Cube MTBs - Any good?

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  • thelonegroover
    thelonegroover Posts: 1,073
    Actually, you may be right in this case. I'm not sure about Cube carbon frames but the alloy ones aren't as good as Giant or Trek for example.
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  • croptonboy
    croptonboy Posts: 164
    Why's that? Quality of materials or something?
  • thelonegroover
    thelonegroover Posts: 1,073
    Croptonboy wrote:
    Why's that? Quality of materials or something?

    Bikes with better spec components have to make something somewhere, so it's probably the frame. Also, two of my LBS sell Cube and other makes, both reckoned the Cube frames were inferier. Note, these were alloy framed bikes.
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  • cooldad
    cooldad Posts: 32,599
    Nonsense. Orange 5s are expensive, averagely specced, and made of scrap iron by a blind pre schooler.
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  • thelonegroover
    thelonegroover Posts: 1,073
    cooldad wrote:
    Nonsense. Orange 5s are expensive, averagely specced, and made of scrap iron by a blind pre schooler.
    Exactly, Orange are generally agreed to be overpriced. There's only two ways to make profit. You can cut costs or increase prices. Orange do the latter.
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  • croptonboy
    croptonboy Posts: 164
    Thelonegroover wrote:
    Bikes with better spec components have to make something somewhere, so it's probably the frame. Also, two of my LBS sell Cube and other makes, both reckoned the Cube frames were inferier. Note, these were alloy framed bikes.
    Can't really say as to the quality of frame, as I'm no metallurgist, but one of the reasons Cube spec their bikes as they do could be to gain market share, at the cost of their profit margin.

    Going by the number of Cubes around since what, 2011? I'd say it's probably working.

    Also, I did a bit of research into cracked Cube frames before buying mine, as I'd heard it being mentioned on some forums, and it seemed to mostly relate to their carbon framed bikes...
  • thelonegroover
    thelonegroover Posts: 1,073
    Croptonboy wrote:
    Thelonegroover wrote:
    Bikes with better spec components have to make something somewhere, so it's probably the frame. Also, two of my LBS sell Cube and other makes, both reckoned the Cube frames were inferier. Note, these were alloy framed bikes.
    Can't really say as to the quality of frame, as I'm no metallurgist, but one of the reasons Cube spec their bikes as they do could be to gain market share, at the cost of their profit margin.

    Going by the number of Cubes around since what, 2011? I'd say it's probably working.

    Also, I did a bit of research into cracked Cube frames before buying mine, as I'd heard it being mentioned on some forums, and it seemed to mostly relate to their carbon framed bikes...

    I’d tend to agree. Cube sella lot of bikes. The point I was making (not very well it seems) was, you can immediately see the quality and spec of the components, but the quality of the frame is less obvious. You can see weld quality of alloy frames, but the quality of carbon is almost impossible to see.
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  • defride
    defride Posts: 277
    Thelonegroover wrote:
    Croptonboy wrote:
    Why's that? Quality of materials or something?

    Bikes with better spec components have to make something somewhere, so it's probably the frame. Also, two of my LBS sell Cube and other makes, both reckoned the Cube frames were inferier. Note, these were alloy framed bikes.

    Drivel, in all likelyhood the Cubes are built in the same factory as said other brands, they sell a lot of bikes in Europe and I'd hazard a guess get a prenium service from the factories they use. A Reaction alloy frame is every bit as advanced as those of other like brands. IMHO they ride great, every bit as good as other mainstream brands, horses for courses.

    What Cube do have in their favour is a more efficient distribution network, not as efficient as Canyon for example but you get what you pay for. With Cube the LBS has to deal with Europe rather than a local distributor, with Canyon you have to deal with Europe.
  • dsimps
    dsimps Posts: 4
    Frame quality has nothing to do with the reason for cube bikes being cheaper or inferior than specialized, cannondale orange etc. When looking for a new bike one local LBS tried to tell my friend that cube is a company that started off and continues to import cheap Chinese frames and bikes into the UK (scaremongering). The reason for the price of their bikes is mostly down to buying power, consider the volume of fox forks, rockshox, DT swiss wheels and components etc that they buy, this is why they can offer custom colour forks and wheel sets check the 2014 range for custom rockshox, DT Swiss and mavic wheels!!. Also shipping from Europe has a considerable offset in transportion costs compared to shipping from the USA. The winner in this is us, the customer, as long as they keep the costs low and still maintain a profit on each bike they will continue to gain a larger market share and offer a better specced bike. Yes I have got a cube bike, a 2012 Agree GTC PRO along with my other 3 bikes (2x mtb, 1road and none cube) and cannot fault it.
  • kammybear
    kammybear Posts: 500
    Or it could be that Trek, Cannondale, Specialized etc have massive mark ups compared to the German makes?

    You telling me Cube and Canyon have better economy of scales than Specialized? Speccy probably get their bits cheaper than anyone else!

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