Cube Travel SL Review

Update: These are photos of the adjustable handlebar stem

I originally put up a quick video review on the day I brought the bike home from the bike shop and it follows. However, now that I’ve put up some mileage (~750km) I thought it was time to get into a bit more detail. The bike comes in at ~€1,379; additional cost due to my customisations are shown below.

If you watched the video you’ll see that I was quite excited by the bike. Since then, nothing’s changed: I love this bike and it’s perfect for me right now.

Background

Going back to the end of 2014 I was looking at replacement options for my Kona Dr. Good and the folks at FitzCycles mentioned the Hyde Pro as it had two things that were important to me; internal hub and disc brakes. I spent too long deciding and all stock of the bike disappeared in pre-orders.

Jump forward to September last year and I was looking at the cycle to work scheme again; then this tweet popped up :)

FitzCycles.ie on Twitter

2016 #cubebikes Travel SL – Alfine Hub, Gates Drive, Dynamo lights, carrier etc. #bikeoftheday #fitzcycles

Enough said, this was (is) the bike for me. The full specs are on the]1  but the keys ones are in the tweet and my preference is:

1. Alfine internal hub. This hub has a great reputation for it’s reliability
2. Disc brakes, front & back. Not everyone’s sold on disc brakes for commuters but I love the all-weather reliability of disc brakes.
3. Dynamo lights. I put good lights ahead of hi-vis and a helmet when it comes to safety and dynamo lights are a winner against having to make sure your batteries are good. Also; these aren’t the old bottle dynamo lights you might remember.
4. Belt drive. Novelty and functionality here for me. So much cleaner and smoother than a chain.

Making some changes

I’ve swapped over my Brooks saddle in place of the sporty Selle Royal Viper Video Gel. When I say sporty I mean; would break your hole.

For my own comfort and safety the next change came about because the top tube length of the Travel SL is ~3cm longer than that on my Dr Good; changing the handlebar and stem. Fitzcycles replaced the flat handlebar with Cube’s Comfort Shape handlebar and found me an adjustable stem.

The combination means a higher handlebar with a slightly shorter top tube, effectively. It also helps me maintain a more upright position on the bike that suits my desire for a more comfortable, relaxed & slower style of cycling.

Conclusions

I now have ~850km on the bike since mid January (or so) which is made up of daily trips of ~6km each way to work and some trips at the weekend. Generally it’s just some light bits in my pannier bag but I do also pick up groceries fairly regularly on the way home. It’s a fantastic bicycle and I’m overjoyed with it. I still admire the belt drive the most for the quiet and smooth pedalling. It’s really noticeable when you’re cycling at night on a quiet road and there’s so little sound from the bike.  That combines with the bike being very light to leave me with an experience of gliding along and I smile a little because it does make me feel a childish glee at times :)

Here are some quick points:

• 42mm tyres take getting used to after 32mm – they’re slower but you feel a lot less of the shit cycling surfaces we have
• Hydraulic disc brakes are brilliant but I’m still not used to the different feel from a cable disc brake. I’m getting there but several years of becoming accustomed to the feel of cable braking is hard to shake
• The quick shift paddles for the internal hub are really nice – I’m not going back to a twist shifter.

Here are some minor problems:

• The connector on the hub dynamo caused some problems – it should be more robust and I’d like to see Shimano do something here with some of the light manufacturers. It’s just occurred to me that it could be possible (though maybe not wise) to reinforce the wires at the connector with Sugru.
• The cord supplied with the rack looks lovely but really only stretches to something around the thickness of a rolled up Sunday newspaper. This limits the cords  usefulness. With proper bungee cords a bicycle can carry stuff like this:

• I’m not 100% convinced by the tyres yet – there’s a different feel and I’m not sure if it’s due to the wider tyre or a change in grip. I’ve felt a little slide on some of the metal manhole covers that I wouldn’t have had before. So I may well change these for something similar to the tyres I was using on the Dr. Good (a Fitzcycles recommendation)

I’m very grateful to the Fitzcycles folks for their help in first identifying this bike for me and then getting it just right with the handlebar changes and fine tuning while everything on the bike was bedding in. Couldn’t send anyone looking for a bike anywhere else but to them.

Disclosure: I’ve a lot of praise for FitzCycles.ie in this post (and in general, I mention them on Twitter and in person). They’ve looked after me really well as a customer for the past number of years and that’s it; I’m not shilling. They genuinely love cycling in all it’s forms and get a kick out of pairing people up with a bike. Same lack of shilling goes for any other brands I’ve mentioned.