CUBE AGREE HYBRID C:62 SL DISC
£3499 > Electric assistance for Cube’s classic Agree
When Cube decided to implement Fazua’s Evation system into one of its road machines, the endurance-biased Agree was the ideal choice. It’s a BB-mounted motor but much smaller than the equivalent Shimano, Bosch or Polini systems we’ve tested before. The dimensions have no effect on the bike’s geometry, so the Hybrid version of the Agree feels like its unassisted cousin in the way it handles and rides.
It’s lightweight (5kg) and you can remove the Fazua’s battery and motor (you do to recharge it). Once removed you can fit a cover over the battery space and ride it like a regular bike, although it’s a touch heavy at 11.3kg.
The Evation power is controlled by a bar-mounted unit, on it you have a simple layout of up and down buttons (to switch between modes) and a bank of 10 LED lights – each of the 10 is a battery level indication and modes consist of white – off, green – low, blue – medium, red – full power. Switching between modes is the way to go to get the best distances, and on the flat the Agree is more than capable of staying above the speed limit (15.7mph on our Garmin). The modes only come into play on the ups: on green the motor will see you up most slopes, blue will help you get to the higher -speed levels, whilst the red we reserved for a couple of 15 per cent + sections. Range wise we weren’t as impressed with the Cube as we were as when we rode the Evation on Focus’ lighter Paralane. On multiple rides we got between 41.57 miles with 1958.66ft of climbing at an average speed of 16.9mph and at most 55.72 miles with 1213.4ft of climbing at 17.2mph: decent but not as impressive as some e-bikes. That said Fazua claims 60nm of torque for the Evation. Compared to the active line power of Bosch, which it’s claimed has 63nm, the Evation doesn’t feel like it has half the torque of the Bosch; though it’s a different kind of assistance, a gentle push in the back if you will.
The Evation system is slickly designed and works well, so we can see why it’s found on premium e-road machines from the likes of Pinarello, Look and Focus but it does have a couple of niggles: you have to eject the battery to turn it on, the control unit is chunky and the 10 light battery indicator is more vague than Bosch’s head unit or eBikemotions’ app-battery level indication.
Cube’s take on an Evationequipped bike is the cheapest we’ve seen and works well as both an e- and regular bike.