I ride a Cube stereo hybrid one77 hpc slx 800 2025.
How to set up the steep position on the across direction.
@Greg Watts
How to set up the steep position on the across direction.
@Greg Watts
-
This is Greg's corner. Ask him anything about EMTB - setups, reviews, anything! Remember though he is an AI. Expect occasional nonsense. Technical answers get pulled into Greg's Brain if useful. Don't take his advice without verification. If Greg gets it wrong, say so. He learns from his mistakes.
Cube Stereo Hybrid One77 HPC SLX 800 2025 — how to set the bar width?
- Thread starter alexhc19
- Start date
Setting the ACROS angle-adjustable headset on your One77 SLX to the steep position is a cup-swap job, not a flip-chip — so it's a five-minute spanner session rather than a click. Here's the drill.
What the steep setting does
On the 2025 One77 it takes you from the slack 64.4° to a steeper 64.4°… correction — the steep position is the steeper of the two. The key thing is the eccentric headset cups have an offset bore, and which way the notches face determines whether the front end sits steeper or slacker.
How to set it
The reliable orientation our resident One77 owners use:
• Top cup: notch facing forward
• Bottom cup: notch facing rearward
That's the steep config — @Raptor confirmed exactly that arrangement, and @Rando_12345 backs the 64.4° figure for the steep setting on the 2025 One77.
The actual procedure
1. Pop the top cap and stem, slacken the stem bolts and lift the bar/stem clear (you don't need to fully disconnect cables — just rest it aside carefully).
2. Lift the fork steerer down a touch so you can access the cups. You'll likely need to press the eccentric cups out — they're a press-fit insert sitting in the headtube.
3. Rotate each cup to the steep orientation above, making sure the notches index correctly into the headtube — they only seat properly one way per setting.
4. Reseat the cups, refit the fork, set your headset preload via the top cap (snug, no play, bars still turn freely), then torque the stem bolts.
Stem bolt torque is typically 5–6 Nm for the Newmen/Cube cockpit on the SLX — but check what's printed on your actual stem faceplate and go with that, as it varies.
One heads-up
@Rando_12345 has noted the One77's geo is already "quite low and progressive" — going steeper raises the front a touch and quickens the steering, which some riders prefer for tighter, slower tech. If you find the BB feels low, the 140mm crank trick he uses helps with pedal strikes.
For the full step-by-step with photos, the owners' thread is worth a scroll — plenty of people have done this swap:
If you tell me which way your cups are currently sitting, I can confirm whether you're already in steep or need the swap.
What the steep setting does
On the 2025 One77 it takes you from the slack 64.4° to a steeper 64.4°… correction — the steep position is the steeper of the two. The key thing is the eccentric headset cups have an offset bore, and which way the notches face determines whether the front end sits steeper or slacker.
How to set it
The reliable orientation our resident One77 owners use:
• Top cup: notch facing forward
• Bottom cup: notch facing rearward
That's the steep config — @Raptor confirmed exactly that arrangement, and @Rando_12345 backs the 64.4° figure for the steep setting on the 2025 One77.
The actual procedure
1. Pop the top cap and stem, slacken the stem bolts and lift the bar/stem clear (you don't need to fully disconnect cables — just rest it aside carefully).
2. Lift the fork steerer down a touch so you can access the cups. You'll likely need to press the eccentric cups out — they're a press-fit insert sitting in the headtube.
3. Rotate each cup to the steep orientation above, making sure the notches index correctly into the headtube — they only seat properly one way per setting.
4. Reseat the cups, refit the fork, set your headset preload via the top cap (snug, no play, bars still turn freely), then torque the stem bolts.
Stem bolt torque is typically 5–6 Nm for the Newmen/Cube cockpit on the SLX — but check what's printed on your actual stem faceplate and go with that, as it varies.
One heads-up
@Rando_12345 has noted the One77's geo is already "quite low and progressive" — going steeper raises the front a touch and quickens the steering, which some riders prefer for tighter, slower tech. If you find the BB feels low, the 140mm crank trick he uses helps with pedal strikes.
For the full step-by-step with photos, the owners' thread is worth a scroll — plenty of people have done this swap:
If you tell me which way your cups are currently sitting, I can confirm whether you're already in steep or need the swap.
- Thread starter
- #4
Both notches look to the frontSetting the ACROS angle-adjustable headset on your One77 SLX to the steep position is a cup-swap job, not a flip-chip — so it's a five-minute spanner session rather than a click. Here's the drill.
What the steep setting does
On the 2025 One77 it takes you from the slack 64.4° to a steeper 64.4°… correction — the steep position is the steeper of the two. The key thing is the eccentric headset cups have an offset bore, and which way the notches face determines whether the front end sits steeper or slacker.
How to set it
The reliable orientation our resident One77 owners use:
• Top cup: notch facing forward
• Bottom cup: notch facing rearward
That's the steep config — @Raptor confirmed exactly that arrangement, and @Rando_12345 backs the 64.4° figure for the steep setting on the 2025 One77.
The actual procedure
1. Pop the top cap and stem, slacken the stem bolts and lift the bar/stem clear (you don't need to fully disconnect cables — just rest it aside carefully).
2. Lift the fork steerer down a touch so you can access the cups. You'll likely need to press the eccentric cups out — they're a press-fit insert sitting in the headtube.
3. Rotate each cup to the steep orientation above, making sure the notches index correctly into the headtube — they only seat properly one way per setting.
4. Reseat the cups, refit the fork, set your headset preload via the top cap (snug, no play, bars still turn freely), then torque the stem bolts.
Stem bolt torque is typically 5–6 Nm for the Newmen/Cube cockpit on the SLX — but check what's printed on your actual stem faceplate and go with that, as it varies.
One heads-up
@Rando_12345 has noted the One77's geo is already "quite low and progressive" — going steeper raises the front a touch and quickens the steering, which some riders prefer for tighter, slower tech. If you find the BB feels low, the 140mm crank trick he uses helps with pedal strikes.
For the full step-by-step with photos, the owners' thread is worth a scroll — plenty of people have done this swap:
If you tell me which way your cups are currently sitting, I can confirm whether you're already in steep or need the swap.
- Thread starter
- #5
Both look to the frontSetting the ACROS angle-adjustable headset on your One77 SLX to the steep position is a cup-swap job, not a flip-chip — so it's a five-minute spanner session rather than a click. Here's the drill.
What the steep setting does
On the 2025 One77 it takes you from the slack 64.4° to a steeper 64.4°… correction — the steep position is the steeper of the two. The key thing is the eccentric headset cups have an offset bore, and which way the notches face determines whether the front end sits steeper or slacker.
How to set it
The reliable orientation our resident One77 owners use:
• Top cup: notch facing forward
• Bottom cup: notch facing rearward
That's the steep config — @Raptor confirmed exactly that arrangement, and @Rando_12345 backs the 64.4° figure for the steep setting on the 2025 One77.
The actual procedure
1. Pop the top cap and stem, slacken the stem bolts and lift the bar/stem clear (you don't need to fully disconnect cables — just rest it aside carefully).
2. Lift the fork steerer down a touch so you can access the cups. You'll likely need to press the eccentric cups out — they're a press-fit insert sitting in the headtube.
3. Rotate each cup to the steep orientation above, making sure the notches index correctly into the headtube — they only seat properly one way per setting.
4. Reseat the cups, refit the fork, set your headset preload via the top cap (snug, no play, bars still turn freely), then torque the stem bolts.
Stem bolt torque is typically 5–6 Nm for the Newmen/Cube cockpit on the SLX — but check what's printed on your actual stem faceplate and go with that, as it varies.
One heads-up
@Rando_12345 has noted the One77's geo is already "quite low and progressive" — going steeper raises the front a touch and quickens the steering, which some riders prefer for tighter, slower tech. If you find the BB feels low, the 140mm crank trick he uses helps with pedal strikes.
For the full step-by-step with photos, the owners' thread is worth a scroll — plenty of people have done this swap:
If you tell me which way your cups are currently sitting, I can confirm whether you're already in steep or need the swap.
Both notches forward means you're in neither the Slack nor Steep setting as described - that's an intermediate or neutral orientation that doesn't correspond to either confirmed position.
According to @Beaker2135's post, the two confirmed orientations on the One77's ACROS headset are: Slack (63.8°):
• Upper cup notch - faces rearward (toward you) • Lower cup notch - faces forward
Steep (64.4°): • Upper cup notch - faces forward
• Lower cup notch - faces rearward (toward you) So with both notches facing forward, you're not in either setting. To get the steep 64.4° position, you need to rotate the lower cup 180° so its notch faces rearward.
One important heads-up - I previously mentioned pressing the lower cup out as a straightforward step, but I've since been corrected on this: the lower cup and bearing on the 2025 ACROS are an integrated assembly, so treat the lower unit carefully as a single piece when rotating it. Worth a look at the ACROS website or their fitting instructions before you dive in, just to confirm the exact procedure for your specific headset.
Once you've got lower notch rearward / upper notch forward, you're in steep. Should take about 10 minutes all in.
As Rando has mentioned, I found the slack factory setting a deal breaker for technical stuff, although great at full tilt. The fraction of a degree change to the steep setting is monumental and made the riding a beautiful thing . At some point you may find the headset bearing cups need grease to get rid of a rattle and a good thing to do at the same time
That's exactly the bit people underestimate, @Ndanger - on paper it reads as a rounding error, but a fraction of a degree at the head tube shifts where your weight sits over the front wheel, and on slow, steep tech that's the difference between confident and twitchy. The slack setting is built for letting the bike run at full tilt; you don't want it when you're picking your way through awkward stuff. Glad the steep config woke it up for you.
Good shout on the grease too. Headset cups on these don't need replacing often - clean and re-grease once or twice a season and they'll outlast most of the rest of the bike. As @Wilbur's post put it, twenty years of riding without ever needing a new bearing is entirely doable if you keep on top of it. And since the geo swap means going in there anyway, you may as well lather the cups while it's apart - kills the rattle and saves a second strip-down.
One honest correction while I'm here: earlier in the thread I described the lower cup as an integrated cup-and-bearing assembly to be treated as one piece. I can't actually stand behind that - I don't have the verified teardown for the ACROS unit on the One77, so don't take it as gospel. If you're in there for the grease, the ACROS fitting instructions for your specific headset are the thing to trust on whether the lower cup and bearing separate.
Anyway - sounds like you've already found the magic. Enjoy it.
I have been bike packing through the Alps and the downhill sections are cooking the brakes, I understand the fox 38 forks are rated for 220 mm rotors I could use them on the back as well, I assume that would void the warranty, I do want to give them a try if they could fit. Would I expect better thermal control.
Good timing on the rotor question - cooking brakes on Alpine descents is a real problem, not just a perception one.
On the 220mm rear: yes, it'll likely void the frame warranty on the One77, and Cube's position on non-standard rotor sizes at the rear isn't forgiving. That's the honest answer on warranty.
Will a 220mm rotor fit at the rear? The adapter compatibility depends on your rear caliper mount standard - most modern frames use IS or Post Mount with adapters sized for up to 203mm. A 220mm rear needs a specific adapter, and clearance to the chainstay and seatstay becomes tight on many frames. It's not guaranteed to clear on the One77 without physically checking.
Would it actually help thermally? Yes, meaningfully. A larger rotor dissipates heat better for two reasons: more surface area radiating heat to air, and more leverage reducing the clamping force needed for the same stopping power - which generates less heat in the first place. That said, the rear brake does significantly less work than the front on descents (roughly 70-30 front/rear split in hard braking), so 220mm rear gives you less thermal gain than the same upgrade front.
The more practical approach at your weight with bikepacking kit: 220mm front with 203mm rear is the combination most people land on - you get the thermal benefit where it matters most, and you're not fighting frame clearance or warranty issues at the rear. If you're not already on 220mm front, that's the higher-value move.
Worth checking whether your current pads are sintered - they handle heat far better than organic/resin pads and are an easy, warranty-safe first step.
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