Turn up at any trail centre, race meeting or enduro event here in the UK and you will be guaranteed to hear the reassuring sound of a Hope hub, the heart of a quality wheelset. Hope’s loyalty runs deep into the mountainbike world here on these shores and rightly so. Their UK based design, development and production is very well respected with ‘fit for purpose’ ideals running through everything they manufacture. The Hope Wheelset in DH trim here is no different. Ask Adam Brayton.
Hope’s hubs have been around for years. The ease of access to spares (regardless of their year of manufacture), serviceability and weather-beating sealing are legendary and the natural step for Hope to take was to start building complete ‘off-the-shelf’ wheelsets.
“Testing is always on the agenda at Hope and it goes without saying that these rims have not made production without plenty of action out on the hill”
For 2016 we see a range of wheels that has evolved, with Hope now offering their own rim designs to complete the package built around the Pro 2 hubs and Pro 4 hubs. It’s all about choice with Hope and if you are familiar with their hubs you will be aware of the extensive choice of axle compatibilities on offer, letting you upgrade without any headaches. For a good few years Hope have built their wheels with Stan’s Notubes rims, with the heavier duty Flow EX being rated by us here at Dirt. These premium non-eyeleted rims have set the standard for tubeless reliability. Hope still offer these but have developed rims of their own, and it’s the Tech Enduro and Tech DH that hit the spot for us. These 6061 aluminium triple cavity hoops are eyeleted, tubeless ready and have internal widths of 23mm and 28mm respectively. Weights are on the money with a 27.5” Tech Enduro rim hitting the scales at 510g.
