Hope has an all-new RX stem designed to drop your gravel dropbars or lower your XC cockpit. And of course, it comes in the colorful Hope anodized range, plus a new bronze to add a bit more flash to your ride. Plus, they’ve added another lacing option to their light & wide alloy gravel wheels. And from now on, tubeless setup of their carbon road & gravel wheels will be one step quicker and cheaper…
Hope RX -15° machined alloy gravel & XC stem
Imagine a lightweight machined alloy Hope XC stem, but slammed down to get your bars lower. That’s exactly what you get with the new RX, designing it for “a more aggressive, race-focused geometry”.
Splitting the length difference of the 0° XC stem, the new Hope RX stem is available in 80mm only, and -15° rise, and designed for gravel or cross-country. Hope CNC-machines the 2014-T6 aluminium stem in-house in Barnoldswick, UK.
Pricing is the same as the cross-country version, as are the bolt options. Pick up a RX stem with stainless steel bolts for £105 / $133 / 130€ starting October 1st. Or for about £30 / 35€ extra you’ll be able to upgrade to titanium bolts. Weights should be ~143g with steel bolts, 131g with ti hardware. The new Hope RX gravel stem comes in black, silver, red, blue, orange & purple ano, plus the newer bronze to match your Hope gravel hubs, headset, and upgraded brake calipers & rotors.
And in reality, if your XC bike needs a bit of rise, you can always run the new RX upside down for a +15° angle as long as you don’t mind it saying “adoy” on the side of your stem.
More Hope RX24 gravel wheel options
The update to Hope’s “lightest and widest” 700c alloy gravel wheel is a subtle one that’d be easy to miss. Unless you start counting spokes on your buddies’ wheels. Yes, the innovation here is 28 spokes – the perfect compromise between 24 or 32 spokes. All false exaggeration aside…
Hope built a reasonably light (from 1780g complete with 24 spokes) 24mm internal x 23mm deep alloy wheelset for gravel riders with their excellent Pro 5 hubs, and initially offered it this past spring also with 32 spokes for heavier riders and loaded bikepacking.
But then, they realized that something in the middle would provide the best of both worlds in terms of lighter weight and added durability.
Enter 28 spokes.
Also available from Oct 1 via Hope dealers, the RX24 gravel wheels now let you choose 24, 28 & 32 double-butted black Sapim Race spokes and straight-pull or traditional J-bend. Then, pick your favorite color for the Pro 5 hubs (same colors as the new RX stem, and even Boost spacing if you need it), your freehub of choice, and Hope laces them up with brass nipples.
The updated RX24 wheels cost the same as before – £230 / 300€ front & £350 / 450€ rear for J-bend, £270 / 360€ front & £390 / 515€ rear for straight-pull. And they come pre-taped for tubeless and with Hope’s latest tubeless valves in matching colors.
RD40 carbon wheel tubeless update too
OK, this one is super minor, really.
But the still super narrow at 19mm inside x 40mm deep RD40 is Hope’s only carbon wheelset approved for gravel. It was already designed for tubeless. But now when you buy a RD40 wheelset it will come with Hope’s latest tubeless tape and tubeless valves at no extra cost.
Here built with durable carbon hubs, centerlock Pro 5 straight pull hubs, and 24 black aero bladed Sapim CX-Ray spokes – all from start to finish by hand in Barnoldswick. RD40 wheels sell for £650 / $820 / 825€ front & £725 / $915 / 925€ rear in the hub color & freehub body of your choice through your local Hope dealers from October 1, 2024.
