Headset CUBE #11 (Nuroad HPA)

CUBE is one of Europe's most successful bicycle brands, founded in 1993 by Marcus Pürner in the small Bavarian town of Waldershof in the Fichtel Mountains of Germany. The origin story is modest and very German in its practicality: still a student, Marcus started in a 50-square-metre corner of his father's furniture factory, sourcing frames from Asia and assembling them locally with high-quality components — initially just to fund his university studies. Over three decades that small workshop has grown into one of Europe's largest bicycle producers, with products sold in more than 60 countries and around 1,000 people working under the brand today. Unlike many top-level competitors, CUBE remains an owner-managed family business — Marcus Pürner still leads the brand to this day, which means decisions are made for the long term, not under the pressure of quarterly results for stock-market shareholders. The heart of CUBE is still in Waldershof: the state-of-the-art 35,000-square-metre factory opened in 2016 employs 600 people working two shifts and assembles up to 4,500 bikes per day — making CUBE one of the most productive bicycle assemblers based in Europe. Next door, in the company headquarters, the brand's engineering team handles all frame design, geometry calculation and component selection. Every component goes through a double quality check — once during production and again at CUBE's own test lab, which has dedicated rigs for road and mountain bike testing (for example, frames are loaded with forces equivalent to a sprint). The range is extremely broad — over 400 different models, covering everything from city and kids' bikes to e-bikes, gravel, MTB and full-on professional road racing machines — supported by an in-house clothing and accessories collection. In top-level sport, CUBE is currently the main bike supplier to the Belgian WorldTour team Intermarché–Wanty, and the brand's own action team supports enduro and DH racing as well as triathlon top performers (including multiple Ironman world champion Lucy Charles-Barclay). The CUBE philosophy is simple: solid German engineering at a fair price — "Cube your Life".