I think, if anything, I spent too much time in this piece discussing comparative ways to measure long term and short term value. So, “I can buy X for Y” comments are just going to have me pointing up^^^. Particularly to the last two paragraphs for the TL;DR crowd (which I know you’re not a member of).
There’s a couple of reasons, based on my experiences, you don’t ever see me listing Hope hubs in the various comparables I add to any piece on hubs/wheels. The biggest one is that garage hunk of plastic sitting between the hubshell and freehub body that they call a seal. As with their brakes, they look fantastic and a first glance screams premium but it doesn’t take long before a rider realizes there are much better options for less money.
I9 1/1 eats Hopes lunch. And even something like a Spank will match it for performance and parts support if a rider needs pretty colours. In fact, other than King & Shimano I think everyone still supports 6-Bolt for now. I can’t imagine that Center Lock isn’t the future as much as I’d prefer if it weren’t.
Feb. 7, 2022, 6:20 a.m. - Andrew Major
I think, if anything, I spent too much time in this piece discussing comparative ways to measure long term and short term value. So, “I can buy X for Y” comments are just going to have me pointing up^^^. Particularly to the last two paragraphs for the TL;DR crowd (which I know you’re not a member of). There’s a couple of reasons, based on my experiences, you don’t ever see me listing Hope hubs in the various comparables I add to any piece on hubs/wheels. The biggest one is that garage hunk of plastic sitting between the hubshell and freehub body that they call a seal. As with their brakes, they look fantastic and a first glance screams premium but it doesn’t take long before a rider realizes there are much better options for less money. I9 1/1 eats Hopes lunch. And even something like a Spank will match it for performance and parts support if a rider needs pretty colours. In fact, other than King & Shimano I think everyone still supports 6-Bolt for now. I can’t imagine that Center Lock isn’t the future as much as I’d prefer if it weren’t.