Will moving to a Hope Hub be a solution to my freehub woes?

[Tom B]

I am currently running a Shimano MT15 rear wheel.

It has, I think it's own hub, and uses a pretty oddball freehub that are getting a bit hard to get hold of. I think when I bought the wheel there was only the MT15, subsequently different variants have been introduced with a more common freehub so identifying the correct unit is hard and more costly.

The hub has the traditional cup and cone bearings which while nice and simple aren't always the best sealed and I usually end up servicing them a couple of times a year. The non drive side cup is worn, but usable.

The bike is my general bike and commuting weapon and gets used in ALL conditions, in the wet some of the roads are more like the rapids and being used daily and a couple of kids mean I don't really probably have to service it as much as I should. I've been getting through freehubs at a rate of one a year, usually they just gummed up with gunk and are pretty grim when stripped, even if they look okay on the outside. Essentially I think water, salt, grit is finding it's way inside the unit and doing it's thing. The removed unit has sat in some brake cleaner just oozing black sludge for the last 48 hours, even then it refused to work unit I put the jar in an ultrasonic cleaner for half an hour (it's still a whole unit I've not opened it yet)

My front wheel has a Superstar V5 hub with sealed bearings, it's never been touched and still feels silky smooth after years of no attention.

I'm toying with the idea of replacing the rear hub to something with sealed bearings. With Superstar being taken over / sold / not being what they was it leaves me looking at Hope RS4 or 5 (I'm a pay a bit more and buy it once sort of chap). The bike is mainly used on road / light gravel. But looking at their freehubs the pawls look even more exposed than the Shimano units, as well as being about 3 times the price. I can live with that as long as they live 3 times as long...

Any thoughts?

Any other options for better hubs ideas?

In an ideal world I would service them more, but life gets in the way.

 

[Yellow Saddle]

The direct answer to your question is no.

Hope will just introduce other freehub woes. I'll go into that in a minute.

I am no longer in the trade but if you say that the MT15's freehubs are difficult to come by, I'll accept that. That, and the fact that the cups are now pitted may justify getting a new wheel. However, a new wheel built around a better quality Shimano hub - something of XT quality, will be a better option.

Yous confuse sealed bearing with cartridge bearings. The latter can be sealed, or unsealed. Cup-and-cone bearings as in Shimano, can also be sealed or unsealed. These usually have two seals, one contact seal and one labyrinth seal. If you want, you can search this forum for an explanation, I've written about it before.

A XT-quality Shimano hub will have two seals at each end and, a very durable bearing system that is serviceable and with plenty of spares available.

A Hope hub however, is made with cartridge bearings. Lots of hub manufacturers use these for one good reason - becaause it is cheap to ,make hubs based on bearings which you don't have to design and make yourself - you buy them off the shelf. The downside is that they are not made for the job, which requires radial and axial support. Cartridge bearings (of the type in Hope hubs) only offer radial support and don't last long. Further, the "seal" on a Hope hub freehub body is pathetic. It is a little hard plastic ring that encourages capillary action and water ingression. The hub has no preload mechanism either.

The best hub bearings are still cup-and-cone and this whole "sealed bearing" thing is a red herring.

 

[Tom B]

The direct answer to your question is no.

Hope will just introduce other freehub woes. I'll go into that in a minute.

I am no longer in the trade but if you say that the MT15's freehubs are difficult to come by, I'll accept that. That, and the fact that the cups are now pitted may justify getting a new wheel. However, a new wheel built around a better quality Shimano hub - something of XT quality, will be a better option.

The cups have gone black and are not smooth and shiny like they used to be, they're actually pretty smooth and don't have distinct pits like some I have seen - but yea agreed that's another factor - as is the fact i'm not regularly replacing spokes ad-hoc.

There are plenty of freehub bodies available for some of the MT15s, but perhaps not the oddball that I have got!

Yous confuse sealed bearing with cartridge bearings. The latter can be sealed, or unsealed. Cup-and-cone bearings as in Shimano, can also be sealed or unsealed. These usually have two seals, one contact seal and one labyrinth seal. If you want, you can search this forum for an explanation, I've written about it before.

You are of course correct; my error, it was late and my brain befuddled by 4 hours of poking around websites looking for freehubs.

A XT-quality Shimano hub will have two seals at each end and, a very durable bearing system that is serviceable and with plenty of spares available.

A Hope hub however, is made with cartridge bearings. Lots of hub manufacturers use these for one good reason - becaause it is cheap to ,make hubs based on bearings which you don't have to design and make yourself - you buy them off the shelf. The downside is that they are not made for the job, which requires radial and axial support. Cartridge bearings (of the type in Hope hubs) only offer radial support and don't last long. Further, the "seal" on a Hope hub freehub body is pathetic. It is a little hard plastic ring that encourages capillary action and water ingression. The hub has no preload mechanism either.

I recognise your concerns about the use of cartridge bearings. I think I have read your writings about it in the first place and it is why is why I have avoided buying a cartridge bearing based hub in the first place. However I have grown in confidence given the front wheel has these bearings that have been faultless, and untouched for 5 years. My lesser used MTB also has these cartridge bearings, initially on the rear, latterly on the front too again, without issue, but that bike sees far less use and has been in dry dock for a year while i get around to changing the groupset over.

But essentially you've arrived at the same concerns as me with the hope freehub sealing. There is a lot of guff and hyperbole written about Hope stuff, my gut feeling is that it's over-rated and over priced hence my pondering. It seems the main selling point of the Pro5 over the Pro 4 is better freehub sealing. A new RS4 or Pro5 hub would be worth about 1/2 of the rest of the bike :-) a hope freehub would have to last 3 times as long to make it worth it on a price basis.

The problem is my pondering has been going on about 4 years. I think I said I'd get a cheap second hand hope and build into a wheel myself to try.

The best hub bearings are still cup-and-cone and this whole "sealed bearing" thing is a red herring.

I'm currently perusing the better end Shimano XT stuff, lots of microspline stuff and 32+ spoke counts, I'm running 8spd older type cassettes, 28h rims and QR.