The latest manufacturer to jump on the 29er wagon is German brand Cube, who will release ten 29er models with the unveiling of its 2012 line.
Cube is clearly confident of the strength and growth of the 29er segment, its delay compared to other brands 29er offerings allows the the company to launch an impressive line-up for its first foray into the big wheel world.
Cube’s custom 29er geometry
Each of Cube’s new bikes uses the Agile Ride Geometry, which has been developed for the new 29er range. Cube “wanted to solve the problem of longer chainstays, higher center of gravity and longer wheelbase influencing the handling of a 29er in a negative way” and has several solutions to achieve this desired goal.
Firstly it’s kept the bottom bracket the same height as its 26in bikes, then developed a special front mech mount that allows the chainstays to be short enough, and finally specced a suspension fork with a custom offset. Head angles are identical to the 26in bikes, with the offset of the fork providing the desired trail.
There’s 10 bikes in the new 29er range. Here’s an overview
Elite Super HPC 29 and Reaction GTC 29
At the top are the Elite Super HPC 29 and Reaction GTC 29. Both use a lightweight carbon frame, made using a construction process that sees the frame made in three separate parts then bonded together, with carbon head tube inserts and dropouts.
Both frames feature tapered head tubes, internal cable routing and Press-Fit bottom brackets.
AMS 120 29
The AMS 120, a 120mm full suspension offering, is an entry-level all-mountain full-suspension bike using custom suspension forks, short chainstays, short head tube and a low bottom bracket – all features of the Cube Agile Ride Geometry – to give a riding feel similar to the 26in models.
LTD and Competition Series 29
Rounding off the full suspension and carbon fibre party are the popular Limited and Competition series. The latter features the Attention and Acid models, while the Limited range consists of the LTD Pro and SL, built using Aluminium Superlite tubing.
New TWO 15 downhill bike breaks cover
As well as an comprehensive 29er debut, 2012 sees Cube release a brand new downhill bike. It’s been developed in conjunction with Fox Racing Shox’s Eamonn Cleere and downhiller André Wagenknecht since the projects beginnings in 2008.
“Everybody wanted to find the optimum of interaction between the frame and the damping system to build a new kind of kinematics which should become be the benchmark,” says Cube.
Wagenknecht gave the input for geometry and handling while Cleere delivered the necessary technical details to design the kinematics within the limits and possibilities of the chosen damper, the Fox DHX-RC4. This led to CUBE’s new Triple Linkage Kinematics with a nearly constant curve of the linkage over the whole shock travel. Only this curve can guarantee that compression and rebound (both high and low speed) work in a linear way over the complete travel.
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