An unreleased drop-bar variant of Shimano’s Cues groupset has been leaked on the new Cube Nuroad Pro gravel bike.
Released in early 2023, Cues consolidated Shimano’s entry-level Alivio, Acera and Altus groupset families into an all-encompassing range of 9-, 10- and 11-speed drivetrain components.
Though 2x mountain and urban bike components are available as part of the Cues range, it is primarily intended to offer affordable 1x drivetrains for all disciplines.
At the time, Shimano also announced it would be phasing out its budget-oriented Tiagra, Sora and Claris road bike groupsets.
Though it didn’t go as far as confirming it – upsetting some mullet drivetrain fans – Shimano strongly hinted a drop-bar version of Cues would take their place.
This unreleased drop-bar version of Cues bridges the gap between Shimano’s premium GRX gravel bike and budget road bike groupsets. These are widely specced on entry-level gravel bikes, but have all been 2x to date.
Notably, the bike is built using the existing Cues RD-U6000-GS rear derailleur, confirming the new Cues BR-U6030 drop-bar levers use the same cable-pull ratio as their flat-bar equivalents.
This is hardly surprising given Cues’ focus on increasing compatibility. However, this marks the first time Shimano’s mechanical drop-bar and flat-bar components have been officially inter-compatible since the 9-speed era.
The levers themselves look very similar to existing Shimano hydraulic road bike levers.
The derailleur is paired with a wide-range Cues CS-LG400 11-speed 11-50t cassette.
The 1x variant of Shimano’s latest 12-speed GRX groupset is compatible with similarly wide cassettes.
However, with the safe assumption Cues will be priced lower than GRX, this makes the new groupset Shimano’s cheapest 1x drop-bar groupset.
On this bike, the crankset is a third-party option from Cube’s in-house Acid component brand.
Given its focus on 1x drivetrains, we expect the complete drop-bar Cues groupset to use the same – or very similar – crankset options as its flat-bar variants.
The bike is built using a KMC xGlide chain. Shimano Cues groupsets use Shimano’s Linkglide technology and are not compatible with existing 11-speed chains. As far as we are aware, this is the first third-party Linkglide chain available for Cues.
The Nuroad is Cube’s do-it-all alloy gravel-inspired bike platform.
Pairing relaxed geometry and wide tyre clearance with mounts for mudguards, kickstands and racks, the Nuroad is also indicative of the type of bike we expect to see Cues specced widely on.
At £1,199 / €1,199, the Nuroad Pro’s price is also telling.
This is a price point few brands can hit using Shimano’s existing GRX components, or SRAM’s Apex Eagle family for that matter, without compromising elsewhere.
Only one drop-bar Cues bike has been seen so far, so we can’t speculate on the availability of 2x components, dropper-post compatibility or pricing. Shimano has been contacted for comment.
