Hope are always been known for its mountain bike’s hubs, but in the recent year the company has been upgrading their bike rims. Hope’s new Tech Enduro wheel set, it has rims to its own design ready to lace up as now. The Hope Enduro rims are made from 6061 T6 aluminium. This is further welded and eyeleted with a triple cavity construction for excellent strength while keeping the weight low. While the outer part of the rim is anodised for a durable finish. Further, these rims are too easy to set up tubeless with the addition of tubeless tape and valves.

Each year Hope Technology comes with their modified bike parts. As of 2021 Hope caused a stir with their new complete factory wheel-set, the Hope Tech Enduro rim. They charge a very competitive £380 (€585) for front and rear to retailer. Same year, hope built onto their legendary Pro II EVO hubs, allowing any axle standard to be accommodated. Similarly, they have new Pro 4 hubs. The main change of the key is a revamped free hub that now houses a 44-tooth ratchet mechanism. According to maker, the revised hubs can produce much quicker engagement; 10 percent quicker, in fact, than the Pro 2 Evo.

Why Hope tech Enduro rim?

Like other part of the mountain bike, Rim is also one of most important part that plays a vital role. Rim sits on the outside of the wheel and on the vast majority of mountain bike wheels, has one main function; to hold the tyre. The performances of the wheel rim depend upon the width of a rim. That could have a significant impact on rider control and grip on the trail, more on that later. Besides that the rims also serves as the anchor for spoke heads, or nipples.

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Hope 29er Enduro wheelset feels very precise and has round tracks that will not only help in acceleration but also helps o decrease the rim twists off roots and rocks. In the market the hope rim are regarded to be one of the heaviest wheelset on test by 130g but its incredible value and comes in a ton of options. Comparing to the other brand rim, the Hope Enduro rim looks more smooth, Pro 4 hub set, several refinements, including a faster-engaging free hub, 11-speed compatibility, bigger flanges (for a stiffer wheel), a Boost option and many more.

Hope Tech Enduro Rim’s Design and manufacture

The Enduro wheel set is Hope’s first complete wheel set where they uses their own rims as well as hubs. The Wheel set comes at 2,024g (954g front, 1,070g rear) for our 650b sized test set. The Enduro rim was designed to stand up to the rigors of what Hope describes as “Enduro” racing and riding. Hope’s new rims have been built with a triple cavity similar to the Stan’s Arch and Flow rims Hope previously used Hope’s wheel sets.

As you have already seen that Hope never get afraid of spending a few quid on a machine if it does the job right and building their new wheels is no exception. Even the smallest part like nipples Hope has built a machine from the ground up to deal by the help of Holland Mechanics. This proves that Hope have a great promising future instead of tensioning the wheel from the inside like a traditional spoke key. The nipples help to develop deep section carbon rims in the future.

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The rims are available in 26, 27.5 and 29″ diameters, with an internal width of 23mm that stays consistent between the three sizes. The rim of this model is made from 6061 T6 aluminium and are welded and eyeleted. Inside, the rim we can see a triple cavity construction. According to the Hope, they make them incredibly tough – in the simplest terms.

As you have already seen that Hope are never afraid of spending a few quid on a machine if it does the job right and building their new wheels is no exception. Even the smallest part like nipples Hope has built a machine from the ground up to deal by the help of Holland Mechanics. This proves that Hope have a great promising future instead of tensioning the wheel from the inside like a traditional spoke key. The nipples help to develop deep section carbon rims in the future.

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Likewise, the advance enduro rim has two walls that divide the interior into three sections and helping to support the outer structure. The components that are used inside the rims are for the extra strength. After bouncing those walls down on rugged and rocky tracks for the past few months we found that the wall are still running true, with even spoke tensions.

The 32 spokes themselves comes in very high quality double-butted Sapim items matched to durable brass nipples. Adding to the price of the rim they are very affordable and as well thought through setup, designed to be cheap and easy to replace in the event of a breakage, perfect for privateer Enduro racers or indeed anyone that prefers their wallet to have cash left in it.

Many of riders also gave review that Hope Pro II Evo are more reliable, nicely machined and a decent weight. However, some of them said that they are quiet tough, stiff and have common spares that specialist setups lack. As we said before the width of the rim determines performance of the wheel set. The Enduro rim width is spot on and they’re simple to convert to tubeless. Whereas, these hub adaptors are extra but you should be able to easily find the ones you need.

Performance of Hope Tech Enduro Rim on Trail

Now coming towards the performance, Hope wheels are amazing on the trail. The weight and width of the rims demines he performance of the wheel. The enduro rims comes in different weight and at nearly 2kg they certainly aren’t featherweights – most Enduro racers run wheels that weigh around the 1700g mark (for 27.5″), some 2-300g lighter than the Tech Enduro. However, in the uphill portion it is hard to think about those rims without mentioning the weight.

If you are into heavy wheels, or simple you want to try upgrade that will not break the bank, then Hope tech Enduro wheel set has become the new benchmark in the sub £500 category. They are certainly reliable, strong, stiff, affordable and seemingly bombproof but they come in a significant price premium disadvantage. Thus, every gram of the Enduro is directly translated in strength and reliability. There is indeed, the Hope Tech Enduro rim weigh in at 1999 g for a pair, a respectable weight but with high end Carbon wheel-sets coming in at 1600 g there is some extra mass to shift as well.

However, if you are into lighter rim then Hope will not be the great option. As they can make certainly difference to how light your bike will feel and how easy it is to put the power down. So when you look at the word “Enduro” that these are marketed for, you need to have a think about what that means for you and where you ride. The extra weight on the wheel can make it tougher on the downhill-oriented durability scales. Unlike other rim we couldn’t dent or bend them, no matter how hard we tried.

However, every is designed to for different types of rider. If you are one of those people who are racing tired on fast, rocky terrain, so subtlety and finesse go right out of the window and your bike takes one hell of a beating. One thing interesting about Hope rim is that after going through that kind of extreme abuse didn’t phase the rims. After a check round with the spoke key then be ready for the next adventure.

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Thus in overall in terms of acceleration, weight saved on the rim is worth seven times than that from anywhere else, and the Hope’s spin up quickly and feel lively and accurate on the trail. On things that dissatisfy the view of the customer is that they do add a bit more weight to the bike.

Details of Hope Enduro Rim

Width: 23mm internal width

Material: Welded and eyeleted 6061 T6 aluminium rim
Cavity: Triple cavity construction for added strength
Stain: Black Sapim Race stainless steel double butted spokes
Nipples: Silver Brass nipples
Colors: Standard hubs available in Black, Silver, Blue, Red, Gunsmoke and Purple
Straight pull hubs only in Black

Other features:

Front wheels supplied with QR and 15mm conversions included (9 and 20mm conversions available separately)
Rear wheels supplied as 135mm QR (135×12 and 142x 12 conversions available separately)
32 hole Pro 2 EVO hubs
4 Pawl ratchet mechanism
Stainless Steel, sealed cartridge bearings
Rim ERD: 26″ 539 // 27.5″ 562 // 29″ 600
Weights for rim only 26″-490g, 27.5″-510g, 29″-540g
Compete standard wheel weights:
26″ F 911g R 1020g // 27.5″ F 923g R 1061g // 29″ F 962g R 1093g