Evening all,

I just joined the forum for a bit of advice. I’m in the market for a reasonable hardtail to get into MTBing from road biking and am quite interested in the Cube Ltd or the Ltd pro, specs below;

http://www.cube.eu/en/hard/ltd/ltd-grey-metal/

http://www.cube.eu/en/hard/ltd/ltd-pro-black-anodized/

Both are within my budget of £1000 and I’ve checked them out at my LBS and they look nice / feel pretty solid.

My main question would be, is the Ltd Pro worth the extra £100 for the upgrade from the RockShox Recon Silver to the RockShox Reba fork, considering the brakes on the Pro seem to be a downgrade (Shimano BR-M505) to the regular Ltd’s Formula RX’s?

I’m also interested to hear some opinions from owners / people who’ve ridden one for a while re geometry. My LBS reckons I need the 20 inch frame (6ft, 34 inch inseam) and I’d have to agree, as the 18 seemed really small, and I’ve heard that Cube geometry is generally on the small side.

Any advice / help greatly appreciated!

I would pay extra for the fork the reba is a much nicer unit, lighter and easy to services,tune and it will last a few more years than the recon too. As to the brakes I would be happy to have the shimano’s easy to services yourself and better after sales services.

30 inside leg here and I ride a small (LTD Race). The top tube is longer than most which to me is more important than the stand-over. They come with quite long (90mm) stems and set back seat posts so you can shorten the reach there if you feel the need. I wouldn’t say they are on the small side,just a bit stretched out as is the norm for XC bikes.

Mine has Fox forks with the Formula brakes. The brakes are great, a bit noisy but never had any issues with them and pads take 2 minutes to change. Good stopping power too.

My son has the Ltd Race and loves it. Very nice ride and he’s more than happy with the geometry. He is just about 6′ and has the 20″ frame and based on that I would say that will be the frame size that will suit you better.

I have an 18″ LTD Pro and my inside leg is 29″. Fit is excellent.
Build is weight-weenie at under 10kg with 27-speed XTR and XTR brakes.
Whole bike is very suited to Swinley, Minley and Tunnel Hill terrain.

I bought the frame and added exactly what I wanted for the build, but out-of-the-box or used-on-here would be a very good place to start.
Some of the oem components are clumpy, that’s why the whole is over 12Kg.

You are welcome to come round and try mine in Wokingham.

PaulD

I own the silver and blue version and use it for racing. I have a 28″ leg and went for the 18″ frame and it is great.
I’ve had it for 6-7 months and had a problem when I broke the rear mech hanger – Cube Customer support is next to useless – and I got better help from folks on the forum.

Mine came with Fox fork and Shimano brakes – both work great – although the disc rotors are a single lock rather than 6 nuts which I’ve never had before.

I dont think the black looks all that great and is hard to keep clean. The silver looks great especialy with the white fork.

I have an 18″ LTD Pro and my inside leg is 29″. Fit is excellent.
Build is weight-weenie at under 10kg with 27-speed XTR and XTR brakes.
Whole bike is very suited to Swinley, Minley and Tunnel Hill terrain.

PaulD

That’s exactly where I ride mine, Swinley and Tunnel anyway. You’re right about the weight of some of the OEM stuff. Saved over 100g just by putting a Thomson seatpost on and almost another 500g by putting decent folding tyres on. Mine’s down at nearer 11kg now and only spent around £100 on it. Less than £900 for the full build – the joy of buying ‘last years model’