Sh-BB52 - €16
M800BSA - €30
Hope - €118
If the Hope lasts >8 times longer than the BB52, or >4 times the M800, it's cost effective. Which would be at least 40000km. Which doesn't feel unreasonable... I'm tempted. If not from a financial POV, but from a ecological one. Less waste. I've yet to work out how to recycle the BB's I've used, and have them all sat in the boxes the next one came out of.
J
The Hope will not last 40000Km.
No HT-II BB will do that.
But the hope has replaceable cartridges, which saves the minor cost of the aluminium shell, I suppose.
HT-II BBs are consumables.
That's just the nature of the beast.
Very long service life is not really part of their design paradigm.
Yes, various improvements can be made to keep the worst of the crud out; hence the different price-points, but it's tinkering around the edges of a design that is inherently exposed.
If you want to run external BBs, then you need to accept that they are consumables, and replace them from time to time.