Archive News

Occupation Sales order processing clerk/accounts assistant (office skivey) How long worked at Hope? Started October 2007 Products made Mmm...None! Occasional brew and a fair bit of shredded paper though! Hobbies & Interest's Weekends and everything that goes with them Love? Life, friends and family Loathe? Arrogant people and smart arses Listening to? Take That, Pink and Oasis Most likely to be heard saying...."Alright my lovely" Dinner with 3 famous people, dead or alive....Vernon Kay - he's hilarious, Ronan Keating - Fwwaaa and any of the boys form Take That - they take me back to my youth!

BCF Factory Tour 2 More pics and report from the BCF factory tour .....Click here for the link

BCF Factory Tour The British Cycling Federation recently took delivery of their new team kit - they brought mechanics, managers, press and riders upto our Barnoldswick Factory to have the kit fitted ans set up. The team will be using our new lightweight 3 bolt wheels, bottom brackets, headsets and Mono Mini Pro brakes. .....Click here for the link

PRODUCT TESTING! Now we know the branding say's 'designed, made and tested in Barnoldswick' - but that's not strctly true!........ Guillaume, our in house brake designer has just come back from a riding trip/holiday in South America, something he like's to call 'testing'! The soon to be released 3 bolt hubs were put through their paces on the 2500 mile journey through Chile and Argentina. Full story coming soon, but for more pics...... Click here

Paul Oldham Interview Our star rider, Paul Oldham has been winning everything this year. So much so the BCF have done an interview with him. .....Click here to read it

KIDS CLOTHING To add to the adults clothing range - we also have this brilliant kids stuff too! Full replica kit - same quality as the adult's, with a proper chamois pad in the shorts and pockets in the jersey! Sold as a set (shorts and jersey) and retailing at £45. Click here.....

Fort Bill Endurance DH It seems like a long time ago now, but back at the beginning of September - 5 members of staff made the trip up to Fort Bill for the no Fuss Endurance DH event. You may have seen reports in the mags by now - but here are a few pics to prove that really do ride!... Click here

3 Bolt 24 spoke wheels Light, strong, stiff, race proven..... the 3 bolt Pro3 SP-XC3 wheels have it all. For more pics... Click here

Winter road wheels Looking for road wheels to see you through the winter and beyond?.... Click here

NEW! Tech brakes The new Tech brakes are nearly here! For more pics.... Click here

Asian Champ on Hope Now we complain of uplifts and course lengths in the UK for DH racing - how about the national champs being staged in Nepal?! This is JOR Tsui King Man racing his Moto V2 equipped V10 to 3rd place in the recent Asian Champs.... Click here for pics

Dirt Mag Comp Follow the link.... and win pink!!. .....Click here

TONY BROWN Occupation Milling manager/programmer (I think!) How long worked at Hope? Never actually worked, but been coming for 13 years Products made All milled bit's - calipers, master cylinders, stems, brckets, light bodie's etc Hobbies & Interest's Rugby, cycling, beering, walking (not neccesarily in that order) Love? My family and my MX5 Loathe? Litter and litterer's Listening to? at the moment...Coldplay, Bashphelt and Kings of Leon Most likely to be heard saying...."Is it Friday yet? or "Where's Alex"? Dinner with 3 famous people, dead or alive....Ellery Hanley, Billy Connelly and Morrisey

Woody makes front page! It's taken years of trying - way back from Junior Kick start champion in 1982, but finally he's made the front page of TMX, the off road bikers paper of choice. If you don't subscribe, get yourself down to the newsagents NOW - as Woody will be out this afternoon buying up copies to save for posterity (and selling, signed on e-bay!) Click here.....

Malsis School Trail Opening Ian Weatherill (owner/director of Hope) has been busy this winter with a MTB facility and his son's school. In usual style, the whole project got bigger and better and now it's ready for the grand opening - for more words and pics .....Click here

Olympic hopeful - Oli Beckingsale takes top 20 at WC Giant rider - Oli Beckingsale has had a busy start to the season, back to back world cups events and National points series all made for a hard 2008 campaign. To read more about Oli's results and travels .....Click here

Hope sponsored rider breaks South Downs Record Rob Lee - Iron Horse Extreme Team rider and Hope sponsored athlete has just broken the South Downs Way record. To read more .....Click here

SPONSORSHIP GOES GREEN It's race time again. It's the beginning of the season and riders are busy getting ready for the year ahead. We'll have a full list of sponsored riders up soon, but you'll see the likes of Marc Beaumont, Oli Beckingsale, Rob Jarman, Billy Whenman, Rob Lee, Team MSC (Mickael Pascual, Bernat Guardia, Arnau Sugranes and David Lozano)The Britsh Cycling Federation, Team Trek SiS, Team Monty, Team Mojo, Kamil Tatrakovic, Kenny Belaey, Thomas Ohler, Wayne Mahomet, Team MTBCut.TV, Team Scott, Martin Ogden, Martin Ashton, Dave Wardell, Danny Butler, Filip Meirhaeghe, Dan Stanbridge, Rowan Sorrell, Chris Ball, Will Longden, Neil Donoghue, Rob Warner and others! We also have some very special PINK product for the girls this year as well. Helen Gaskell, Kate Potter, Katy Curd and Jenn O'Connor will all be riding with a full compliment of pink kit (pics when we get them) - Check out the latest sponsorship product for our Factory riders here...... Click here

Descent World Competition You may have seen a competition running on Descent World recently, to design new graphics for the Riders Retreat Team Bikes. Riders Retreat is a top Morzine destination for all sorts of MTB'ers. Alan Milway from the chalet regularly see's some of the top riders in the world out there for training camps (he's also a fitness instructor) as well as the rest of us for purpose made holidays in the mecca that is Morzine. We got involved as a co sponsor of the Chalet, Team and competition - if you're looking for a bike holiday abroad this year (summer or winter) and need beautiful bike friendly accomodation, expert staff and guides, great food and a friendly welcome, then look no further than www.riders-retreat.co.uk for all you need. .....Click here to see the winning entry

East Midlands National - "after" After the pre race inspection the week before - Paul's day didn't finish too well, although he DID finish AND inside the time limit! .....Click here

East Midlands National - "before" Hope Factory sponsored riders had a sneaky peek of the now run event "Rutland Classic". Team SiS - Trek and Paul oldham had a run round the course which see's an international field on a Paris-Roubaix style race - This is the 'before' part for Hope's Paul Oldham - see next installment for what happened..... thoughts and pics of the course .....Click here

NPS DH 1 - Ae Forest Hope Factory sponsored riders had a good start to the NPS campaign this year, with 6 out of the top 9 in the elite field using Hope brakes and products. It was an 'interesting' return to racing for Neil@Hope - broken collarbone here 18 months ago and a cautious, but OK start to racing again meant 9th in masters - roll on Innerleithen and round2! .....Click here to see the report from the guy's at descent-world.co.uk

SNEEK PEAK OF MONO M4 Looks like there's a special edition Mono M4 in the pipeline. These have been spotted at the factory and after a little bit of delving it seems that they will be made available to order in June. Strictly limited though! Interested? Badger your LBS for more details and to order - make sure you don't miss out! .... Click here for more pics

PINK! Mono Mini You may have seen these beauties around in the mags for a little while now. We've been promising to release them and due to the phone lines going crazy for them we've actually got them into full production. Initially limited to just 200 sets these special edition brakes are already going out to dealers. Priced at £150 each, they are as standard braided and floating with 160mm rotors only on 9.74 calipers. There's some lovely detailing on the master cylinders and calipers and the rotors have a flower pattern cut into the band. For more pictures......

External Bottom Bracket These are the first pics of the all new External bottom bracket. We've got more than fed up replacing our existing units on a monthly basis, so this little bit of kit should save us all time (and money!) Using some custom made full stainless steel bearings (made by INA who do all our bearings) these machined aluminium cups are sealed with a labyrinth seal like on the hub rotor bodies and the aluminium centre tube is sealed with o-rings. Testing has been going well and we should see the units ready to go by January. Price is expected to be £65 for the stainless steel version, and there will be a full ceramic verion to follow at about £95. Watch this space. For more pictures......

4 LED Lightset This is another new product just about ready to go! Building on the success of the established 2 LED lightset and the original HID - this new 4 LED light is set for release in the new year and is looking to pack a 1000 lumen punch! The 4 cell battery will give run times of 3 hours even when on the highest power setting. Add to this some intelligent circuitery internally, waterproof battery and connectors and the handbuilt attention to detail that goes into all our light's and you've got another winning light - especially when you considor the price is expected to be under £300! For more pictures, click here......

1 LED Light Fresh from it's first outing at the London Cycle Show, these are some of the first pics of the new 1 LED light due early in 2008. The compact self contained light will be bar mountable (on a new QR bracket) helmet mounted or on a lanyard for general use. 4AA rechargable batteries will give the light upto 240 lumens for 3 hours, with different power settings giving upto 30 hours of usable light. The waterproof, CNC machined casing will be available in different colour options with an expected RRP of £79. Due in the shops early in the new year - one for the Christmas list! For more pictures, click here......

BBC News at Hope! Hope went worldwide today - we've had a film crew up doing a piece on export and interest rates. Ian's done his piece to camera again (the second time in as many weeks - he also 'starred' in a documentary for Engineering in Schools we're involved with as well) so to see what we said... .....Click here for the link

VENTED ROTOR MANUFACTURING - Ever wondered how certain bits of your bike actually get there? How they are made?..... We lift the lid on our unique Vented rotors ..... Read more

INTEGRATED HEADSETS - We now do it all! With more and more bike manufacturers using integrated and semi integrated designs for headsets, we've taken our massively popular headset along with them ..... Read more

PRO 3 STRAIGHT PULL WHEELS - The all NEW! Pro 3 is nearly ready! Some amazing machine work can be found on the latest incarnation of the Pro range ...... Read more

FACTORY MOVE - The last few months have seen a change of premises for Hope. Here's a little insight into what's been involved...... Read more

Kids 24" wheel frameset You may have seen a little bit about this project through the media over the last couple of months - but these are some of the first pictures of the soon to be released kids bike we've been working on for a while. Originally coming about with a need for Ian's son to have a new bike, due to there not being anything of real quality available - we did as we always do and made one! It's also been a little bit of a 'look what we can do' project and we'll use the bikes as promotional tools at show's and event's to showcase the ever increasing range of Hope product. We're not trying to re-write the rules on frame design or building, but we have brought some of our knowledge and experience to the frame. Headtube, seat tower, seatstays, chainstays and dropout's will all be machined from single pieces of billet aluminium. This is quite a challenge in some cases - which is both costly and time consuming. The main triangle will be constructed using bonded in carbon tubes, with the rear triangle bolting in place. Internal cable routing and flush fitting rear caliper mounts are some of the clever touches we have incorporated in the design - 'because we can'! Expect the bike to be ready to go by sometime in 2008 - only available as complete bikes with a spec most of us wouldn't mind on our own bikes! Pace forks, XO gearing, Race Face cranks and of course a full complement of all our products. Price?...... not yet finalised, but somewhere in the region of £3000! For more pictures, click here......

Congratulations Firstly to Paul and Sally on the birth of their 1st child. It was a great introduction to the World for new baby Declan - his first trip away was to the World Champs in Fort William to watch Dad race in GB colours. He didn't dissapoint and finished a fabulous 55th, only 10 minutes back on the leaders after a gruelling 5 laps. It won't stop there though - the cross season is nearly on us, so there will be many more muddy fields to sit in and racing to enjoy!

GB Rider of the Year? The results are in! Well done to Paul who's been voted equal second behind Worlds Silver Medalist David Fletcher in the GB rider poll .....Click here for XCracer.com

Congratulations to Hope Factory rider Paul Oldham, series leader of the National Trophy Cyclo Cross Series. Paul is absolutley 'on it' at the moment. After becoming a Dad only a few weeks ago - Paul's been on fire in the first two rounds of the National Trophy Cyclo Cross Championship. Round 1 saw him ride away in good conditions in Wales in the opening event of the year. He followed this with selection to ride at the Kalmhout Round of the WC Series, which saw a superb 46th. Back to the UK (and work Monday morning!) and the second round of the Trophy series at Ipswich with business as usual and another win. He'll be looking to add another win this coming weekend at the Inter Area Championship's, where he'll be riding for the North West. We wish Paul the very best of luck - and he just goes to prove that you can race at the highest level as well as work, train and of course be a Dad! .....Click here for full results

End of an Era We have finally decided to stop production of the long running XC, Mono and Big Un' hubs. Since the introduction of the Pro2 and subsequently Pro3 hubs, the 3 different ranges have been superseeded by just the one. We will still honour warranty claims (as usual) and most spares will be available for some time, although these will start to dwindle over time. Items such as bearings are not affected as they are a stock item. Non disc hub users and road riders now have the Pro3 hub, which is available in a 130mm rear axle. Stainless bearings and the drive system from the Pro2 mean free running, low maintanence reliability in a lightweight hub. Tandem owners may have to be patient though! We can offer the standard Pro2 hub with a 135mm spacing in a QR or Bolt in version. The bolt in version allows the wheel to be attached via 2 M10 bolts and serrated washers. For bigger axle options, we're looking at options for next year.....

Christmas at Hope! ...we've drafted some extra help in this year just to deal with the demand for lights alone! We hope the extra investment is worth it! To see more of the muppe... I mean staff, click here......

Christmas Notice Note for Christmas deliveries. We will be closed from Friday 21st Dec (2.30pm - and yes it is the xmas party so we won't be hanging around!) until Wednesday 02 January 2008. Last dispatch date is Friday 21st, on orders received before 10am. This goes for servicing and warranty as well. Also note that any e mails sent over the Festive period won't be answered until the 1st week back - and then we will have the inevitable back log. Please be patient! All that remains is for us to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas - and all the very best for the New Year! We hope Santa brings you something nice and shiny and Hope shaped (!) and remember..... a second on the lips, a lifetime on the hips! Go easy over Christmas dinner!

Congratulations to Marc Beaumont, 1st at the first round of the MTB DH World Cup in Vigo, Spain this weekend. This is the first top spot on the WC podium for Marc, having come close last year. Marc runs Mono M4's on his DH bike along with Pro2 hubs, the same as the rest of the MBUK/Santa Cruz Team. It was a double podium in the mens DH, David Vasquez Lopez of MSC Maxxis came in second! Other notable results from the weekend for Hope supported riders were; Tom Braithewaite (Giant UK) 9th - well done Tom! Neil Donoghue (MBUK/ Santa Cruz) 16th, Bernat Pascal Gaurdia (MSC/Maxxis), Dan Stanbridge (Mojo) Lee Bertram, Julien Camelini (Mojo) and Rowen Sorrel. In the womens race Fionn Griffiths came in 6th. More details from the race when we get them. ..... Click here for full results

MONO MINI PRO - The lightweight racers dream! The ever popular Mono Mini just went on a diet! We have stripped the MM2 down and given it a new look for those wanting high performance AND lightweight...... Read more