str8jakett

Well, actually yesterday was new bike day but I've only had enough time to remove it from the box and halfway set it up but no fit or ride time. Ok, so I did swap tires out of the box and install pedals. I'm venturing into the off road segment straight from the road with no prior cx or mtb experience. The bike is a Cube Cross Race SL 2018 model. I looked at this bike late last year and it was at the top of my list when I was doing my search. I wanted a cyclocross bike that could handle a decent width gravel tire. My main criteria otherwise was aluminum frame, 1x hydro in some form, internal routing, and it had to tick my visual box. After the Canyon Grail AL details came out, that bike became the winner (except visually) and I began waiting for the release. After 3 months of delays, I came across the Cube again at a great leftover 2018 price, so I jumped ship and bought it from a dealer in the UK for $1300usd shipped. I also liked the exclusiveness of having a Cube bike in the US.

After unboxing the bike and getting everything put together, I'm 100% happy with the choice. The bike is mainly for a local rail trail and gravel fire roads but we have hundreds of miles of dirt roads to explore as well. I bought a cheap set of 700x38 Panaracer Comet Hardpack with intentions of replacing the 700x33 Schwalbe X-One Allround tires immediately. I couldn't get an exact answer through my research on max tire width but some internet posts put the frame between 38 and 42. I think I could comfortably fit 42s depending on side knobs. The disc brake setup is totally new to me, and I shouldn't have been surprised, but the bike is set up right lever/front brake so I might die on the first ride. Definitely a plan to swap but I'm hydro dumb at the moment. Probably do saddle and bars with the brake swap.

Anyway, on to a few garage pictures...



After the tire swap and pedals


The Fulcrums are Racing 77 CX aka Racing 700. They are tubeless ready under the Two-Way-Fit system which basically just means Fulcrum only supports going tubeless with Schwalbe tires. I don't really have any plans for that any time soon. Too much new at one time can be overwhelming. Hope to get a little ride in tomorrow to at least get saddle height and cleat adjustment accomplished.

shoota 

I love it. Funny about the switched levers, good luck.
That would tick a lot of my personal boxes as well.

ericzamora

LOVE the color!

CodyDog

Congrats. Nice looking bike.

wsteve464

Looking at the brake lines at the front of the bike it looks like it has the Sram inline quick connects. If so and the lines are long enough you should be able to unscrew the two halves of the connector and switch the lines so the left is front and right is back. You shouldn't need to bleed the system as the connectors are proper hyro connectors and seal when disconnected.

Nice looking bike.

str8jakett

Thanks for all the comments!

There is definitely one quick disconnect for the front caliper at the head tube but the rear disconnect for some reason is located at the rear caliper. That certainly would have been too easy!

I did the brake bed in yesterday, and so far the reversed brakes haven't been too much of an issue. I can live with it for now. I do plan on a bar swap so I can take care of things all at once. I am giddy with the bike so far, even without venturing off of the pavement yet.

chas58

Gorgeous bike - good choice! Looks a bit more playful than the typical gravel bike around here! ;-)

You really need to fix those brakes as soon as you can.

I road a German bike around Munich, and didn't think much of it - how hard could it be? Then something cut infront of me, my muscle memory when into action before I could think, I hit the brakes hard, locked up the front wheel with my right hand and hit the ground. It was at low speed, and only hurt my pride. Still, the pressure needed for a front and wheel are very different and I'd hate for you to lock up your front wheel like I did and hit the deck - just because you had not gotten around to fixing the brakes yet.

Its an urgent safety issue for you.

str8jakett

Thanks, and thank you for sharing the personal experience on the brake orientation. Sometimes it takes a story like that to help you see another point of view.

gus6464

Like someone already pointed out there's connectamajig on the hydro lines. Just disconnect and swap, no need to re-bleed.

wsteve464

From looking at the pics and what OP said the rear connector is at the rear caliper for some reason and the black thing at the bars that goes to the rear lks to be an inline adjuster for the RD.

CliffordK

I flipped my bike a while ago.

Pounding hard going up a hill. The light changed just before I was going to dart across a lane. Slammed on the brakes, and over I went.

Post analysis, and I discovered that I had set that bike up with right front, left rear (plus, of course, bad body positioning from the standing hill climb).

It probably would have been fine, but I ride several different bikes, and think the brain wires got crossed at the wrong moment.

Anyway, that's now fixed, and all my bikes are configured to Right-Rear.

str8jakett

Here's a better picture of the front end cabling...


​​​​​​One quick disconnect and one barrel adjuster for the RD. I will definitely be adding a second quick disconnect in this area though. Seems a no-brainer for any setup. Already looking at bars anyway. I'm assuming I'll need to run a brand new cable to the rear to relocate the disconnect up front rather than adding one and having two within the same line?

gus6464

Ahh they put an inline connectamajig for the front but put a caliper one for the rear. You are effectively screwed. You cannot buy connectamajig for dot 5.1, it is strictly oem only. You are going to have to ditch the hoses and run new ones to correct shifters.

It's also weird that they put an in-line barrel adjuster for the rear derailleur.

str8jakett

Couple of new pictures after stem and FSA Adventure bar swap. Trying out a Pro Turnix saddle as well. Left the brakes as they are for now since I am not ready to dive into hydro brake maintenance on a brand new bike.

chas58

So, how is that Cube treating you, now that you have some seat time on it? Like the way it handles? Anything you would do different?

str8jakett

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.