CUBE Acid Hardtail MTB

Hope Vision 4 LED Light

SRAM Force Group set

Camelbak M.U.L.E. Hydration Pack


Ergon Handlebar Grips


Scottoiler Active Fluid System

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CUBE Acid Hardtail MTB
(Reviewed by Kelly McNee)

On the market today, the Acid is a competitively priced hardtail, with a good set of components which, at £599, is relatively cheap. *

Forks
The forks are RockShox Dart 3 (80mm) with Poploc which is a useful feature that makes cycling uphill more efficient and easier because the switch to turn the suspension off is next to the gear lever. Also, there is a rebound adjuster which allows the forks to handle any terrain.

Brakes
The brakes are Hayes Stroker Ryde (with 180mm front and 160mm rear rotors). They respond well to every touch and are quite powerful helping technical descents to be handled with control.

Gears
Shimano Deore XT Shadow rear mech and Deore LX front mech. The Acid has good gear ratios (3 front, 9 back) that make pedalling easier on any slope. There are smooth changes and the shifters are easy to operate.

Frame
The frame is hi-tech 7005 aluminium which is very stiff, corrosion resistant and is also light at a total weight of 12.7 kg.

Riding
The bike can handle anything thrown at it. Going uphill is made easy due to the good gears and Poploc suspension and going downhill is great when you know that you can rely on your equipment - which makes mountain biking more enjoyable.

The handlebars are wide, enabling the rider to have better control of the bike on every descent. It's a very comfortable bike to ride and is easy to maintain - and most of all it looks the part!!

Cube have put together a well rounded bike that I would highly recommend.

* Current price at March 2009

Since discovering LED's in the early 1980's, I've been eagerly awaiting the arrival of viable LED front lights. Working in the electronics industry for twenty years showed how close the boffins were getting to robust, low current / long life bright white light at the press of a button. That generation of lights has arrived and all the major manufacturers have something to offer (and many ‘one man and his shed’ operations too). These are my personal observations / thoughts on the Hope Vision 4 LED.

In keeping with all Hope products it looks beefy, manly and business-like! The CNC'd body is lightweight aluminium with an array of 4 LEDs at the business end, a cable exit and on / off switch at the rear. The LED array is a mixture of one flood (15 degree beam) and three spot (5 degree beam) LEDs which give literally brilliant trail and road illumination.

The rubberised on / off switch also scrolls the light through the five brightness settings, including a strobe setting for low light road commuting. The bar clamp is hinged with a toggle clamp for easy fitting and removal, allowing a few degrees of rotation for light adjustment. Different diameter bars are taken care of by fitting different thickness rubber pads to the inside of the clamp - fiddly, but won't need doing very often.

The connectors have long, waterproof shrouds to keep crud out and are barbed to prevent accidental disconnection. The battery is a diminutive plasticised pack with an elasticated Velcro strap to attach to the bike. A flying lead (or extension cable) connects to the light and is small enough to Velcro directly under the stem - even an 80mm shorty. Being designed for use by ham-fisted mountain bikers, Hope have tried to cover every eventuality and the battery pack is protected against short-circuit, over-charging and over-discharging (the biggest single cause of dead batteries).

The charger is similarly no-nonsense: plug battery into charger - red led comes on; switch on charger; red LED turns green when battery is charged after approx 6 hours charge time. The light is supplied with a comprehensive accessory kit comprising head harness (to convert into a silly-bright head torch!), helmet mount and an extension cable for use in head / helmet mount modes - or if you want to mount the battery pack on the frame instead of under the stem.

So, the burning question - what's it like?!

Bright. Very bright. But very controllable to suit riding conditions. The light powers up on its lowest setting - probably so you don't blind yourself - and pressing the button takes the light through power settings of 2 Watts (lowest) / 5W / 10W / 14W and flashing. In practise there is very little difference in brightness between the 10 & 14W settings but the 10 improves battery life. The 2W setting is fine for lit roads / commuting and even forest roads. 5W is perfectly useable for unlit roads and most MTB night riding. 10W would be for techy, single-track descents or making sure motorists have no excuse for not seeing you. 14W might be for downhill racing at night?

Using the light, the main thing I noticed was - colours. The Hope Vision 4 made other lights (especially HID) seem 'black & white'. With previous lighting systems everything appears 'washed out' and pretty much the same colour - wet concrete, ice, mud, leaves etc. With the Vision 4 the world is in colour and you can see much better what you are riding on - and differentiate between poo and dead leaves at last!

The beam is quite wide, about the width of a road, with a bright centre 'spot' and an even wider halo surrounding it in a sort of cone shape. Even on the lowest setting, road signs light up as far away as you can see them and in 5W mode you can see the colour of cars passing in the opposite direction.

If you ride on the road with the light on much more than 5W, be prepared for some strange reactions from passing motorists - slamming on the brakes and honking horns are extreme, but not unknown reactions. You will usually get flashed at - which is good - it means you have been seen.

Unlike an HID, the Vision 4 can easily be switched on / off at stops and by scrolling through the different power settings during a ride 3 hours + runtime is easily achievable. The Vision 4 signals the battery is running low by blinking slowly and dropping to the lowest power setting, at which point you have approx thirty minutes left before darkness engulfs you...

For 24 hour racing / longer night rides an Endurance kit is available which includes a second battery pack. As with any Hope product you get their legendary back-up service to keep you going in the event of a mishap or disaster.

Techy Stuff:-
Light Intensity: 960 Lumens max (brighter than most Halogen car headlights!)
Battery: 7.4V, 5.2Ah Li-Ion battery pack (extra battery available with the 4 LED Endurance kit)
Burn Time: 2.25 to 35+ hours (4.5 to 70 hours with the 4 LED Endurance kit)
Charge Time: 6 hours using the Smart charger supplied.
Protection: over-temperature, over-discharge, short-circuit and over-charging.
Environmental Sealing: sealed to IP67 standard. (waterproof in normal use - very important in this country!)
Weight: 420 g total (single battery)

For more on the Vision range of lights visit the Hope web site.

SRAM Force Group set
(Reviewed by Neil Walker)

A couple of weeks ago I was fortunate enough to get my hands on a SRAM Force Road Group set to test. SRAM is a newcomer to the road bike market, recently dominated by Shimano and Campagnolo. This latest arrival has given them plenty of time to come up with an innovative twist on the combined brake/gear lever, using a single shift lever for both up and down changes. The Force Group set is aimed squarely at Shimano’s flagship Dura-Ace group, at the same price and weight.

Gear Shifting
Anyone who has used SRAM MTB gears will be familiar with their very positive "click" when shifting gears – this is carried on into the double-tap levers. Behind the brake lever sits a single shift lever – give it a small tap, and it shifts into smaller sprockets/chain rings. A longer throw of the lever shifts up into bigger cogs – either one at a time, or up to 3 sprocket jumps.

This simplicity helps to slim down the lever, creating a very comfortable shape, and sharpens up the speed of the change, as there are minimal moving parts. Although the action takes some getting used to (a few miles of shifting into harder gears on climbs soon makes you learn!), the benefits are immediately noticeable when you go back to a Shimano shifter, and you wonder just when the gears are going to change!

On the downside, the up shift can be a bit tricky if you are out of the saddle in the drops, particularly if you have small hands.

Braking
SRAM fiddled about with the angle of cable entry into their brakes to seek maximum stopping power – and they certainly have achieved that – braking performance is up over major competitors, particularly the specialist lightweight brakes.

Power Delivery
I’ve never been a fan of carbon cranks, but the SRAM Force items look well made, with the thread inserts well bonded, and certainly are stiff! The GXP external bottom bracket aids this stiffness, but in comparison to the aluminium cranks I’ve used, there is a noticeable lack of flex when you really hammer along in a big gear! The Teflon coated chain rings. shift smoothly, and the titanium colour contrasts well with the carbon (this colour is closely matched on all the Force parts). Best of all, the cranks are available in 3 chain ring options – standard 53/39, standard compact 50/34, and compact 50/36, as well as the usual length options.

Having ridden a SRAM Rival Group set (priced to match Shimano 105, but performing more like Ultegra), the overall performance of Force is definitely better, and the low overall weight, and drive of the carbon cranks makes the extra investment worthwhile. The new RED Group set weighs and costs an astonishing amount and hopefully someone will drop one of those off at the shop for me to try too!

Product Reviewed: SRAM Force Group set - £850 RRP
Also available: SRAM Rival Group set - £400 RRP; SRAM Red Group set - £1250 RRP

Group set consists of Shift/Brake Lever, Front & Rear Mechs, Brakes, Chainset, Chain, Cassette.

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