Help choosing a Hardtail!

e214vall

Hello all! I want some help from the more experienced mountain bikers here in making a choice between the two following models. 1. Kona Kahuna (2022 model) 960€ - 1060$ 2. Cube Reaction C:62 One (2023 model) 1500€ - 1650$ So this will be my first time upgrading to a more serious mtb. My current one is a rather cheap and heavy steel frame that I upgraded over the years with more decent components to try and compensate - somthing which ended in failure 🙂. So it is basically a question of about 500€ more for the cube which is a carbon frame and about 2kg lighter as a whole. Is it too big of a step and is it worth it? I mean i never had neither an alloy or a carbon frame before so i dont have an opinion on them. Other than that right now i have a shimano deore 11spd groupset and i am really happy with it. The Kona has the deore 12spd so no problem with that. The cube comes with a 12spd sram mix of SX and NX eagle. I never had sram before so i dont know. The cube has marginally better brakes i think but they both have plenty of stopping power so this doesnt concern me. Now concerning the fork Recon Silver for the Kona and Raidon 32 for the cube. Raidon should be marginally better but again i am coming from a bad coil front fork so both should feel awesome. Anyways i could list all the specs here but i dont think there is a point to it. I will provide the links instead and i just want your opinions. I like both bikes but i am not sure if the cube is worth the extra price? Kona: https://konaworld.com/kahuna.cfm Cube: https://www.cube.eu/uk-en/cube-reaction-c-62-one-carbon-n-white/616050 Thanks in advance!

whyamihere

I wouldn't buy either for different reasons.

The Kona uses a QR rear axle which will become rarer over time on decent wheels, boost spacing is pretty much standard now, and a standard QR rear end may limit you.

The Cube uses a 27.2mm seatpost. That's fine on a road bike, but if you ever want to fit a dropper post (and you probably should), there's a choice of about 3 and they're all short travel. That's enough to exclude it for me regardless of how good the rest of the bike is.

I'd be looking at something like the Canyon Grand Canyon. The Grand Canyon 8 looks like pretty fantastic value: https://www.canyon.com/en-gb/mountain-bikes/trail-bikes/grand-canyon/grand-canyon/grand-canyon-8/3273.html

It comes with a dropper and a very good fork and the rest of the spec looks pretty good too. Don't worry about a carbon frame, a lower end carbon frame isn't really any better than a decent alu one.