Bike Check: Danny Hart's High Pivot Cube Two15 Prototype
How could we not stop by Danny Hart's pit at the last round of the UK National Downhill Series at Fort William and take a look at the winning bike? This is the same bike Danny has been riding and testing for a while and we had a quick glimpse of it in the pits at Lourdes.
So let's face it the frame is what you came here to see. The Cube Two15 now has a high Pivot Idler set up. I could not get a lot of detail on the frame itself other than this one is a standard medium size and is pretty close to what we should expect to see in production shortly.
This raw aluminium frame shows a few battle scars and looks to have been put through a lot of testing hours by Danny. The one thing I did notice was that the Idler is fitted via bolts to the frame which should make removal for any maintenance really easy which is a nice touch. There is a mix of external and internal cable routing too, with the gear cable going external on the front triangle and the brake internal then reversed on the rear triangle with the gear cable heading into the chainstay just at the pivot.
So let's face it the frame is what you came here to see. The Cube Two15 now has a high Pivot Idler set up. I could not get a lot of detail on the frame itself other than this one is a standard medium size and is pretty close to what we should expect to see in production shortly.
This raw aluminium frame shows a few battle scars and looks to have been put through a lot of testing hours by Danny. The one thing I did notice was that the Idler is fitted via bolts to the frame which should make removal for any maintenance really easy which is a nice touch. There is a mix of external and internal cable routing too, with the gear cable going external on the front triangle and the brake internal then reversed on the rear triangle with the gear cable heading into the chainstay just at the pivot.
Danny Hart // Cube Factory Racing
Sponsors: Cube Factory Racing, Monster, Oakley, Bell, Fiveten, Crud, Crankbrothers, 4Gold, Burgtec, Cushcore, Bliss
Age: 30
Hometown: Redcar
Height: 5’10”
Weight: 70kg
Instagram: @dannyhart1
Sponsors: Cube Factory Racing, Monster, Oakley, Bell, Fiveten, Crud, Crankbrothers, 4Gold, Burgtec, Cushcore, Bliss
Age: 30
Hometown: Redcar
Height: 5’10”
Weight: 70kg
Instagram: @dannyhart1
Cube Two15 Prototype
Frame: Cube Two15 Prototype Mullet
Shock: Fox DHX2 200mm travel
Fork: Fox 40 Factory 200mm
Wheels: 29" front 27.5" Rear
Tires: Schwalbe Magic Mary first ride 27.5" rear 29" front
Inserts: Cushcore
Cassette: SRAM XO 7 Speed
Derailleur: SRAM XO 7 Speed
Shifter: SRAM XO
Cranks Race Face Atlas direct mount
Chainring Race Face Direct mount 34T
Brakes: Magura Raceline MT 7
Rotors: Magura 203mm
Handlebar: Race Face Atlas
Grips: Burgtec Minnaar Super soft
Size: Race Medium
Frame: Cube Two15 Prototype Mullet
Shock: Fox DHX2 200mm travel
Fork: Fox 40 Factory 200mm
Wheels: 29" front 27.5" Rear
Tires: Schwalbe Magic Mary first ride 27.5" rear 29" front
Inserts: Cushcore
Cassette: SRAM XO 7 Speed
Derailleur: SRAM XO 7 Speed
Shifter: SRAM XO
Cranks Race Face Atlas direct mount
Chainring Race Face Direct mount 34T
Brakes: Magura Raceline MT 7
Rotors: Magura 203mm
Handlebar: Race Face Atlas
Grips: Burgtec Minnaar Super soft
Size: Race Medium
Danny is running a Crud XL fender on his fork which he will need for those wet muddy North of England riding days.
Out front of Danny's new Cube is a Fox 40 factory fork for a 29" wheel running its full 200mm of travel. Danny runs 4 tokens in his 40's with 86.5PSI of air. The compression is set with 8 clicks of high speed and 5 clicks of low speed. Rebound wise there is 6 clicks of high speed rebound and 4 of low speed rebound.
At the rear there is more from Fox. This time it is a DHX2 coil at the heart of the Cubes suspension. There is a Fox 400lb spring fitted. In the DHX2 Danny is running 7 clicks of high speed compression with 6 clicks of low speed compression. When it comes to rebound the high and low speed knobs are set to 4 clicks
It's a SRAM drivetrain on Danny's bike. It's a SRAM DH XO 7speed derailleur and shifter to be exact, with a matching 7-speed cassette. These are so common around the pits. Alongside this there is a set of Race Face Atlas aluminium cranks that are 165mm long with a 34t direct mount Race Face narrow-wide chainring fitted. The chain is kept on the ring MRP's SXG chain device. Pedal wise Danny runs the ever-popular Crankbrothers mallet DH11 pedal and Danny winds the pins fully into the body of the pedal.
Bringing Danny to a stop is a set of Magura's Raceline MT7 brakes on a set of 203mm Magura rotors.
Whilst we are at the front end let's talk handlebars: it's a set of Face Face Atlas bars on Danny's bike. They're aluminium and have 20mm of rise cut down to 770mm wide 8 degrees back sweep and a 5-degree upsweep these are mounted to the top of the Fox 40 crowns with a direct mount stem that is 50mm long. Also there is some high-end electrical tape to help Danny's bar-mounted GoPro clamp fit just a little tighter.
Sat on the end of the bars is a set of Burgtec's Greg Minnaar grips in the supersoft compound.
Last but no means least there is an SDG I-Beam saddle and seat post. Danny has 75mm of seat post showing from the top of the Cubes frame.
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Counting from closed does seem to be the industry standard as its that way in every manual or tuning guide I've ever seen put out by the manufacturers. I assumed it started that way based on how people used to use trial and error out on the trail to setup their forks. If you are going to start at one end and work your way out until you find the sweet spot you'd want to start closer to closed. Starting with an under dampened spring and uncontrolled rebound could get you hurt on the trail, while having the dials set to far closed would likely just be a harsh ride at worst.
One analogy I heard along the way was thinking of it like a door between a lit room, and a dark room. Closed will let no light through. Open the door up a little bit (like one click), and the light coming through will be very concentrated. Each little bit that you open the door will have a very meaningful effect on the amount of light let through up to a point. When the door is more than half way open, it becomes much harder to really notice a difference in the amount of light now coming through the door. If the door is 100% open vs 85% open, there will be almost no change in the amount of light. But if the door is 5% open vs 20% open, you will have a noticeably difference in light. The valves in the dampers are essentially doors, and the oil is the light.
Thanks for pointing that out. But you missed the point if you think that's what I meant.
I agree that starting from closed in a better way to do it, but there is no reason you can't get to the same result starting at open.
Who knows... but it looks very temporary to me. I'd expect the final version won't have those grommets and will be all internal like their current production bikes.
Looks like a Session? Check
Yep, me likey (there, I said it, I like a Cube bike!)
iirc Greg mentioned in one of the last dialed videos he runs his wide open too for HSC.
- PB: ieewwww it's ugly AF! Why isn't it beautiful like a Session?
- Cube: releases bike that looks beautiful like a Session
- PB: ieewwww it looks just like a Session!
You can kinda count it as “neutral” when the rise is aligned with the fork angle , forward when its on a steeper angle than the fork etc. U get the point…No need to go full scientist , but it provides good info , if you ever tried a bar with 30+mm of rise you know how big the difference can be.
I'd expect the production bike will be all internal like their current production bikes.
That main pivot point is really not all that high.