Hope Technology has announced the new Gravity stem, completely redesigned to be both lighter and stiffer than their previous offering, with a fresh, modern aesthetic to boot. At their Old Barnoldswick HQ in England, Hope are also machining new pulley wheels, and, in a somewhat charitable effort, are now offering free downloads of the files to 3D print brake bleed blocks, and other small, useful parts.
Hope Gravity Stem
The new Hope Gravity Stem is both lighter and stiffer than its predecessor, the DH Stem. That’s with the stock steel bolts. They’ve effectively managed this with a new geometry, and by carefully machining the stem to remove material from where it’s simply not necessary. The result is a much cleaner, modern looking stem, particularly in regard to the face-plate.
We weighed a 35mm reach option at 173g on our Park Tool DS-2 Tabletop Digital Scale. I’m not sure whether it was the 35mm or 31.8mm clamp option, but the claimed weights for these are within 0.5g of one another.
The Hope Gravity Stem is available in 35mm and 50mm lengths, and 35mm or 31.8mm clamp diameters and all are 0° rise. These retail at £105.00 (€130.00), and will be available from next week in the usual range of anodized finishes offered by Hope.
Hope have offered Jockey wheel upgrades for 11 speed SRAM and Shimano derailleurs for some time, but now they have added 12 Speed versions, for SRAM only. The upper has 12 teeth, with a standard tooth profile, while the lower has 14 teeth and a narrow-wide tooth profile to better guide the chain as it feeds in from the chainring. These will be available from August onward.
Now onto the interesting stuff… i’m serious! I’m willing to bet the interest in this 3-piston bleed block will be rather high. This will be super useful when the caliper has one stubborn, sticky piston that needs teased out. In an unusual move, rather than manufacture and sell this 3-piston bleed block (and the regular 2-piston and 4-piston bleed blocks and pad separator for travelling), Hope have decided to make the files necessary to 3D print all of them available to download for free from their website.
This is great from an environmental perspective, as there’ll effectively be no waste, but, it does make the whole thing a little more exclusive than it already is. Perspective will likely depend upon how easily accessible a 3D Printer is to any given prospective consumer.
