Cube Reaction Hybrid Race 625

Rain is great for the garden but it delays me from enjoying this wonderful ebike! – It's important when considering purchase to know not just whether something is "good" or not, but whether it's likely to suit you. So I'll start with a bit about me and how I came to purchase this e-bike. Due to serious health concerns, I felt the need to exercise but in a way that I would enjoy doing and thus keep doing it. I decided in 2018 to get a bike, which I hadn't had since my early 30s (I'm 65 now). Because I have been in the situation where I was facing a health crisis during a ride, I decided it best to buy an ebike, and if I felt sick during ride, then I'd just increase the assistance so as to get me home. This turned out to be a great decision. I rode 10K KMs between 2018 and 2024, and while the ebike was still going just fine, I got to feel that perhaps the battery may give out soon. Or maybe I just wanted something shiny and new? Whatever, I browsed various makes and models, with some preference for those sold by 99 bikes, which have been a favourite of mine for years. There were many ebikes at substantial discount, and at the time, this particular bike had the highest discount of 40 percent. This really got my attention at a time that I was eyeing off something a little cheaper but far less capable. The battery size (625 watt-hour) seemed quite large as my old ebike was around 280 watt-hour and I had a ton of fun on it. I can tell you now, that battery size is something that looks a lot smaller when you really get into use the bike. For one reason, the Bosch mid-drive system makes riding a lot more enjoyable, and "doable". Steep hills are a pleasure rather than a pain to accomplish. And thus even at 65yo and with failing kidney, I'm riding 65KM in just over 3 hours and now looking for where I can get a second battery! Thankfully (and unlike possibilities with my previous ebike), it's not hard to add a second battery or even to upgrade the original one.

This particular bike has the Bosch "Smart System", which I highly recommend getting. I believe there are still some ebikes with the old Bosch system, but I recommend going Smart System if you can. It's not just about what it can do now, it's also the functionality coming in future over-the-air updates.

Brakes: Huge 203mm discs combined with hydraulic actuation are the best I've experienced on any bike, electric or not. Weight: I've gone from a 32KG ebike to 23KG in this one. Very welcome. Very balanced, easy to ride in crowded car parks and I imagine on tricky trails. I tend to ride road plus rail trail, avoiding the "bush bashing" that others may get into. Offroad: on the Brisbane Valley rail trail, I find the ride to be smoother than on my old ebike which actually had dual suspension, however I've gone from 2.3" width tyres to 2.6" tyres, and perhaps the tread pattern may have something to do with it as well. In any case, this is the best ride on rail trail I've experienced, however on roads I have to go a bit slower around corners, as my old ebike had road tyres which don't "walk" when hitting corners hard and fast. I have no doubt that with road tyres this bike would handle similarly around bitumen corners but I will likely keep these hybrid tyres due to hitting the rail trail far more often now.

Gears: Previously my gears were 10 on rear, 3 on front. So 30 gears. Now I have 12 on rear only. Which is better? 12 on rear, no question whatsoever. Front derailleur is mostly redundant, weighing the bike down and leading to clicking when you don't have the optimal combination of gear settings. The Bosch mid-mount motor is so capable at 85nM, that I haven't even come close to needing the lowest gear selection yet. I will have to try it one day just to see how low it is. The thing is, as you drop down into lower gears, the assistance you receive keeps increasing. I don't believe there is a hill that will challenge this system, you are more likely to tip over backwards before running out of torque to get up a hill.

Battery: is fairly easy to get out. You can remove it and plug the Bosch charger directly into the battery if you want, or leave it on the ebike and use the charging port on side of bike. I used a thermal imaging camera to inspect my ebike immediately after a 66KM ride on rail trail. Hottest spot on bike was lower end of battery at 31.9 degrees followed by motor at 24.2 degrees and seat at 24.0 degrees. Ambient temperature at the time was 22 degrees. Battery at start of ride was at 99% charge, dropping to 27% using "tour" mode for entire ride. As the batteries are a very significant cost of any e-bike, it's a good idea to learn what you can do, to maximise the life of your lithium ion battery. Did you know that depending on the temperatures that the battery is exposed to, and the choices made for charging and discharging can result in lifespan reduction of up to ten times? Many know not to discharge beyond 20 percent, but few know that charging to 100% can be even worse, particularly if left at 100% for long periods, and even worse, in storage that experiences high ambient temperatures (over 25 degrees C). Because of what I learned, I've setup to make it practical for me to charge my ebike just before use, stopping charge at a point where my ride is likely to bring charge down to between 30% and 60%. Typically, I will ride 20KM per day, using around 20% battery. So I charge to from 60% to 80%. On days when I go further, I charge to around 98%, ride ending at around 30%. To support longer rides, my goal is to get a second battery rather than use this original battery faster. It does help that the Smart System allows me to monitor battery charge level live on my smartphone. But I suggest that Bosch should add functionality such that charging automatically stops at a preset charge value, such as 80% or 90%.

Assistance modes: I'm used to an ebike with very much less assistance, probably around 25nM in rear hub. Assistance modes are off, eco, tour, sport and turbo. Eco is similar to what I experienced on old ebike, but with old ebike assistance mode to 3 out of 4, although new is far superior for uphills. In tour mode, there is more than enough assistance, and I find myself constantly hovering around 25KPH (even on rail trail) which is where assistance cuts off suddenly. It's possible to tweak these modes and I intend to do so, creating a mode that is somewhere between eco and tour modes for use when I want more distance on the rail trail. Frankly, tour mode offers so much assistance that I fail to recognise the extra boost that higher modes offer. When I face challenges due to heavy traffic on roads, I may switch to turbo then but honestly I don't really see the need. The 25KPH cut-off though, I do see a need to remove this, or at least increase it to at least 32KPH. This is nothing to do with Cube or Bosch, it's the governments of countries such as Australia that impose this. Expect something to happen soon in this space, forced by the rampant sales of "tuning chips" sold for multiple hundreds of dollars, threatening to void warranties and turn honest people into criminals. Thanksfully, it looks like Bosch has made it easy to change this limit, for when regulation changes are ultimately made. It also makes it easy to sell the same bike to multiple countries, ie NZ uses a 32KPH assistance cut-off.

Charger: is okay, however it does get a bit warmer than I expected, at 52 degrees case temperature after 1 hour of charging the 625 WH battery. I don't imagine this is cause for alarm. As for any situation where you regularly store and charge lithium ion batteries, install a smoke detector as the risk of fire from larger LI batteries is real, even if it is mostly in cheaper chinese equipment rather than quality Bosch units.

If you want to ride at night, get yourself something like a MagicShine MJ 906s or 902s. MagicShine sell a cable that allows you to connect to the aux port on the Bosch CX motor. Or you can get the model with battery. I've used both, and each work just fine. If you intend to use offroad at night, I would definitely not go with the 902s, I believe 906s is minimum and even more lumens if you can afford it.

Grips: are okay. If anything, they are too "grippy", leading to blistering on long rides over rough terrain. A better grip comes from "Ergon", check out the GP1 to GP5 range. The "large" gives you larger, smoother surfaces, making quite a difference on long rail trail rides. You could use riding gloves but I find the best solution is the large Ergon grips, allowing you to change your grip at times where circulation is becoming an issue. The downside is some added weight and air resistance.

Summary: I really love this bike. The modularity that comes with the Bosch Smart System gives great peace of mind and promise of wonderful things in future as well. If I was choosing a bike today, I would choose same again, although if I could get a battery even larger I would, but not with dual suspension. Fitting a PowerPack 800 (when available) should make this ebike just perfect.

Update 10th April 2024: I've had this ebike a month now, and love it just as much! I talked to a couple this morning that bought "Pedal" brand ebikes from same store I bought this ebike from. Theirs was a sad story, having paid $1700 but for a product that cannot even be compared with this ebike. I suggested that at least their had good brakes (hydraulic disc brakes front and rear) but they replied that these had given them a lot of grief and it seems that it's because they are the very cheap variety. It made me feel that I chose wisely with the Cube Reaction Hybrid. From what I've seen online, Giant is a decent brand as well. But for me, why would I change from Cube?

Update 11th June 2024: Still very happy with this ebike after around 1000KM. I tend to stay in top gear a lot of the time, and managed to damage the smallest gear on the cassette. I've ordered a 44T chainring so that the new cassette lasts longer through more varied use of the available gears. I typically use fairly low cadance (I'm 65yo) which aggrevates the issue of overusing the highest (tallest) gear most of the time. Had I spent more time on trails rather than roads would probably result in gear usage being spread more as well. But as I mostly am on good straight roads, taller gears seem way to go.