New bike – short story

So a friend of mine got into biking last year and got fairly serious about it.
I’ve cycled my whole life (in spite of losing three bikes to theft in my adolescence), but never too seriously.

So I never invested much money or too much thought into the equipment in general.

My old bike is waaay old. Like around 20 years. A hardtail GT Arrowhead with 26″ wheels and front suspension that has never been serviced.
It still runs fine, since I’ve had maintenance done on it whenever I felt the need, but it obviously is not comparable with nowadays bikes.

So starting this season, since my friend moved closer to where I live, we went on several rides together. The longest of them took over 3 hours and was like 70km.
I was straining hard to keep up with my friend during this ride and even tried drafting behind him, but this was a bit too much for my ego and after this ride I started – not too seriously – thinking of finally getting a new bike.
I was convinced (without any proof), that if I had a better bike, I would not need to draft – not that his physical condition was just better than mine. 🙂

My friend has a gravel Trek Checkpoint SL 5 with full carbon frame & pretty decent components.

So I began the search.
My initial budget for the bike was around 700€ and I was aiming to find a bike with 29″ wheels and I did not initially mind if it was used. I first went to try a used [Cube SL Road (2020)](https://archiv.cube.eu/en/2020/351300), which had flat bars like my old trusted GT and Shimano 105 groupset with hydro brakes. The guy who was selling it didn’t know anything about the bike besides the name “Cube” and the bike itself was all kinds of dirty and greasy (not just from riding) and the rear shifter got stuck every time you wanted to switch to lower gears. The guy had (unsuccessfully) tried to fix it with some WD40 into the shifter, which meant my hands smelled after the test ride. I did not feel good about the experience and left with no deal.

Later that day I went to Decathlon to try a [new budget gravel bike](https://www.decathlon.ee/p/312397-47939-gravel-jalgratas-grvl-120.html?objectID=2962864&queryID=aa90aac20f2c9ec48bbef537f295e95e) (800€), but they had only size S, but I needed L. I still tried the S, but was not impressed. The disc brakes of it were probably worse than my GTs V-brakes. 🙂

So after some reading of a local bike forum, the next day I decided to go try a [Cube Nuroad Pro](https://www.cube.eu/de-en/cube-nuroad-pro-metalblack-n-grey/ed328c644ea0ceb31d2b28a489b613d6) (~1100€). It was kind of okay, but still wasn’t convinced I like it. It was rather stiff over the bumps and the brakes were mechanical, which meant I couldn’t apply enough force from the top.

So somehow I ended up asking to try their cheapest full carbon frame gravel bike.
They offered to try a [Cube Nuroad C:62 Pro](https://www.cube.eu/de-en/cube-nuroad-c-62-pro-swampgrey-n-black/2df0958ed6d21fa6dc294510f4f90012) (~2100€) and WOW, what a difference. Everything was so much better – vibrations more dampened, more easily maneuverable, got up to speed faster, rolled faster, changed gears better, had better brakes. WHAT A BLAST TO RIDE!

But since it was way over my initial budget and I had no plans of buying a bike this expensive, I of course did not immediately jump the gun, but went on to try a used full carbon gravel Fuji with Ultegra groupset (1500€).
First 100m of riding I noticed that I can’t switch the front gear upto the big chainring – like it was stuck or something. I called the owner and he instructed me to ride to the mechanics (since he worked at a bike shop and I got the bike from there to try). I turned around, pressed down firmly on the pedal to get going and something snapped. At first it looked like the chain had popped off, but actually I had broken the chain – first time in my life. 😀
Pushed the bike to the mechanics and they switched the chain and tested the front gear lever. Turned out it was working, but you just had to push really hard for it to move, which I found really weird considering it had Ultegra parts.
The bike itself was okay (like 3.5/5), but I was scraping my foot to the front wheel every time I turned at slow pace, the front gear level was hard to move, especially from the top and not tuned correctly, so it was often scraping the chain and since I had just had an awesome experience with a new bike, this one just did not feel right and definitely not worth paying 1500€.

So I took a long drive back to the bike store that sells Cubes and started lightly playing with the idea of just buying the bike that felt awesome and wanted to try it once more. I gave it a longer ride on the city streets in all kinds of conditions and I was having a serious blast riding it. It was just so smooth and good in every regard and I really liked it. So I bought it. Initially with mixed feelings, since I went to the store with a 1100€ plan, but ended up paying 2100€. But after some more rides I have zero regrets and I am happy I gave a more expensive bike a chance.
And to be fair, it’s not even that expensive considering how much the really high end bikes cost. And this bike is probably for life, unless I manage to brake the frame. 🙂

Anyways, just wanted to share my story, since I found it rather interesting and exciting myself. And maybe it’s even helpful for people who are also looking for a new bike.

by pliit