Cube Attain 2020

Based around a comfortable aluminium alloy frame and carbon fork, the Cube Attain is an enjoyable bike to ride at speed or just cruising along, making it ideal for those just beginning their adventures in the world of road cycling. A competitive weight and impressive finishing kit go some way towards justifying the price tag, but there are cheaper options out there.

Ride

For road bikes at this price, my two benchmarks for comfort and ride quality are the Specialized Allez and Vitus Razor. I'm happy to report that the Attain is up there with them.

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The alloy frame we have here is really comfortable to ride. There is no harshness or road buzz resonating through your hands like aluminium frames of yesteryear and the experience is very impressive. I headed out for longer rides over a range of road surfaces and came back home without any feelings of discomfort or fatigue at any of my contact points.

In fact, I didn't really notice the bike that much, to be honest, unless I needed to, and that is no criticism of the Cube: it's just that it is so easy to ride.

The geometry is more relaxed than you'd find on a performance road bike, sitting more towards the endurance sort of level. For instance, this 56cm model has a 560mm top tube, a tall head tube of 182mm and a slightly slack 72.5-degree head angle, which gives neutral handling and a slightly more upright position.

The 1,004mm wheelbase also brings an added feeling of stability, which gives the whole bike a feeling of confidence. I only really found it wanting when the speed crept up and the corners got a little bit technical.

Everywhere else, though, the front end turns in predictably and whether you are cruising around the back lanes or mingling with urban traffic, you feel totally in control. This also helps when riding on wet, slippery roads.

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The way the Attain behaves is just right for the type of rider it's aimed at, those who are possibly new to road riding and would find something more race orientated a little twitchy.

Stiffness levels are good thanks to the chunky box section of the oversized down tube and the wider than normal bottom bracket shell.

Cube has gone down the press-fit internal bearing route rather than having a narrow shell to take threaded external BB cups.

Out-and-out sprinting is hampered a bit by the overall weight of 9.67kg (21.3lb), but if you need to give it a dig it's relatively responsive. The same goes with climbing – unless you're a very strong rider you'll be feeling the effort when attacking steep hills.

None of these are massive criticisms at all. For the money, the Cube behaves exactly how I would expect and the improvement in performance over a bike of this price five to ten years ago is marked.

The comfort levels seem to have been achieved by reducing the overall diameters of the tubes at the rear of the frame. The top tube narrows as it makes its way to the seat tube…

…and from there the dropped seatstays are very slender to promote a bit of flex between the rear wheel and the rider.

The top tube is also heavily sloped, allowing plenty of seatpost to be exposed, adding to the flex.

Frame and fork

According to Cube, the Attain gets a Superlite 6061 aluminium alloy tubeset which is double butted. If you haven't come across this before, it is where the tubes have two different wall thicknesses along the length, thicker at the ends for added strength to cope with the welding and stresses, thinner in the middle to allow a little bit of flex for comfort.

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It's not a bad looking frame. The welding isn't quite as neat as you'll find it on more expensive frames but it doesn't detract from the overall quality. It's also quite well hidden by the matt grey paint job.

On that note, to my mind the whole bike looks more expensive than it actually is thanks to that grey and the bright yellow highlights of the frame and other little additions like the outer cables and underside of the saddle.

The paint itself looks to be hard wearing, and Cube has gone to the trouble of sticking transparent protection not only on the chainstay but also the lower half of the down tube.

It's good to see internal cable routing making its way down to bikes of this price, and the Attain looks much smoother and cleaner for it. For the front mech and rear mech, the cables do only run inside for the length of the down tube, exiting at the bottom bracket right into all of the road spray from the front wheel, which isn't exactly ideal.

Not so long ago the thought of a full carbon fibre fork on a sub-£700 bike would have seemed ludicrous, but not any more. That is what the Attain comes with, and not only is the steerer carbon it is also tapered to suit the head tube, bringing additional stiffness for the handling and braking.

Cube offers the Attain in a total of seven sizes from 47cm through to 62cm, with effective top tube lengths of 510mm to 595mm, which is quite a decent spread. You can see a full geometry table on Cube's website, follow the link up top.

Groupset

Unlike the Specialized and Vitus I mentioned earlier, the Cube comes with a full Shimano Claris groupset including the chainset, which gives the bike a complete look.

Claris is Shimano's entry-level road groupset and follows much of the look of the Tiagra and Sora groupsets that live above it, although Claris has 8 sprockets (8-speed), while the others have 10 and 9 respectively.

Shifting isn't quite as crisp as the more expensive groupsets, but it is precise enough that you get a solid click from the shifter as you change from one sprocket to another. The shape of the hoods is also a comfortable place to spend your time.

When it comes to ratios, the Cube comes with a 50/34-tooth compact chainset and an 11-34t cassette, so there are gears for either end of the extreme. It's quite a gappy cassette, though, meaning that you can quite often find yourself 'between' the sprockets.

It's the CS-HG31-8 cassette, which uses a Megarange sprocket. This is where the largest sprocket is much bigger than the next, to give you a bail-out gear for the hills while keeping the rest of the cassette as close as possible.

The Claris does a fine job of coping with the big jump. The sprocket sizes (number of teeth) are: 11/13/15/17/20/23/26/34.

The braking is okay, but I'd suggest you upgrade the pads. The standard ones from Shimano don't have that great a compound and even when bedded in don't offer a huge amount of bite or give that much feedback or modulation.

They are still better than a lot of entry-level brakes on the market, though, thanks to the stiffness of the callipers.

Finishing kit

The rest of the kit is Cube-branded stuff and is exactly what you would expect for the money: durable and capable alloy components for the steering and for holding your saddle.

The handlebar has a compact drop and reach, making it more accessible for getting into the lower half of the bar without putting you in too stretched out a position. The tops also swoop back towards you a little, which brings the distance from your saddle to bar down a little.

The Natural Fit Venec Lite saddle is a little bulkier than I normally like but I found it pretty comfortable on the whole, and its padding certainly does a decent job of keeping road buzz at bay.

Wheels and tyres

The wheelset is also from Cube, the RA 0.8 Aero. They're solid enough wheels, and I certainly didn't have any issues with durability throughout the test period.

The hubs ran smoothly and they remained true after riding on some pretty horrendous roads. The only real downside is that they carry a fair bit of weight so if there comes a time that you can upgrade to something lighter, go for it. As it is, they are up to spec for the type of wheels I'd expect to find at this price.

Tyres are Continental's Ultra Sport 2, a durable and dependable tyre that I have ridden for thousands of miles over the course of the years. They don't really excel anywhere but offer decent levels of grip to give you confidence in the corners, and the rolling resistance is minimal enough that you still get a spirited ride.

Value

As I've mentioned, for the price you are getting a good quality frameset and spec list compared to what you'd be getting even five years ago, but the Cube is up against some tough opposition.

The Specialized Allez is the same weight and comes with similar finishing kit, although the Cube does have the complete Claris groupset, and to be fair the Allez is only £49 cheaper, a gap that can be a lot less online.

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Over the last few years I've ridden a couple of versions of the Vitus Razor and I've always been impressed. For 2020 the Razor Rim, as it is now known, has changed slightly, and is able to take full mudguards again like the original version.

Its geometry is very similar to the Cube, so you will get a very similar level of performance and handling. It also has a Claris groupset but substituting out the chainset for a Prowheel version, and its fork has an alloy steerer. Even so, it is only 200g heavier but £150 cheaper.

Conclusion

Overall, I like the Cube. Its frame and fork provide a very pleasant ride and the steering gives plenty of confidence without taking the fun away. It looks good too. It may be a little more expensive than some of the opposition, but you're still getting a lot of bike for the money.

Verdict

Great looking bike that delivers confidence and performance for those new to the sport