I bought a cheap (£100) set of wheels at the Builth Merida in the spring when I noticed that the rim had cracked on my trusty Hope / Mavic XC717 rear wheel. The bearings on the new rear wheel has gone already, so I'm in the market for another pair of wheels.

I'd like something with easily servicable bearings. The bearings in the Hope XC hubs were OK to replace, but I did find the freehub bearings a bit of a faff.

I've been considering Hope Pro2 or Hope Pro3 but I've heard that Shimano XTR hubs are also quite servicable. Has anyone got experience of the Hope Pro's or the Shimano hubs? Or can anyone recommend me a good serviceable alternative?

Hi folks, tell us about SITS then. 

Derek, DT hubs are sposed to be good, and very easy to service.  I have the Onyx tho (Bontrager badged)  and the pawls are not good enough.  go for the next ones up as they dont use pawls.

 In fact my pawls were worryingly slipping on several of the Scottish wildreness epics I've just come back from.  It adds to the excitement!!

DT Swiss thirded.

Though XTR are very easy to look after if you like cup and cone. Also have a 5 year warranty.

The top-end DT Swiss 240 hub uses a star ratchet system which is different from their low-end stuff and seems pretty much bullet-proof to me, the only downside beyond purchase price is that you need a special 20-quid tool to get to the bearings behind the free-hub - you can borrow mine though...

The Pro 2 seems good to me, I changed all the bearings in Julie's Pro 2 before Mayhem in about 30 minutes without any of the special tools. On the downside, they make a hell of a racket when freewheeling, which is great in race situations, not so good for trail riding. Hope XCs seem better for noise output and the ones on my Maverick's wheels have been stone reliable so far.

There's a Pro 2 maintenance video on the Hope site which gives a good idea of how easy it all is. If it weren't for the noise, I'd say they were pretty much ideal. Have a listen to some and see what you think - Julie has a set on her bike, I have some on my race wheels. The Pro 2 front is a nice design because you can use it with a normal QR, a 20mm axle or even a Maverick front hub just by swapping adaptors over.

I've run XT hubs briefly. Adjustable cone bearings, if the freehub bearings go, you buy a new freehub at almost the price of a new hub. I wouldn't...

Ringle Abbah - crap sealing, pawls wear and stop working, don't do it...

Guy managed to crack the body of a CK rear hub, also they make a frightening swarm of beers racket and are insanely expensive given that you could buy a 240S and have a load of change left over.

Oh, going by what somone I trust told me, steer clear of the American Classic hubs that JRA sell. Apparently not so great.

SITS was a mud fest

Pro 2's sound like they'll do the job. Is it easy to change the Pro 2 freehub bearings?

And what is the difference between Pro 2 and Pro 3.

And finally, although I've been told by everyone to get a Rockshox Reba SL, Ade has one of these and I do prefer the idea of a real spring rather than some dodgy tube of air - so would it be suitable for my soon-to-be-built  'Freeride Surly'?

Derek Hunter wrote (see)

Pro 2's sound like they'll do the job. Is it easy to change the Pro 2 freehub bearings?

And what is the difference between Pro 2 and Pro 3.

1. I managed to change the Pro 2 freehub bearings - there are three of them, two stacked at one end, one at the other - without any issues. Just drove the old ones out, tapped some new ones in, so easy, I've forgotten the details

2. Pro 3s are non-disc hubs.

Derek - air sprung forks are fine for general trail/XC riding and are also lighter AND more adjustable (infinitely so, in fact)  The Patriot runs an air fork, and I've never felt underpowered on that!

 As for hubs - I've got no experience of the DT/Bonty hubs, but have got very good experience of Pro2 hubs, much better than XC or Bulb ones.  More bearings in them, but they are very simple to service - it takes about 20 secs to take the freehub body off to clean out any muck and check the bearings and about another 5 mins to knock all of the existing bearings out.  I did a complete bearing change on a Bulb rear once and it took hours.  Conversely, did a complete change on a Pro2 a couple of months ago in about 45 mins without any special tools.  I just used a piece of wooden curtain rail as a  drift to knock the new bearings in.  Oh, and second the Hope vids as being useful for explaining how its done.

Not really that fussed about Mavic hubs. Much harder to service and special tools generally required and would rather avoid cup and cone if I can help it. 

It's the very adjustability of air forks that I'm suspicious of! I can't bear all that faffing about with positive this, negative that and five different types of "threshold". Plus, there is no way I would ever take a shock pump with me. Where would I put it for a start?

A nice big spring to soak up the bumps and some oil to control the damping sounds good to me

Twelve months sounds pretty fair to me. The bearings on my Hope XC hubs lasted twelve and six months for the front and rear respectively.

That's why I'm interested in how easy they are to change. I seem to have to do it a lot!

I expect I'll get used to it

Is anyone going to the Salford Nocturne on the 30th August?

Cup & Cone......(eerrrhh, shudders).

Just prepared and packed the bike into the bike bag for the Alps.

Getting very excited now!