Following the announcement of Shimano’s Micro Spline, hub and wheel manufacturers have had to request express permission from Shimano to manufacture their own freehubs compatible with the new design. Few brands, including DT Swiss, Industry Nine, and recently Chris King have been given approval by Shimano, but now Hope Technology are joining the exclusive club with Hope Micro Spline compatible freehubs.
We spotted a Shimano XTR M9100 12 speed cassette on a staff bike at the launch of Hope’s new short travel trail bike, the HB.130. At that time, Hope were still awaiting permission to sell the new Hope Micro Spline compatible hubs. The approval means that Hope could start offering the HB.130 and its longer travel sibling, the HB.160, with Shimano groupsets; currently both bikes are only available with SRAM groups.
From Hope Technology: “At Hope we’ve always believed in making sure our components can be modified to suit every new standard where possible. With the announcement of Shimano’s Microspline we lobbied to be granted the licence to produce compatible hubs. After negotiation we’ve been given the licence and as of yesterday, 1st Jan we are now able to sell wheels and hubs fitted with this new freehub design. We currently have freehubs in stock and have begun shipping them to shops and distributors around the world. You’re also not left out if you have our older Pro 2 EVO hubs as we have Microspline freehubs in stock to update these older hubs to the new standard.”
