@6079smithw - Yep, Ergon GA3 grips and so far so good in terms of ride quality. I've yet to get it out on a proper trail, but a couple of longish rides out over local bridleway, it's a massive improvement over the outgoing bike. I was surprised how much of a difference going from 26" to 29" wheels make. Feels a lot faster, generally much smoother, and much much easier climbing.
Hoping to get up to Cannock Chase tomorrow, which will be the true test.
@ogri - Yes, I think there is some sharing of components and possibly manufacturing resources between Cube and Radon. Radon is a fair bit cheaper, though, and seems to have a more progressive design ethos (excluding the Jealous range, which is fairly traditional XC geom)
That looks nice.
Going back to the keeping up with roadies discussion, in my extremely scientific tests, holding the bars of a hardtail just either side of the stem so that your arms form an arrowhead rather than a sail is worth just over 1mph.