Kate has posted her report from the World Cup round 4 in Madrid. It goes without saying that we are very pleased with her progress.

Robbie is finally free to get the BFe back out again, and his timing couldn't be better as a proper summer hits Wales and the rest of the UK. He's posted a few pics on his blog. Note: New BFe stock arriving next week. We'll have two sizes: Small (as Robbie rides/races) and also Medium is making a return. As well as the battleship grey that the BFe has been available in up to now, we'll be getting a few frames in ORANGE for those that want to be noticed.

• Orange : for BFe
• Espresso : for ROADRAT, Simple and Soul
• Builders Tea : for ROADRAT, Simple and Soul

There's a lot of shipment activity in the next month as we get our stocking back on track. It's coming in 3 bursts though, so here's the lowdown on timings:

• This Week: First 20 of the new beverage colour ROADRATs. Pretty much all of these are pre-allocated now.
• Next Week: 853 frames are GO! Soul and Simple will be back in all sizes in limited edition "Espresso" and "Builders Tea" colours. 50 Souls, 30 Simples and that's it! BFe is also back in small and medium in grey, but with a new orange frame colour option too. These should be shipping to customers end of next week (5th June)
• Late June: Main bulk of the ROADRAT shipment arrives, we'll have full stock of framesets and bikes.

We'll have frame shots of the new colours by the end of the week, so you can all see how ace "Espresso" and "Builders Tea" are.

Quite typically, these shipments have managed to land just when Cy and Paul are both having holidays, so we'll be doing our best to keep on top of things, but we might not be quite a quick as usual at turning around orders. It'll all be settling down in mid-June though. If you want pre-order anything, get over to the framebuilder and drop us a line.

There's a fantastic Dartmoor Route Guide in the latest issue of Singletrack, featuring staffer Matt Letch aboard his Cotic BFe. The photos are so lovely, we thought we'd bring you one to look at on this miserable Friday morning. Matt was working with me this week to do a subtle mod on his BFe so he can fit a Truvativ Hammerschmidt crank. There will be more on this in a future issue of the magazine.

We're going to have the BFe back in stock in about three weeks, both in grey and a new colour option to be revealed soon. Put it this way, if the grey is subtle, the new colour is the anti-subtle! We're also moving back to the medium sizing from the old 'big' size. The frame is the same shape in terms of rider fit, but it reverts back to our standard medium size as per the other hardtails as feedback has been that people would much rather have a more compact frame. If you want to pre-order, email us or give us a call.

We have unfortunately had to pull out of our participation in Keswick Mountain Bikes' demo weekend at the Keswick Mountain Festival this weekend. Cy was due to run it, but is too ill to go, and Paul is already committed to his AQR Skills Coaching duties this weekend. We're sorry if you were hoping to ride with us in the Lakes. KMB can still get our demo fleet sent to them for test, so if you are local to them, drop by and talk to them about getting a Cotic demo.

One of the questions we most frequently get asked is 'What fork travel should I use'? With all our frames having such wide ranges of operation, I guess it's a sensible thing to ask, but basically it comes down to rider preference. Take the Soul for example; it will work with forks between 100 and 130mm travel, and for the last year or so we've been selling loads of Magura Menja 130 forks with frames as people take the 'more travel is better' route. But is it better? We've just got a bunch of the 100mm travel Menjas into stock, because despite living in a pretty rocky place both me and Paul have 100mm forks on our Souls, and we think they're ace. It's that little bit easier to pin the front end down on steep climbs, that little bit sharper and faster in the singletrack, and if you make sure you've got some proper tyres on, it's not much slower heading down the other side. Sure, it's our preference, and you're welcome to yours, but we thought we'd give a shout out to the shorter travel forks. It's what we ride, after all......

Well, that took us by surprise I bit. We've sold 24 of the 30 ride jerseys we got in just two weeks! So, just 6 left and last chance on this batch. We're out of Size 4 Green now, and have the following left:

- Size 4 Orange, 1

- Size 5 Orange, 3

- Size 5 Green, 2

Price is £50 including P&P, and once they're gone, they're gone. However, after the success of this little lot, we're planning on doing another limited run of a completely new design later in the summer. We'll probably go for full short sleeves on that too, because it IS going to be a great summer. It just is!

If you'd like one, email order@cotic.co.uk or call 07970 853531.

We needed to get some product shots recently, so we got together, rode our local trails on a very 'British' Spring day, and with the help of some great photography we think we've produced some pretty inspiring shots. It sums up a lot of what it means to ride on this fine little island of ours. Check out some more pictures here.

Bit slow on the uptake here, but Wideopen Magazine Issue 9 has been out for a bit now, and features an interview with Cy from last winter. It's pretty in depth, and as it was done by email, Cy had time to type it out to make himself sound much more eloquent than he really is!

Wideopen is a free to download web mag, with lovely high production values and lot's of nice stuff in it. Well worth a read.

After frankly years of not sorting out some nice tops to ride in, we decided pull ourselves together, give a stiff slap round the chops and do a couple of variations on Robbie's new team tops for all you good people. Lovely British Racing Green colour with orange highlights, Cotic Heed logo on the back and Evil striping like our frame decal designs on the side panels, these tops have all the sweet graphic features of our frame finishes. There's two styles, with the COTIC either with an orange band or a more subtle all green approach.

Nice crew neck means you don't look like a dork, and 3/4 sleeves with breezy cuffs means great cooling for warm days with some very welcome extra upper arm protection for those brambly summer night rides. Cy has already extensively 'tested' this feature. Ahem. We've even kept an old skool rear pocket, which is zipped so you can pop your phone or iPod in it for quick spins without your pack. If you want a little more convincing, there's some pictures of Robbie making it look good on his NPS 4X blog entry. Robbie's got the sleeves roller up there, by the way. They come about halfway down your forearms when fully unrolled.

Price is £50 including P&P, and two sizes are available - size 4 for normal people (it's baggy but good on Paul who's 5ft 8in, works up to around 6ft), or size 5 for taller types (Cy's 6ft 3in and it's good for him. Will work for 6ft-ish and up). If you'd like one, email order@cotic.co.uk or call 07970 853531. Be quick though, we've only got 15 of each colour....

Kate's just sent us final pics of the 2009 Cotic Soda in custom World Cup guise; isn't she a beauty? Less than 19lbs in all it's Bontrager and Magura equipped finery, with supporting roles from KCNC with the maddest cassette you've ever seen and Crank Bros pedals and headset to round out the super light package.

Kate's given the new bike a run out at the Offenburg World Cup last weekend and loved it. The frame features custom fitting for Kate, but retains Cotic's legendary hardtail geometry. The 2009 frame also features a return to full titanium after 2008's carbon seat tube. To maintain the stiffness, the seat tube is now oversized and due to added cunningness is actually lighter than the previous smaller diameter tube. This feature will find it's way onto production Sodas when they return later in the year.

On the Bontrager side, the carbon XXX-Lite seatpost and bars return with fancy 2009 graphics, and the new white finish on the Race X-Lite stem matches the Magura Durin 100SL forks and Marta SL Magnesium brakes perfectly. New for 2009 are the very bling carbon rimmed XXX-Lite wheels which have knocked a chunk of weight off the previously pretty feathery Race X-Lite wheels used for the last two seasons.

Kate's really excited about the bike, and has sent us a message letting us know just how much. Find out more on her latest blog.

Robbie's just popped a story up on his blog about the landowners threatening to bulldoze his local trails. It's obviously a really important place for Robbie and South Wales riders, and if you have a quick read of the story you'll see where you can email to appeal for them to stay.

Robbie's also been having fun at the BMX track, with tales from a day out in the sun also on his blog.

Cy went to see Reynolds yesterday, to have a look around, and also to discuss working together on some tubing projects for the future. It was a really positive meeting, and Cy's all excited about amazing steel tube designs. More news later this year....

As well as talking tubes, Cy picked up some camera phone shots of some of the Reynolds equipment. It's ace old school stuff, and some of it nearly 50 years old now and still going strong because it was so overbuilt in the first place. Here's a few shots.

Kate's racing every weekend at the moment, and came a fantastic 7th in the SwissPower Cup race last weekend. She'll have a report up soon, but for now read her full report from South Africa.

Kate's flying the Cotic Bontrager flag in Offenburg this coming weekend at the second round of the Nissan World Cup. We'll have some shots of her new custom Cotic Soda World Cup next week after she 'runs it in' in Germany on Sunday.

We're smiling about it. Read her quick report from South Africa.

Turns out Robbie snuck off for a sly snowboarding holiday straight from his successful first NPS 4X outing, but now he's back he's blogged his thoughts on the event and got some great shots from moredirt.co.uk.

Kate is in Pietermartizburg, in the Republic of South Africa, preparing for the first round of the 2009 Nissan UCI MTB World Cup. We just received a short email from her:

Yes, two much needed bank holidays this weekend, and we will, of course, be closing for both. Open again on Tuesday ready to answer your questions and take your orders.

Kate and Robbie were both in action last weekend as the UK National Point Series kicked off at Sherwood Pines for the XC, and 4X at the UK Bike Park. Kate came 4th on her first official outing on her 2009 Uber Bling Cotic Bontrager Soda in a really closely fought race. Read more about it on Kate's latest blog.

Robbie had a storming run as well, taking his freshly Bontrager equipped BFe to the podium with a 3rd place in the Senior catagory. Well done that man! Keep an eye on Robbie's blog for his view on the event soon.

In a follow up to their review, road.cc have posted a video on the drop bar ROADRAT. Note that the bike is fitted with our carbon bling package of Bontrager bars and seatpost (highly recommended) and our new cable disc option.

We recently took Robbie, Kate and Ian to one of our favourite local spots, Stanage Edge. Ben from Singletrack came along with his diddy hand held video-cam and took some nice footage of Robbie, which we've now added to our podcast.

Over the last couple of weeks we've had to make a couple of running changes to the spec of the ROADRAT bikes. We keep meaning to take some nice pics, but we're selling them so fast right now we haven't managed it! So, here's a quick run down:

• Shimano Alfine Cranks, Single 45t Chainring
• 2009 Shimano V-Brakes in a lovely silver finish (flat bar bike)
• Tektro MiniV's (drop bar bike)
• Alex R450 Rims
• Cotic 2014-T6 Aluminium Flat Bars (on the flat bar bikes, natch), 580mm x 5deg sweep

The bike price remains the same. The main driver for the changes is the unfortunate decision on Bontrager's part to discontinue cranks and rims. However, the replacement items are are of similarly high quality, carrying through our philosophy on the bike specifications for fitting kit that lasts, not just hitting a price point. We want you to be able to buy a ROADRAT Bike safe in the knowledge that pretty much all you've need to do with it is keep the tyres pumped up for years to come.

Those fine skinny tyred aficionado's on road.cc have had a drop bar ROADRAT fully loaded with our Bontrager Carbon Upgrade Pack and Tektro road discs for testing. They've just written a review of it, and think it's : "Possible the ultimate do it all bike." Four and a half stars, thank you very much!

Kate has just been on BBC Radio Lincolnshire promoting the Ladies' Day AQR Holidays are running this Sunday at Sherwood Pines, and she chats lots about her racing and her bike. A good listen when you've got a spare 10 minutes. Grab a cuppa and check it out on the BBC Radio website. The radio interview is on the radio player link at the bottom.

The ROADRAT has been getting some more coverage in the media this week. Firstly, we're offering a frameset as a prize for City Cycling readers. Find out more on their website here.

Secondly, the bike has been featured in Bicycle Buyer magazine again. It's in the recommended list of Sports Hybrids from Issue 3. Pick up a copy in your local newsagent.

Superprestigio Massi Series Round 1 - Avilles (Asturias) Spain Round 1.

Grab a cup of tea, or coffee, it's time to settle down to read Kate's report...

Got a very excited email from Robbie last week about how many photos he'd got in the latest Dirt. Robbie and his BFe did a shoot with Steve Jones back in December with a bunch of other Swansea locals for the first of DIRT's new Road Trip series. We picked up a copy over the weekend and it's a great article, great pictures, and a great issue all round.

DIRT Magazine designer Jon has just put some lovely detail pictures up of his Soul long termer build up on his Dirt Mag blog. Here's a teaser: