Help! Cube Supreme Pro 500

[ladymelchet]

I am thinking of buying this bike but cannot find any reviews. Does anybody have any experience of them. I know it has hub gears - that is why I want to by it. I enjoy the simplicity of hub gears.

 

[soundwave]

when spending this much money only a test ride will know if it is for you or not.

but with that motor and a 500w batt you should get 50 miles from one charge unless you go up steep hills or want to tow something then the range would go down.

for a extra 200 you could have the kiox smart display that has the bosch ebike connect app on ur phone and like a gps tracker and you can also link this to komoot that is free to use but limited.

 

[Bonzo Banana]

Nexus 8 hub gears are great but they are fairly complicated with a lot of internal parts as has the Bosch motor system. Typically from what I've read in forums the Nexus 8 might last between 8,000 and 20,000 miles on a standard bike although early failures also happen. However when you combine that with a mid-drive motor you are delivering a huge amount of extra power through the hub gears and looks like that model has 65Nm peak torque which is pretty high. It seems a recipe to be a very unreliable bike. However it really depends on many factors; how strong you are, how light you are, are there many hills where you are, will you use it a lot etc.

The best way of combining hub gears into a ebike is to have the hub gears at the back and a hub motor on the front wheel this actually massively reduces wear on the Nexus 8 hub because the bike effectively has two powered wheels so the Nexus 8 hub is under far less load than even a conventional bike. In this way you can massively extend the working life of the Nexus 8 hub.

This also has huge benefits for extended drivetrain life, easier freewheeling when unpowered assuming the front hub motor is a geared hub motor.

There is also the option of having 3 speed hub gears and a mid-drive motor. 3 speed mechanisms are far more durable because they are much simpler so stand up better to the extreme loads of both the riders and the Bosch motors power being delivered through the same chain. It's not unheard of for a Nexus 3 to last 2-3x longer than a Nexus 8 hub due to their much greater simplicity. It's why Brompton keep to using 3 speed hub gears because of their durability and reliability. 3 speed hub gears can work well with a mid-drive motor because although you don't have a wide gear range the motor delivers all the extra power you need to get up hills etc.

Lastly if you do go down the route of this Cube bike. The Nexus 8 has one gear '5' which is the 1:1 gear the gear mechanism just locks to the same wheel rotation. On all geared hubs this is the most reliable, efficient and durable gear because the hub gear mechanism isn't really doing anything much. If you can use gear '5' where possible you will extend the life of the Nexus 8 hub and it will be the gear most resistant to the extra torque that the Bosch motor delivers.

 

[sjpt]

Suggestion of front hub motor above seems very sensible. Most of the ones that come like that are pretty basic, but you could probably get a really good quality hub bike for £1000 and conversion kit for £600 or so. You might lose the smooth torque sensor power application of the Bosch, but it would be much more maintainable.

We have a Hub Motus with Nexus 7 which is slightly similar to that Cube. It does make removing the back wheel an irritating task. Also on ours there is no chain tensioner which makes for fairly frequent readjustment of the back wheel; at least that is quite quick and easy. I don't know if there is a tensioner on that Cube. The pictures don't show that, but there isn't much room for one. Our Motus has the Nexus 7, which oddly doesn't have a direct drive gear.

 

[Bonzo Banana]

Suggestion of front hub motor above seems very sensible. Most of the ones that come like that are pretty basic, but you could probably get a really good quality hub bike for £1000 and conversion kit for £600 or so. You might lose the smooth torque sensor power application of the Bosch, but it would be much more maintainable.

We have a Hub Motus with Nexus 7 which is slightly similar to that Cube. It does make removing the back wheel an irritating task. Also on ours there is no chain tensioner which makes for fairly frequent readjustment of the back wheel; at least that is quite quick and easy. I don't know if there is a tensioner on that Cube. The pictures don't show that, but there isn't much room for one. Our Motus has the Nexus 7, which oddly doesn't have a direct drive gear.

The Nexus 7 is a 9 speed mechanism with 2 gears mapped out so you can't use them and sadly I think one of those 2 gears is the 1:1 direct drive gear. I think Shimano wanted a nice clean 7 gears that stepped nicely and they did that by mapping out two gears. The lack of 1:1 gearing and the more complex 9 speed mechanism means it has the reputation for being a lot less reliable than the Nexus 8 which goes against the normal rule that the more gears the less reliable the hub gears. A quick google shows this information about the Nexus 7.

How the gear ratios are achieved:

The first (reduction) gear train comprises a single ring gear, with three dual-stepped planet pinions, each step having its own sun pinion. It has three ratios;

D = Direct (1.0)
L = Low (0.741)
B = Bottom (0.632)

The second (increase) gear train has similar parts, again with three ratios;

D = Direct (1.0)
H = High (1.335)
T = Top (1.545)

The clutching gives the ratios in combinations thus;

Gear 1 = Ratios BD = 0.632
Gear 2 = Ratios LD = 0.741
Gear 3 = Ratios BH = 0.843 = 0.632 x 1.335
Gear 4 = Ratios LH = 0.989 = 0.741 x 1.335
Gear 5 = Ratios LT = 1.145 = 0.741 x 1.545
Gear 6 = Ratios DH = 1.335
Gear 7 = Ratios DT = 1.545

unused near-duplicate ratios;

BT = 0.976
DD = 1.000

 

[Bonzo Banana]

Suggestion of front hub motor above seems very sensible. Most of the ones that come like that are pretty basic, but you could probably get a really good quality hub bike for £1000 and conversion kit for £600 or so. You might lose the smooth torque sensor power application of the Bosch, but it would be much more maintainable.

Many hub motor kits include a throttle which is perfectly legal as long as it only operates while you pedal. This can give smooth control of power to get up hills etc which many older cyclists prefer over torque based assistance which is preferred over stepped power delivery of some hub motors. So for many the ranking would be;

1. Throttle enabled by cadence sensor in combination with power settings.
2. Throttle enabled by cadence sensor without power settings.
3. Torque based power delivery used by most mid-drives and some hub motors (Suntour HESC etc)
4. Cadence enabled stepped power settings.
5. Cadence enabled full power with speed cutoff settings.
6. Cadence enabled full power (very basic kits without throttle or speed controller display included).

So quite a few variations in how ebike power is delivered. Many people prefer the throttle simply because they can instantly use it when they want to boost power it gives them full control. I totally accept some people may prefer torque sensing power adjustment over throttles but I've seen many ebike videos from the US where both are available and more people seem to prefer the throttle over torque sensing power delivery.