Vital Wheelset Project: NOBL TR38 / Hope Pro 5 Review 3

Hope hubs are a staple among wheelbuilders, so we owed it to ourselves to give their new Pro 5’s a proper evaluation. With faster engagement and lower rolling resistance, our initial impressions of this new hub were very positive, so we wanted to see how it would perform over a longer period of time as well. NOBL is a carbon rim manufacturer out of Vancouver Island, and other than having probably some of the best riding spots in the world (jealous, yep!) they build very good wheels. This all sounded like a match made in heaven so we ordered up our components and busted out the wheelbuilding stand (for good measure we also took delivery of a fully built set of Hope Hoops to put on another test bike). Keep reading to find out how we got along!

NOBL TR38 Rim

NOBL TR38 Rim Highlights

• 31mm inner width.
• 38mm outer width.
• 25mm depth.
• 28h or 32h
• 27.5” or 29”
• 2mm asymmetric offset
• Weight: 490g for 27.5” / 530g for 29”.
• 5-year warranty against manufacturing defects (can be upgraded to lifetime for an additional $50 USD per rim).
• Crash replacement: 50% off for rims damaged by running your bike over with your Tacoma or sending it to the moon (as per NOBL’s site).
• Our finished wheel weights (with Hope Pro 5 hubs): Front wheel 882 grams // Rear wheel 1138 grams with steel e-bike freehub.
• MSRP: $800 USD/pair (+ $100 USD graphics options, as tested)

Hope Pro 5

Hope Pro 5 Highlights

• Improved sealing to stop dirt ingress and to reduce drag 
• New Labyrinth seal has zero drag for incredible freewheeling performance 
• New Pawls/Springs design to increase longevity, load capacity & reduce of drag
• Increased engagement from 44 to 108 with a new offset 6 pawl freehub design 
• Wire cut pawls from high strength steel for maximum strength. 
• New step down axle design for a stiffer more durable freehub 
• New hub body profile for increased stiffness without adding weight 
• E-bike specific hub designed for the demands of e-bikes (54 point of engagement)
• Fully serviceable and rebuildable with simple tools 
• Available in 24, 28, 32 and 36 hole drillings 
• Available with all modern freehub bodies 
• End spacers can be easily swapped to suit different frame and axle standards 
• 6 bolt or Centrelock disc fitting
• MSRP: $278 USD (R) / $120 USD (F)

Initial Impressions

For our wheelbuilding project, we took delivery of the e-bike specific version of the Pro 5 hub, which features a steel freehub body as well as a reduced number of points of engagement. The regular Pro 5 hub offers 108 points of engagement (which translates to a super-fast 3.33 degrees), delivered via six pawls that engage three at a time. On the e-bike version, all six pawls engage at the same time, which creates 54 points of engagement (still a very respectable 6.66 degrees and 10 points more than the 44 points of the outgoing Pro 4), to increase strength and longevity in high-torque e-bike applications.

Aside from faster engagement, the Pro 5 boasts a number of improvements over its predecessors. New labyrinth seals are almost entirely drag-free, and the pawl springs have also been redesigned to reduce drag from the pawls and improve pawl longevity. The axle features a stepped design which provides more space for bearings, and the hubs can easily be converted between standards via different freehub bodies and end caps.

The NOBL site is stacked with rim options, so after some consulting with the guys, the TR38 with its 31-millimeter internal width was found to be the best option for our long-travel, hard-hitting build. The wheels were intended to serve both as a light, long-travel ebike wheelset as well as long-travel, analog bike wheelset. NOBL supplied us with rims, Sapim spokes cut to size and Sapim Polyax nipples. Out of the box the finish of the rims looks incredible, with the spoke holes drilling among the cleanest we’ve seen. The inside of the rim also looks very smooth and clean. The holes are drilled at an angle to even out the force distribution on the spoke-nipple interface.

We were surprised that NOBL intended our set to be built 2-cross on all sides. We’re more familiar with the 3-cross pattern on all the custom wheels this tester has built over the years. For the front wheel NOBL chose Sapim D-light spokes, these are 2 - 1.65 - 2 mm in thickness. With a 28 hole rim this choice of spokes will further increase the compliance of the front wheel. For the 32 hole rear, a more common 2 - 1.8 - 2 Sapim race spoke was selected. Lacing the rims was straight forward. The rims are extremely even which made our tensioning process easy. Just counting nipple treads across the rim for enough wheel revolutions yielded near perfectly round and straight wheels. Spoke tension was also near perfect all along, just a touch of tension work and our wheels were ready.  Testament to the high build quality on offer from NOBL, these rims have a very good weight distribution, which translates to a very balanced wheel when spinning it in the hands. You know that feeling where a heavy spot in the rim pushes the wheel off balance? Well not with the NOBL wheels.

We also took delivery of a set of regular Pro 5 hubs laced to Hope’s aluminum Fortus 30W rims, 28 holes in the front and 32 holes in the rear. We’ve had good results with Hope wheels in the past so this would serve as a good benchmark for additional hub testing for this review.

Installation and Set-Up

The TR38’s surface is very smooth which made taping the rim easy, something that is sometimes overlooked with carbon rims. We’ve met rims in the past that were a nightmare to tape. We first mounted 2.3 Specialized tires with Grid gravity casing on our wheelset. It wasn’t easy but no tire levers were involved. The tires popped in nicely and air retention is very good. There is a 1mm difference in the inner width of the rim, compared to the ex511 rims that were previously on the bike. Weirdly enough we could visually see the change in tire profile between the wheels, probably a testament to our general level of nerdiness. These wheels then ended up on a Specialized Enduro for the duration of this test, as our tester's e-bike got caught between a bumper and a hard place when the car it was being transported on got rear-ended...

The Hope hoops were equipped with a Maxxis DHF/Forekaster combo in EXO casing, and mounted up to a YT Izzo, a shorter travel trail bike.

Time to hit the trails.

On The Trail

On the trail with the TR38 wheels there were two sensations that came to mind immediately - how much better the bike rolls, and how responsive the wheels are. If you take care to properly center your brake rotors, the rear wheel just wants to continue spinning for what feels like forever on the bike stand. Hope’s work on reducing drag has certainly paid off here, and we also credit the perfect weight distribution of the TR38 rims. This translates to trail performance as well, especially on flatter trails where your rolling speed isn't easy to gain but can be quickly lost due to draggy stuff on your bike. Under load, the thick and stiff axle of the rear hub probably also contributes to the rolling speed, as it reduces any potential side loading of the bearings which can also cause drag and of course over time, wear.

On the way up a hill, these wheels will climb anything if you push the pedals hard enough - shocking, right? :-)  The quick engagement of the hubs helps with technical stuff and/or ratcheting in water crossings. Even with “only” 6.66 degrees of engagement on the e-bike hub, the bike remains very responsive and feels snappy when you get on the power. We did not notice any particular problems while climbing, other than the climbs being too long and too boring. Once the boring part is done with, descending on these wheels is a fun-packed experience. We could really feel the benefits that this wheelset offered us, enjoying the precise handling of the wheels with plowing through stuff not much of a worry for the rims. On that topic, the rims got hit more than once, nothing too crazy but a fair share of hits from rocks or roots - the rims stayed perfect throughout.

Cornering on the wheels took a bit of getting used to, as we mentioned earlier the profile of our tires changed a bit with the new rim width, and therefore we had to do some adjustments to our cornering. With that being said, the wheels offer the right balance of stiffness and compliance, and grip wasn't affected for the worse. Pumping the bike over mellow stuff is probably where we felt the most benefits, with the bike just being launched forward with every rock or trail roll. This came to the test in a national enduro race, where we launched past another rider in a corner to roll to a flat section of the trail (our tester’s talent may have something to do with this as well - ed). Later in the test we fitted Specialized’s Cannibal tires in 2.4 GG casing. The slightly wider tire was less affected by the change in the inner rim width and riding them in that configuration is as good or better than the previous set of tires.

As for the Hope set of wheels, they have not had an easy time under our younger tester who frequently throws his shorter travel trail bike into the deep end of the pool fully expecting it to swim just as well as an enduro bike. The wheels roll very fast, and the stiff build is a good match for the general stiffness of this frame - sharp and direct is how to best sum up how it handles. These wheels always feel solid regardless of how they’re being treated, whether it’s hitting turns or launching jumps, and the super-fast engagement is a massive upgrade over the previous generation Pro 4.

With a fast-rolling and thin Forekaster in EXO casing in the rear, we’ve certainly managed to put more than a few dents in these alloy rims. So far, we’ve been able to keep the rim spinning nearly straight, and the roughest dents were straightened out to allow the rim to still hold tubeless.

All in all, a pretty good score for a set of alloy rims given how hard they’ve been ridden at times, but this does illustrate perfectly well the difference between the almost maintenance-free user experience you get with a carbon rim vs. the more involving upkeep of an alloy wheelset. Maintenance-free…well, almost! We did have one major incident…

The Broken Rim Incident and Why It Wouldn't Affect Our Experience or Rating

During a vacation at Bike Park Chatel with the TR38 wheels on the Enduro, we came across a corner that was just made for schralping. We had hit that corner probably 20 times that day, and the 21st time was a bit too much. Our tester managed to puncture during the slide, blowing the tire clean off the rim and then hitting the naked rim on some sharp rocks twice - all at 30km/h or so. This resulted in a broken rim in two places, but only the bead walls were damaged. A few hours left on the lift and a long ride home weren't a problem though, after fitting a tube in our shredded tire, we continued to hit some laps and rode the rim home no problem.

We are sure that a good aluminum rim would also have been damaged badly enough to have to be replaced after this kind of hit, and we’ve seen some carbon rims totally collapse as a result of excessive impacts. This is not the case here, as the rim and spoke tension stayed in good condition and allowed us to actually continue riding that day. Therefore we believe that this is purely a riding error situation (JRA LOL) and not any kind of product weakness. NOBL sent us a replacement for our damaged rim and it spins strong and straight ever since.

Things That Could Be Improved

Not much to report on the technical side, as both our test wheelsets have been solid all round. We didn’t get along too well with the graphics of the TR38 rims, to the tastes of this tester they are too big. Another problem we had with them is that they are quite thick and that caused them to interfere with our wheel building stand.

As for the hubs, we found after a summer of hard riding that some of the bearings became rough a little quicker than expected. We’ve encountered this problem before with Hope hubs and wonder if it is a matter of not taking proper care of them, but either way, since replacing them with Enduro abec3 bearings, everything spins smoothly again. Editor’s note: Yonatan is a skilled mechanic and notoriously picky with his set-up. The bearings still had quite a bit of life left in them if you wanted to keep squeezing them…

Long Term Durability

Other than the broken rim incident described in detail in the previous section, the TR38 rims are solidly round and will probably continue to be so for the foreseeable future. The bearings on those wheels were replaced after being ridden hard all summer, we’ll see if the uprated bearings will last us longer. As for the alloy Hope wheels on the 2nd test bike, they are still hanging in there against all the odds, with quite a number of dents to show for it all. Still spinning mostly true and with the hubs in great shape, we’re definitely happy with the value we’re getting from them as well.

What’s The Bottom Line?

These NOBL TR38 rims laced to Hope Pro 5 hubs will probably continue to spin straight for years to come, as long as we don’t hit them naked on sharp rocks or run them over with our imaginary Tacomas. As well as durability, they represent a noticeable upgrade in regards to the behavior of the bike in a variety of aspects, and we would recommend them to anyone looking to take their wheels to the next level. Should the Pro 5 hubs pick up where the Pro 4’s left off, and stay on the list of favorite hubs for wheel builders? Definitely!

Rim ratings: 4.5 stars
Hub ratings: 4.5 stars
Overall: 4.5 stars!

About The Testers

Yonatan Yatom - Age: 29 // Years Riding MTB: 17 // Height :6'0" (1.83m) // Weight: 180 pounds (82kg)

Yonatan is a born racer and a bike addict. As a true competitor the only thing on his mind when lining up in the start gate is the finish line. With a background in local enduro and DH races and even the occasional appearance in an Enduro World Series on his resume, Yonatan has more recently applied himself to building bigger legs and trying his luck racing XC as well. Throughout the week he’ll be manning the spanners at the bike shop, reading about new stuff on the internet, and thinking about how to improve everything he rides. Yonatan’s riding style is fully pinned, smooth, and quiet but he can be nasty to his bike when needed.

Nils Hjord – Age: 19 // Years Riding MTB: 11 // Height: 5’9” (1m80) // Weight: 176-pounds (80-kg)

Always committed to having fun on his bike, Nils likes to keep his wheels in the air almost as much as on the ground. Although he enjoys going fast and is no stranger to burping his tires off the rim, he has dedicated most of his riding time to mastering manuals and making his tabletops flatter – but that doesn’t mean he can’t put the hurt on his wheels through a high-speed rockgarden too, when needed. Good thing his dad is a full-time Vital staffer with access to lots of bike parts that need testing!

Johan Hjord - Age: 50 // Years Riding MTB: 18 // Weight: 190-pounds (87-kg) // Height: 6'0" (1.84m)

Johan loves bikes, which strangely doesn’t make him any better at riding them. After many years spent practicing falling off cliffs with his snowboard, he took up mountain biking in 2005. Ever since, he’s mostly been riding bikes with too much suspension travel to cover up his many flaws as a rider. His 200-pound body weight coupled with unique skill for poor line choice and clumsy landings make him an expert on durability - if parts survive Johan, they’re pretty much okay for anybody. Johan rides flat pedals with a riding style that he describes as "none" (when in actuality he rips!). Having found most trail features to be not to his liking, Johan uses much of his spare time building his own. Johan’s other accomplishments include surviving this far and helping keep the Vital Media Machine’s stoke dial firmly on 11.

Photos by Johan Hjord