Cube Stereo Pro

The Stereo is a longstanding model in the Cube range and its distinctive frame design has graced their line-up for around five years now. A click on the Cube website quickly reveals that a redesign is on the way, but we won’t be seeing the newer Stereo in Australia until mid 2013. For the next six months, the bike ridden here will remain the go-to model if you are fishing for a Cube in the 140mm travel trail bike category.

As with the Cube bikes that we’ve looked at previously, the Stereo is a well finished machine with many cool little touches and nice attention to detail. Most of the main welded junctions are smoothed off and one tube seems to merge fluidly with another. This combined with the matte black finish gives it an almost carbon-like appearance from some angles. In places where the welds are not ground back, the beads are laid in a tidy and even pattern. You won’t find welded gussets anywhere on the Cube, instead the tube profiles are hydroformed and shaped to provide additional support in highly stressed areas—once again this adds to the tidy finish.

While the cable routing is well thought out and secure, the final stretch along the underside of the seat stay is split with fixed stoppers on the frame. Running a full length outer casing to the rear derailleur would have done a better job at keeping the crud out. At least it’s easy enough to modify this if you find that cable wear becomes an annoyance.

As a German brand, the parts selection has a distinctly Euro feel with Formula brakes, a Fizik saddle and Syntace parts throughout the cockpit. What’s more, many of the parts are colour matched. With this particular model you get anodised blue highlights on the stem, seatpost, grips, saddle and wheels—it’s as if the Stereo Pro was assembled by a bower bird in mating season. While this colour coordination could look overdone, it’s actually a nice balance against the matte finish of the frame. Being able to order custom coloured parts from a manufacturer such as Syntace also demonstrates that Cube has some serious buying power. We mightn’t think of Cube as a major brand in Australia but they’re actually one of the biggest names in the European market.

Alpen What?

Cube lists the Stereo under their ‘alpencross’ banner—another Euro touch. So what is alpencross? Think of it as an all-mountain bike that leans a little more to the XC/trail side of things. It’s basically a bike for touring off-road across the Alps, and they tend to have some pretty big hills round them thar parts! Big hills to climb means you want the bike to pedal efficiently while big descents demand more than your typical XC bike will comfortably deliver.

To meet this goal, Cube uses their ‘Dual Trail Control’ suspension system. This currently features on three different platforms within their range; the 120mm travel Sting, the 160mm travel Fritz and of course the 140mm travel Stereo that we have on test. While it mightn’t look familiar or common, it’s basically a horst-link system with an unusual rocker arrangement and a floating lower shock mount to tweak the shock rate. Of course the shock rate can be a defining factor in the performance of any dually and every horst-link has its own traits based on pivot placement—the proof is always in the riding in the end.

So what has Cube achieved with their funky looking linkage arrangement? Without wanting to get too complex, they’ve created a ‘falling rate’ suspension system. It starts out feeling firm in the early part of the travel as the shock damping has more control over the wheel movement (2.3mm of travel for every 1mm at the shock). As the suspension goes deeper into its travel, the wheel gains more leverage over the shock making it feel softer and ‘plusher’ (a technical term). Nearing bottom-out, the wheel moves 2.9mm for every 1mm at the shock.

What’s it mean on the trail? Well first up the firm damping in the initial travel makes the Stereo a taut and terrific pedaller. Even with the ProPedal platform switched off, the bike pedals way better than you’d expect for something with 140mm of travel. It certainly doesn’t feel sluggish and I can see how it fits the bill when it comes to climbing those European Alps!

Some suspension designs use ‘chain growth’ to reign in pedal bob and make a bike firm-up under power. With the Stereo there’s not much chain growth, so the suspension is free to move no matter how hard you pedal. Additionally, you won’t notice any kick-back or tugging through the pedals as the suspension moves—a trait sometimes felt on bikes where the chainstay length grows substantially through the travel. Instead it combats pedalling mush with the aforementioned falling suspension rate.

AM Style – XC Feel

The compromise (and there’s always some compromise) comes with a clear loss of suppleness in the early travel. With the Fox RP23 in the open position, it’s nowhere near as buttery and smooth as you’d expect—it really feels more like a shorter travel XC bike. This reduces traction, both when climbing technical terrain and in cornering—the tyres simply don’t hug the ground like they should on a rough ‘n’ ready 140mm travel bike.

Once up to speed there’s certainly no reluctance to use the travel. Seated pedalling over moderately bumpy terrain sees plenty of suspension action. This is both good and bad; 140mm of travel is pointless if it’s never used, and with the Stereo you’re sure to make the most of it with some regularity. However, rougher trails and more aggressive riding tends to blow through the travel too easily. The lighter damping end-stroke and softer spring rate don’t do enough to control the bigger hits and the shock bottoms with some force. If you regularly take on reasonable sized drops to flat, jumps or just like to ride in a fast and aggressive manner, you’ll find yourself wanting more progression in the stroke.

Because of this, setting the air pressure becomes quite a balancing act. Run more sag in an effort to improve initial suppleness and the bike will bottom out readily. Pump it up to resist bottoming and small bump compliance is reduced. Aggressive riders would really benefit from adding an air can volume reducer to make the spring curve more progressive. It’s also worth noting that the $3,999 Stereo Pro uses a ‘Performance’ level Fox RP23 shock, so it lacks the Boost Valve feature. The next-in-line Stereo SL ($4,999) has the Factory level Boost Valve equipped RP23, which should improve big-hit performance.

Up front, the Stereo Pro uses a 150mm travel RockShox Revelation. It went a long way towards making up for the excessively linear rear suspension. The fork offered a nice supple feel with just enough ramp-up to handle the big stuff, whist still using all of the travel when it was needed. Of course this means the suspension lacks a truly balanced feel but it really wasn’t such an issue when out on the trail.

As mentioned earlier, the Stereo has been around for close to five years and the design is showing its age in some regards. While the upper end carbon framed versions of the Stereo utilise a tapered head tube, the alloy models all run a straight 1 1/8 steerer. There’s no cable guides for a dropper post on the Pro—something that’s now common on most bikes in this travel zone. You’ll also notice that the fork runs an old-school quick release, although the lack of a thru-axle is probably more of a cost cutting measure, as the Stereo SL runs a 15QR up front.

Long Slack ‘n’ Low

Other aspects of the Stereo are 100% up to date. The geometry is totally on the ball for a stable yet fast 140mm travel trail bike. A slack head angle (Cube quotes 68-degree but ours was more like 67) combines with the long 1,155mm wheelbase and a low 334mm bottom bracket to promote stability and confidence in the steep stuff. For the uphills, the 74-degree effective seat tube angle and a slight forward weight bias puts you in a good climbing position. I’ve called it an ‘effective seat tube angle’ as the real measurement is more like 66-degrees but the lower part is offset and start partway down the down tube. On paper the top tube lengths appear to be short but the dramatic angle of the seat tube pushes the saddle further back than you’d expect as you lift the seatpost up. All in all, the numbers work well together and produce a bike that’s happy to climb, descend and do virtually everything in between. The only thing that I can criticise in the geometry is the standover height, as there isn’t much of it with the straight top tube—short legged riders beware!

Without a tapered steerer or a thru-axle, the alloy Stereo Pro may appear dated but it’s far from a flexy flyer. The frame is really quite burly and the Syntace X12 rear thru-axle doesn’t hurt either. Although I feel that a thru-axle up front wouldn’t be unreasonable for the asking price, the Revelation fork still felt sharp enough on the trail. In addition to the solid frame, much of the credit can be levelled at the extra-wide and stiff Syntace Megaforce II stem. When matched to the wide 780mm Syntace bar, there’s plenty of leverage to muscle this bike around—as long as you still fit between the trees!

Good lateral stiffness and firm, bob-free suspension definitely helps when scaling mountains, however excess weight does not. On its own the frame weighed in at 3,321g—that’s not out of the ordinary for a longer travel all-mountain rig but it’s a kind of heavy for a suspension design that’s clearly more comfortable at the XC end of the spectrum. The whole package comes to 14kg without pedals, which definitely sounds more all-mountain than XC to me.

The bulk of the running gear is Shimano XT and SLX, although the 950g non-series cranks are a bit of a short cut—they worked just fine but are heavier and look cheaper than the SLX version. While the Radium wheels are wide enough (20.5mm internal) to support the Fat Albert tyres, they don’t present the easiest option if you want to convert them to tubeless. This is in part cost related as the DT rims on the Stereo SL make a better tubeless conversion (although you’ll still need to add rim strips to do so).

For the $3,999 asking price, the Stereo Pro could well be criticised for using a quick release up front and a straight steerer, but it’s worth mentioning the good stuff that adorns the rest of the bike. There are some quality bits hanging from the Cube. The Dual Trail Control suspension mightn’t lead the way in ground-hugging traction but the Schwalbe Fat Albert 2.4 tyres certainly compensate. Measuring a 60mm across the casing and weighing 780g a piece, they are a big well-cushioned tyre that offers some serious grip. The Formula RX brakes are another high-quality item. Some mightn’t like their short free-stroke and firm lever feel but with 180mm rotors at both ends, they are a powerful set of stoppers. I’ve already mentioned the Syntace stem and bars, and it’s good to see an alloy Syntace P6 seatpost as well. This is probably the best seatpost design on the market; it’s easy to set up, allows minute angle adjustment without fuss and has an extra-long lower cradle to support the saddle rails. This is complemented by an equally effective Syntace quick release seatpost collar—again one of the best in the business.

What we have in the Stereo could be described at a rather muddled up beast. It’s got the weight, stiffness and robust build of a fully-fledged all-mountain bike but the firm initial stroke and linear travel of a lighter-duty trail bike. The absence of a tapered steerer and front thru-axle may appear archaic but the wide bars and the long, low and slack geometry make the handling totally up to date.

So what’s the end result? The Cube Stereo presents a very appealing package for the cross-country rider or roadie who wants to dabble in longer travel bikes. That firm initial suspension tune removes the soggy sensation that would be off-putting for a long-time hardtail devotee. As long as you aren’t hitting the jumps and drops too hard, the Stereo does a great job of utilising its full travel range. After all, what’s the point of having a 140mm travel bike if you only use 120mm of it? With its lateral rigidity and meaty tyres, the Stereo is a solid bike that you don’t need to baby in any way. Pedal it up the Alps? Sure. Descend with greater confidence than an XC dually? Without a doubt. It’s fair to say that there’s more than a few riders out there who will have a blast on the Stereo Pro.

Thumbs Up

Efficient to pedal

Rugged build

Progressive geometry and handling

Thumbs Down

Doesn’t cope well with bigger hits

Lacks suspension suppleness

Dated spec in some areas

Specifications

Frame: HPA Hydroformed 7005 Alloy

Shock: Fox RP23 140mm travel

Fork: Revelation RL Dual Position 120/140mm travel

Headset: FSA Orbit Integrated 1 1/8

Handlebars: Syntace Vector DH 780mm

Stem: Syntace Megaforce II

Shifters: Shimano SLX

Front Derailleur: Shimano SLX

Rear Derailleur: Shimano XT

Cassette: Shimano HG62 11/36 10-speed

Chain: Shimano HG54

Cranks: Shimano M552 24/32/42

Bottom Bracket: Shimano

Pedals: N/A

Brakes: Formula RX

Wheels: Sun Ringle Radium

Tyres: Schwalbe Fat Albert 2.4

Saddle: Fizik Gobi RFR Trail

Seatpost: Syntace P6 Alloy

Weight: 14kg without pedals (Large frame 3,321g)

Available Sizes: 16, 18, 20 (tested) & 22-inch

Price: $3,999

Distributor: Monza Imports (03) 8327 8080 / www.cube.eu