Cube Litening C:68X – SLX 2025

The Cube Litening Air C:68X – SLX is one of the lightest and most responsive road bikes I’ve ever ridden, featuring a combination of classic angles, modern tube profiles and an exquisite paint job. It looks premium, rides like a dream and makes light work of pedalling up hill – attributes that will appeal if you’re a racer who wants a lightweight climbing bike. That said, it has good enough aerodynamics built into its frame to ensure it keeps up with fast boys on the flats, too.

> Buy now: Cube Litening Air C:68X – SLX for £7,499 from Damian Harris Cycles

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As a bike brand, Cube lives a little in the shadows of the perennial favourites despite offering performance and specification levels of the highest order. As far as aspirational purchases go, Specialized, Cannondale and Trek dominate the sales charts but there is another brand doing superb things and should be considered as a viable option, both in terms of recreational and racing ambitions – Cube.

Despite supplying bikes to WorldTour team Intermarché-Wanty and winning Grand Tour stages in the Giro, Tour and Vuelta, the German company continues to fly under the radar.

The bike pictured here is the Cube Litening Air C:68X – SLX Red AXS, a lightweight performance bike packed with all the bells and whistles that costs about a third less than the price of its top-tier rivals, the Specialized S-Works Tarmac SL8 and Cannondale Lab71 SuperSix Evo 4.

Cube Litening Air C:68X – SLX: Easy on the eye

It’s becoming increasingly tough for bikes to stand out from their rivals owing to the cookie cutter-like blueprints dominating modern cycling, but the colour of the test bike pictured here – something Cube calls ‘chrome bluencarbon’ – sets it apart. It’s a stunning colour, offset superbly by a contrasting brushed-style Cube wordmark logo on the down tube and company symbol on the head tube. There are some other visual cues scattered across the frame, including a lightning bolt on the underside of the seat tube and ‘Air’ wording on the inside of the fork.

The Cube Litening uses a combination of slender, truncated aerofoil tube shapes with dropped seatstays to balance aerodynamic performance with weight and comfort.

Everything is integrated and clean; all hoses are internally routed, and the entire facade is classic-looking and racy, thanks to the parallel 73.5° head and seat tube angles.

Cube offers six frame sizes spanning 50, 52, 54, 56, 58, 60cm, so there’s a pretty decent spread for most rider heights. At 175cm tall, I find myself between sizes medium and large and usually opt for the smaller of the two, but the sizing calculator on Cube’s website suggested a 56cm.

Despite some hesitation and pushback, once it arrived for testing, the riding position felt natural with no overly long reach. The balance of the geometry numbers includes a 995mm wheelbase, 410mm chainstays and reach and stack figures of 398mm and 563mm, the latter of which makes for a more upright riding position for climbing.

The frame has a maximum tyre clearance of 31mm, which is ample considering the current rhetoric around wider tyres.

I opted to keep the 28mm Continental GrandPrix 5000 TT tyres set up tubeless, as I personally find this width – when paired with the right tyre pressure – the perfect trade-off for most road surfaces in and around Surrey Hills where I live. I suspect riders in the north or neighbouring roads of Hampshire would trade up and opt for 30mm rubber to iron out some of the rougher road surfaces. Cube does offer a Tubolito inner tube configuration if you prefer running a tube-type setup.

Cube Litening Air C:68X – SLX: Build and component list

As the top model in the range, the Cube Litening C:68X – SLX Red AXS is handsomely appointed. As the name suggests, it’s built around a SRAM Red AXS groupset complete with a 50/37T, 10-33T chainset with 172.5mm carbon cranks that incorporate a power meter.

The full SRAM Red AXS bouquet is finished off with 160mm rotors, a flat-top chain, front and rear derailleur, and the new ergonomic shifters and brake levers, the latter of which are a masterpiece. The sum of these parts has a claimed 153g reduction in weight when compared with the previous-generation groupset, so it’s no surprise Cube opted to use the new Red AXS on its flagship model.

The balance of the parts used in the build has also been selected to keep the lard off. As a result, there is a pair of 1,030g Newmen Streem C.35/38 Vonoa Carbon wheels wrapped with 28mm Continental Grand Prix 5000 TT tyres, complete with carbon spokes and hidden valves or the ‘aero valve kit’.

This kit ditches the standard Presta tubeless valves with a short Schrader valve hidden beneath the rim. It’s a talking piece no doubt, but requires a unique aero valve tool, which doubles up as a wrench to tighten the valves and inflate the tyres. If you do happen to lose the tool, the tyres can still be inflated by removing the adaptor from a regular floor pump and sliding the rubber hose over the valve – it can take some doing to get it over the Schrader valve, but it does work.

A 42mm affair rounds off the bar-stem arrangement, something Cube calls an ICR Cockpit System. It comes with a 100mm, negative 6-degree stem with an adjustable Wahoo Mount Interface.

There’s enough sliding room to adjust the computer mount to accommodate a Wahoo Elemnt Ace.

The finishing kit comprises a Cube Acid Nuance SLT Carbon saddle, Cube Litening C:68X Aero Comfort Flex seatpost and matching Acid Bartape.

Cube Litening C:68X – SLX: Ferociously fast and furious – lightweight champion of the world

A few pedal strokes are all you need to know that the Cube Litening Air C:68 is an incredibly responsive and fast machine. While it’s always going to be difficult to quantify such comments, especially when talking about speed and aerodynamics without wind tunnel validation, if average speeds are anything to go by, the Litening Air is up there with the Specialized S-Works Tarmac SL8 and Cannondale Lab71 SuperSix Evo 4.

It can keep up with a dedicated aero bike on the flats and rolling terrain, but you do need to work a little harder. This is nothing to be concerned about – after all, with the word ‘Air’ emblazoned on its top tube, it’s easy to identify its talents, and let’s not forget it comes fitted with non-aero wheels. These wheels are 35mm deep at the front and 38mm at the rear, and are laced to Fade R hubs via bladed carbon-fibre spokes. These hoops were designed for one thing: climbing.

It’s eager to please and makes no bones about its climbing prowess. It’s seriously feathery at 6.45kg (weighed on our scales). Add on some pedals, and that figure grows to 6.65kg. As a result, it’s a pleasure to pedal uphill and rewards you with instant momentum when putting force down on the cranks. But let’s get back to the 6.65kg weight…

Cube has put in a lot of effort and stripped things back to achieve this feathery weight. Everything from the frame and groupset to the wheels and tyres was selected to keep the weight as low as possible. Cube claims this is the lightest bike the company has ever made and is proud of this achievement. Thanks to the use of ‘premium C:68X carbon’ and the optimum blend of fibre and nano particle-infused resin, Cube claims a size 54cm frame weighs 799g. The company also reckons it’s possible to ‘easily build a 6.6kg racer’ like the model pictured here – 200g under the UCI’s 6.8kg minimum bike weight limit.

In terms of dynamics, it’s a little ripper. Cornering is intuitive thanks to the confidence-inspiring geometry, which allows you to trust the front end without hesitation. The tactile feedback coming through the frame and bar also helps to ensure you utilise every inch of available grip. A lot of this can be attributed to the Continental Grand Prix 5000 TT tyres and getting the pressure just perfect, but you can’t ignore the balance of the frame and near-perfect weight distribution either – Cube has nailed it in this regard.

The SRAM Red AXS groupset complements this build, and the braking is modular and sharp, letting you tap into the bike’s potential on the downs, brake later and even feather the levers mid-corner without the fear of locking up.

The gear ratios of the chainset – comprising a 50/37T, 10-33T – ensure good speed on flats and enough sliding room to get up even the steepest of gradients.

It really is a superb performer and all-round race bike.

Value

At £7,499, nothing else on the market comes close to what the Cube Litening Air C:68X – SLX Red AXS offers. If we look at the very top of the performance road bike tree, its rivals are around 50% more expensive, which becomes a major consideration given the Cube gets a near-identical specification.

First off, the Specialized S-Works Tarmac SL8 – SRAM Red eTap AXS will set you back £12,000 – a hefty £4,500 more than the Cube. While it’s very refined, light, has excellent geometry and is easily one of the best all-round road bikes currently available, it can’t compete with the Litening Air on pricing. It’s also heavier at 6.97kg (weighed on our scales).

We can’t ignore another super-light option, the Scott Addict RC Ultimate, which comes in at a claimed 5.9kg without pedals. It also gets a SRAM Red AXS groupset and is probably the closest competitor to the Cube overall, but the sticker price of £12,799, like that of the Specialized, is fairly dear in comparison. Even if you go one tier lower and opt for the 6.5kg Scott Addict RC Pro with Shimano Dura-Ace, you’ll still need to part with £8,500 (£1,100 over and above the Cube Litening).

Cannondale’s Lab71 SuperSix Evo 4 is another option. Like the Specialized, it’s fast and sophisticated, and can do everything well. It’s also light at 6.8/6.9kg (depending on spec and size) but has an asking price of £12,500. Sure, it has a rich heritage and the frame gets a lifetime warranty, but for the same price, you could buy a Cube Litening Air C:68X – SLX Red AXS and a Litening Aero C:68 Race and still have some change.

Conclusion

It might not have the heritage and brand cachet of its rivals, but Cube, as a bicycle company, represents incredible value for money across its range – especially considering the exorbitant prices of many high-end performance road bikes at present.

I get to test a lot of bikes and have several on test – including some models that could be deemed exotic, yet I kept turning to the Cube Litening owing to the outright fun and tactile experience it affords the rider. The handling and balance are spot on, it flattens the climbs and entertains the rider on rolling terrain and the flats – what a machine it is.

If you’re looking for a fast, refined racing bike with a focus on climbing efficiency, then look no further than the Cube Litening Air C:68X – SLX Red AXS. It’s a superb option and an undisputed alternative to the status quo. Hell, if that’s out of your price range, you could always look a little further down the model line-up and pick up the 7.2kg Cube Litening Air C:68X Pro complete with SRAM Force AXS and Newmen Streem C.35/38 Carbon wheels for £5,199.

You’re welcome.

Verdict

Light, fast, affordable and good-looking – the best-kept secret in pro cycling

> Buy now: Cube Litening Air C:68X – SLX for £7,499 from Damian Harris Cycles

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