Long Term Test: Cube Fritzz 160 HPA Pro 27,5″ Review
Cube offers with the Fritzz 160 HPA Pro 27.5 a super interesting bike for a price of 1.999€. ENDURO long-term tester Flo has now completed several hundred kilometers on the Fritzz. We were very interested if the favorable Cube can convince us with good handling and whether the bike offers good durability.
Specification & Changes
Already out of box, the Cube Fritzz makes a very solid impression, the parts are well thought through. We only had to retrofit the lack of a dropper seatpost and had to replace the 720mm narrow handlebar, a model with 760mm width. During testing, we also mounted a Bionicon C-Guide chain guide because the Shimano XT rear derailleur comes without the shadow+ technology, and lots of chain losses were the result.
Handling
With a height of 174 cm Flo chose the Fritzz in frame size 18 “. The short top tube (586mm) and the steep seat angle (74.6 °) lead here to a central but compact seating position.
Uphill: Even in steep terrain the front wheel holds thanks to the geometry, which helps keep the wheel in contact with the ground. For maximum traction, both the Rockshox Pike as well as the Manitou Radium shock can almost get completely locked. On paved roads especially, so all the force is converted effectively. But if the Uphill is technically demanding and mixed with roots and rocks, the blocked suspension lacks traction. Instead of a complete lockout, we would prefer a pronounced compression damping, as other desired dampers on the market provide it.
Downhill The rear suspension of the Fritzz is very comfortable and absorbs each small bumb smoothly. Even on just middle sized impacts the bike uses a lots of travel, but thanks to the effective rebound it gets offered back to the rider very fast. For a more progressive spring rate, we reduced the volume of the air chamber of the Manitou shock. This is specially interesting for advanced riders who wants a little bit more reserves on highspeed and big impacts.
This smooth response of the rear suspension is very comfortable, but lacks some feedback from the underground, the Fritzz prefers to absorb edges in the terrain as to use it as a kicker for playful maneuvers.
The handling can be described as extremely balanced. The Fritzz is not particularly agile, yet the bike moves stolidly. Cube achieved this by combining relatively long 441.5 mm chainstays with a 66.5 ° steep steering angle. Thanks to this “conservative” geometry the bike sets changes of the direction willingly, but also didn’t act nervous at highspeed because of the lowering bottom bracket of 14mm. Only racers maybe want a lower head angle and thus a slightly longer wheelbase.
Conclusion:
The Cube Fritzz 160 HPA Pro 27.5″ is, thanks to its low price of 1.999€, especially interesting for beginners, but also experienced riders who know how to appreciate the solid and predictable handling of the bike. According to some minor changes of the parts you will get a solid bike which is best equipped for almost all situations.
Whether the bike also cope with the stresses of a hard bike season you learn in the next part of our long-term tests and constantly updated in our timeline.
For more informations visit: cube.eu
Words & Pictures: Christoph Bayer