What have we here? Latest bike through the door at ebiketips is the Cube Elly Cruise Hybrid 500, a stylish and quite classically-proportioned city bike with a Bosch motor and a rack battery. With the higher-capacity 500Wh Powerpack it will set you back £2,299.

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Cube Elly Hybrid -1 (Image Credit: Farrelly Atkinson)

Cube have clearly gone to a lot of trouble to give the Elly Cruise a classic look; it’s certainly a very non-threatening package that looks like it’ll be most at home rolling around at no great pace. Even so, there’s quite a lot going on with the frame here. “Elly Cruise has the same attention to detail in terms of stability and safety as all of our hybrid bikes”, say Cube. “That means you can take innovative frame details like the double chainstay, highly rigid, hydroformed easy entry frame design and complex double chamber seat tube for granted.”

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Cube Elly Hybrid -5 (Image Credit: Farrelly Atkinson)

The double chainstay isn’t immediately obvious looking at the bike thanks to the fully-enclosed chain, but there’s an extra stay on both sides of the rear of the Elly Cruise. The rack is also an integrated part of the frame, so there’s a fair bit of structure back there; the rack system is modular so the battery mount and the pannier rails can be replaced if necessary. There’s a sprung clip on the top too for quicklysecuring a bag or a box of groceries.

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Cube Elly Hybrid -3 (Image Credit: Farrelly Atkinson)

Power is provided by a Bosch Active Line motor, with a 500Wh battery (a 400Wh option is available too for £200 less) and a Purion display. The Purion isn’t our favourite option for mountain biking as the buttons can be fiddly to actuate when you’re bouncing down a rock garden, but it’s neat and unobtrusive here.

The shiny silver alloy bars and stem are finished off with faux-leather wrapped grips and you get a big, shiny bell too.

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Cube Elly Hybrid -2 (Image Credit: Farrelly Atkinson)

The Elly Cruise uses Shimano’s Nexus 7-speed hub gear. That means the chain doesn’t move about so it’s possible to fit a full chaincase, which Cube have sensibly done. All other city essentals are there too: a good rear-mounted kickstand, a set of slive chromoplastic mudguards and integrated lighting.

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Cube Elly Hybrid -6 (Image Credit: Farrelly Atkinson)

At the front you get a SR Suntour NEX-E25 fork with 63mm of travel; we’re not convinced that you get much benefit from a suspension fork on a bike that’s as upright as this in terms of position, but the Suntour unit is at least a good quality fork and we’ll reserve judgement until we’ve put the miles in. The 50mm Schwalbe Fat Frank tyres should do a decent job of smoothing out the potholes. Also: they look great.

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Cube Elly Hybrid -13 (Image Credit: Farrelly Atkinson)

Cube use Magura’s HS-11 hydraulic rim brakes for the Elly Cruise. Maguras have always had a strong following over on the continent: they’re powerful, the pads are easy to change and they rarely require any maintenance. They’re a less common sight on UK-spec bikes but you needn’t worry about whether they’ll stop you or not.

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Cube Elly Hybrid -10 (Image Credit: Farrelly Atkinson)

The classic look of the bike continues all the way to the sprung, leather-look saddle. We’re off to put on a flowing dress and pootle along the canal, and we’ll report back with our review soon.

www.cube.eu

Cube Elly Cruise Hybrid 500 specs

Frame Aluminium Superlite, Trekking Hybrid Premium Comfort, IC, Double Butted
Color black´n´white
Size Easy Entry: 46, 50, 54, 58
Fork SR Suntour NEX-E25, 63mm
Headset FSA No.10, Semi-Integrated
Stem CUBE Comfort City Stem, 31.8mm
Handlebar CUBE Comfort Shape Bar
Grips CUBE Urban, Silicon
Shifters Shimano Nexus SL-7S31, Revoshift
Brake system Magura HS11, Hydr. Caliper Brake
Crankset FSA Metropolis Urban AL-8, 18T
Gear teeth Shimano Nexus, 22T
Chain KMC Z610, EcoProTeQ
Rims CUBE SX24, V-Brake, 36H
Front hub Shimano HB-T4000, QR
Rear hub Shimano Nexus SG-C3000-7R, 7-Speed, Nut
Tires Schwalbe Fat Frank, 50-622
Pedals CUBE PP Trekking
Saddle CUBE Retro
Seat post CUBE Performance Post, 27.2mm
Seatclamp CUBE HYBRID Performance Close, 31.8mm
Front light Trelock Bike-i Retro Ebike
Backlight Busch&Müller Toplight 321 E Plus
Kickstand CUBEstand Pro, Adjustable
Mudguards SKS Chrom Retro
Chain protection Hebie Chainglider Bosch
Bell CUBE Classic
Carrier CUBE Integrated Carrier, SnapIt Adapter and Rails
Engine Bosch Drive Unit Active (48Nm) Cruise (250Watt)
Battery Bosch PowerPack 500
Display Bosch Purion
Weight 25.5 kg