Cube bikes.

[ClichéGuevara]

Anyone have any experience of them?

I get bamboozled with the choice out there, so any words of wisdom would be most welcome, even if they're only to point out my ignorance.

I mainly travel on roads with the odd trip onto bridal ways, cinder tracks and loose shale. Try to get out two to three ties a week doing 30-50 miles, but usually achieving less. I'm currently using a Raleigh mountain bike, but it's showing a few signs of strain so I thought I'd fuss myself up to a new one. I can spend around the £500 mark, but would prefer not to. I originally considered a Carrera mountain bike but have been pointed at the Cube CLS Ltd Comp hybrid, or possibly the model above with the hydraulic discs and lockable forks.

So, anyone know if the cube bike's okay? Are discs needed or will v brakes do me? Does a hybrid sound a suitable way forward? Was it Miss Scarlet in the Library with the candelabra?

 

[Cubist]

Yep, can thoroughly recommend them. Well made, well specc'd and always have appealing colourways. The CLS is a beaut. Go for the Pro if you can, the hydraulic brakes justify the price difference.

 

[ClichéGuevara]

Thanks for the reply.

Having had a virtually trouble free few years, I've had a bit of a mare on a recent ride out with punctures and minor breakages which has left me a bit paranoid.

If cable brakes fail, there are a number of options to mend them and carry on for the ride and there's more possibility of gathering spares/replacements on route. I realise discs are more reliable, but it's the hydraulic element that concerns me.



With the minor weight disadvantage too, are hydraulic discs that much better than v brakes? I don't know if it holds with cubes, but I read somewhere there's a tendency for manufacturers to put a cheaper disc set on rather than an higher range v set, reducing any advantage?



Am I flapping unduly?

 

[jethro10]

With the minor weight disadvantage too, are hydraulic discs that much better than v brakes? I don't know if it holds with cubes, but I read somewhere there's a tendency for manufacturers to put a cheaper disc set on rather than an higher range v set, reducing any advantage?

Any disk I've ever used are way better than any other brake I've ever used. Even more in the wet.
Hydraulic brakes, even cheap ones are amazingly powerful.

Jeff

 

[ClichéGuevara]

Any disk I've ever used are way better than any other brake I've ever used. Even more in the wet.
Hydraulic brakes, even cheap ones are amazingly powerful.

Jeff

Cheers for the input Jethro. I'm an absolute wuss when it comes to downhill even on a good surface so, I can be heavy on brakes and a good set should make a difference. Thinking about reliability, I don't see too many problems with them on cars or motorbikes.

 

[Cubist]

Hydraulic brake failure halfway through a ride? It may have happened to someone on here, but after many many miles on hydraulics I have never had to do anything other than ride through a puddle to wash some grit out of them !

What's to go wrong? Some early reactionary fears were that the hoses would be breached, and all the fluid lost, making the bike dangerous and deadly. In the same way when I started diving some stalwarts were convinced that them newfangled drysuits would puncture and the diver would drown , so they continued to dive in the North Sea in February in a wetsuit.

So if we are drawing a parallel then those fearing hydraulic brake reliability issues will be the ones blue with cold and desparately trying to undo their thermos full of bovril with one hand whilst trying to light a post-dive rollup with frozen clammy fingers of the other hand, while the rest of us were toasting in our thinsulate undersuits.

They're awesome. Go for it.

 

[ClichéGuevara]

Hydraulic brake failure halfway through a ride? It may have happened to someone on here, but after many many miles on hydraulics I have never had to do anything other than ride through a puddle to wash some grit out of them !

What's to go wrong? Some early reactionary fears were that the hoses would be breached, and all the fluid lost, making the bike dangerous and deadly. In the same way when I started diving some stalwarts were convinced that them newfangled drysuits would puncture and the diver would drown , so they continued to dive in the North Sea in February in a wetsuit.

So if we are drawing a parallel then those fearing hydraulic brake reliability issues will be the ones blue with cold and desparately trying to undo their thermos full of bovril with one hand whilst trying to light a post-dive rollup with frozen clammy fingers of the other hand, while the rest of us were toasting in our thinsulate undersuits.

They're awesome. Go for it.

Cheers again cubist, as I mentioned earlier I've been really fortunate with breakdowns and punctures for years, but had a bit of a mare for punctures over the weekend with four in three days. There was also someone struggling with a siezed piston on a disc, which they managed to free but rode the rest of the trip on one brake.

I'm sure you're right about reliability, and there were certainly adjustments made to v brakes and I know I'm being a Mary Ellen, it's just I'm wary of tempting fate.

I seem to do this with purchases, I get an idea in my head, ask around and end up more confused than ever. :-)