Anti-Hope- Rant.

dyna-ti

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Went to fill and bleed the tech m4's on the latest build.

My ever trusty piece of aquarium tubing with the thicker rubber end that i stole of the LBS 20 years ago and used to bleed every Hope brake ive ever had, which is all of them.

Problem YET A-BLOODY-GAIN they has changed something to make it harder to work with without buying something they coincidentally happen to make.

The bleed nipple is bloody tiny, considerably smaller that any before and the whole reason for it as far as I can see, as it adds no design improvement, is purely so you need to buy a Hope bleed kit, which is now an 'easy bleed' kit which now costs more.

This appears to now be Hopes ethos, though the real reason I reckon is all those fking CNC machines they seem to keep buying and retooling every damn week
Everything up to the bulb utilized chunky bearings. Bearings that would last years. Replaced with what can only be described as flimsier, and certainly only last a matter of months.
£140-150 for a rear hub. Replacement bearings are now £45, and you need to buy a little set of drifts that cost another 20 quid.
Tiny changes, massive repercussions. Cant use previous drifts.

Look at the brakes. How many bloody bore cape tools are they going to produce ??? :? again the tiny differences mean a different cap, and its own special tool.

Freehubs went from being Titanium...... TITANIUM FOR FK SAKE :shock: :shock: to soft alloy that has been getting ripped to pieces by something they've long known about, but decided to replace the freehubs with alloy so they wear out quicker.

And dear lord dont start my on freehubs. 6 is it now ? standard fittings are totally indistinguishable from one another. Pro 2 ,pro 2 evo and no pro 4 are all minutely different so arent interchangeable.
Personally again i cannot see how increasing the diameter of the ratchet ring by a tiny amount is going to make any difference whatsoever in the real world.
Maybe they're all relying on nasa grade computer design and have lost sight of what it is they're actually producing and what its getting used for in its main part. No rider is going to notice any different from a 0.12mm increase in the ratchet diameter, especially as its meant a whole new design, more of that retooling they revel in, different bearings and therefore yet another specially only fitting that specific model tool or bearing drift kit.

Hope are out of control.

£70 for a stem :? £120 for a pair of friggin pedals :shock:

I think it's the Rolls Royce background. Were they MOD everything would work with everything else and one tool would service everything :LOL:
 
I hear ya man.

TBH, I’ve always found their stuff agricultural at best. I liked the Pro2 Evo hubs, and I like the pick n mix nature of the headsets, but some of their designs are a bit too ‘look at me, all cnc’d n shit’
And the seat post clamps are crap.

OK, so they’re a British success story, that’s good. But going by what you say above then it does raise eyebrows. Looks like the quality is potentially starting to dip in the name of mass production and margin.
 
The pricing of a lot of bike stuff has got out of control. I swear some of the prices have doubled, if not tripled in the last decade. Admittedly, someone's got to pay for the R&D in modern stuff but some of the pricing hardly represents value by whatever measure you choose. Add in a proliferation of standards and it can be a nightmare.

It's slowly becoming a sport of dentists. But it'll not last forever. The next recession will bring a much needed reality check on pricing and we'll be collectively shaking our heads on how £3K was ever described as a mid-range mountain bike price point. But while that remains an anchor point, it's no wonder Hope et al are charging what they are.
 
I agree greencat. Capitalism stinks. Cost prices have undoubtedly risen for manufacturers, but the profits in the cycling industry feel distasteful at best.

I intend to run my mixed standard mid level cheap to maintain 29er for as many years as possible now. f@ck the industry and the bloated mamils supporting it.

Roll on the revolution!
 
Re:

Don't lose HOPE dyna :LOL: I'm sure there must be a good reason for the small changes, they're a business after all so I imagine it's all in the name of cutting costs and maximising profit.
At least they do stock all the myriad of obsolete parts though.
Prices generally are getting silly... Have you seen the price of the latest "must have" 12-speed cassettes?! Some cost more than half the bikes I have :LOL:
My experience of the Mod was that whist things were interchangeable, some things cost a fortune to replace Thanks to them outsourcing to companies who charged whatever they liked for the parts, and the mod had to pay it because they'd awarded them the sole contract for parts supply for that equipment :facepalm: definately some dodgy/inept /back handers going on imo.
 
If it wasn't for all this new stuff, we wouldn't be able to buy the old stuff cheap!
 
Re:

Dyna I get what your saying and I sort of agree especially about the prices but as has been said above it’s not just hope, have you looked at the price of top end suspension forks lately it makes my eyes water.

I think hope are just trying to respond to the market. Don’t sram, Shimano, avid all have similar products for bleeding their brakes? At the end of the day if your customers keep asking for a “bleed kit” what are you going to do. Tell them to pop down the hardware shop and buy a spanner and some tube for a few quid, or do you create a new revenue stream by giving them what they want.

Also they are a business and they want to stay a business so some ongoing income/profit and built in obsolescence is inevitable.

I still think their customer service and product support is top notch.

As for the bleed nipple have you tried an older one it might just have the same thread. If so I’m sure you could get some off eBay or your local fasteners.
 
Meh.

It's top end. Always has been expensive. at least you know hope will back there stuff up for many years to come.

My Judy XC were £400 25 years ago. It's inflation, innit.
 
Re:

I remember the Judy being around £399 bitd. However, I've seen suntour forks reaching that price new. Nearly dropped my bacon sandwich.
 
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