Phil Atwill has posted an Instagram video of himself jibbing on a new Cube downhill bike. Last year, the Cube Global Squad team were riding on aluminium Two15 HPA 29 frames but this looks to be a carbon front end with a remodeled shape.
The straight tubes of the previous bike are replaced with a swooping frame that looks to have a chunkier headtube junction, lower standover and a remodeled seat tower area. The shock's piggyback is facing backwards towards the seat tube, similar to their aluminium design, but now there's an un-interrupted seat tube all the way to the bottom bracket. The linkage remains a Horst pivot rocker link design but we would guess that modifications have been made to the kinematics as Phil is running a coil shock, whereas he ran an air shock for all of last year. The rear triangle remains aluminum
The last bike was a dedicated 29"/29" bike but we wouldn't be surprised if there isn't at least the option to run this as a mullet set up too... because 2020.
Here are the best screengrabs we could get from the video.
Plus a video posted by the team:
We reached out to Cube for any further information and while they couldn't give us too many specific details, they did say this bike has been in development for more than a year and is built on the knowledge gained in the past 3 years of World Cup racing. The whole team will apparently be racing this bike in Lousa and it should be on sale to the public for next year, although a date is not yet confirmed.
images.app.goo.gl/UXkWhUQPYbjnD6Z78
Wow, the "looks like a trek was ok at first, then was funny and now its dead and gets stabbed again" hahaha.
Minimal changes in pivot locations can change many things. but i get it, when u say it looks similar to the kinematic layout of another brand. who doesn't want to have a working bike?
f*ck right off.
1) KONA OPERATOR
2) TREK SESSION
3) SCOTT GAMBLER
Recon that this frame looks way nimble/better that its predecessor!