One-and-a-quarter grand for a hybrid? To quote Mr McEnroe: “You cannot be serious!” But Cube are, and with good reason.
The Editor’s well-crafted script includes a stealthy and neatly finished matt-black frame with internal cabling, Shimano’s Alfine hydraulic disc brakes – power, control, extended rim life, minimal maintenance – and matching 11-speed hub gears, again requiring little maintenance.
These offer smooth shifting at the flick of your right thumb, a stealthy, near silent transmission, long-term durability and an impressively wide gear range; there is a larger jump from the bail-out first to second but after that it’s regular, efficient shifting.
CrankBros provide their quality Cobalt 2 bar, stem and seatpost, the latter with a neat and tight-gripping single bolt design.
The Cube, while not especially light, is robust and ideally set up for the rigours of city riding. Its tough 40mm Schwalbe tyres cope with our urban environment’s ubiquitous poor roads and make it comfortable enough for kerb-hopping and forays on rougher stuff.
And you’re not limited to short trips; with bar ends for an extra handhold there’s no reason at all why you can’t use this for longer rides, if you get on with SDG’s riveted and slightly slippery Rock City saddle.
Expensive? Yes. But worth it.
This article was originally published in Cycling Plus magazine, available on Apple Newsstand and Zinio.