Bike of the Week | Hope's HB.916 is the British brand's high-pivot enduro mountain bike

This week, we take to the trails with Hope’s new enduro mountain bike, the HB.916.

A radical departure from the HB.160, the new bike moves to a high-pivot design. It features 170mm of suspension travel at the front and 160mm out back.

Hope says the bike is designed for enduro racing, from short, two-minute stages to longer sections on more varied terrain.

Let’s take a closer look at the bike.

A high-pivot enduro muncher

The HB.916 is produced in Hope’s Barnoldswick factory and its full-carbon front triangle is claimed to be constructed from one piece.

The rear triangle has an interesting design, combining carbon chainstays and seatstays with aluminium rockers, bridges and pivot locations. The carbon of the stays is bonded to the aluminium just underneath the bridge.

The frame features internal cable routing, with foam sleeves run over the cable outers to prevent them rattling inside the frame. Rubber protection is utilised on the underside of the down tube from where it meets the bottom bracket to about a third of the way up the tube, the driveside chainstay and on the inside face of the driveside seatstay.

The HB.916 also features down tube storage, which Hope calls its ‘Butty Box’. The frame ships with a pouch that can store valuables to avoid fouling the internally routed cables. A lever is rotated to unlock access to the Butty Box.

The frame can also accept a water bottle inside the front triangle and its maximum tyre clearance is rated to 29x2.6in.

The frame uses a T47 bottom bracket standard and SRAM’s universal derailleur hanger (UDH).

Sag indicators feature on the pivot to assist in easy setup, with Hope recommending 30 per cent sag.

The head tube angle can also be adjusted because it uses Hope’s angled headset between 64 and 63.2 degrees.

The mullet design means the HB.916 is compatible with both 29in wheels and 27.5in wheels out back, with a flip chip featured on the seatstay pivot to alter between the wheel sizes.

A Hope-centric build

The HB.916 retails from £6,995, depending on the paint scheme. However, there is a frameset option (which includes the shock, headset and bottom bracket) from £3,595, or you can opt for a complete bike, minus the drivetrain from £5,995. Both of these prices will also depend on the paint scheme.

The new Hope comes in three colourways – ‘Carbon Finish’ pictured here, ‘Neutral Finish’ and ‘Chameleon Finish’. The ‘Carbon Finish’ is the cheapest paint option, and the other two paint schemes increase the price by £300 and £600 respectively.

The bike features an Öhlins RXF38 AIR fork and TTX22M air shock. The rear shock is also available in a coil variety – a TTX22M Coil, from the Swedish brand.

Our bike features a SRAM GX Eagle mechanical drivetrain with a 30t chainring and 10-52 cassette, although a SRAM X01 Eagle drivetrain is listed on the spec sheet.

As one might expect, the build showcases Hope’s range of colourful components. The brand supplies the headset, handlebars, stem, brakes, rotors, bottom bracket, seat clamp and wheels.

The handlebars are carbon, 800mm wide and fitted with DMR DeathGrips. Hope's latest Tech 4 brake levers are mounted to them.

The wheels are Hope’s Pro4 Boost hubs on Fortus 30SC rims. The front wheel is shod with a Maxxis Assegai tyre in 2.5WT EXO TR 3C. The rear is a Maxxis Minion 2.5 3C EXO TR.

Our test bike has arrived with both 29in and 27.5in rear wheels, so we can experiment with both setups.

A WTB Volt saddle features on our build rather than the SDG Radar listed in the spec sheet. It sits on top of the OneUp dropper post V2, which sports a 210mm drop.

All-in, the bike weighs 15.72kg with Nukeproof Horizon Sam Hill flat pedals.

We’re currently testing the Hope HB.916 and we’ll bring you a full review soon.