I had some marginal power, squishy handle problems on my Hope setup too. It ended up being poor alignment of the caliper over the disk. If the caliper is not very precisely aligned over the disc so that it pinches it dead squarely, the handle will be squishy and the braking power will be weak. Once the the caliper is properly aligned, it suddenly has good stopping power and great modulation....its a dramatic difference from a seemingly minor adjustment. Also, as already mentioned use the adjustment on the handle to get more travel out of the lever (if needed).
I ended up buying the fancy Hope facing tool that is used to machine the disc tab to be precisely perpendicular to the axle-axis (you can see it on the Hope website). Sometimes the bike's disc tab is a little out of square from sloppy fabricating and/or slight plate distortion from weld heat. If yours is out of square it may be impossible to get the caliper mounted just right using the crappy shimming system (which are the Hopes weakest point). The shimming system will take some time to get used to, but you must struggle with it before your caliper will be perfectly aligned...keep fussing and trying until you get the hang of it. Adjust it best you can, go for a nice ride...check it out again, and adjust again if needed...repeat the process until its just right. And consider having your disc tab machined too just to be sure.
"Hope" this helps.
scanjok said:
I just put some Hope Mini's on my 1FG and they are not locking up the back wheel when fully squeezed. The back wheel slightly keeps on turning, do they need to be bleed? I did get my hands and fingers all over the rotors when installing, maybe they need to be cleaned? First set of disk brakes and they are all new to me.
tHaNkS
