been built with a triple cavity similar to the Stan’s Arch and Flow rims Hope previously used Hope’s wheelsets. The internal width is somehwere in the middle of what you would expect from rim like this at 23mm, Mavic’s Crossmax Enduro rim come in at 21mm, DT Swiss EX471 at 25mm and the Stan’s Flow is 25.5mm.
The rims are extruded from 6061 T6 aluminium then welded and eyeleted before being anodised then water transfer logos are added. They should stand up to abuse from rocks well but only time will tell, and we will be taking them for a roasting in the next few weeks.
As you will have seen Hope aren’t afraid of spending a few quid on a machine if it does the job right and building their new wheels is no exception. Holland Mechanics built a machine from the ground up to deal with one the smallest components, the nipples! This might seem nuts but Hope are future proofing Instead of tensioning the wheel from the inside like a traditional spoke key, this machine works from the outside to a double-ended nipple (calm down now) meaning they have options to develop deep section carbon rims in the future.
This big new machine stresses the wheel in the same way a wheel builder would but even though the machine can do almost anything a person can Hope still insist that every wheel is hand checked and passed product control by a technician. We could go on for hours about their fancy new machine but we won’t all that we’ll say is that it ‘s about as good as it get from factory built wheels.
SPECIFICATION
Going by the weights and measures Hope have a rim that is right down the middle. Weight for the 27.5 rims we are testing is 510g, same as a Stan’s ZTR Flow but heavier than DT Swiss’ EX4171 that tip the scales at 475g. Mavic have rims that go either side of half kilo weight with the pinned EN423 rim at 630g and the top end SUP welded EN821 rim at 460g. Hope seem to have struck a good balance here between, weight, width, construction and price.
23mm internal width
Welded and eyeleted 6061 T6 aluminium rim
Triple cavity construction for added strength
Black Sapim Race stainless steel double butted spokes
Silver Brass nipples
Standard hubs available in Black, Silver, Blue, Red, Gunsmoke and Purple
Straight pull hubs only in Black
Front wheels supplied with QR and 15mm conversions included (9 and 20mm conversions available separately)
Rear wheels supplied as 135mm QR (135×12 and 142x 12 conversions available separately)
32 hole Pro 2 EVO hubs
4 Pawl ratchet mechanism
Stainless Steel, sealed cartridge bearings
Rim ERD: 26″ 539 // 27.5″ 562 // 29″ 600
Weights for rim only 26″-490g, 27.5″-510g, 29″-540g
Compete standard wheel weights:
26″ F 911g R 1020g // 27.5″ F 923g R 1061g // 29″ F 962g R 1093g
Price £380.00/standard hubs – £420/Straight pull
01282 851 200
