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Just in: Cube Litening Super HPC Di2… more whizzy bits than you can shake a stick at

High-end carbon loveliness with Shimano's super-swish electronic shifting

Mmmm! The Cube Litening Super HPC Di2 is a bike that you just know is going to be super-fast even before you climb on board. When Dan from Cube dropped it off we half expect the top-level offering from the German brand – all carbon and digital shifting – to make a bid for freedom and speed off up the road by itself unless we kept it well tethered. Now, if only you could sell the kids into slavery, you could afford the £5,900 you need to get your hands on one, and then your life would be complete.

Okay, so what are you getting here? The frame is an HPC (high performance composite) carbon monocoque with an extended seat tube that you cut to length. It comes in a pure race-bred geometry with the head tube on our 56cm model measuring a dinky 14.2cm, so your ride position is going to be low and aero here – you can forget all about sitting up and enjoying the view.

The forks are Easton EC90 SLs – full carbon, naturally, and colour matched to the frame – while deep-section Xentis Squad 4.2 clinchers take care of the rolling.

All of the components are high-end, as you’d expect, but the real show-stealer is Shimano’s Di2 electronic shifting. You know the deal by now: wires and a battery pack take you through the gears, and you touch the levers rather than sweep them. Cables? Oh, no, no, no; what a quaint idea.

We could tell you more but we’ve got an urgent appointment with the Cube, some sunshine and the open road. And we need to put the kids on Ebay as soon as possible. We’ll get back to you.

Mat has been in cycling media since 1996, on titles including BikeRadar, Total Bike, Total Mountain Bike, What Mountain Bike and Mountain Biking UK, and he has been editor of 220 Triathlon and Cycling Plus. Mat has been road.cc technical editor for over a decade, testing bikes, fettling the latest kit, and trying out the most up-to-the-minute clothing. He has won his category in Ironman UK 70.3 and finished on the podium in both marathons he has run. Mat is a Cambridge graduate who did a post-grad in magazine journalism, and he is a winner of the Cycling Media Award for Specialist Online Writer. Now over 50, he's riding road and gravel bikes most days for fun and fitness rather than training for competitions.

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9 comments

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jamesfifield | 14 years ago
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Can't wait!

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dave atkinson | 14 years ago
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full review soon... stay tuned

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jezzzer | 14 years ago
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i reckon you'd feel a bit of a knob riding that on the cycle path, wouldn't you?  1

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Chuffy | 14 years ago
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I have a beam rack to test and that seatpost looks the ideal thing to hang it off. You know my address...  4

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Martin Thomas | 14 years ago
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Blimey, it's very colourful isn't it?

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Fringe | 14 years ago
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i take it you wont be hanging plastic shopping bags off the bars on you way home from work and the shops then...  4

(saying that i wouldn't be surprised if there was a Di2 alfine hub hybrid around some corner some place in a few years).

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jamesfifield replied to Fringe | 14 years ago
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Fringe wrote:

a Di2 alfine hub hybrid around some corner some place in a few years).

Just like that Lexus concept bike then?

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Fringe replied to jamesfifield | 14 years ago
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jamesfifield wrote:
Fringe wrote:

a Di2 alfine hub hybrid around some corner some place in a few years).

Just like that Lexus concept bike then?

ahh, knew i'd seen one somewhere..still think i'll stick with the old cables and pulleys etc.

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jamesfifield replied to Fringe | 14 years ago
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Fringe wrote:

still think i'll stick with the old cables and pulleys etc.

Completely agree: if they did that with a Red gruppo I'd be all over it like a fat kid on a cupcake. Having said that, if someone offered me one I'd bite their arm off!

Any more information of this one? Full review soon perhaps?

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