It’s light. The frame weighs 980g and the complete build tops out at 17Lb.
Aero A.F., the Litening cuts 30% of drag from the previous 2015 model.
The Litening reaches high speeds quickly and is at home when it gets there.
An integrated one-piece bar/stem hides fully internal cable routing.
A specialized Garmin mount is positioned to avoid interruption of aero flow.
In-house brand bars were wide, flat and reportedly comfortable.
Litening’s frame has clearance and compatibility for tires up to 30mm in width.
Cables are completely internal and unexposed.
Gearing is exclusively electronic on this high-end machine.
It was hard for experts to find fault with the SRAM Red eTap AXS drivetrain.
SINC Ceramic bearings helped extract inklings of extra power.
Prices were seen as decent compared to competing models at the same level.
Steering was depicted as an instant, almost twitchy response suited to racing.
SRAM Red eTap AXS Hydraulic braking came across as efficient.
The frame and DT Swiss ARC 1100 DiCut 62 wheels both handled crosswinds well.
A comfortable aero seatpost omitted vertical flex while still exhibiting vertical compliance.

3 reasons not to buy

To one expert, the steering limiter (prevents damage to cables) felt a little odd.
One expert said riders may want to swap out tubed Schwalbe Pro One 25mm tires for wider, tubeless 28mms.
A reviewer said that the bar and stem provided “a lot of feedback”.

Bottom line

According to Cube, they went through a thousand hours of computerized flow simulations in order to refine the Litening’s aero profile. In addition, a reported one hundred hours were spent in the wind tunnel. Twenty iterations of the aero seatpost were tested before settling on the final design. Apparently, the result is a 30% reduction in drag from the previous model. Every measure has been taken to improve efficiency and shed weight. Even the headtube is “waisted” to decrease the bike’s frontal profile. Has this resulted in the flabbergasting machine you would come to expect? From early reviews, it has. It’s fast, light and as comfortable as one could come to expect from a machine pointed at high speeds and first-places. Yes, it’s expensive. But you’re looking at a bike that is raced in the Tour de France and actually undercuts the prices on some competing brands’ uberbikes.

By Owen Jesse

Level 1 expert

They spent 1000 hours doing computerized flow simulations…as well as 100 hours spent in the wind tunnel and the result is that this frameset has 30% less drag than the previous model.

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