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TECH NEWS

New 2023 Cube Litening spotted with a lighter frame design

The new road race bike looks to combine low weight with aero tube shapes

What looks set to be the 2023 Cube Litening C:68 has been spotted at the Criterium du Dauphine. The new bike appears set to combine low weight with aero tube shapes and is being used for the classic warm-up for the Tour de France.

Cube is set to release a lightweight and aero race bike ahead of the 2022 Tour de France. The new Litening model has gone under the knife, losing a significant amount of depth from its tube shapes, especially around the seat tube area.

2022 Dauphine Cube Litening - 01

The Intermarche-Wanty team mechanics were building the new bikes ahead of the Criterium du Dauphine and we were able to take a very close look, thanks to some of the new frames being unpainted.

> Exclusive: New Trek Madone appears at Criterium du Dauphine

The key difference seems to be that Cube’s designers have done away with a lot of material from around the top tube/seat tube/seatstay junction, leaving a far cleaner, less angular design.

2022 Dauphine Cube Litening - 21

The head tube, which was a rather chunky design before has also been slimmed down and while the old model had a fork crown running close to the top of the front tyre, the new model seems to have been raised slightly.

2022 Dauphine Cube Litening - 13

As with nearly all road race bikes these days, the front end doesn’t show a single cable, with everything entering the frame via the top headset bearing.

2022 Dauphine Cube Litening - 6

A quick look at the seat tube of the bike confirms that this is a new model, though the code ‘Cube-LI23’ is yet to show on the UCI’s approved frameset list. Framesets are sometimes approved but not added to the list until the model is launched to the public. Other bikes we spotted were marked with a 'prototype' sticker.

Until we have further details from Cube, there is little that can be confirmed as to how much weight has been lost or whether the new bike is faster.

2022 Dauphine Cube Litening - 02

The Intermarche-Wanty team bike is built up with the latest 12-speed Dura-Ace Di2, though the power meter cranksets on these bikes are the older 11-speed model.

A CeramicSpeed OSPW System provides a small reduction in drivetrain drag while the wheels are provided, with very large decals, by Newmen.

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Carior | 1 year ago
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Honestly - much preferred the more angular look of the old one (Lucy Charles has a that one with an awesome new paint job on her insta and I thought it looked epic) - this one looks a bit weird, the bar/stem combo looks like someone bolted them together and wrapped some carbon fibre round the join to "make it look like a one piece" and the rest of it just looks a bit "gappy".

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