High Performance, High Pivot Enduro MTB | Hope HB916 v2 Review

Hope Technology is well known for their anodized aluminum bicycle components, which they’ve been producing since 1989 in their facility in Barnoldswick, England. These days their lineup can supply components for almost the entirety of the bike, so a few years ago they set about building their own bikes in house, too. Rather than sticking to metals, they figured that their CNC machines would be perfect to make molds for the manufacture of carbon fiber products, so they instead relied on carbon to obtain higher performing mountain bikes.

The HB916 V2 is their second take on an enduro mountain bike, and is designed to be the ultimate enduro race machine. We’d been begging Hope to let us borrow one for a test since the day it was announced, so we were stoked to finally get one in for a month of thrashing in the UK. It wasn’t the smoothest of sailing, but in the end it lived up to the expectations.

Full Written Review:
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[Ross_BikeWrap]

Nice review, absolutely love my 916 had it over a year now. Great fun on the Golfie

[marcopaganotto]

It is indeed a lovely looking machine, for sure. And we all know anything Hope = highest quality guarenteed! However, as mentioned below, surely including a Horst type linkage would have added additional performance? I am absolutely not an expert, so if i have shown ignorance, please enlighten me? Perhaps it's just a licencing issue?

[bfranco]

I had the same issue with Deviate HP too. Not the sensitivity I was “Hope ing “ for. Very efficient pedaling but not the smasher I wanted.

[jymtb]

How’s it compare to the Kavenz you tested earlier?

[TheNotoriousMIC]

Oh that’s more like it riding my local trails. Beautiful looking bike though.

[marcopaganotto]

Wonder why they didnt opt for a Horst Link type setup?

[LaurentiusTriarius]

I'm a big fan of Hope I wanted to love the brakes but I don't. They look dope too, Hope the bike is not a letdown 😅

*This thing need DVO suspension for the color scheme 😂

[fen]

Isnt its suspension kinematics identical to the trek? Side by side all the pivots are in the same spot.