Hope’s most recent production bike, the HB.916, is a 160mm travel, mid-high pivot, hand-made carbon fibre speed machine.
Pete checks in on his time with Hope’s enduro machine after a winter of doing almost every kind of trail under the sun.
Photos by Pete Scullion.
Key features:
- Ohlins RFX38 m.2 Air 170mm fork
- Ohlins TT Air TM m.2 shock
- SRAM XO AXS Eagle T-type 12-speed drive
- Hope Tech 4 V4 brakes
- Hope Pro5 Boost hubs on Hope Fortus 30SC rims
- OneUp dropper
- £7,795.00 RRP
- HopeTechHB.com
The Hope HB.916 is available in technically more builds, where the stock spec differs by way of cranks (SRAM or Hope) and brakes (E4 or V4 calipers). Otherwise, the hand-made carbon fibre frame, in-house made links and hardware are fitted with m.2 variants of the Ohlins TT Air TM shock and RXF38 air forks. SRAM’s XO AXS T-type handles the drive, with this bike coming with the Hope alloy cranks. Brakes are the potent Hope Tech4 V4s with 200mm rotors at both ends. Wheels are Hope Pro5 on Fortus 30 rims shod with Maxxis rubber. Cockpit is also Hope, with DMR grips, OneUp dropper and an SDG saddle.
S one-piece front triangle and a rear triangle is composite of carbon and aluminium, allows the wide-set bearings to sit in aluminium. Routing is internal, there’s rubber frame protection in the critical areas. The ‘Butty Box’ downtube storage is now also Fidlock compatible. A high pivot with idler manages the 160mm rear wheel travel and the frame can be run as a Mullet or full 29″. The bike seen here is a full 29er. A flip chip allows you to drop 0.8 degrees of the head angle.
Complete Hope HB.916s start from £7,795.00, complete bikes minus drivetrain from £6,795.00 and framesets from £3,795.00.
Geometry
The Hope HB916 is available in H1, H2, H3 and H4 sizes.
Reach on the H2 in Slack is 467mm with a seat tube of 410mm. Head angle is 63.2 degrees with an effective seat tube angle of 78.1 degrees. Chainstays are 440mm with a wheelbase of 1262mm.
Since my First Look Review, the Hope HB.916 has been the bike I have opted to take out when rowdy trails are calling. Whilst it’s not the most ruthlessly efficient climbing bike on smoother terrain, it more than makes up for it on technical climbs where grip is impressive and square edges don’t sap your cadence any.
Yes, there is some shock bob but that is the trade off when it comes to higher pivots, and far from being sloppy, it just requires a little more oomph to go the same speed or slightly slower at usual inputs. The reward is a dangerously quick bike the moment you point it downhill.
Along with the Atherton S150, the Hope HB.916 has encourage me to do silly things at high speed whilst remaining fully in control. The newer Ohlins dampers are a far cry from the original offerings that were overdamped. Combined with the mid-high pivot, the rear of the bike smooths out the trail chatter and is composed in the bigger hits. The RXF38 fork is a treat and does a solid job of keeping you pointing in the right direction.
It didn’t take long for me to process the new speed at which I would tackle my favourite trails on this bike, but the brakes were a different matter, for very good reasons. The Tech4 V4s with race pads are likely better than the brakes on my van. They had me braking in a more binary fashion compared to my usual constant, light pressure. So powerful were the anchors that I would just brake later, or not at all, knowing that I’d be able to bring it all to heel.
The only thing that a very good suspension and brake setup highlighted though was that the usually excellent Maxxis Minion DHRII might need to be upgraded for something with a bit more bite. A Continental Kryptotal R might have been able to get the wheel gripping more and skidding less. Or perhaps option for the E4 brakes as they are not exactly weak anchors either.
I had all of next zero issues with the bike during its time with me. One of the teeth on the top cog of the SRAM cassette came off somewhere at some point. This isn’t unique to this bike though. Also in the very unique conditions of a heinously wet Lower Boomslang clay combined with fire road cinder, the lower idler jammed. I think it would have jammed any bike that day mind.
What do we think?
Honestly, I didn’t really want to have to give the 916 back. It’s on the list of bikes I would pay my own money for. In almost any given situation, the bike was a gateway drug to riding trails I have ridden for years at considerably more velocity. It’s not silly money for a bike hand-built on our shores, dripping with the best kit either. That raw carbon weave catching the light will never get old either.
We love:
- Confidence-inspiring ride
- UK-made
- Not silly money for what it is
Could do better:
- Can brakes be too powerful?
