CK vs Hope

DCR00

Evening all

Looking at new wheel choices

Need to cover all types of riding, including DH, primarily at Stiniog

Rim wise im settled on Flow EX. Hub wise its a toss up between Chris King and Hope. Quite a difference price wise. What attracts me to both is the availability of a bolt through 10mm rear axle. Both have a SS freehub option..

I have a CK headset and its pretty damn good, but its a £300 price difference (the CK 10mm bolt through axle with bolts is £100)

Worth the money ? Or go with Hope?

supersonic

I wouldn't go for either. Novotech or DT.

njee20

Was really underwhelmed by my King hubs, heavy, draggy, needed lots of maintenance. DT240 or American Classic if you're spending that sort of money.

rockmonkeysc

I would go for Hope. They're good value (for the quality) reliable and have grear back up.
Chris King hubs need special tools to service, spares cost a fortune, the back up is terrible and you have to have records of them being serviced by a Chris King authorised workshop if you ever make a warranty claim.
I have had a few Novatech hubs, rebranded as Superstar, Nukeproof, Bontrager and Halo. All were poor quality, badly sealed and getting replacement parts like freehubs wasn't as easy or cheap as you would expect.
The best hubs I have had were Hadley, bearings and freehub lasted two years of all weather riding but they weren't cheap.

DCR00

Dt was an option but can't find anyone building them with Flow EX

miceden

Between those two... Hope's - they're reliable, easy to service, Hope are brilliant support wise, spares easily available, light for the money and handle pretty much anything you can throw at them.

CK hubs are nice but I really don't think they warrant the (stupid) price tag.

rockmonkeysc

Don't bother with Flow EX for downhill. I have seen loads of them with big dents or cracked.
Mavic EX721, Spank Spike race or WTB i25 are the rims to go for.

lawman

Industry nine make great hubs, but the safe option is DT IMO. Just riding along should be able to build you up a pair.

DCR00

Officially love Lawman

240s on Flow EX

Rockmonkey - Spank rims were my first choice but I cant find anyone that builds with them

rockmonkeysc

Loads of wheel builders will build anything you want. I use JD Tuning, he builds a solid wheel and you can either supply parts or he will get them so you can get bargains off the web. He's pretty cheap as well.
The Mavic EX721 is a really good rim as well. Light and proper tough, harder alloy than most so don't dent easily. Very popular with racers for a good reason.

cycleclinic

Approach a wheel builder, Mavic EX721 is one of those rims that is as close to bomproof as you can get. Another good rim is the velocity P35 as it is nice and wide. DT Swiss make some good rims too.

DT swiss MTB hubs are the best out there go with them if you can. If you want a run through of options give me a bell if you like.

CK hubs are overpriced for what they are, Hope are quite decent and Novatec make some very good hubs indeed so good as to make Hope pointless. There is also Shimano XTR which are bloody good for XC use not sure how they hold up for DH use though but I suspect they would be fine.

njee20

DT240s on some Chinese carbon rims will come out cheaper than King on Flow EXs, that's where my money would go.

rockmonkeysc

Carbon rims are too stiff for downhill, they just crack. I have seen a couple very sad looking riders with cracked Enve rims.

Dick Scruttock

DCR00 wrote:

Dt was an option but can't find anyone building them with Flow EX

Just Riding Along built mine. They have been fantastic. I have kings on my road bike and DT240's on my mountain bike. I wish I'd gone for DT's on my road bike too!

DCR00

Rick Draper wrote:

DCR00 wrote:

Dt was an option but can't find anyone building them with Flow EX

Just Riding Along built mine. They have been fantastic. I have kings on my road bike and DT240's on my mountain bike. I wish I'd gone for DT's on my road bike too!

Do you have DT on Flow EX?

njee20

RockmonkeySC wrote:

Carbon rims are too stiff for downhill, they just crack. I have seen a couple very sad looking riders with cracked Enve rims.

Serves 'em right for spending so much on rims! I'll wager DT240s on Light Bicycle rims would be cheaper than 240s on Flow Ex from JRA! Any rim can fail, the actual difference in stiffness with carbon rims in a plane where durability is an issue (ie compression) is sod all.

DCR00

I'm veering towards Hope, purely due to their 10mm bolt in option

Tracey isn't the stiffest at the back, even with a 10mm thru axle, so anything to stiffen her up is a good thing

Plus the build cost for DT on Stans is close to the 700 mark, whereas Hope on Stans is closer to 450

Dick Scruttock

DCR00 wrote:

Rick Draper wrote:

DCR00 wrote:

Dt was an option but can't find anyone building them with Flow EX

Just Riding Along built mine. They have been fantastic. I have kings on my road bike and DT240's on my mountain bike. I wish I'd gone for DT's on my road bike too!

Do you have DT on Flow EX?

Yes I do on my Cotic, built by JRA.

rockmonkeysc

njee20 wrote:

RockmonkeySC wrote:

Carbon rims are too stiff for downhill, they just crack. I have seen a couple very sad looking riders with cracked Enve rims.

Serves 'em right for spending so much on rims! I'll wager DT240s on Light Bicycle rims would be cheaper than 240s on Flow Ex from JRA! Any rim can fail, the actual difference in stiffness with carbon rims in a plane where durability is an issue (ie compression) is sod all.

It's not just compression on a downhill bike, as you bounce through rock gardens and catch the rear on trees mid drift or land hips there's all sorts of sideways loads and impacts.
At least Enve replace them under warranty if you break them, your ride/race is still finished though.

cycleclinic

DT Swiss 350 hubs on Mavic EX721 rims with sapim race spokes, that is perfect for downhill work and it will not cost the earth. I reckon you will not spend more than £400 on that. I have a similar wheelset on old Hope XC Pro hubs and they have given me stirling service on downhill routes, rocky rides when I used to do that sort of thing. You could buy them of me I should sell them as they are gathering dust now.

DCR00

RockmonkeySC wrote:

njee20 wrote:

RockmonkeySC wrote:

Carbon rims are too stiff for downhill, they just crack. I have seen a couple very sad looking riders with cracked Enve rims.

Serves 'em right for spending so much on rims! I'll wager DT240s on Light Bicycle rims would be cheaper than 240s on Flow Ex from JRA! Any rim can fail, the actual difference in stiffness with carbon rims in a plane where durability is an issue (ie compression) is sod all.

It's not just compression on a downhill bike, as you bounce through rock gardens and catch the rear on trees mid drift or land hips there's all sorts of sideways loads and impacts.
At least Enve replace them under warranty if you break them, your ride/race is still finished though.

Pic on MTBR FB page showing a f*cked up cheap carbon rim

Chunkers1980

There's everything on the internet.

felix.london

yeah I saw that - a LightBicycle 650b rim

BloggingFit

A picutre may show the failed product but not whqt happened to make it fail. So called aggressive riding which basically translates into pass poor riding technique doesn't cut it with me. Got a set of Light Bicycle rims built on Hope Hubs with no issues.

A lot depends on the quality of wheel build and spokes used over the actual rim and hub combo. A badly built expensive wheelset will fail long before a well built cheaper version in most instances.

DCR00

I dont really care TBH

It was the timing really

This is one of those never ending debates that doesn't interest me in the slightest

If you want carbon rims/frame/brakes/etc that's fine

felix.london

Think I'm with you