My seat time has still been pretty minimal, but I'm happy to give some early impressions of the Cube. Basically, I was 90% happy with this bike out of the box, for my needs. I didn't like the stock handlebar, or saddle, but I also always change those two items, and I knew that I would swap tires immediately too. The pros of the bike so far:
Tire fitment. I think it would handle 42mm pretty easily, as long as the tires didn't have large side knobs. The 38mm Panaracer Comet HardPack have tons of clearance.
SRAM Rival 1x. I did a lot of research on 1x systems before I decided I wanted it, but I never test rode anything with it. I've ridden SRAM Rival 10spd and SRAM Red 11spd on the road for many years so I'm familiar with the operation and can service my own stuff. Very pleased with the Rival 1x, but I'm also very uneducated on hydro brake systems. No trouble with the backwards brake setup either but I also haven't had to brake on impulse yet. Downside is I can't do my own maintenance on the brakes yet.
The frame and paint is really nice. It could be lighter but that's not what I'm aiming for. It's also a CX bike so I didn't expect it to have amenities like mudguard mounts. The internal routing is nice and it exits the downtube just in front of the bottom bracket so it shouldn't be hard to re-cable.
Fulcrum CX77 wheelset. This is unfamiliar territory for me. I'm running tubes, it's what I'm used to, even though these wheels can be converted using Schwalbe specific tires. They'll do me well enough for now and if I ever need to go tubeless, I'll probably just upgrade the whole wheelset.
My ride time has been on a rail trail, with some areas of thick pea gravel, and what I would call a pretty decent climb up a gravel road with some pretty loose sections. I also came down this same road. The bike was easy to handle in all situations. After replacing the Cube 42mm handlebar with the FSA Adventure 40/46 bar, the front end felt much better. The Cube bar felt like a thin noodle in my hands. I also had the FSA stem laying around and "flipped" it because, well, I'm still a roadie. Saddle is a Pro Turnix that I'd never ridden before but couldn't be any worse than the stock Cube saddle, which was far too wide for me. So far I have no complaints about the bike. I'm 100% happy, and given the choice, I'd buy it again. I'll even say that given the choice between the Cube and my original
#1 choice of the Grail AL 7.0, I'd still opt for the Cube, even if they were the same price. I think the exclusiveness of the Cube is pretty cool in it's own right. Here are a few more pictures of the bike.
