First Look: Cube AMS Hybrid One44

Feb 20, 2024
by Dario DiGiulio  
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Cube has not shortage of bike models in their lineup, electric or otherwise, with offerings for nearly every travel number and discipline. Add to that the newest model, the AMS Hybrid ONE44, that fits squarely into the middle of their eMTB lineup. The ONE44 is optimized to keep weight low, while still offering fairly high power.

There are four distinct build kits, with two built as light as possible, and two with more serious trail intentions. All sport unique builds and impressively low build weights for their given components.
AMS ONE44 Details

• Carbon frame
• 29" wheels
• 140mm travel, 140mm fork
• 65.4° head angle
• 76.5° seat angle
• Battery: 400Wh, 250Wh boost pack available
• Power: up to 55Nm
• Price: €5999 - €8999
cube.eu

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Clean carbon finish.
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Baby Bosch.

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Geometry

The ONE44 is a lightweight trail eMTB, and the geometry numbers reinforce that classification. Things are modern enough, but the head angle is fairly conservative relative to other options out there. The Acros headset has a built-in angle adjustment, allowing you to swap between 66° and 65.4°. Every size in the range gets 450mm chainstays, meaning the rear center is longer than the reach for both the Small and Medium bikes. Things should be a bit more balanced for the larger two sizes, where reach numbers are still in line with typical sizing. The bottom bracket is rather low on the bikes, which should make for solid cornering - helped in flatter terrain by that steep head angle.

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Unnecessary evil - the through-headset routing is clean, but irritating to live with.
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The graphics are clean though, in classic Cube fashion.


Frame Features

The ONE44 frame is built around Bosch's SX motor system, which has slightly different packaging and performance to their more full-power alternatives. The weight seems like the core tenet of this bike, as dictated by the ~2100g carbon frame. Part of that low overall frame weight comes down to the minimalistic battery integration, which relies on a fixed-position battery that cannot be removed.

Other details include the head tube angle adjustment that comes alongside the otherwise unfortunate Acros cable-gulping headset, which offers a little more than half agree of tweaking to the end user.

The core statistics are the 400Wh battery and 55Nm motor, which both feature on every build in the lineup.

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3-pack of mounts for bottle adjustment or a battery boost pack.
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Simple arrangement.

Suspension Design

Cube declined to provide any kinematic information on the ONE44, so there's little to do here but speculate. The bike does have a shock layout shared with the ONE55 all-mountain eMTB, with a parallel mount to the top tube as opposed to the vertical orientation most of Cube's bike use.

The only kinematic reference made is in their Efficient Trail Control brief, which describes "A low leverage ratio and linear compression rate are the technical way of saying that these bikes are very sensitive to trail obstacles, whilst remaining insensitive to pedal-induced bob and giving a full range of travel."

Build Kits

There are four build kits in the ONE44 lienup, with an even split between lightweight-focused and more capable builds. The former two (SLX and SLT) sport lighter components for a given category, and are meant to reduce overall weight and keep the bike zippy. The latter two (TM and SUPER TM) are meant to increase the descending capability of the bikes, with less. attention paid to build weight.

All four come in at fairly reasonable prices, relative to the lightweight eMTB market as a whole.

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ONE44 SLX // €5999 17.3kg | 38.1lbs
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ONE44 TM // €6499 18.4kg | 40.6lbs
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ONE44 SLT // €7999 16.2kg | 35.7lbs
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ONE44 SUPER TM // €8999 17.7kg | 39.0lbs
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Author Info:
dariodigiulio avatar

Member since Dec 25, 2016
167 articles

37 Comments
  • 38 11
 Stop buying headset routed bikes until the bike companies stop making bikes for rich non-mountain bikers looking for new toys.
  • 6 4
 I have a theory that headset cable routing is actually an initiative to help keep the doors open at your LBS. I've gone direct to consumer on a couple bikes, and I see them increasingly on trails. It's not to say that's the only reason, but we've seen some pricing volatility as well, if bike shops aren't making enough on the bikes, they need to fill the service schedule to stay afloat. I think its a way for brands to give back to their dealer networks, and for direct to consumer brands to say, "look, we're not so bad for business".

I don't much care for it either, but I also don't think that anyone is making bikes for this demographic you've described. Not that it doesn't exist, but I can't imagine it's informing development decisions.
  • 5 0
 @dirtbaggraeme: I think the reason is much more pedestrian, market researchers funded by acros told bike brands (particularly the Euro ones) that new consumers liked the sleek road bike integration look. Sure, if you didn't know anything, a Bold or Scott do look sleek and modern and would get picked over something with conventional internal or external routing. On top of that, it would ease manufacturing spend at scale to forgo internal routing, since you already have a giant hole in the front.
  • 4 0
 @dirtbaggraeme: i don't think people in bike shop want any of that shit
  • 1 3
 I'm gonna get downvoted to the ground for this, but most brake levers and shifters can go thru a 1.5 bearing headset, no? My formula's and Sram brake would for sure since you can partly or entirely remove the clamp, I would need to verify with a shimano lever.

To each their own in terms of aesthetics and servicing simplicity but I don't see it being such a problem compared to the dropbar market where you do have to disconnect the hoses every time you want to service the headset.
Hoses routed thru the stem a la Focus should be killed with fire immediately
  • 1 0
 @freebikeur: have you ever worked on one of these fantastic systems? *sarcasm*
  • 1 0
 @nicoenduro: Yes I have, on a road bike. I put a seringe on both levers to create a vacuum effect to lose as little fluid as possible. All it took was a quick bleed and off you go.
I don't find them fantastic at all, I actually couldn't care less TBO... I was a mechanic in a bike shop a decade ago and I have fished my fair share of cables thru tiny downtube and chainstay ports, some of them required the removal of the then trendy PF30BB, BB865,etc. In early to mid 2010's lots of bike still had a front derailleur and a remote lock-out for the shock, while continuis cable guiding was completely non-existent. You can imagine the hours of fun for just one bike.
In comparison passing a SRAM brake without its clamp thru a 40mm bearing for the one time you will service your headset doesn't seems so atrocious... If you hate it, buy something else, this is just my personnal view
  • 1 0
 That’s right, you gatekeep “your” sport.
  • 1 0
 @freebikeur: I’d just love this shit of cable tourism to stop spreading like a virus on various brands ruining possible good bikes
  • 17 3
 Any news on new mountain bikes that you guys could post today?
  • 20 6
 Too many e bikes in one day
  • 8 5
 You’ll be ok
  • 15 4
 Yea I’d go with the Cannondale
  • 11 0
 This is designed for a different demographic, 36lbs is crazy light for a trail Emtb. The Cannondale is an Enduro Bike with trail bike parts to make it light. With real durable parts its 48 -50lbs. The Orbea Wild weighs that with a real build kit and more power.
  • 3 0
 @Snowsed341: the pivot shuttle sl weights the same as this but the build kit in a bike this light won’t hold up so I’d rather have the angles than the frame weight.
  • 4 0
 @Snowsed341: Orbea is making some real nice embts at the moment. I’m not in the market for one, but if I was that’s where I would look first.
  • 2 0
 @PtDiddy: I just bought a KSL and its amazing. Orbea makes great bikes also.

Some really good options out there. I love my regular MTB's but its gonna be hard to make time for them when the KSL is so fun.
  • 1 0
 @Snowsed341: I've had an ebike for the past 5 years I think. I still ride my mountain bike 70% of the time. I love having both. Right now I am on a Mondraker Foxy and Marin Alpine Trail E. The Marin is a heavy beast but rides so nice.
  • 2 0
 @PtDiddy: Nice, yeah cant go wrong with a 2 bike setup. After riding my KSL I am selling my Evil. I love the fact that I can get more downs in and it feels like a regular bike. It rides so good.
  • 12 3
 I want to see some real bikes...
  • 7 2
 PFFT A hybrid mountain bike. They are just making up categories now.
  • 8 0
 'Hybrid' has been part of Cube's naming for a long time.
  • 3 0
 @ryan77777: "Hybrid" refers solely to the combination of human power and motor power, just like in the automotive industry.
  • 7 0
 @oggomez: what cars use the combination of human power and battery power?
  • 4 0
 @Marasdfg: I think there was a Flintstones episode about that once
  • 2 0
 @Marasdfg: the Flintstone Tesla
  • 2 1
 @dariodigiulio, "Part of that low overall frame weight comes down to the minimalistic battery integration, which relies on a fixed-position battery that cannot be removed." so is that to say that once the battery can no longer hold a charge the frame is fit for the land fill? or is that simply to say that you can't operate the bike with out the battery installed?
  • 5 0
 I’m willing to bet it should read “that cannot be easily removed”. The frame isn’t molded around the battery. This is probably to compare it to other e-bikes that have easily removable or swappable batteries, at the cost of added weight.
  • 2 0
 It's probably the same as with the headset routing: you can remove it yourself, but it's better for your nerves to pay someone to get frustrated by it. Therefore: it's "fixed".
  • 1 0
 Is there even anywhere you can buy a Cube in the US? I don't think there are any dealers here.
  • 1 0
 they have a couple US dealers but not many
  • 1 1
 Looks quite nice really, but its a Cube, so based on past bikes maintainence-unfreindlyness you will probably need to remove the cranks to charge the battery or something.
  • 3 3
 This is a scam.. every manufacture just following each other.. this is some BS.lol
  • 2 3
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