Home > Event Coverage > Eurobike

EB16: Hope Tech rolls out new road hubs & 4-piston disc brake calipers for SRAM, Shimano levers

hope tech road disc brakes and hubs
36 Comments
Support us! Bikerumor may earn a small commission from affiliate links in this article. Learn More

Hope Tech is moving into the road market with a collection of hubs, disc brake rotors, and hydraulic 4-piston calipers that connect to SRAM or Shimano road levers, handling either mineral oil or DOT 5.1. Which is an interesting hack, so we asked why someone might do such a thing?

“We’d like to think ours offer slightly better retraction, meaning the pads move further into the bore, away from the rotor, which will reduce rubbing,” their rep told us. “Also, four Pistons offer more power and better modulation, so you get better braking.”

Hope-Tech-road-disc-brake-caliper02

Hope-Tech-road-disc-brake-caliper01

The post-mount calipers are machined in house like the rest of Hope’s products and will be available with adapters to fit flat mount frames and forks. Available in October , price TBA.

To go with them, Hope has modified their rotors to have rounded “safe” edges, allaying fears of sliced appendages in the peloton.

Hope-Tech-road-bike-hubs06

Hope-Tech-road-bike-hubs08

The new hubs will come in Centerlock and 6-Bolt options, with each of those getting flanges for straight pull and J-bend spoke options.

Hope-Tech-road-bike-hubs09

All road QR and thru axles are supported. Inside, they get two pawls instead of the four used in their MTB hubs, and the spring pushing the pawl up into the ratchet ring’s teeth is seated a bit lower so it’s not pushing quite so hard. The difference is dramatically lower friction (thy had a demo and it was very clear that the 2-pawl design spun much more freely), but you could swap in their 4-pawl MTB freehub if you wanted to. Available in October.

Hope-Tech-road-bike-cranksets03

Calipers, hubs and disc rotors will be available in purple, silver, blue, red, black, orange
Hope-Tech-road-bike-cranksets04

The road cranks are still pure prototype, but the plan is for a 110bcd, five bolt pattern.

Hope-Tech-35mm-wide-mountain-bike-rim01

Hope-Tech-35mm-wide-mountain-bike-rim02

On the mountain side of things, they used their carbon frame project to show off new 35mm internal width rims. They have the same profile as the others, just wider, and weigh in at 580g. Works with 2.5 to 3.0 tires, and allows you to run lower pressure.

Hope-Tech-35mm-wide-mountain-bike-rim05

This 27.5×2.5 had a nicely rounded profile on them.

Hope-Tech-carbon-fiber-handlebar-prototype03

The carbon seat post they debuted last year is selling as fast as they can make them, so they’re going into production with the carbon handlebar in January. Target 225g, price TBD. Final dimensions also TBD, but expect this bulbous center section shaping and thick wall construction to carry through.

HopeTech.com

Subscribe
Notify of
guest

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

36 Comments
Oldest
Newest Most Voted
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
Stefan Lüttenberg
Stefan Lüttenberg
7 years ago

Interesting fact that road calipers can be driven by DOT or mineral oil. Are those calipers equipped with different sealings than the known E4 calippers? Think about run my E4 brakes with mineral oil than also…

JNH
JNH
7 years ago

I expect Hope will sell two separate calipers, a SRAM/Dot and a Shimano/Mineral oil model with different seals in each. I wouldn’t try putting mineral oil in a set of E4s under any circumstances.

Stefan Lüttenberg
Stefan Lüttenberg
7 years ago

and can’t wait to find the wide rims and carbon handlebars available at my local shop !

typevertigo
typevertigo
7 years ago

Interesting that the disc brake calipers are touted as compatible with both DOT 5.1 and mineral oil. Would that require using one brake fluid type and sticking with it forever, though? I don’t remember all the details but it seems like it’s the seals that are the main issue with the different fluids.

Richard Elsdon
7 years ago
Reply to  typevertigo

Typically seal materials have to be specific to the fluid, so you’ll be buying the caliper with one or the other fitted. I guess given hope make spares available you could convert with a new seal kit.

Marin
Marin
7 years ago

Who buys calipers seperate of levers?
Also, by making this “compatible” with mineral and dot oils, I suspect some people are going to pour wrong oil in the system unless hope makes specific and differentiated mineral and dot models that can’t be used interchangeably.

David
David
7 years ago
Reply to  Marin

The calipers on my Ultegra bike have always grabbed when the rotors get warm (180lbs down 10% technical grade where you have to ride the brakes for several minutes straight). Afterwards, it sounds like have a band under me with clanging and scraping. So, I was looking at getting the new DuraAce rotors and calipers (don’t need new shifters as they are wonderful) but I’d consider these as I would expect them to be cheaper…

typevertigo
typevertigo
7 years ago
Reply to  Marin

Calipers separate of levers? There are actually a few gravel racers that have successfully paired Shimano’s hydraulic-brake STI levers with MTB brake calipers – specifically older model XTR units.

With road bike frame makers mostly moving from Post Mount to Flat Mount hardpoints, early adopters with Post Mount frames may also want to do the same thing. Shimano offers only the R785 calipers as Post Mount these days – everything else they make is Flat Mount. I don’t see any adapters that enable Flat Mount calipers to work with a Post Mount frame either.

DRC
DRC
7 years ago

Finally a company comes out and says “if we round off the edges on the rotors, they won’t cut people”. How is this not the easiest solution in the world? Why do we need rotor edges to be razor sharp anyway? I’m sure the mechanics would appreciate not working around razor blades, and it would make wheel swaps quicker.

typevertigo
typevertigo
7 years ago
Reply to  DRC

TRP’s rotors are pretty dulled at the edges, actually. They have been since at least 2014.

Wuffles
Wuffles
7 years ago
Reply to  DRC

They’re rounding the edges because some people in the peleton think they need to be rounded, and the UCI issued a ruling to that effect. The fact that mountain bikes have been using regular rotors for 20 years, no one complains about it in XC racing where there are also pileups, and it’s a total non-issue is, um, not relevant?

So yes, if they round the edges they won’t cut people. But the square ones were cutting people either. I guess it’s an improvement, technically speaking. Probably also adds a few bucks to the price.

thesteve4761
thesteve4761
7 years ago
Reply to  DRC

DRC- can you test that out on spinning hope rotors with your fingers and let us know the result?

i
i
7 years ago
Reply to  DRC

it is about time someone steped up and said “yes, we can do an additional costly step in making rotors to address a problem that doesn’t really exist”

Shanghaied
Shanghaied
7 years ago
Reply to  DRC

Because the sharp edge is a bi-product of the manufacturing process, and rounding it would add to the cost of production. Why earn less and/or charge more when the edge has never been a problem for anyone?

Matthew Davitt
Matthew Davitt
7 years ago

“Which is an interesting hack, so we asked why someone might do such a thing?”

All the rep had to say was “because Purple.”

KBogey
KBogey
7 years ago

Dang, I’ll replace my Shimano road and mtb calipers with these Hope units! Better looking, better pad retraction and hose hits the caliper at the right spot unlike Shimano’s banjo fitting models.

Dave
Dave
7 years ago

I’m holding out for 6 piston calipers.

satisFACTORYrider
satisFACTORYrider
7 years ago

rotors are gonna cut you snowflake. rounded or otherwise

Alex from Hermes Sport

Nice calipers! Road discs just got a lot cooler.

DRC
DRC
7 years ago

LOL lotta hate here. I don’t care if the rotors are sharp or not, but if the weenies in the pro peleton are bitching about getting cut in pile-ups, one way around it is to round off the edges. Have the team mechanics do it for all I care, but it’s a solution to their perceived problem.

STS
STS
7 years ago

That must be the first 4 piston caliper in the world that offers more clearance between pads and rotor than a 2 piston design when paired with the same master cylinder. Even if the diameter of those 4 pistons is smaller it can’t work without some serious marketing magic.

Dinger
Dinger
7 years ago

That’s the more interesting question to me as well. My understanding is that hydraulics are about volume ratio of the master cylinder and actuating piston(s) so it has to be assumed that they’ve reached the same volume (or close enough) with their 4 piston caliper.

Also interesting is that the aftermarket hasn’t been flooded by makers of stainless/kevlar sheathed hose kits, as we find for motorcycles.

Ryan Brown
Ryan Brown
7 years ago
Reply to  Dinger

You can get stainless/kevlar hoses, in fact my first pair of Hopes had that set up, its amazing but does add a touch of weight/cost.

As an aside I will absolutley consider Shimano/Hopes on my new cross/gravel bike. Love Hope brakes.

TimB
TimB
7 years ago
Reply to  Dinger

yet….
however tb hoses will work and those are available from goodrich

Alex Kio
7 years ago

“All road QR and thru axles are supported.” Does this mean SCS?!

I just recently emailed them about this (I need >=28h and j bend) and got no response.

Antipodean_eleven
7 years ago
Reply to  Alex Kio

People are busy, mail gets lost, spammed etc. Not great but this is not really a comment for anything…

TimB
TimB
7 years ago

you want to buy these because they are purple and bliiiiiing

Ryan Brown
Ryan Brown
7 years ago

I do wonder how one would bleed a mixed set of Brakes (Hope + Shimano/SRAM) do you bleed according to the lever or do you bleed according to the caliper?

Matt
Matt
7 years ago

“We’d like to think ours offer slightly better retraction”

I’d like to think I’m the most handsome and well endowed chap in the country…

yard dog
yard dog
7 years ago

Really happy to see their crank uses 5-arm 110bcd. Maybe there is “hope” for standards after all!

Ryan
Ryan
7 years ago

To me, one of the down sides to drop bar cockpits is that you’re basically stuck buying your brakes and shifters from the same source. I like Shimano’s brakes, but I prefer SRAM’s shifting and I don’t trust SRAM hydraulics after bleeding way too many Elixirs. I wound up buying the Hope V-Twin and using it with SRAM cable levers. In a more perfect world than this one I’d be able to buy set of Hope hydro brake/shift levers. I have a love/hate relationship with BOTH SRAM and Shimano and I’ve never seen a Hope product that was not fully operational and totally reliable yet, so they’re my personal gold standard.

Antipodean_eleven
7 years ago
Reply to  Ryan

@Ryan. Fully agree. I’ve run Hope’s since about 2000 and only in the past two years moved to XTs as they were damn cheap and very good. For my Franken roadbike project, I dumped the Ultegra callipers for the XT units I had, as the hose fitting is better suited to the frame, but I’ll be moving to these Hops for sure.

Having brakes you can strip down, rebuild and generally buy every bit you need, as you need it, is something that can not be beat. Plus, Hope brakes work so damn well 99% of the time.

Frank
Frank
7 years ago

What is the weight for the hubs and the brakes?

Antipodean_eleven
7 years ago
Reply to  Frank

How big was your pre ride breakfast?

pedalingsquares
7 years ago

Anyone know if Hope plan to offer the brake caliper in flat mount form? Seems to be the way road disc frames are heading so something they should be thinking about if they are serious about the road disc market.

Personally I really rate the Hope components – as a roadie its nice to see them expanding their range with more road specific products. Those disc road hubs will be on my wish list soon I think – anyone know about the pricing of the road disc hubs relative to their current Evo 4 disc hubs?

pedalingsquares
7 years ago

Ah…. sorry, just re-read the article again and saw the bit about post mount adapters for use with flat mount frames. That’s a shame as I suspect having to use an adapter won’t do much for the aesthetics!

Maybe if demand is high enough they will consider a flat mount design (sans adapter) at some point. Having bikes with post and flat mount setups (with SRAM hydro road group sets), the flat mount setup looks far better and less noticeable imho.

Subscribe Now

Sign up to receive BikeRumor content direct to your inbox.

Subscribe Now

Sign up to receive BikeRumor content direct to your inbox.