Hub being dented by cassette - eh??

[PomBstard]

Just changed the cassettes on my two bikes - both cassettes were SRAM 970 but the hubs are different. One, a Deore hub, was easy to change and showed little signs of wear. The other though, a Hope Pro 2, was an absolute $%&@ to change cos the cassette has worn nine little grooves into the brass splines.

Is this normal?? This is only the third cassette change for the Hope hub, and the Deore hub has been subject to at least twice that number. All cassettes used have been either SRAM 970/990 or XT

Any thoughts...???

[LRdriver II]

Yea, I have seen it on FRM, Extralite and nukeproof hubs.. all sign of lightweight but ultimately cheap soft materials used not fit for purpose on a part like that. I guess with the Hopes, you can change cassette bodies easily, so you will have to factor that into your budget.

[stu8975]

Its because hope freehub bodies are made of aluminium cheese and deore ones are steel, ideally you should only be using cassettes with spiders in them (not the 8 legged freak kind either) ie. xt/pg990, but you will still get indentations in the splines of the freehub as not all of the sprockets on the cassette are attatched to the spider, hope do a steel one as far as i can remember, most companies fit alu ones to keep the weight down and shout about how light there wheels are...you can gently file them back into shape if its not too bad, if its not causing any probs, go ride and leave it.

[PomBstard]

stu8975 said:

...you can gently file them back into shape if its not too bad, if its not causing any probs, go ride and leave it.

Just what I was thinking, cheers. I've also sent a note to Hope and will see what they suggest.

[Gooby]

Like this?

You can replace it. It isnt brass it is aluminium and if that isnt rugged enough for you, they make a steel one. circa £60, including bearings and pawls for either material. Not a fan of the Hope bearings, try these..
http://www.carbontec.co.uk/productDetails.php?ctCo...

last years "model" on clearence, ceramic bearings for £55!

[thepickle]

I had this happen with XT hub/XT cassette, with one of the "loose" rings. There was a bad creak/click type noise under power that got worse over time, by the time I realised what was causing it, the ring had munched a fair way through the splines on the freehub body, almost all the way through the narrower ones.

[PomBstard]

Thanks for the responses. I also got a quick couple of emails from the guys at Hope - seems that when they were doing product development, riders preferred the light weight of the aluminium shell so that's what they went for and accept that its not as durable as steel. Pretty much what the gist of this thread says.

Also had a chat in my LBS and a couple of the bods there have Hope hubs and have suffered the same. They also file the edges, reload and get on with the riding. Which is what I plan to do, and put the rest down to experience.

[rocksteadyeddie]

Bontrager hubs do the same thing. A bit of filing solves the problem and truth be told it's not that often that you take your cassette on and off.

[P-Jay]

I does happen as above on sub XT cassets and certain SRAM ones (I don't use SRAM cassets so not sure).

Hope do sell replacement steel bodies at the same price as alloy ones, but at the moment don't offer the choice from new.