What was your lockdown project? Sourdough bread? A morning fitness regime? A pallet-wood garden seat?

Ours was a dirt-jump bike..

With so many of our ambassadors continually extolling the virtues of a session at the track, trails or pumptrack, we knocked some very talented heads together and sketched out a design.

For the working prototypes we called on Sheffield framebuilder Matt Bowns of 18 Bikes to metal glue-gun us together 4 identical frames.

We sent these 4 frames up to Five Land bikes for a bath in the E-coat and a few layers of lovely glossy black paint.

Finally back to Sheffield for some custom graphics from HKT Products (the keen eyed will notice these as a tester for the amazing Afterburner paint on the new Jeht).

3 frames went out to the ambassadors - King of Bolehills Dave Camus, A Line coaching Gareth Jones and Perennially steezy Will Easey. The last one stayed in the family as a test / photo / pumptrack mule. We had some help from Mark at Fabric who supplied each of the bikes with Magic saddle and grips but obviously Camus went much further with his build... No bolt was left un-anodised, and the whole thing looks like it fell backwards through the Hopetech factory - in a good way.

Built with Reynolds 853, tough 26" wheels and top notch parts, these bikes ride like a bloomin' dream! They're light, tough and lightning quick.

They're also not for sale!

We don't know about your local, but Bolehills BMX track has been at (socially distanced) capacity morning, noon and night, for pretty much the whole of the summer. Reliable, small and uncomplicated bikes like these have saved the sanity of so many people (and parents) this year. Unfortunately with the massive delays on production in the far east, the thought of upsetting the (already brimming) apple cart by adding in another new model isn't the most sensible idea right now so whilst the project has been more-than fun, that's all it is at the moment. Please don't email us about getting hold of one of these, it's not happening in the near future. However, if you're in the market for a pump track bike then you could do a lot worse than try the BFe 27.5 More than a few customers have already purposed a BFe for track razzing duties.

So rather than sit on a bunch of media for a bike that might not see the light of production for a long while, here's a selection of sunny photos which will hopefully inspire you to venture to your closest track and see what all the fuss is about.

Young Joel Blomfield of Shralp Clothing borrowed his dads old Mongoose kit for a little session. It's a funny one when your "new" clothes are twice as old as you.

You can get pretty lucky with conditions at places like Bolehills. Surfaced tracks are built to drain well and withstand thousands of hours of use. You might find that they are still running well into winter, when all the usual trails are a soggy mess. And the newer tarmac ones are even more reliable. Be sure to check out the BMX and Pumptrack directory for your closest spot.

Most of these places are built with love and passion. Sure a council might occasionally pony up a little cash, but most of the time the scenes are built by volunteers; you can pay back your stoke by lending a hand at dig days, picking up litter or sometimes just buying a t shirt or sticker from the locals to help pay for some more surface. Cotic donates a percentage of its profits each year to trail maintenance schemes and it's not just mtb routes that reap the benefits. As the artist Cy Whitling says, "Being local isn't defined by how much you've taken from a place, but by how much of yourself you can invest into it."

Today we launch our brand new model, the Cotic Jeht.

The Jeht is our genre-defying, do everything, 140mm 29er steel full suspension bike.

It's designed to sit in that 'Goldilocks' spot where riders wanting a trail bike with an all round sensibility also get great climbing and an easy-to-handle chassis.

The Jeht has enough travel to amplify its capability far beyond the downcountry genre, but without going Full Enduro (tm). It’s a lively, engaging, supportive & rewarding bike that will without doubt bring a smile to your face.

The new Jeht runs Cotic's signature droplink suspension platform, with a new longer link layout and kinematic. This allowed us to improve the seat tube packaging over our previous 29er droplink bikes, adding 20mm seatpost insertion compared to a FlareMAX on all sizes. By running with a OneUp Components dropper post, the majority of riders will be able to get at least a 150mm drop seatpost on a Jeht, even on the small size.

The new kinematic has also changed the way we set up the base tune on the Cane Creek and Rockshox shocks. The Jeht runs 2 volume spacers to give that lively and feedback-rich Cotic feel; this also allows riders looking for a little more comfort and mile munching ability to drop a spacer out to soften the edges off. Heavier riders can also drop spacers out to combat the extra ramp up that higher pressures bring to the spring curve. More options for everyone to get their perfect ride feel.

The bike runs 150mm forks as standard and a 64.5 deg head angle, but will happily run 140mm if you want a little more sharpness to the handling, dropping the head angle to 65deg. The seat angle sits at 75.8deg at 720mm saddle height, and 75.5 deg at 815mm, with the new seat tube arrangement bringing minimal seat angle change regardless of your leg length.

Cotic Longshot geometry brings our well established great handling, with reach ranging from 444mm to 515mm, all designed for running a 35mm stem whatever the size bike you choose. Seat tubes are cut low so most riders will be able to choose between a couple of sizes to suit their needs and local trail conditions. As you know, we're always here to advise to make sure youg get exactly what you need on info@cotic.co.uk on 07970 853531.

There's the full lowdown, plus geo chart, features, videos, gallery and more over on the product page.

UK Launch Edition:

Whilst the series production Jeht will be made by framebuilder in Taiwan, we know that some customers for our Taiwan built model lines love the idea of our UK made frames. So, in a first for Cotic, the Jeht is released with a Launch Edition of no more than 30 UK made frames. These are available right now in the fabulous Afterburner or Matte Teal colours, with Cane Creek DB Air IL or Kitsuma shock options, with prices starting at £2199 for the frame and Air IL shock. If you miss out on these, then our series production Taiwan made version will arrive in mid-February 2021 in Mercury Rave and Matte Blue Steel colour options, at a starting price of £1,799 with a Rock Shox Deluxe Select Plus shock.

Bike Specs:

As usual we have our Silver, Gold and Platinum build options, but due to parts availability there will be some changes, and some delays on certain options. Bear with us, due to staggered deliveries there's a lot to get through!

Silver:

Silver builds based on SLX or MY20 GX Eagle are available now with X Fusion Trace 36 HLR fork, Cane Creek Air IL shock and Superstar/WTB wheels for £3699.

In mid-Feb 2021 these will switch to SLX only, Rock Shox Revelation/Deluxe Select Plus suspension and Shimano wheels which brings the price down to £3499. Choosing a Taiwan made frame drops the price a further £300 to £3199.

Gold:

Gold builds are available with either SRAM GX Eagle Lunar, or Shimano Deore XT, with HELM and Air IL suspension, HUNT wheels and WTB tyres. These builds are £4649 for the both drivetrain options on a UK made frame. Same builds on a Taiwan frame are £4349.

Platinum:

Platinum is the full house, with SRAM X01 Eagle, Cane Creek eeWings, Kitsuma shock and HELM fork (Pike Ultimate no cost option), Hope stem/Burgtec Bar, all the toys! £6599 bags you one of these beauties on a UK made frame, or £6299 if you wait for a Taiwan version.

Full spec lists are here: https://www.cotic.co.uk/product/jeht#bike

Remember our bikes are assembled to order in the UK: Your Bike Built For You. There are many options within these stocks builds: Guide RSC 4 pot brakes, Hope parts, Kitsuma shocks, (from Feb) Pike Ultimate fork, Maxxis tyres. There's too many to list, so head over to our configurator and get playing. Build your dream bike.

All options and complete bikes are available to reserve now, with the first UK made frames and bikes delivered before Christmas (assuming parts availability).

We have been working towards this launch for a few weeks so we have some great content to share with you.

Cave: Shot in Honister Slate Mine in the Lake District, here's our Afterburner ride video. Credit Tom McNally, Peter Blair & Sam Horton.

Woods: Shot on home trails at Steel City DH in Grenoside Woods, here's our Teal ride video, with Will and Sam on riding duties, and our very own Richard, Darren & Hannah on camera/smoke bomb duties. We have a talented crew here at Cotic!

There are also awesome location shots from both videos, plus full up close and personal studio shoot to get right into the details. Get involved!

If that wasn't enough, there will be a poster included with all our UK made frames, which will also be available to purchase separately before Christmas by the amazing art duo Le.BLUE. How amazing is this?

Cy writes.....

It's great to launch a new bike, and I have had so much fun testing and putting the finishing touches to the shock tunes over the last couple of months. Whilst my usual ride is a RocketMAX Gen3, even as the designer it's been interesting to note the differences between the bikes and how much of a different personality the Jeht has in comparison.

For a start, it's an absolutely fabulous tech climber, and I have scrabled back up almost all of my suspension test track (Devil's Elbow in Blacka Moor Woods near my house in Sheffield). Given that I'm not blessed with an uplift here, being able to ride most of the way back up when doing laps with the data logger has certainly meant I've had more time to work through all the options and setups I wanted to try.

Despite only having a little less travel than the RocketMAX, the shorter front centre and slightly steeper head angle make it easier to weight the front wheel on corner entry, and it has a slightly tighter natural turning radius. If I had to describe a single really obvious point of difference, there is a turn on Devil's Elbow, near the top. It's a flat right hand hairpin, which is approached at reasonable pace through a left hand sweeper, and the exit opens out into a left hander too. So the move through the turn is approached with the bike lent over left, brake, flip the bike on it's edge for the hairpin, flip is back again for the exit left. The RocketMAX always feels like it makes me wait at the hairpin, naturally turning a little wider, needing a little more space before I can get the exit. The Jeht just flips edge to edge through there like it's the easiest move in the world. Right from the first run, that was the natural feeling on the bike.

If you'd like to learn a little more about the Jeht then watch my talk through video below which goes through the details of where the bike came from, how it fits in the range and all the new features.

Something you might not know about Cotic is that if the business hits certain financial targets, we put some money into our Trail Fund to support advocacy groups. In the past we have put money into renovating a local pump track, right up to putting thousands of pounds into the original Crowdfunder pot for the Blue Steel trail at Lady Cannings Plantation in Sheffield. So far we have kept it pretty local, but for 2021 the Trail Fund is full and we are branching out a little further.

We have supported Trash Free Trails in kind right from the start. Founder Dom Ferris approached us back in 2018 when he wanted a tough, durable, fun bike for doing some big rides to raise awareness and get the ball rolling. He road the Oregon Timber Trail and some other huge adventures aboard the Cotic Solaris he still owns. Have a read of that first trip. It's a tonic considering the current British weather!

We 100% support and endorse what TFT are trying to do, and this is their Mission:

Trash Free Trails is a community-focussed, non-profit organisation; a positive, inclusive call to arms for riders, runners and roamers alike.

For 2021, Trash Free Trails are Power By Cotic Bikes. We have invested money and will continue to support them with time and resource to help them in their mission to rid our trails of trash. We recently supported their pilot Trashmob initiative up in Leeds, and their current Autumn Litter Watch campaign is great. Check out the video below. Get your Autumn Litter Watch Kit and get involved.

Our second donation went to the Tweed Valley Trail Association. The Golfy and the trails of the Tweed Valley are about my favourite anywhere in the world, and a lot of the staff at Cotic feel the same. The TVTA are all about maintaining those trails and making the valley even more awesome for mountain bikers, and we couldn't help but want to get behind that.

TVTA has the following objectives:

If you have been up to the Golfy at any point in the last year, you'll have probably ridden the fruits of TVTAs labour on New York, New York amongst many others. It's great to be able to get behind them and put back into the trails we love so much.

If you would like to donate too, then click on the button below.

I hope you approve of our choices, and are happy to know that some of the cash from every Cotic bought is going back into the sport.

Our Brand Ambassador Kelly-Jayne Emmerson is pregnant, but she's been determined to keep riding. For the first half of her pregnancy she has been getting out, and sticking to more tame terrain aboard her Shimano Gravel Union Cotic Escapade.

Now well into her third trimester, Kelly was getting too uncomfortable grabbing for the drops, and needed a much more upright position to keep her comfy and rolling on the trails. So, the idea was hatched to do a flat bar conversion on her Escapade. This isn't something we usually recommend as for most riders it would result in a position far too short and upright, but short and upright is exactly what is needed in later pregnancy when a rider needs to make space for bump. Kell says....

“Do you know what, I’m so happy that I’m still riding, so many women that I’ve spoken to told me that they had to stop at around 25 weeks, just ‘cos it was so uncomfortable, so I feel really lucky that the guys have hooked me up. It would be so boring if I couldn’t go out riding. Just getting out there.”

It wasn't the work of a minute to do the change, as these days drop bar and MTB drivetrains are almost entirely lacking in cross-compatibility. In the end, after much discussion between Cotic and Gravel Union sponsors Shimano, we went for an XT 8100 1x12 drivetrain, SLX brakes with flat mount to post mount caliper adapters, Cotic Calver MTB riser bars cut down to 720mm and a diddy PRO Tharsis 35mm stem.

“It’s awesome, so upright. I don’t have to lean forwards at all which makes it so comfortable, ‘cos it’s got such a short stem and the flat bars just makes such a difference. My thighs were hitting my bump when I had drop bars which really wasn’t ideal, so I’d have my legs spread open wide way too much and be really uncomfortable cycling, so yeah, I’m really happy now.”

We're wishing Kelly-Jayne all the very best for the rest of her pregnancy and beyond. If you're pregnant, then we hope this has inspired you to keep getting out on your bike if you can. What an exciting time!

Today we are opening orders on the new BFe. Due in February 2021, we have updated our 27.5" wheel tearaway with a few choice improvements to an already fantastic machine. With an unbroken production run reaching all the way back to 2005, it's now our longest running model, with a rich history of wowing people with quite how capable a hardtail can be.

A few small changes make a big difference. With the subtle improvements we have made, the 7th generation of our hardcore classic pushes the boundaries of the aggressive hardtail even further; lower, better fitting, and more versatile than ever.

Listening to feedback from group tests and customers, we've updated the geometry of our genre defying, 27.5" wheel, do-it-all hardtail. The BFe now has a 10mm lower BB, as testing showed that this improved cornering stability, whilst still maintaining that all important pedal ground clearance. The other major benefit of this change is increased stack on all sizes, which allows taller riders in particular to more easily get comfortable on the BFe.

The new colours are matte Army Green (like the RocketMAX) and classic gloss Cotic Orange.

They are available to order now, and price remains £549 for the frame only. You can pay in full, leave a deposit (fully refundable) or just place a provisional order just to get first refusal.

I've known Benji for about 15 years now, right back to when he was working at Singletrack Magazine. He's a fantastically skilled technical trail rider, who was one of a pioneering group of Calderdale based 'Death Tech' riders who took on some insanely steep and tricky sections made up of the North Of England's decaying industrial past. Trails like "Steps of Death" and "Punch The Wall" give you an idea!

I always really appreciated his independent mindedness when it came to bike setup and handling, and his dedication to testing things out rather than dismissing them if they didn't fit with his current thinking. He's found a home at MBR's Online Editor, and is yet another industry bod who's chosen to buy a Cotic rather than blag something free from a bigger brand. He's got a pretty eclectic build on the bike, but it's an interesting read. Take it away Benji.....

Benji writes....

This is a build-up of a frame-only. In case you’re wondering why it has bits that aren’t available via Cotic. It’s a size large, by the way.

First of all, why a FlareMAX and not a RocketMAX or indeed a Flare?

I’m a 29er rider through and through. I’ve dallied with mullet setups in the past and while they have some good aspects (namely the ability to drive forward using the backside of trail features) I find that I simply don’t often ride the sort of terrain where a smaller rear wheel has a benefit. For virtually everywhere I ride, a 29in rear wheel is better.

Why not a RocketMAX? In a practical and financial sense, I don’t have the parts that fit a RocketMAX. Well, a suitable travel fork and rear shock in other words. More than that though, I prefer bikes to not tilt around so much during on-off riding. I lIke my bottom bracket to stay in a relatively tight window of height-from-ground no matter what the rider/terrain/brakes are doing at the time. I do much more slow-speed steep and tight rooty stuff than I do balls-out fast rocky stuff.

I was tempted by the slacker head angle of the RocketMAX but - as you will see when you read on - there are ways around that.

The FlareMAX has good reach, it’s a linkage-driven single pivot (my preferred compromise of all suspension systems), low enough BB, loads of standover, decent length chainstays, takes a water bottle, accepts 170mm dropper post insertion and has no annoying standards that stop you messing with its geometry (head tube, shock mount hardware etc).

And the paintjob is fabulous. Obvs.

Front to back then. Here we go with my FlareMAX build list...

Schwalbe Magic Mary 2.3 Ultra Soft - THE best tyre is the world. Slow rebound DH compound wrapped around a trail-friendly carcass and a tread pattern that plain works.

Halo Vortex wheels - got on test for MBR and kept because they’ve never let me down. They are actually pre-BOOST axles held in place with a conversion spacer kit.

203mm rotors front and rear - I don’t understand anyone who doesn’t run big discs. Why not run big rotors? You brake less and have more flow. The brakes themselves are Shimano Deore M6000 ie. the best Shimano brakes because they don’t have wandering bite points. I much prefer the lever shape of Shimano brakes. That’s the main thing.

Fox 34 Float 140mm - inherited from friend and MTB photographer Sim Mainey. A few years old now but still working well (the fork’s not bad either - haha!). I’m not sure how many spacers are in them… possibly three. I run compression fully open and the rebound somewhere in the middle. Again, my riding is less about repeated hits and more about a series of intense moments. As an aside, I really like how the Fox 34 matches the overall look of the FlareMAX. A Fox 36 would throw off the aesthetics.

The mudguard is a RideGuard PF1. Technically, the best mudguard I’ve used is a Mudhugger but... they don’t look very nice on this bike! So I’ve gone with the next best thing, a RideGuard PF1.

The headset is a Works Components Angle Headset that offers 2.0° of head angle change. The headset is a bit boring looking and the bearings aren’t massively well sealed from the elements but I can live with that. The head angle is now 63°, which Is what I’m used to. Sounds mental. Will be standard on all trail bikes in a couple of years - mark my words!

I’m currently switching between two Nukeproof stems. One is 45mm long and one is 35mm long. Both are on test for MBR. Truth be told, both work and I should just pick on and get on with it. Although the 45mm stem looks the most aesthetically in-keeping with the rest of the bike, there’s no arguing with the performance of the 35mm stem when things get steep.

Bars are Nukeproof Horizon Carbon V2 35 handlebar, 38mm rise. Again, on test for MBR but I’ve liked Nukeproof Carbon bars in the past (Warheads anyone?) and these continue the pleasant vibe.

Giant Swage grips. My grip of choice. Tapered and single collar. Yes you can get the outer ends to move if you want to. STOP holding the grip there! These are designed to be held nearer the inner collar. They are excellently comfy, good value and I’m a big fan of tapered grips for control.

I’m running a Fidlock bottle system. Part of me does miss being able to run other (cooler looking) water bottles but there’s no arguing with the function the Fidlock system offers for bikes with tight spaces.

To hold on to my spare tube and CO2 bits, I run a Louri frame strap. Although they are far from being the originators of these ‘enduro strap’ things, I find theirs is the best I’ve used so far. I keep a small multi-tool in my pocket by the way, as tools get rusty if strapped to a frame.

I have a couple of rear shocks to choose from: a Fox Float X and a RockShox Monarch Plus RC3. Although the Fox Float X looks cooler and is softer off-the-top, I think I prefer the overall feel of the RockShox Monarch.

I’m still on a 11 speed drivetrain. I feel no compulsion to change to 12. It’s a mix of Shimano SLX, SunRace and KMC. SunRace’s wide-range cassettes are one of the unsung greatest things to happen for general MTBers in recent times. Shiny 50T sprocket cassettes for under eighty quid. Yes. (Shimano's new Deore M5100 11-51 11spd is also ace - Cotic)

The mech cabling is Fibrax Pro-formance sealed derailleur cabling, which helps keep filth out for as long as possible whilst also feeling noticeably slicker. It may be my imagination but I also think it’s quieter than other cabling, with less clicking and pinging noises.

The cranks are Race Face Aeffect which, although on test for MBR, I would probably spec on this bike anyway because there are shockingly few cranks out there available in 165mm crank arm length. Much like my stance on big rotors (why wouldn’t you?), why everyone isn’t on 165mm cranks I don’t know. They pedal just like 170/175mm cranks but your pedals are further away from trouble. What’s not to love? Chainring is 32T to mate well with the main pivot placement of the frame.

Pedals are VP Harrier flats. These aren’t quite as good as my existing HT PA03 plastic flats. But my HTs are pink and clash horrifically with the FlareMAX paintjob. The VP Harriers do have the added benefit of being mahoosive whilst also being waffer theen. I run longer pins in them to induce some concavity into their shape/feel.

The seatpost is a Brand-X Ascend XL in 170mm flavour. I’ve encountered this on numerous test bikes over the years and I can’t find any reason to spend any more on a dropper post. I like the feel of the remote lever and the speed of the post; I never struggle to put the saddle exactly where I want it without any second guessing. The top part of the clamp also allows you to really slam the saddle forward to eek the most out of your effective seat angle. (this is the reason we spec the similarly brilliant-yet-good-value X Fusion Manic seatposts on the majority of our bikes - Cotic). The saddle is a WTB Volt Race: the fanciest version of the lovely, lovely Volt you can get before they start to remove the nice level of padding in it.

The rear tyre currently is Maxxis Maxxis Minion DHR II. Which I only ever change for an overt mud tyre (Schwalbe Dirty Dan, Specialized Hillbilly, Michelin Wild Mud etc) when the conditions require.

I’ve got three rides under my belt so far on the FlareMAX. Perhaps the main thing to get across is that I haven’t actually thought about the bike much at all whilst riding it. It rides how I thought it would ride! The reach and chain stay lengths are bang on. The BB height is a great height for both secure cornering and lofting either wheel upon demand.

My ‘bespoke’ head angle (approx 63° due to Works Components angle headset) is great. Kudos to all bike brands who avoid head tube standards that don’t allow for angle adjust headsets.

It reaffirms my preference for single pivot back ends over 4-bar or dual short-link designs; I can feel what the back tyre is doing more. There’s more interaction with the terrain. The droplink design is predictable with no odd spikes or lunges.

The three most significant things I’ve experienced are all to do with the top tube:

• Loads of standover is a Great Thing.
• I actually prefer having a water bottle under the top tube (it’s easier to reach and get less filthed up).
• All bikes should have cool top tube decals.

Following from Cy's confession about not liking Bike Park riding last week (click to here to read if you haven't seen it), here's Brand Ambassador Dave Camus' view from the other side of the fence.....

Sometimes you're the hammer, sometimes you're the nail. Dave Camus made it out to France for two weeks of big-bike shreds but surprisingly it wasn't Corona that put a dent in his plans. Here's the full story behind what makes someone want to ride massive bike-park jumps and what happens on the (rare) occasion when they go seriously wrong.

Forgive the occasional F-bomb, it's quite a tale...

Baybutt: So what's your name?

Dave: Dave Camus.

Baybutt: AKA Ramp King.

Dave: Ramp King. I'm not Ramp King anymore!

Baybutt: Oh mate.

Dave: Occasional ramp king.

Baybutt: So what is it you like riding on your bike? What's your jam?

Dave: Ramps. Everything really, but ramps. That's quite ... I don't know... We'll go to the spots that has the coolest looking jumps and stuff. And maybe we'll hit the tech as well, I kind of ride a bit of everything. But I guess more technical stuff and some big jumps. But my perfect track would be stupid kickers and north shore weird stuff, and then tech roots and steep rock as well. There's a couple of tracks we hit when we went to Europe. We went to La Bresse and they had a track that was super steep and then super technical rocks and big river gaps as well, which was perfect, all of that. I did two or three runs of that to try and dial it in. I feel like it means there's a bit more to it. You've got to get the line right to get in the jump. You can't just get the line right to get the line right's sake. It's like you have a bit of everything.

Baybutt: So the thinking person's jump line.

Dave: Yeah exactly. Like techy. The new stuff at Chatel, all the black runs they've redone are kind of like that. Jumps and tech, a bit of everything. I rode Bike Patrol that day and that was pretty good. It fucking tires me out man, I'm so tired all the time!

Baybutt: So what was your plan this summer then?

Dave: Well the original plan was to go to Canada for two weeks in June, but obviously that all went to shit. And we were going to hit... Me and my mate were going to hire a camper van and do all the North Shore and Squamish spots, and then go Pemberton and do that, but then that all fell through, so we booked two weeks out to do a Europe trip, and go to Morzine. And I've not been to Morzine since I did my season five years ago. So I was like, "We'll go to Morzine, I've not been in ages it'll be good to do all of the stuff and hit it." It was nice to go again... So we booked two weeks off and then it got a little bit sketchy in terms of the quarantine stuff, so we were a little bit like "Shall we go or shall we not?" And then we went, and the plan was to do two weeks, and do well. The first day we La Bresse And then we were going to Châtel and then Les Gets, Pleney, Chamonix. And then after a week or so maybe go down and do La Thuile or Les Arcs. Even though we had downhill bikes we were going do La Thuile. Apparently it's better for trail bikes and the access to the track isn't as easy on a downhill bike. We were going to do it anyway. And then Samoens, I think was the other trail that we were going to go. Obviously we only managed two days.

Dave: So I drove all the way there, for La Bresse. Off the other side of the ferry, so we got there at seven, eight o'clock. And then rode a full day on the Saturday, in La Bresse. So if you ever go into Morzine or that way, it's six hours after the ferry and it's sick ramps and the downhill track's mint there. And there's a couple of downhill tracks that are Revs-esque where they've got big gulleys and steps and stuff. It's sick. It's really good, and worth going to.

Baybutt: And you were feeling all right then?

Dave: Yeah, I had a couple of crashes but we were just kind of nothing these ones. Did a lot, did all the stuff. Did all the jumps that were there, pretty much, the whole line. But hit the downhill track and hit all the stuff on the downhill track including this sketchy... It was maybe four foot rock to drop off but it was super steep in and super steep out. Super weird in. It kind of mellowed out, it lifted out of a lip almost off the rock, and it was just really weird. And did that last run of the day, or last couple of runs of the day.

Baybutt: OK so stoke was high, you were on holiday? Everything was going all right, and you were riding well.

Dave: To be fair, I’ve been riding pretty decent the last few months... I guess jumping off hard tail onto rocket is a big booster, and it just felt like I was proper going well. Obviously it's completely different because you jump it on a full suss and just smashing it all down. The difference in speed was massive just generally. So jumping on a downhill bike and going "Oh it's not that different to my rocket" so I felt pretty comfortable straight away.

Baybutt: So after La Bresse you went to Morzine.

Dave: We went to Châtel so we drove all the way through Switzerland to lake Geneva. We swam in lake Geneva just as the sun was setting, and then drove the last hour and a half to Châtel. And we got there at eleven o'clock at night. We slept in the carpark. In the morning, I went to go and find the toilets, and looked at the slopes style line, which started and finished in the carpark, basically. And I was like "I'll go and have at that" because it looked pretty gnarly.

Dave: It was probably one of the bigger jumps that I would have done and one of the biggest step downs I guess. There was a couple of weird kickers into it that looked a bit odd, and then a wooden wall ride shark fin, and then into a big step down. And then a tiny roller, and then a big, probably forty foot Long and low. With quite a small take off, so it looked like it was going to kick you a little bit, I was a bit like "I don't know about that." That was the only bit that was a bit weird. But the step down was sweet so, anyway. We had a full day riding and went and did Air Voltage again, no problem. No issues.

Baybutt: Did you look at stuff on the way down?

Dave: We stopped and looked because everyone else had not done it... Quite a few people had not done it before, so we stopped and looked at all of them but I only looked at them just because I hadn't been there in five years. I think I probably could have ridden through the whole line first go.

Baybutt: How many were you in your crew?

Dave: Six I think, seven? I think most people hit that. We went and did that maybe third or fourth run. Just did a few other bits. We did all the black runs on Châtel. Did pretty much all the kickers and stuff on the whole black runs and then did black shore. We pretty much did everything on Châtel bike park, and then...

Dave: I tried the triple as well, I forgot about that. I did it when I was in Morzine, and when they first opened it, it was a big triple that you can do on one of tracks and they'd just opened it that day. And when we went and pulled that... Me and Russ trying it for this video, and Russ just could not get it. And I had a stupidly hard shock in my Sunday because it was a random bike that I'd bought half way through the season. It had the wrong shock and I couldn't get the shock out to change the shock, change the spring. So I had a super hard back end so I could just pop that triple. This time I was like "Fuck it, I'll try it again." So I had one in run in for it, and I was like "Yeah, I reckon it's on," and fucking cased it so hard!! It was a big pull.

Dave: Yeah we did everything and we were feeling pretty good and then me and my brother went for a couple of runs. We did the river gap trail to finish this day off. Ended up at the bottom, we were like "Shall we go and have a look?" "All right, okay." We watched a few people hit these jumps and one guy honestly, it was so sketchy, and he was getting through them. And I was like "Well it can't be that bad... Well if some people are doing it and nearly dying on it and they're shit, it can't be that hard. It is well within our capability of doing that. No problem at all." We were looking at it and we walked up to it and watched a few people do it, and then I was like "Fuck it, I'm not going to sit here... I hate sitting and looking at jumps, I'd rather just get on and do it." So pushed off. And my brother was stood on the landing and a big long and low. And I was like fuck it I'm just going to drop in, just dropped in.

Dave: So I was planning on doing the big long and low and then diverting off onto a... it was almost like a cheese wedge into a twenty five foot gap, which seemed fine. If you got that one, you would easily make the next one, and then an eight foot tall slope style kicker with maybe a twenty foot gap, so not huge, big but not insane. So I knew if I got over the long and low it would be on.

Baybutt: You've gone for the B line?

Dave: Yeah, yeah. I wasn't keen to do the biggest line, it looked proper insane and way out of my depth but the right hand line was like "Yeah I think I've got that. Fuck it, I'll do it..." I've even got a couple of cranks, and if I've got a couple of cranks, the step down was big but it wasn't like one of them where the speed would be miles out so I was like "I'll do the whale tail and see what the speed's like." I don't think you need to be going super fast. You never need to go as fast as you think off a step down. I came off the whale tail, all right, hit the step down and got it absolutely perfect and was like "Job's on." No problem at all. I was running into the long and low, and the last thing I remember was maybe a six or eight foot before the lip, thinking "I don't know if I've got enough speed here." Not nowhere near, but not quite enough to get it nice. So I was like ... I must have thought, I don't remember, but in the video you can see that I push through the lip a little bit just to get a bit more length on it. I don't know whether that helped or hindered me. I think it maybe hindered. I think if I'd have pulled... I don't know if I'd have pulled up, whether I'd have come even shorter, or whether I would have not... I don't know.

Dave: The issue is, I think that the lip's quite short so I watched a few videos of people hitting it after I'd hit it, and there was one guy that hit it at the same... Was towing someone it, he cleared it so easily and the guy before him broke his leg on it. And the difference in speed, even though they were coming in the same speed, the difference in length that they got was a two or three foot difference, just because one person popped slightly more.

Dave: Because the lip was so short, whether you popped it or whether you didn't made a big difference as to how long you went. Whereas you go on A Line or Crab Apple or whatever and the lips are so long that it doesn't make that much difference to... Your input doesn't make that much difference. Whereas on that it did. And maybe I should have been more aware of that and gone a bit faster to compensate but... Like I said, I pushed through but I didn't hit it as neutral as I should have done. So anyway, I went off the lip, I get a little bit off balance and as I land I bounced… well I hit, my chain guide. It was ruined, bent, totally bent. Maybe came up, I don't know a foot short, per se. Not more, I think on any other jump you would have just ridden it out but because it was so long and I was going so fast.

Dave: I hit it and just bounced straight over the bars, straight away. And instead of getting my arms out, I just went so far, I must have gone straight over, and just landed straight on my head. Or gone over onto my back and then cracked my head. Whiplashed my head into the floor. I don't really know, there isn't really a video of it to see.

Baybutt: But other than the head you walked away relatively unscathed.

Dave: Oh yeah, my back was a little bit scratched. I genuinely woke up the next day in hospital and was like "Where's the injury? Where's the big hole in my arm or hole in my knee or hole in my hands where I've got my hands out?" And there was nothing. So there was no big gash in my back, which I expected. I was like "I'm going to have something where I've hit the floor really hard with some part..." Even when...You know when you fall really hard and you scrape all your hip or... And there was nothing. My back was a bit cut up but not bad at all...

Baybutt: If that had happened, just no head injury, you would have ridden the next day.

Dave: Oh yeah 100% But I would have hit something else that wasn't my head and then I probably would've... So like I said, some kid did it the next day and did the same thing but probably another half a foot, a foot shorter, and broke his leg on impact because it just landed with one foot off, trying to bail out. And just full bottom out, and full broke is leg. And then that Harry Schofield kid who's real sick, he's like ten. And he sent it, and he did the same thing. He sent it in the wet to be fair, but he sent it, cased and literally rode down the landing on his front wheel.

Dave: It seemed like it was pretty unpredictable. I've seen a lot of videos of people it trying it and nearly killing themselves on it. I don't know, I think if I'd seen more of those videos before I probably wouldn't have... I didn't see many videos of people hitting that first kicker, I think probably because it's so sketchy that people don't actually do much over it so they don't want to film it.

Baybutt: It's a setup to the other stuff but it's a difficult set up.

Dave: Yeah almost, but it's just a weird set up.

Baybutt: So what happened after that? I know you must have heard the story from somebody else because you weren't awake

Dave: So I went over the bars and landed on my head. And then my GoPro pinged off my elbow. Some guy he went into the carpark and picked it up. So it was interesting because I sent it to my occupational health guy who was chatting to me about that I'd seen the footage. He said “oh that's quite good because it means you can process it a lot better, and see this is what you should have done, this is what you shouldn't have done”. And I said that was good because I know that it wasn't... it was my fault, I didn't go fast enough but I did everything right to try and save it. And I think if I'd have bounced slightly less I would have held it, or gone another six inch, I would have been sweet and ridden it out. It would have been gnarly, and that would have gone right, reality check let's back it off a bit.

Dave: So the GoPro kept rolling for another twenty minutes. You can hear my brother shouting for an ambulance and stuff, and then talking in French and trying to get an ambulance there and stuff. So apparently when I crashed, I went all stiff. My arms went stiff. Apparently that's a thing when you get knocked out. My brother was like "He's having a seizure." I wasn't, that's just what happens. There was another doctor in the carpark riding, and he came up. Apparently, I was out for a minute and a half, two minutes. Fully, fully out. And then woke up. I don't remember waking up. Apparently I was like "Where am I? What did I crash on?" And my brother was like "You crashed on the slope style line." And I replied "What slope style line, there's isn't one." Totally no idea where I was, or what I'd crashed on or whatever. I knew I was in Morzine but that’s it...

Baybutt: Did you know your name?

Dave: I didn't know I old I was but that was because... My brother said that, he was like "You didn't know how old you were." But then on the GoPro someone asked him how old I am and he goes "28, oh no 29." And I do the same response later on. I'd obviously heard him and then that had been implanted in my head... I never know anyway, I always think I'm 28 when I'm not.

Baybutt: 29.

Dave: 29.

Baybutt: There you go.

Dave: So he was stressing, and then the doctor was there. There was a doctor there who helped him get my helmet off. And obviously they thought I'd broke my back because I hit my back and hit my head. So they were a bit like...

Baybutt: I can't believe they took your helmet off.

Dave: Yeah because it was restricting my airway. So the way it had gone. So he pulled the little tabs out and took the helmet off. But I was fine. Genuinely fine.

Baybutt: So you were conscious, although you can't remember any of it.

Dave: Don't remember anything. Ambulance came, put me on spine board. They were like can you move your arms, move your arms. Moving my fingers like that. Oh can you move your legs? And started kicking like fuck trying to get out of this spine board they've strapped me to. There was another guy who'd crashed over on the mountain and he'd had a heli out. So there was a heli right there so they were like "Well let's put him in the heli. Get him to hospital, he might have broken his back."

Dave: So the only thing I remember was going "Yeah, I think I'm going slow here." The next thing I vaguely remember was being in the heli. I remember hearing the rotor blades, and being like "Shit this is going to cost me a fucking fortune." So I was in the heli thinking "Shit this is pretty serious" And I guess I vaguely remember being in the spine board or not being able to lay down, but that was almost dreaming. And then the next thing I kind of remember, being in hospital. And then kind of vaguely, vaguely remember having a CT scan, but I don't really... they did a full body scan actually but I don't really remember that. I kind of half remember it, again like it was a dream, like it wasn't real.

Dave: And then the main thing I remember is waking up at half eleven, half midnight in hospital and being like "Shit it's half midnight." And I kind of knew I was in hospital but I was just like "It's half midnight and I'm not asleep, why am I not asleep, chilling? I'm going to be knackered after all this, whatever's happened." And obviously I knew what had happened but it was just coming round to it. And then my brother was there the whole time and then they took me to Annecy hospital so it was an hour and a half each way. So my brother drove our van to come pick me up. To come and meet me after the heli, and then drop me off. And then came the next day.

Baybutt: So he drove there and back?

Dave: He drove back to camp, I don't know what time but half eleven-ish. And then drove back the next day, at probably twelve, one o'clock when I was due to be discharged. I felt rough as fuck. So rough that day. I think they gave me a little bit of bread, two bits of baguette. That's all I had in the morning. Then a cup of tea. And I felt fucking odd. And I slept most of the day, and then woke up again at probably two o'clock. I felt a bit more normal.

I was in hospital 24 hours pretty much. And we're just wait to see... apparently, I remember them telling me that the CT scan and stuff was fine, normal. And I was like "All right, sweet." My brother came at two o'clock, and we were like "All right let's try and get out of here." I'm all right, I don't need to be in here anymore, I'd be better to just get out of here. And I had a drip on me, and heart monitor things. I'd ripped them all off because I'm fine, I don't need them. So I took them all off. But I think you know, I do anyway, especially when you've hit your head or had an accident, you know if you're all right or not.

Baybutt: Had you hit your head before?

Dave: So I've hit my head twice before. Once in work. I dropped a piece of turbo on my hand, it fell out of a vice ... Well I didn't drop it, it fell out of a vice and I went to catch it. And it weights about ten kilos this turbine housing, it's a big bit of cast iron, maybe thirty centimetres across. Diameter maybe ten centimetres, hollow thing. It dropped out the vice and fell on my hand and crushed my finger. And I thought I'd properly fucked my finger because it was really heavy. It probably only dropped half a foot but it was a lot to drop half a foot onto your hand, and I looked at my finger and was like "It's fucked." And then fainted. And I hit my head... I was looking to miss the vice and the bench, and I just went straight back and hit my head. I wasn't knocked out for very long, maybe ten seconds. Not long at all really. And I woke up, and I felt pretty odd. But all right.

Dave: The other time I hit my head was at Best Wood I did this hip line and it had a stupid overhanging tree over one of the jumps and I caught my head on it in the air, and it... I can't remember if it knocked me off or not, I don't remember, I don't think it did, and then that proper rattled my head. But I don't think I had concussion, it rattled my head a bit.

Dave: But anyway, I had two days feeling weird after the knock out. And then I though "Once I come back from this, obviously I've hit my head, I've got concussion, yeah it's bad but I'll heal like I did then, but for maybe a bit longer."

Dave: When I came out of hospital, honestly I felt so faint. I got to the exit of A&E and I sat on the bay. And I said to my brother "I need to sit down or I'm going to faint otherwise." Sat down, and then one of the nurse came up to me and was like "Are you coming or going?" I was like "I'm going, I don't want to be here anymore.”

Baybutt: Is that how you got yourself out?

Yeah, I knew I had to get home, and I didn't want to be where I was. I was in the back of my van and it was all right until about two o'clock then it was absolutely red hot. It was thirty degrees every day when we there so the back of the van was sweltering at two, three o'clock in the afternoon. So I was like "I can't sleep in here, it's not comfortable, I just want to be home, but out of it." I had in my head that I was going to drive back but I knew that the quarantine was coming in, so this was a Wednesday I think. Yeah I'd done it on the Monday, and I had two days, Tuesday, Wednesday. Felt vaguely all right on Wednesday afternoon, and I was like "I'll drive my van ten minutes down the road." We were going for a little swim. So I drove ten minutes down the road, and I was like "I feel all right but I feel like I'll probably drive at least a bit more than that and I'd be okay."

Dave: So the next day I woke up at eight, half eight, and I set off, and I was like "Right I'm just going to see how far I go and when I start to feel weird..." And fully anticipated me to feel tired or weird, and I just didn't, I felt all right, so I just kept driving. I kept going and going and going. And I stopped for fuel, I think, and I did twelve hours to get to the ferry.

Baybutt: Bloody hell, that's so sketch.

Dave: Yeah I know it's sketchy. But yeah, drove twelve hours to the ferry. Got to the ferry about half eight. Stopped for Maccy's on the way. And I re-booked my ferry when I was at Maccy's at one o'clock maybe. Did that, got to the ferry port, BBC news flashed up, France going into quarantine as of Saturday morning. I was like "Oh my God." Just made it. All the stress I would have had to get here on time has just gone away, solved. So I pretty much got on the first ferry out of there, which was decent but it was delayed until... I was meant to leave at nine pm, so obviously I've been awake for twelve hours doing this. They were like "It's two hours delayed." I was like "For fuck's sake." So I got on the ferry at half past midnight.

Dave: So I got into the UK at two am, and then drove twenty minutes and slept in my van. I woke up the next day at eleven, so I'd had how ever many hours sleep it was. I woke up the next day and was just fucking terrible. Drove back to Sheffield, and it was like five hours, it should have been three hours but it was five hours because of traffic and shit.

Baybutt: Were you straight to the doctors then?

Dave: No. Well I felt all right. But obviously I felt... when I set off I felt okay to drive, maybe I wasn't but okay enough. And I got home that night at six o'clock, and I just felt totally wiped. It pretty much wiped me up for the next four days, I was fucking done. Yeah really odd. I said to my manager I'd be back in on the Monday, and was just like "Don't know how the fuck I'll do that."

Baybutt: And they were cool with you not being back in on Monday?

Dave: Oh yeah it was fine. I pretty much the first day I felt normal, well, from the accident on the Monday, it was the following Thursday that I felt normal enough to do anything vaguely normal like go on a walk or do something. I was literally was just in bed or just watching TV or watch TV and sleep in a bed. For a week. Not feeling particularly bad, just a bit off, and then really tired. So I got pretty bored of TV. And Thursday I started doing stuff. Because when I when I saw you, walked up to Bolehill. Honestly walking up to Bolehill was like walking up Mount Everest, it was fucking horrendous, just to get to the top of Bolehill. I got to the top of Bolehill and was just fucked. And got back down and pretty much went straight to bed when I got it. It just absolutely fucked me.

Dave: And that's the weird thing, you expect to feel a bit odd but I think the fatigue of doing anything really hits you. It was really weird. It's like nothing else, it's not like "I feel really tired I'm not going to do that." It's like, you feel all right and then you set out and by the time you've got to where you're going ,you're just feeling fucked, really out of it. I did the same yesterday, the day before, I went to Stanage, walked up from Redmire to the top of Stanage, felt fucking odd at Stanage Pole and walked back down.

Baybutt: And that was it.

Dave: That was it.

Baybutt: Oh mate. So what's it been like two weeks now?

Dave: This is week three on Monday. But I spoke to the occupational health on Monday and Tuesday. They've got a private healthcare thing there at work. And he was like well... Obviously, I went to A&E on week two because I was like "It's two weeks and I still feel a bit odd." And the NHS guidance was after two weeks you shouldn't have any symptoms, you should feel vaguely normal. And I was like "I kind of do but I also kind of don't". So I went and they were like "It's fine, no problem at all. You're all right just take it steady" I said it to occupational health and she was like "You've been out for like two minutes, and you've had a serious brain injury, relatively serious. You're probably on the cusp of it being a major brain injury. You're going to feel weird for at least three weeks, if not longer."

Dave: And I was like "Right that makes a lot more sense. The brain doctors in France basically didn't say anything because they didn't speak any English so we didn't get anything out of them.

Dave: And then I rang the occupational health, and this was Monday this week, so I was two weeks off, and she was like "Yeah don't come in this week." And I was just a bit stressed about work like I want to be back, but I don't feel too awful, but I think it's like you don't feel that awful and you go out and you do something, and you're like "Oh my God, I should not have done that." When I'm doing stuff where I'm not thinking about what I'm doing it's not so bad, but any physical exertion, or any serious mental exertion is really hard.

Baybutt: So you're on a bit of enforced rest now.

Dave: Yeah. I'm doing a bit of DIY stuff that I need to do and when I feel shit I'll just stop. Don't push through it because it'll just get worse after that. But I rang the GP to get a sick note, and explain what had happened. And he was like "We normally just give sick note for a week for a concussion." I was like "Are you fucking for real?" I couldn't even function after a week. I was like "I slept most of the day after a week." It was really weird, I was just like "What are you on about, you just don't know what you're talking about." I couldn't have worked. No way. Maybe if I'd not driven home but even then it wouldn't be ideal. I'm due back in next week on Monday.

Baybutt: Have got a lot planned for getting back to riding or something?

Dave: I'm going away on holiday... it's weird because I was having two weeks off, then two weeks on, and then another two weeks off at work. So I'm going to take them. I won't have my bike anyway. And then when I get back, I'll then start to ride again. And I've got a weekend away planned, at Golfie, the last weekend of September. I'm just going to take it real steady I think, and just see how I'll go. To be honest I hadn't really thought about riding at all. One I've said to myself I'm not, and two, I don't think I could anyway.

Baybutt: The offer of the gravel bike's there if you want it.

Dave: Yeah, probably when I get back from... I'll just see how I am when I get back. I'm just not pushing it. There's no point.

Baybutt: Why do you do it? Why do you like the ramps so much?

Dave: Buzz isn't it? You've got to love the buzz. It feels like you've achieved something. There's a lot of good ones in Europe, and it's just good crack getting everyone through them. I like riding technical downhills, don't get me wrong, and I love that as much as riding jumps but it's nice to be able to ride some ramps.

Baybutt: Is there some instant gratification, because you either make it or you crash and burn.

Dave: Yeah. I think maybe it's easier to find jumps that are a bit out of your comfort zone. Well not out of the comfort zone but on the limit of your ability.

Baybutt: Rather than technical downhills?

Dave: Yeah, I feel like it absolutely has to be pretty gnarly for me to be like "Shit I can't ride this."

Baybutt: Well that's a good assessment, so you like getting up to the limit of your capabilities.

Dave: I wouldn't say the limit.

Baybutt: But closer to it.

Dave: Closer to it, yeah. I ride... I think most of the time I'm riding pretty fast. I'm riding in my ability but I generally ride at the speed I would race at most of the time. I think some people don't and then turn it on for racing, but I ride at probably eighty, ninety percent of my limit most of the time. But I feel like that limit is quite controlled. When I go past that eighty, ninety percent it all gets a bit sketchy and then I can't control it. But I'm just on the cusp of...

Baybutt: But with jumps you feel like you can ride within yourself and just get the scary buzz of the unknown.

Dave: Yeah, I think you get a scary buzz on that sort of thing, when you're doing something a bit gnarly and you get a bit fucked or your body's done with... You get a buzz even if you can clear sweet, if even if you didn't clear it mint, you still get a buzz out of it.

Baybutt: That's a good way of putting it. Nice.

Dave: Yeah don't know.

Dave: I haven't really thought about riding at all to be honest. And I don't see myself riding... People said "Would you hit..." Within the week of doing it, people are like "Would you hit it again?" I'm like "Yeah I probably would." It is within my capability, but I don't know whether I'd take the risk on that jump again, but I'd definitely go and hit Air Voltage tomorrow if I felt all right.

Baybutt: So it's not put you off, that's all good.

Dave: No, I don't think so. Maybe I'll think a bit more about something that is on my limit. But a lot of things are within that limit so it's like well... I likened it to lockdown a little bit; I rode all the stuff that I'd not ridden before, the easy stuff. All the stuff I would never normally ride. But I was riding all the easy shit at mach ten and I was riding stuff that I'd not ridden before and I was riding fairly quick, and I was making mistakes because I didn't know it and it wasn't in my comfort zone, even though it technically should be, it kind of wasn't because I was riding stuff that was not familiar. And then as soon as I just went fuck it, I'm just going to ride my normal gnarly technical loop that I've ridden a million times, and as soon as I started doing that I was like "This is fine." I'm not thinking about not trying to crash, I'm just thinking about riding.

Dave: And that's what I want to go back when I start riding again is, I'm not going to think about "I shouldn't be doing this because I've got this." It's like I'll ride that, and if I'm going to ride it, if I'm not, I'm not.

Baybutt: So what would you say to somebody who's had a big stack, maybe bumped their head, maybe broken their arm, and how would they... something to get them back to riding or how they approach riding, once they're back from an injury.

Dave: I think it's a mindset anyway. I think a lot of people, and my mum especially is like, "What you're doing is so dangerous, you shouldn't be doing it anymore." My dad had a go at me yesterday, but... "You shouldn't be hitting your head, I'm not looking after you if you hit your head and get disabled or something." I don't go out to do that, and my mindset when I'm riding is not, I'm going to do something that's 120% way out of my comfort zone, or I don't know whether I'm going to make it or not. Everything I do, I know I'm going to make, I'm not going to do something if I don't know I can do it. But I think my brother would always say like "My brother would do something and it'd be sketchy, then I'd just do it and cruise it no problem at all." That'd be the difference, I'd always ride something that's within that comfort zone. I never ride well outside of it so I very rarely have really wild moments. It's normally pretty conscious. I feel in control, so you can ride in that regard the whole time.

Dave: Obviously push yourself at certain points but if you're riding way out of your comfort zone all the time you're going to crash. But if you're riding within your comfort zone and you're calculated and you know what causes you to crash then you're minimising that risk. Ride to minimise risk. Obviously my dad's always saying like "You shouldn't be hitting your head, you shouldn't be hitting your head." I've been riding fifteen years and had one crash that's ended up in hospital. I think that's a pretty good record really. There's not a lot of people who've ridden for that long and then not. I think part of that though is crashing quite a lot at a young age. Doing stupid dirt jumps and just crashing our brains out every day. But not serious crashes, so when I do crash, generally I'm not scared. I'm as in control of the situation as I can be, I'm not like "Right this is happening and I'm fucked." Even coming up to that jump when I did crash, I pushed through trying to make it.

Dave: I think work out where the line is, where you can ride safely but still get the buzz. That's the key bit. Just dialing it back a little bit or dialing it up a little bit just to try and find that limit. Like Ben, my mate Ben rides at like 120% all the time, super quick, super sketchy, will hit anything but it bites him quite a lot. Whereas a few people that ride down here know what's sensible and know what's right.

Baybutt: So you're saying don't stop riding just experiment where your limits are.

Dave: Yeah, yeah.

Baybutt: Ride within yourself to get as close to the limit as you can.

Dave: Yeah. I think it's just experience really. I guess some people are like "I've done a fifteen foot jump so I can do this fifteen foot jump." When it doesn't really work like that.

Baybutt: That's fair enough.

Dave: But it's kind of like not being too cautious as well because you'll never progress, you'll never really get the buzz.

Baybutt: Sweet. Thanks for chatting it through. I don't think we'll put the audio track up it's going to be a right mess of noise.

Dave: Yeah it will be a bit. No podcast for you!

In our most recent emailshot, Cy has something to share. Click here to join our mailing list

Cy writes....

I'm just back after a couple of weeks off, some of which involved a return to Morzine, 19 years (!) after the last time I went. Now I have a confession to make: I don't like bike park riding. There. I said it.

Note I said "riding". I like bike parks enormously. I recognise what they do for the sport, and zipping up hills or mountains on uplifts - be it chairlift or land rover and trailer - to bomb down again is marvellous. The accessibility they give our sport is fantastic. The well built and maintained greens above Avoriaz finally had me riding with my family in a way in which we could all share the buzz or riding bikes offroad, and they got a window into what I love about doing this. It was magic.

However, elsewhere in the valley, riding on my own, I had to admit something to myself and my ego - I don't like bikepark style riding and I am a blue level bikepark rider at best.

Trumpet

At the risk of blowing my own trumpet, by most measures I am an pretty competent rider. The dirty, steep, fast, natural feeling technical trails of the Tweed Valley and my native Peak District are my favourite type of riding, and I feel I am pretty good at it. Even in Morzine, after a bit of advice from the locals I met, I was soon slithering down some extremely sketchy off piste, which was great! I love Revolution Bikepark (see, told its not bikeparks per se!) because although they have some incredibly big jumps on some trails, they also have some black runs of breathtaking rawness, gradient and technicity. I bloody love that place! But in more standard offer bikeparks, blue is where I live. Floaty tabletop Dad Jumps (tm), flowy singletrack, no massive features. That's where I am comfortable.

I had a go at the reds under Pleney lift, but just like the reds at Bike Park Wales, they offer me no more nourishment than blues or greens from a technical difficulty perspective. No tricky sections to pick my way down, requiring accuracy, fingertip brake control and good line choice in raw dirt and root. For the most part they were the same as the blues except steeper in places and with considerably larger jumps, in which I have little interest and even less skill to dispense. And they are BUMPY! Generally horrendously braking bumpy, for bike parks are busy, and the reds are busiest trails of all. It's a style of trail that I find difficult to enjoy.

I suspect there's an element of how long I've been doing this in how I feel about super fast jumpy tracks, as I've never been excited by doing jumps, so the juice isn't worth the squeeze for me in terms of perceived risk. I just thought it was interesting to finally admit to myself that on modern style tracks, I am fine with the blues. I guess it's a sign of how broad and diverse our sport has got too, as the massive growth of enduro shows there's still a massive appetite for a more natural approach to trails.

So, don't be disheartened if you're not into FULL SEND, there is still plenty of offer with bike parks if you dial the ego back a bit, and just go with the flow on the lower grade trails. I'm all for a bit of progression, but it's supposed to be fun too!

Anachronism

One anomoly - some might say anachronism - I did find was La Noir at Pleney. Some 20 years ago i visited this area in 2000 and 2001 with a bunch of guys i met at uni, and still ride with to this day. Riding was progressed, DH bikes were broken, fear was smelt, brakes were melted, and a lot of Dianese body armour was worn. Back then even full DH tracks didn't tend to have enormous features in them - they were a little more raw and natural. In fact, it was the development and addition of these bigger jumps and gaps that finally put paid to me DH racing, not long after that 2001 trip.

The one run I loved more than any other was the Avalanche Cup track at Pleney in Morzine. It was just enough above my paygrade to massively improve my riding, but being 20 years ago it didn't have huge gaps and senders. It did feature the infamous 10 Percenter chute, which was properly nerve shredding back in the day.

I was looking for this track on this trip, but hadn't gone near the black run for fear of simply even more massive jumps I wouldn't/couldn't do. However, a bit of research suggested that if you stuck to certain options down La Noir, it was indeed the track from back in the day. So, with a little trepidation I dropped in, and you know what? It was awesome! Almost unchanged in terms of route, much more natural feeling, still featuring the mighty 10 Percenter (in horrendously chopped up condition). I even vaguely remembered which way it went! So not all bikepark blacks are built equal, especially not ones with a 20 year history.

There were differences - for a start I was entirely happy riding it in regular riding gear with no more than kneepads and a helmet for protection, and the bike I was riding was infinitely more capable of covering this terrain safely at high speed, despite being entirely suitable to pedalling back to the top should I have so wished. Below is my helmet cam if you're vaguely interested in a middle aged Dad riding down a mountain in France. Hopefully it will bring back happy memories for anyone who was there back in the day.

As all of this was turning over in my head, and my buddies from those first trips were messaging me with their memories, I realised there was also a nice symmetry : 20 years ago I was riding a Raleigh DHO bike, made in the UK out of Reynolds 853, with around 160mm travel. Today I was riding my RocketMAX: Made in the UK out of Reynolds 853, with around 160mm travel. Plus ca change, plus ca meme chose.

Cheers,

Cy

Cane Creek have today announced the introduction of the successor to the DB Air CS - DB Kitsuma.

These will replace the Air CS on the RocketMAX immediately, with our first shipment due by the end of the month. As they are Metric sized only, we won't be able to offer these on the Rocket, Flare and FlareMAX frames.

As always with Cane Creek equipped Cotics, these will ship with a base tune already set on them, which Cy has been working on for a few weeks now.

For the full lowdown, head over to Cane Creek to read more

We've got a big bike check for you today - Chris from The Downtime Podcast has written up his RocketMAX build. It's a detailed one so we'll hand over to him right away...

If you follow the podcast, then you’ll know that I’ve spent the last 2 years riding a FlareMAX. I built it up with a slightly longer stroke Fox shock, so it was effectively the first FlareMAX 132, giving me a bit more travel to play with. I’ve loved every minute with the bike, which begs the question… why change to the RocketMAX? Well there are three main reasons, and only one of them is really justifiable!

It’s nice to change things up every now and then I was hoping to go on at least one trip to some big mountains this year and felt like more travel would be a wise move for the bigger mountain terrain I ride quite a lot with Cy, we are generally a fairly similar speed, but he keeps pulling away from me when it gets really rough and rowdy… he rides a RocketMAX!!

I’ll let you decide which of those is the justifiable one.

So the frame element of the bike was decided, and then it’s on to what to build it up with. I’ve been lucky to have support from some great people since the early days of the podcast. Cy is the obvious one, but Dustin from We Are One Composites and Jordi from Fox have also been supporters from really early on. So it was an obvious choice to put the Fox 36s and X2 on the bike, and Dustin recommended their new Faction 29er wheels on Industry 9 Hydra hubs for my build. I’ve been blown away by the performance increase over the 34s and DPX2 that I had on the previous bike, and the added adjustability appeals to my inner geek. The wheels have been great too. They are the next generation of product from We Are One, and they’ve managed to make things even better. They are lighter, stronger and have an amazing ride feel that I love. Direct, without being punishing, and nicely damped. Oh, and those Hydra hubs make a lovely noise.

Last year I was put in contact with Aaron from PNW Components, and they have been supporters ever since. Aaron sorted me out one of their awesome Batchelor Dropper Posts and a Loam Lever Remote for this build. I’ve had a lot of issues with droppers in the past, but since switching to PNW I’ve not had to touch them once.

Since meeting and chatting with the guys from CushCore in 2019, I knew that they’d really thought about their product and I was keen to try them. They’ve been in my bikes ever since, and the RocketMAX is no exception. The damping they provide is worth any weight penalty as far as I’m concerned. The added protection is just a bonus.

Finishing kit this time around came from Nukeproof. They are a relatively small brand in the grand scheme of things who seem to just be quietly getting on with things, taking EWS overall wins and making some really nice components. So bottom bracket and headset are their new titanium coated ones which come with a great warranty. Never a bad idea in the UK climate! I’ve got their Horizon stem and Horizon V2 carbon bars (cut to 760mm) as my cockpit. I actually wanted the ally version of the bar, but it wasn’t in stock at the time, and I’m really glad about that. The carbon bar doesn’t feel too stiff (which is a problem I’ve had in the past) but still has the added damping that carbon provides. The shape is also really good and I’ve had no issues with wrist/hand pain at all. I’ve opted for the new version of the Sam Hill designed enduro pedal, and it doesn’t disappoint. It’s well sealed and provides a tonne of grip. If anyone knows flat pedals, it’s Sam!

I recently did a podcast episode with WTB about their saddles, where they explained their Fit Right system which helps you select the right saddle for you. It told me that a medium width Silverado would do the trick and it was right. It’s super comfortable and I’ve been riding without padded shorts with no issues. I’ve also got their 2.5 Verdict Dry Light/High Grip up front with 18psi in it. The rear is finished with a Maxxis Aggressor 2.4 with Double Down casing and 19psi so it’s super fast rolling.

Brakes are the SRAM G2 Ultimates. I’ve not ridden SRAM brakes for a long time (since they were Avid) but I’d heard good things about these from Cy. He wasn’t wrong, they have a nice lever feel, and plenty of power with the 200mm rotors that I’ve specced front and rear. I do have a bit of a soft spot for the oil slick ti-bolts too! SRAM have also finished off the rest of the drivetrain with a mixture of GX and XX1. I’m a big fan of the Eagle stuff, it just works and gives me enough range for 99% of the things I’d want to ride up. I just need bigger legs to get that last 1%

I’ve put a FUNN bashguard on there, just incase I catch anything. That way, it’s not going to damage the chainring. It adds very little weight but is good for piece of mind. I’ve also covered the bike in Invisiframe to protect it’s lovely paint finish, and popped some trusty Marshguard Slapper tape on the chainstay to help deal with any chainslap.

So let’s talk a bit about set-up… Initially I was running the stem around 12mm from the top of the headset, but I had felt like front end grip wasn’t quite right and I kept feeling like I was going to lose the front wheel. I initially tried bringing the stem down 2mm, and that did feel better, but not all the way there. So I tried going up 8mm to 20mm from the top of the headset and that seems to have sorted it. Bar height is such a complicated one, but it’s super easy to change with spacers, so it’s well worth a few repeated runs with the stem in different positions to see what feels best for you.

Ok, suspension is where it gets a bit more complicated. Here are my initial settings which were based on the manual, and with the number of spacers that the fork/shock came with pre-installed.

Since then, I got my hands on a Motion Instruments Enduro Expert system and have done 3 sessions on my local trails recording data and making changes to improve my set up. The main thing I noticed was that the suspension was too progressive for me, especially the rear, and that the rebound was not fast enough front and rear. Here is where I’ve ended up…

What difference has all the fiddling made? Well it’s transformed the way the bike feels to be honest. There is so much grip that my confidence in cornering has increased massively. It also seems to recover grip really quickly if it does break traction. It carries speed much better through rough terrain, I assume because the bike is packing less. It feels more lively to ride, which at the moment is great. I haven’t had a chance to ride it on anything with significant compressions/g-outs or jumps yet, so I need to see if I can handle it in those circumstances. If not, I may need to slow down the rebound a little to help me. I am by no means a great rider, so having this increase in performance purely from some suspension tuning is well worth having! It’s made the insanely fast RocketMAX even faster. I can’t wait for more time on this absolute beast of a bike. Time to see if Cy can keep up...

If you’ve got any questions, then drop me a note to chris@downtimepodcast.com. Otherwise, don’t forget to give the podcast a listen over at www.downtimepodcast.com.

Thanks for reading,

Chris

In our most recent emailshot, Cy expounds upon a new found affection for quiet byways on the local, and bit box bikes. Click here to join our mailing list

Cy writes....

I wanted to write about 'dull' riding. In the UK, throughout lockdown we were fortunate enough to still be allowed out to ride our bikes. However, for some time you were restricted to just an hour per day, and for longer again, always from your front door. Now, I made a conscious decision back in 2007 to move somewhere that I could have awesome mountain bike riding straight out of the door, hence my move to South West Sheffield. You would think that would put in a better position than most to enjoy riding through these difficult times, but i came up against a slight issue. With EVERYONE restricted to walking or riding from their front door, my local MTB trails got incredibly busy, to the point where my local MTB loop - as well as being more than an hour even at a fast pace - was just full of people walking on the trails where usually there are none, and we can pick up some fair speed in places. Combine this with a large number of people still congregating around gates and trail junctions, and it made for hectic, rather fraught, and sometimes conflict filled rides as I tried to keep my distance, enjoy myself, ride responsibly. In short, it was simply too busy in my local woods and moors to have an enjoyable ride. I'm sure many of you will have come across similar issues.

Dull

I do have another area easily within reach though, just to the South there's a kind of nomansland between Sheffield and Chesterfield with lots of bridleways and quiet lanes. I generally avoid it because the tracks are very tame and a bit dull on my RocketMAX, and there tends to be long linking sections of road where 1kg+ sticky rubber enduro spec tyres suck out your will to live. It's also hella muddy a lot of the time, as I found to my dismay when trying to ride the trails in the November after I moved here 13 years ago. That experience scarred me enough to have hardly been back since!

What is does have going for it, though, is that it's a really pretty area, you can cover quite a lot of ground, and it's QUIET! I did a ride around it on my (entirely sub-optimal for the terrain) RocketMAX and met 3 people in 2 hours, and due to the dry conditions through April and May the trails were in mint condition. I needed an Escapade! Unfortunately (for me) due to the sudden insane level of demand for bikes, we didn't have any in stock for me to build, and we had sold the demo bike I usually borrowed. To the spares box......

Bit Box

Hat tip to our man Baybutt here. He built a bitsa old Solaris last year, so this is definitely inspired by him.

Now, I understand that being a bike company owner of nearly 20 years standing, my bit box is likely to be a little deeper than yours, but even so I was pleased that I bought a mere 6 new items to get this running, and what I had "in stock" like an old 9spd rear mech, random mismatched QR wheels, old road shifters, a rigid seatpost completely useless because of dropper posts. It was the kind of thing a lot of us bikers tend to have lying around if you've been doing it while. It's definitely not bling!

Things I bought new:

• I bought some cheap steel 29er 'XC' forks off Ison Distribution
• Deore 11-42 10spd cassette and chain
• Superstar 36t chainring
• 35deg rise 70mm stem off ebay for a fiver
• WTB Ranger Light 29x2.25" tyres.

From the bit box, the frame is a pre-Longshot, pre-MAX Gen2 Solaris, QR axle, size large. Reach is around 435 if you're interested. I usually ride our 515mm reach XL MTB frames. Wheels are a part-damaged Escapade front wheel, an 8 year old ex-demo rear wheel. Cranks are repaired with heli-coil axle. Drivetrain and brakes is my old 10spd 105 STi running ex-demo Shimano BRR317 mechanical discs from pre-flat mount Escapade days, an even older Shimano XT 9spd rear mech. Finishing kit is some sample flared drop bars we got about 5 years ago (I don't get on with regular drops, it's just how my wrists work, plus the wide drops are good offroad), an old, old Bontrager carbon post, and a spare saddle, and my plastic Burgtecs.

And for quick rides from the door? It's perfect! Even though a roadie would think the tyres are enormous, they feel like time trial slicks to me compared to my sticky Verdict on the RocketMAX. It rolls along roads nicely enough for me, and is super comfy because the tyres are big and tubeless, and makes all those 'dull' bridleways really fun, because it's kinda sketchy! An Escapade on Road Plus wheels and tyres would be a similar kind of thing, but I have really loved giving a new lease of life to all these old parts. They're definitely not up the to job of proper mountain biking, even if I had built this as a conventional MTB hardtail, because they're a bit baggy and just not a good as the modern stuff, but for bashing about blissfully quiet lanes and byways, looking at the view, it's just been so fun.

Grab 'n Go

You know the other thing this has got me out of the habit of? Thinking I have to kit up and do a "proper" ride. Because even my shortest local mountain bike loop has over 250m of climbing and about 90 mins duration, I tend to put up a bit of a 'getting out the door syndrome' barrier to fitting in rides. I need to be kitted up, with my pack, knee pads, proper kit, lots of water, spares. With this, particularly during those sunny periods in early May during full lockdown, I wouldn't even change my clothes. I'd just grab my helmet, gloves, GO! Just riding in civvies was so liberating, and I found myself popping out for quick 30-40 min loops most days, and maybe something longer twice a week. It's been a really nice change of pace, and change of mindset. To the point where I'm working towards a bottle-and-framebag setup on my RocketMAX to encourage me to just grab-and-go on that too. Obviously this only really applies during fairly good, dry, warm conditions, but it's an attitude I'm really keen to hold onto for next Spring.

If nothing else I would hope this encourages you to do two things:

• Have a go at grab-and-go rides. Minimise the faff, ride those "dull" trails you can get to within 10 mins ride, learn a new area, explore. If more of us end up working from home more often, it will be a great way to clear your head.
• Look in that bit box at those old "useless" MTB frames, and have a think about how you could repurpose them. Cotic frames last a long time. Maybe you've got an original build Solaris or Soul or BFe tucked out the back there, with it's 135mm QR dropouts, lack of dropper compatibility and 26" wheels. Bikepacking and gravel riding have brought about some great mixed surface tyre options, and there's ways to hack old kit to run a nice, simple 1x drivetrain. My mate Joh has rebuilt his 2008 Soda frame with some carbon rigid forks, 650x50 tyres and some old drivetrain with flat bars and bar ends. He's loving it for doing exactly the kind of rides I describe above. Covering miles, byways and back lanes, looking at the view.

Here's to dull rides!

Cheers,

Cy

Sam has been steadily collecting a pile of parts to build up his SolarisMAX frame, when suddenly, Cane Creek went and made those Hot Pink launch edition Helm Mk2s. Fair warning, this incredible build will definitely split opinion, but we love the attention to detail and haven't seen anything quite like it before. Over to Sam:

"When I rode the demo small SolarisMAX last year on the Sandstone Way, and briefly round the Cotic demo loop to get it set up beforehand, I was blown away by how capable it is. A mile muncher that begs to be razzed down technical singletrack, such a versatile bike. Like many of you who have demo'd one over the last few years, the seed was sown, I had to own one.

I love riding hardtails, sure you can't go as fast down rough and gnarly trails as you can on a RocketMAX, but they offer a different kind of excitement as well as being simple to maintain and lighter for those longer days out when you fancy big views and pedalling, rather than winching and plummeting. I built myself a Soul a couple of years ago, which I rode a handful of times before it was commandeered by my fiancée, who has twice finished in the top 10 in the hardtail category at the Hope Women's Enduro on it; so that's definitely not my bike anymore. But now with this beauty, I'm back in the hardtail game.

I won't lie, the Hubble Purple sealed the deal for me. I wanted a SolarisMAX, but then when that colour arrived it became clear that I needed one. The plan was to build it in January when Hunt released microspline compatible hubs, but for various reasons I never quite found the time. I started gradually building a pile of parts when suddenly, out of the blue, Cane Creek dropped the super limited launch edition of the Helm Mk2 fork, in hot pink.

I (almost literally) jumped out of my seat. Frantic and excited emailing ensued, and by some miracle, there was a pair with my name on. I didn't really believe it until I had them in my hands, but they are real, and mine! Huge thanks to all at Cane Creek for making it happen, I am eternally grateful.

I may have gone a bit overboard with the details on this bike, so worth it though! Shimano XT drivetrain and brakes, Toxic Barbie Pink Burgtec chainring and crank pre-load bolt. Purpley-pink Burgtec Bartender grips, pink anodised tubeless valves from Muc-Off, Hunt Trailwide wheelset, Hope stem, BB and headset, pink ano seatclamp from Superstar.

I took a punt on the Rainier dropper post and Loam Lever from Pacific North West Components, and I'm very impressed. Super easy to fit and the lever feel is the best I've ever had. 170mm travel too so its dirt jump bike low when it's all the way down. Great for the steeps. I love how the teal pad on the lever clashes with everything else on the bike.

My trusty Rust Components Ti handlebar has made its way onto this bike too. Love this bit of kit, feels great, looks ace, weighs nothing.

I've only had one ride on it so far, and boy is it fast! It loves Lady Cannings in Sheffield, but definitely put me in my place on Devil's Elbow, a local bridleway that wouldn't be out of place in an enduro race. It got down though, the geometry clearly gives the bike intentions that my ankles weren't ready for! Back to hardtail school for me. Baybutt got all excited about photography potential too, enjoy the photos."

After selling out an entire batch of frames faster than any other product in the history of the company, we have been working hard to bring our next batch in. Today we have opened pre-orders for batch 2 of the BFeMAX. We are running Gunmetal/Copper again, and introducing Sunny Yellow as the other option.

These frames are currently projected to arrive mid-December 2020, but that's not a solid guarantee. We will keep all customers updated as we get improved delivery estimates. However, if you want one of these beauties, don't hang around. We sold what would usually be 6 months worth of these in just 4 weeks following the launch in May.

And if you are wondering what all the fuss is about, check out Hardtail Party's Live Ride Review of the BFeMAX.

Kind of by accident, it's been a very RocketMAX week this week.

Due to launching the RocketMAX Gen3 at the end of April, we couldn't get any riding shots or video done at the time. Now things are relaxing a little bit, we got out a Wharncliffe on a sunny evening a few days ago and got some sweet summer vibes going, courtesy of ace staff light wranglers Richard Baybutt and Darren Ellis.

On Tuesday I headed up to West Yorkshire to ride with Chris from Downtime Podcast aboard his new RocketMAX, and me on my recently refurbished version. It was proper British Summer, slipping and sliding on the steeps at Otley, then onto some great flowing, open trails on Ilkley Moor. Classic sideways-rain-not-cold-in-a-T-shirt kinda day.

One of the many difficult things about lockdown has been that we have launched several bikes during this period, and haven't been able to get any out for independent review. Obviously we think all our new bikes are rad, but it's always nice to get the same positive feedback from our friends in the journalism world. By the skin of our teeth we got the first medium Rocket Gen4 out to Jon at off.road.cc just before lockdown hit, and he's been riding it for the last 3 months. He's now published his full review.

"The fourth generation of Cotic Rocket builds on a solid foundation to deliver a really well-sorted ride with handling that'll flatter the timid and encourage the confident."

"There's plenty of stability in the chassis, while the suspension redesign offers up plenty of plush traction with little misbehaviour in the form of pedal kickback. It's calm, collected and planted, allowing you to get on with the business of selecting the best (or least worst) line you can."

Ever idly wonder what bike you'd build as your dream bike? Well, that's pretty much what Cotic's owner and bike designer Cy Turner gets to do. Here's the bike that Cy built.

The frame itself is the final pre-production proving prototype of the Gen2 RocketMAX, built by Five Land Bikes in June 2018. It's been Cy's bike ever since, up until now wearing the Metal Grey paint finish of that generation of bike. Now with the Gen 3 RocketMAX why not just have one of those? Over to Cy....

Despite the changes for the Gen3 bike, I actually did all the suspension development on this very bike, by moving the shock mount up the down tube and only using two bolts (do NOT try this on your own bike!). Using offset bushings and different shock mounts, I could test the 230mm shock and different leverage curves without building a whole new prototype. I knew that I didn't want to change the dynamic geometry, because it's already my favourite bike and I just couldn't come up with any reason to change it in a big way. The slightly steeper seat angle on the new one is simply due to the slightly more linear leverage curve needing a bit of help from the rider position to keep the weight centred on steep climbs. You'll note my saddle is right forward on the rails because I have the older frame.

A couple of months ago we got talking about switching out my frame and running a new one, putting mine in the museum storage where all our significant frames get put. But I didn't like that idea. Partly because in the first couple of months of the production run of any of our UK bikes production volume is always a little bit behind demand, and partly because I felt really strongly that it's still a great frame, with a lot more life left in it. We are focused on sustainability, and a big part of that is building durable products that last. Why ditch a perfectly good frame for a new one?

It's also an emotional attachment too. The month this bike was built was the culmination of a very stressed and hectic few weeks trying to get the geometry right. I got it near where I wanted on the previous prototype using an angleset, and this was the frame delivered to prove out both the final geometry, and the paint finish. It was done so fast it never even got the e-coat corrosion protection! But I remember that first ride like it was yesterday. I was over the moon with how it felt and how it was everything I wanted it to be. I was so excited. It's the OG Rad Bike. It's been my main bike for all my adventures these last 2 years, and I love it, and everything it represents about my journey as a bike designer and a company owner.

SO, it was sent on holiday to Five Land Bikes to get a modified shock mount position (so i can safely run the Gen3 long shocks, not the shonky 2 bolts option i used during development!), stripped, e-coat, and this GORGEOUS paint test orange with the latest Gen3 artwork. I think it looks AMAZING.

The graphics are the silver decals from the Navy Blue Gen3 RocketMAX with the cut through down tube graphics from the Army Green, complete with the new head badge. You'll also notice some random holes in the swingarm. This is the less glamourous side of running a development bike - you get to drill holes in it to test things. These are leftover from an abortive attempt to find good rear mech cable routing via the swingarm. Didn't work, but the holes remain! Also above are a couple of pics Cy took during assembly. Again, partly for sustainability, and partly to prove a point, all those pivot parts removed from the bike were cleaned up and put back in. The only things that were replaced were the bearings, which were due a refresh. All of these parts are two years old with a lot of use, and once cleaned up, it all went back together tight as a drum.

For the build kit, as you might expect for a heavily used bike it features some of the best parts available, and it's broadly based on our Platinum build. As a result it's running a full SRAM X01 Eagle drivetrain, which has been in place for over 2 years, and has just received it's first replacement cassette and jockey wheels. Cy's a big fan of the 10-50 range, as he's a sit-and-spin kind of rider, so the 30/50 bottom gear means he's always got an option to keep on top of a gear. The drivetrain is topped off by the absolutely amazing Cane Creek eeWings titanium cranks with a Unite Components chainring, DMR Vault pedals and Hope BB.

Over to Cy again...

I'm a big fan of the SRAM drivetrain, and the range suits me really well. I've just got the 10-50 cassette, and I have no plans for a new rear mech and 10-52 of the latest verison just now. I'm happy with this as it is. Maybe in another couple of years when this cassette wears out I'll do the change.

eeWings? I can't defend them on any kind of value for money grounds that would make any sense, but they're amazing - tough, light, fit and forget - I love them. To paraphrase an old movie, "they are so choice. If you have the means I highly recommend picking some up."

The suspension is courtesy of the new Cane Creek HELM Mk2 fork at 160mm, and the DB Air CS shock originally used during the Gen3 development, both of which feature on the Platinum build. Brakes are SRAM Guide RSC G2 4 pots (an option on all our bikes), a One Up 180mm dropper post holds up a very well used Cotic saddle.

Wheels are HUNT Trail Wide, tyres are WTB Verdict 2.5 Light High Grip Slashguard front, with a Trail Boss 2.4 Light Fast Rolling rear.

Cockpit is a regular 35mm Cotic stem, WTB Padloc Commander grips on Spank Vibrocore 30mm rise bars cut to 775mm across the ends of the grips. In the centre of the bars is the permanently installed Exposure Lights bracket for a 6 Pack light.

We'll let Cy have the final word....

I'm new to the HELM Mk2, but they feel great so far. We helped Cane Creek during the development of these by trying some of the lighter oils they were proposing, so my previous HELM Mk1 had been running the 2.5wt oil that's stock fitment in these for a while. With all the other changes, these are definitely a step on from that, but I guess it's not quite a big a difference for me because of the damper tweaks I'd already done. The rear shock is just amazing. Plush, controlled, capable. I run the DB Air IL most of my time on this frame, with an OPT remote, and I do miss the remote a bit. However, the new kinematics, big can shock and extra travel over the Gen2 definitely give it a more capable feel when it gets hectic.

I'm quite fussy about brake feel, and I just don't get on with the strong initial bite of Shimano brakes. It's a preference thing. Up until a year ago I was on Hope E4s which were great, but I got these SRAM Guide G2s in to test prior to potentially offering them as a build option, and they never came off again. I really like the feel and power.

Cockpit shape is fairly standard Cotic; the Vibrocore bars are a similar shape to our Calver Bars which I ran before. However, after my Finale trip last year I was suffering a bit with arm pump and sore forearms, so I got some of these to see if they would help. They do a little - they're defintely a soft bar. I find carbon bars too stiff for my liking. I've been running the Padloc grips since they came out. I know it's a faff to cut the angle on your bars for them, but they work so well for how I ride. I've used single collar grips for years because of my tendency to roll my hands over the ends of the bars. The Padloc just put a big, soft comfy bit of rubber right where I do that, which is ace. Bar width is what I settled on a couple of years back after doing a lot of testing during Longshot development. You can read the blog I wrote about it here.

The light bracket stays on there, because just like most of you, I actually do most of my riding out of office hours, so for 8 months of the year in the UK that means evening rides with some level of darkness involved. I like the simplicity of the Exposure lights all-in-one nature. Saddle is just me shaped. I know some people don't get on with them, which is why we have the Fabric saddle option, but this just works for me. I could (and do) sit on it for hours.

I've been running the TrailWides since I got some production samples in summer 2018 and I really like them. They're light for what they are, give the big tyres a nice profile and roll super fast. Freehub bearings needed a refresh for the rebuild of the bike, but they're great.

The Verdict / Trail Boss has become my go-to, year round setup. I found when WTB moved to the Slashguard option on the Light tyres (reinforces the sidewalls, but not the tread area) I could run the lighter tyre on the rear too. I used to run Tough rear tyres before. The stiffness and feel of the new WTB casings is great, and I run 19psi front, and 22psi rear. I experimented with Cushcore and Rimpact, but I'm not a habitual wheel wrecker and I prefer the lower weight without the inserts. After years on the Vigilante, I am a big fan of the Verdict on the front. Grip for days!

So that's it. My RocketMAX. The smile says it all. I got it all back together last week and it's still managed to surprise me with how much fun it is. I am a very fortunate lad.

Camus, the emeritus professor at the hardtail university, has graduated to full suspension! This is a big deal - we found it hard enough to keep up with him before, now we've no chance!

His choice of bounce has gone to a new UK made Rocket in the same Sunny Yellow as his old frame. All the parts from his BFe carried over and all there is left to do is tweak the suspension, pump up the tyres and ride the hell out of it.

Staying relatively close to a Gold Build, He's gone for a bump in travel on his Helm mk1's, up to 170mm. The rear is looked after by an Air CS shock. Wheels are provided by Hunt. Endurowide on the front but the rear is their DH rim - much needed when you ride as fast & hard as Dave on a hardtail. There's cushcore in there too. All the padding.

Hope components adorn the headset, brakes and crankset, whilst sram GX is the drivetrain of choice. These are held up by a pair of Burgtec Carbon bars tied to a Burgtec 35mm stem. Dave's feet are kept firmly in place with a well-loved pair of DMR V12's and the saddle is a Fabric Scoop - just like the ones we have in stock right now.

If you want to get your hands on a copy of this exact bike then drop us an email and we can get it ordered for you. Unfortunately we can't promise you'll ever be as fast as him though...

Caps are £20, Jumpers are £40. UK postage for merch orders is £3 (free postage if it's going out with a bike or frame). Click HERE to shop.

Coming next month... a new look SolarisMAX with some small tweeks...

The new SolarisMAX has a 0.5deg steeper seat angle per size to further refine the fit and sizing of the pioneering Longshot geometry.

More bosses have been added to the downtube, all at 64mm (bottle boss) centres. This allows more versatile luggage and water options, as you can now carry two bottles on the down tube (as before), or a bottle with Anything Cage 3 boss mount style luggage, or just one bottle high up the tube within easy reach. Limited only by your kit and imagination, and can be easily combined with Cotic's custom shaped Framebags for covering those big days out, or just riding without a pack.

With a new version of the SolarisMAX on the way, we have reduced the price of the last few previous gen frames left but 50 pounds. This is the multi award winning version that everyone fell in love with... grab yours at a low price now!

Just small and large left at time of writing.

Today SRAM have launched their updated Eagle groupsets, and we have the brand new Eagle GX coming in for our Gold Eagle builds.

Eagle GX has been super popular over the last couple of years, introducing the Eagle 10-50 12speed drivetrain 'ecosystem' to a great price point. Until Shimano caught up recently with their own 12spd sets Eagle GX was our biggest selling drivetrain.

In typical oneupmanship fashion, this one goes up to 52! Yes, there's a brand new 10-52 cassette, with a new rear mech design to cover it. The rear mech design is backwards compatible with the 10-50 cassette (which they are still supplying too), so if you do the worst and smash up your derailleur, you can simply buy the new version. Unfortunately this doesn't work the other way around, and SRAM are not recommending using a previous generation rear mech with the new 10-52 cassette. You need to add the new rear mech to make that happen, so if you do have a Gold Eagle or Platinum spec Cotic which is a couple of years old and approaching a cassette replacement, might be worth trying to budget for the new rear mech and get the extra range.

Thankfully they're sticking with their proven XD driver so it all fits just fine. In fact, as these don't suffer from the current shortages of Shimano Microspline freehubs, a Cotic Gold Eagle build has HUNT wheels in the building waiting for it, so we can fulfil this much more quickly than our current Shimano lead times.

As well as the bigger cassette, there's an improved shifter paddle and a much, much classier finish on the cranks. We know we shouldn't be bothered by this stuff, but we are!

All these wider range cassette and new finish and rear mech options are also part of the updated X01 Eagle groupset featured on our Platinum builds, so if you have one on order, it will be getting the new wide range cassette. Although Cy has 'just' have the 10-50 setup, he is a massive fan of X01 Eagle. It's been solidly reliable for 2 years and only just needed to replace the cassette. Good kit.

All in all it looks like another great option from SRAM. So, if you're not a Shimano fan, or our want an even wider gear range, or you just like the way it looks, get involved.

Hit the button to configure your new SRAM Eagle equipped Cotic.

Cy sat down with Luke from Cane Creek a couple of weeks ago and chatted a bit of history, what it's like working with a great suspension partner and why you, the riders, are the best way to inspire products. Grab a brew and have a listen.

It's taken a couple of days to articulate how I feel about this personally and how we at Cotic respond to what's going in the world right now. I know that sounds ridiculous coming from a 43 year old white middle class British guy, who currently only employs white people to work for and represent his brand, but I have come to realise that it's not enough to be simply not-racist. To make things better from a negative situation we need to be actively anti-racist.

With our Women Of Steel, and female brand ambassadors a couple of years ago; it wasn't enough to be not-sexist. If we wanted to change things in our sport we had to search out women to represent us, and represent the sport, to put on events, to help us normalise female participation. This work is by no means complete, but we’ve made a start. We need to do the same with ethnicity. We have been talking about how we can do this for a couple of months, but I realise this is a conversation we should have had long ago. We know we're a long way from figuring it out and that we're part of the problem.

But we're trying hard to be better, to inspire, to diversify, to be kinder.

Here are some links and articles that have helped us attune to the effects of racial bias

• https://medium.com/equality-includes-you/what-white-people-can-do-for-racial-justice-f2d18b0e0234
• https://mpora.com/multi-sport/does-the-outdoors-have-a-race-problem/
• https://www.forbes.com/sites/juliawuench/2020/06/02/first-listen-then-learn-anti-racism-resources-for-white-people/#241d598116ee
• https://www.tolerance.org/professional-development/white-antiracism-living-the-legacy
• George The Poet’s podcast - https://www.georgethepoet.com/podcast-library
• Becoming Ruby - Inclusion, bikes & hand-drawn heroes https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=adLkZNd-EOg
• Elliot Jacksons IGTV video - https://www.instagram.com/p/CBAfZVgJDen/

Cy Turner

Founder and Director

Cotic Bikes

On a long-lost memory card hid this gem of Chay. Last year he borrowed an Escapade and rode to Belgium for a pint with his pal Foxy and hitched a lift home in Foxy's camper van. Pretty simple idea but high on fun. Here's the trip in Chay's own words & photos. Video edited by HDDN Media

So my good mate who is big into his camper trippin' to France Belgium etc. Many times he'd suggest " come with us. We can cruse about round town on the bikes and have a beer"

Me being me and not capable of sitting down for very long i was thinking no. Not my cup of tea that. Then I had a brain wave.

"I'LL MEET YOU THERE AND HAVE A BEER" i proclaimed.

And there it was, the seed was sown.

This idea then rolled round for 2 to 3 years as i was always busy with other stuff.

Anyway home life changes suddenly and left me with to much thinking time and that can be dark at times as we all know so i reverted to the bucket list. "Foxy the next time you go to Belguim. Book me on the tunnel return leg" i'll come for that beer..

The time drew near and I'd mentioned it at Cotic hq, this then involved me riding the escapade. Turns out it was a brilliant move and perfect in many ways, what a mega comfy ride even loaded with kit. Polaris very kindly donating the kit bags. (in my head a back pack was going to be fine). I'm glad that was the case. Time ticked by and with nothing more to do i set off. Borrowed a Garmin for the maps, plotted some villages to make a nice route to hull, and next thing you know I'm on a boat with a beer.

Its an over nighter so the ferry broke the journey up well. Holland was amazing for cycling in. The infrastructure is perfect and cycle paths are marked like our motorways so dead easy to follow.

Before you know it, we're sat in Bruge having that beer. Job done drive me home mr fox. I've got more bucket list stuff to do.

Thanks polaris and cotic for the kit, and foxy & barb for the lift home xx

Cy joins Chris on the Downtime Podcast Live Stream next Wednesday, 6th May 2020, 2000 BST for a chat about all things Cotic, and to answer your questions. If you'd like to ask a question, email Downtime Podcast at info@downtimepodcast.com and let him know what you'd like to find out.

If you've emailed, phoned or ordered from us then it's likely to have been Paul that you spoke to as he takes you from enquiry stage right though to arranging delivery of your new Cotic.

Paul's bike is Longshot Flare prototype No.2 in small and it's the frame that we used to both prove the production process and also refine the suspension rate curve.

Originally in black with silver graphics if you look carefully you might see the rattle can spray on the down tube from where the shock mounts were moved.

"I've ridden Shimano drivetrains for years so when I heard about Shimano making 12 speed XTR I jumped in and ordered some. Almost a year later the cassette, mech, chain, chainset and disc rotors arrived and I was not disappointed – it's a work of art and the shifting is superb."

Now all he had to do was find some wheels which was trickier than you might think since Shimano changed the spline pattern for the cassette and their own hubs were delayed. Industry Nine came up trumps with their new Hydra hubs for Microspline and Centrelock rotors. The colour is fabulous and the noise from the freehub is sensational with 0.52° engagement! The rims are WTB KOM i25, built up with silver DT Super comp silver spokes and aluminium nipples, topped off with WTB Vigilante 2.5 and Trailboss 2.4 light casing tyres.

The cockpit consists of Cotic 35mm stem, Renthal Fatbar Lite bars, WTB padlock grips. The XTR I-Spec EV shifter and neat MT800 dropper lever have been modified to work with older XTR brake levers. The saddle is a WTB Volt Ti for all day comfort held up with an X Fusion Manic 150mm drop post. Dotted about the frame you'll find green anodised bolts for low load areas and a handful of titanium ones for higher load situations plus a unique green Cotic stem cap.

He chose the Flare because he does a mix of riding. "About half of my riding is on wooded singletrack north of Nottingham and the other half is on the rocks in the Peak plus trips further away and the Flare is perfect for that. It climbs beautifully and cornering balance is superb. I prefer to ride shorter travel bikes as I find them more rewarding to hustle down a trail."

A few weeks ago, Guy Kesteven approached us for a FlareMAX frame to base a really interesting light trail/XC/downcountry/whatever-riding-bikes-is-called-this-week bike. We were really chuffed, because Guy could pretty much have any bike he wanted, but he chose ours off the back of a mornings' riding in the teeming rain at Stainburn last November, and having the demo bike a few days after that.

Over to Guy....

"I’ve got an itch that won’t go away! You and your team should definitely be damn proud of the fact I’ve been scheming to get back on the FlareMAX since my last ride on it. Plus if anything the current situation has made me realise that having a bike you absolutely love riding and that brings proper charisma and character to every pump, pedal stroke and corner exit mini manual you get the chance to squeeze in on the local trails you’ve ridden for years is what mountain biking is really all about. The fact that it’s as unshakeably, insolently fast as fk and loves nothing more than trotting back from a good chase with a freshly hunted carbon frame clamped in it’s grin isn’t a bad thing either though 😜"

Guy got his frame this week, and has done a great unboxing video with a bunch of really interesting points and facts, plus some more chat about how strong the product coming out British bike brands is right now. We would have to agree!

The frame Guy has is a size large in our Red Dwarf paint finish, with the Cane Creek DB Air IL shock. The only slight error in Guy's video is on pricing. With the X Fusion base model shock the frame is £1499. With the Cane Creek shock it is £1749.

We have a pretty good idea of the parts Guy is going to be putting on this frame, and whilst we're not going to spoil the surprise, it's going to be a really interesting build with a slightly different slant to what we would usually consider. Happy hunting Guy!

Last summer, our demo guy Sam took a few days off from the demo tour and headed north for his first bikepacking adventure onboard the Cotic SolarisMAX. As the demo tour is currently grounded, he's put pen to paper to tell us the story. Over to Sam:

Full of breakfast and a bit chilly, we stood on the banks of the river Tweed staring up at a sign reading 'Hexham 120 miles'. A fairly unceremonious start to three solid days of riding through one of the most sparsely populated areas of England. The Sandstone Way winds it's way through rural Northumberland from Berwick Upon Tweed in the very top corner of the country, to the market town of Hexham in the Tyne Valley. Aimed at mountain bikes, and probably achievable on something with curly bars and knobbly tyres if you wanted to suffer, it takes a scenic and indirect route linking as many off road trails as possible. I've never done anything like this before, usually preferring to seek out steep and technical trails to fall down for a couple of hours, the idea of riding all day, on 'easy' trails with bags all over my bike seemed pretty alien. I love riding bikes, but would this be too much?

My partners in crime for this adventure were family, it was my dad who got me into cycling, and my brother has developed quite a passion for riding over the past few years, despite his fair share of bike related mishaps as a child! So this was part trendy bikepacking adventure, part family holiday. Mum didn't fancy it.

The first day saw us rolling out of a grey and damp Berwick under the threat of thunderstorms and heavy showers, over the bridge and down the promenade, before quickly turning to pretty coast path along the tops of cliffs and past deserted beaches with glassy, thigh high waves rolling in. Suddenly, we were battered by a sudden attack of pleasantness, as the sun came out, jackets came off and a tail wind helped us along. Smiles all round, but there was a looming sense that we'd be paying for it later on.

We were soon level with Lindisfarne, which was cut off by the high tide, and we turned inland towards the hills, where the climbing began. The route isn't a technical one, bar a couple of sections, but it certainly is varied. A mixture of quiet lanes, fields, farm tracks and even the odd stretch of singletrack all within the first half of the first day. Northumberland is the least populated county in England, and it quickly became apparent that very few people used most of the paths we were taking. This, coupled with the recent spell of rain and warm weather, made a lot of these trails pretty overgrown. 'Good job it's dry' I thought as long grass brushed our arms and legs for several hundred yards along an old double track path. Not one to tempt fate, I didn't vocalise this thought.

I soon noticed the extra weight on my bike, and it quickly became obvious that climbing would be a slow and steady affair. After a beautiful forest and some striking crags, we took a short diversion off the main route into Belford in search of lunch and caffeine, and found a cozy little sun trap in the garden of a small cafe. Refuelled, we rode more overgrown bridleway and a long, steady climb through lanes and fields, before plummeting down into Wooler for our first night. We'd opted for B+Bs rather than wild camping, it was a holiday after all! Showered, beer-ed and pizza-ed we slept like logs, rest we definitely needed for the next day.

Day 2.

As we rolled into Wooler at the end of our first day we noticed Doddingtons Diary, a local ice cream producer, ran a small cafe on the edge of the town. A perfect breakfast opportunity for what would be probably the biggest day I've ever had on a bike. On the morning of our second day, knowing we had a full day of riding with some big climbs ahead of us, I dove straight into a full English, and an affogato. Yep, ice cream for breakfast. No regrets, it was amazing.

Starting with a fairly gentle tarmac section to wake the legs up, the weather was looking somewhat gloomy ahead. We rolled towards hills shrouded in damp looking clouds, before winching through fields. Rough dirt and energy sapping grass did their best to keep us quiet, and our breakfasts churning. Jackets went on as the rain began to fall, but spirits remained undamped and we rolled towards the Breamish Valley. Over the footbridge, up another climb and we were at the top of one of only a couple of more technical descents on the route. It would have felt easy on my RocketMAX, but on the SolarisMAX loaded with bags and unable to lower the dropper post, it was quite exciting! The bike took it in it's stride though, and we stopped for a brew in Ingram village, as the clouds began to part.

Still a bit early for lunch, the good folk at the Ingram Cafe did us some take-away butties and we cracked on. The climb out of Ingram was a biggie, but the clouds had begun to lift and the views were opening up. Biggest cog engaged, the only thing to do was winch. We were well rewarded though, big Northumbrian views of hills, sheep and not a soul in sight. The descent off this hill was a cracker; loose and rocky, fast in places with enough to keep us on our toes with our loaded up bikes. A section of quiet lanes lead us to Clennell Hall, a country house now operating as a hotel, dating back to the 13th Century. All very picturesque, but it was the teapot shaped sign that distracted us, halting progress for a while. After a huge pot of tea, we continued on down farm tracks and trails through fields.

A nice section of singletrack and a short road spin in the sunshine lead us to a footbridge over the river Coquet and through a hard going section of fields, uneven and full of long grass and tussocks, the pace slowed down and output increased. This was just a warm up though, the steepest climb of the ride was ahead. A fairly short section of trail through a woodland but boy it was steep. Loose dry ground didn't help, it was punchy; but I managed to ride up it, much to my own surprise. One thing I haven't mentioned so far, is the number of gates on the route. Obviously a lot of Northumberland is farmland, so it's not surprising, but there are a lot of them. As there were three of us it wasn't too much of a problem, but if you were riding the Sandstone Way solo I imagine it would quickly get pretty frustrating. The section after this punchy climb did get a little soul destroying. Long, straight double track with a gate every few hundred yards. We were glad to leave the farmland and start climbing on fireroad above Rothbury, even if it was getting pretty hot out of the tree cover.

Skirting around the face of the hill above the market town of Rothbury, it became clear we had a lot of height to loose in a short distance. The only real technical descent awaited, rooty woodland singletrack ducking and weaving down the hill; dodging tree stumps and wishing I didn't have a tail bag on so I could drop my seat post! That being said, the SolarisMAX soaked it all up full loaded. We rolled into town straight to a cafe for much needed caffeine and cake. Inspecting the map over a brew, it was clear we still had some miles to munch, and it was already 5pm. Looking up to Simonside Crags, it was clearer still that they wouldn't all be easy miles.

I used to walk around Simonside a bit when I lived in Newcastle, so I new how steep the road out of Rothbury was going to be. Somehow it seemed even steeper than I remembered, but thankfully levelled out a bit on some nice grassy singletrack, before a steady fireroad climb through gorgeous forest and out onto the open hillside beneath the crags. We finally topped out, with all of the Cheviot hills stetching out as far as we could see in the hazy, early evening sun. Well worth it.

It was getting late though, and we still had a few miles to cover before our second overnight stop in the village of Elsdon. A lengthy forest road section through Harwood Forest, with a mixture of climing and descending, we stopped for an energy bar then managed to carry a good pace, my dad tucking into my slipstream on his 2009 26 inch Orange Five, taking full advantage of the pace my 29er wheels were carrying on the last, long, section to the edge of the woods. A short road stretch took us to the top of the next valley, where we kicked right and dropped sharply into Elsdon. Side by side with my brother at 60kph was a great end to a huge day.

Our bed for the night was the Bird in Bush pub, in the centre of the village. We had the warmest welcome. Despite not usually serving food midweek, as we'd booked ahead and told them we were on a long ride, they had cooked a big vat of vegetable curry for us which was delicious and much needed! Helpfully though, the pub is home to the First & Last Brewery, brewing top class ales in the garage behind the pub. We had look round the compact brewery and sampled all they had before sleeping like logs. Huge thanks to Stephen for his hospitality, I can strongly recommend you stay here if you're planning on riding the Sandstone Way.

Day 3.

We knew from the flat out finish at the end of day 2, that we'd be in for a stinger of a climb to wake us up at the start of our final day. Full of delicious cooked breakfasts from the Bird in Bush pub, we winched out of Elsdon and onward, heading towards Bellingham. More rarely trodden paths through rolling farmland and meadows lead to country lanes and eventually a brew stop in a cozy cafe. It was still a bit early for lunch, so we grabbed more take out butties and kept moving. The climb out of this pretty market town was a stiff one up onto the moors, our legs were definitely feeling the last couple of days by this point, but shortly after we topped out we hit the 100th mile. Big views over the Tyne Valley began to open up and we had the sense that most of the hard work was behind us. A few tricky navigational sections followed, as the path became vague through some fields filled with cows who weren't used to seeing cyclists bimbling through their patch.

A couple of river crossings and undulating track lead us to the picture postcard village of Simonburn, sandwiches on the village green in the sunshine was very civilised. Not too much further from on we crossed the famous Hadrian's Wall and the finish line felt like it was in sight. The weather on the other hand, wasn't quite done with us yet. As we began to drop into the valley the heavens opened, proper summer downpour style. Jackets hastily thrown on, we plugged away along the road getting soaked, before one last climb to the top of the final drop towards Hexham.

A lovely stretch of singletrack along the edge of an old woodland lead into fields, yet more gates and finally along the edge of the River Tyne. We skirted the edge of the gold course and suddenly a large stone with a green sign on it marked the official end of the ride. We'd made it.

Obligatory group selfies taken by the finish line stone, we rolling to Hexham train station where my dad had left the car. We may have been quite damp, but spirits were high. At the start of the ride I had no clue how tired I'd feel, I didn't know if I'd be exhausted and unable to stand or not. Thankfully I wasn't, but the sense of achievement and adventure was great. Each mile is new and different on a point to point ride like this one, something I'd not really experienced before, at least not on this scale. I can thoroughly recommend it. Riding through a rugged and ancient landscape, dipping in and out of civilisation from small hamlets to larger towns gave a real sense of the history of the area.

I hopped on the train into Newcastle, and had enough time for a post ride beer, and just enough energy in the legs to roll round to The Box Social tap room, a cosy railway arch bar run by an old friend from the Newcastle brewing scene. A couple of pale and hoppy pints did not touch the sides. I full intend to do more of this sort of thing when the opportunity presents itself, it was a refreshing change to my usual riding and a very rewarding thing to do.

Big thanks to Richard Baybutt for the loan of his Garmin device. The lack of map stops meant the whole ride went really smooth, I strongly recommend getting some sort of navigation device to load the GPX file onto if you're doing the ride. Still worth getting hold of the map though, there are a few key junctions that are easy to miss. Also, the GPX file isn't 100% accurate, we'd have drowed in the River Tweed fairly quickly if we'd followed it to the letter!

Also, thanks to Chay 'Straightline' Granby for the loan of the bike bags. I probably carried more than I needed but it was great not having anything on my back.

I borrowed the demo small SolarisMAX for this ride, and it was perfect. Super comfortable, smooth and stable when the trail turned technical. Bags off and dropper down, the thing absolutely hauls too. It thinks it's a full suspension bike. I have since bought my own SolarisMAX frame in the gorgeous Hubble Purple colour, which I'll be building up soon for more adventures and local woodland razzing.

My brother did the ride on his BFe, with everything in a rucksack. Proving this bike can do pretty much anything. He has since upgraded to the latest BFe, a size bigger in the classy grey finish.

Completing the set of wheel sizes, my dad did the ride on his 2009 Orange Five. It got round fine, but he has since bought himself a shiny new RocketMAX, and after 6 months of riding it, still can't believe how good it is.

26, 27.5 and 29, they all did the 120 miles and 12,000ft of climbing with zero problems.

I'm open to suggestions for similar routes, so please get in touch if you have any recommendations. Stay safe, this Covid mess will end. Plan some adventures to look forward to and look out for each other. See you at a demo soon.

The much-lauded Water Vole Classic dual slalom race was scheduled for this weekend. Refreshment for this sort of event is super important so a couple of months ago we commissioned local potter Ray Gridley at Baslow Pottery to produce some beakers with our new logo to help keep everyone hydrated.

These beakers are hand thrown, fired, glazed and fired again a couple of miles down the road at Ray's studio in Baslow, behind his 17th Century farmhouse.

Each beaker is unique and holds approx 250ml - perfect for a brew, coffee or cocktail. It's up to you!

Due to the current situation we're not visiting the post office but these can be sent out with frames or bikes. Individual orders may take a little longer as we arrange alternative couriers. £16 each.

Want to catch up on the past editions of our Transmission newsletter? Well here's the archive for you to enjoy during your downtime....

This Easter weekend was due to mark the start of the Dales Divide - a 600km route from coast to coast to coast, across the north of England. Unfortunately due to the current situation it's had to be cancelled so we had Duncan Philpott, photographer extraordinaire, to write up his ride from last years event...

With all the recent developments a fact came to light, they estimate the human race could manage three days without food being available before descending into anarchy. This time last year I spent three days during the Easter bank holiday living off the food crammed in my frame bag and tried to avoid people without the government incentive required.

The Dales Divide is a route devised by Chris Ellison, who upon completing a few long distance classics, decided there should be one closer to home (Yorkshire). A coast to coast to coast, through the Yorkshire Dales and Moors amounting to roughly 600km and 10,000m of vertical.

I’d not done anything under “timed circumstances” as such before, the pressure would be on for this one since I’d be one of many dots slowly making their way around the loop available for fans (the other half and perhaps one or two family members) to watch. Coming off a month of shooting EWS races using an e-bike my own physical preparation was dubious so I set to consult some experts.

Rich Follett at Fit4Physio took care of all things bike and body fit, it helped massively that he had a solid understanding of a huge range of cycling disciplines and some minor tweaks here and there and we had a position suitable for my flexibility and composition at the time.

Tom Duncan (under the careful watchful eye of Doris the cat) took care of the bike giving it the full race prep slotting myself amongst the calibre of athletes he’s cared for such as Steve Peat, Tahnee Seagrave and Martin Maes. No more excuses now…

From Arnside moments before the 8am departure it became apparent that a) most competitors had either slept in their car or a tent and my choice to airbnb it was definitely not conventional, and b) We weren’t entirely sure where we should be starting…. At 7:58 two equally sized groups found each other. A brief glance around and there was one other person riding flat pedals and similarly only one other person wearing baggy shorts. Perhaps I’d taken the wrong approach… There was a quick photo and we were off!

The pace was fierce, I’d no real expectations other than to hopefully get round in time to meet the others in the pub Monday evening as had been casually agreed (apparently this provided ample time). Over the next couple of hours we rode bridleway after bridleway and climbed stunning minor roads, the pack eventually stretched out.

At the 50 mile mark we hit Chris Ellison’s humble abode where he set out a casual checkpoint and the only setup other than publicly available cafes, petrol station shops etc that we were to rely on. By this point in the day the temperature had soared to 25 degrees and I’d drunk the whole 3L bladder in my backpack.

The next few hours flew by, by the next time I’d checked my watch I was settling down for some tea and I showed 130km down and dusted. Slithers of singletrack, dusty tyre tracks and famous landmarks had all come and gone, body was feeling good and the bike was loving the descents which is somewhat what I had geared my setup towards. Trying to stop the bike becoming top heavy I had opted for a small seatpack and fork mounts combined with a backpack. The Solaris behaved as it would unweighted which made the riding experience far more enjoyable than the top heavy floppy conventional setups with large seat and bar bags.

Climbing with the sun setting on my back without another care in the world I could completely understand why some people get into a habit of putting themselves through never ending hours in the saddle. The odometer ticked past 150km, with my previous biggest day on an MTB passing many kilometers ago, in my mind it was time to settle down for the day and crack on early tomorrow. At 9pm, fairly chuffed with what I’d achieved so far I lay out my bivvy bag out of sight of the trail. I heard voices, one of them was familiar, Pete Crawforth, also from Sheffield and a bit of a machine was coming past with Alan Goldsmith, the organiser of the highland trail 550 for company. I’d followed the HT550 keenly for years and this was my first time meeting Alan. “Evening” I announced my presence. “Are you going to bed already?” were my first words from meeting Alan… I pondered what he said as I tucked myself in, air mat already inflated and a rudimentary camp set up for the night.

So I got up early… Or so I thought… Turns out everyone else didn’t stop until 11:30pm at least AND they had started moving about half an hour before me. I’d accrued a deficit that I probably wouldn't make back and although my first day riding pace was fair my sleep dependency put me out of any hypothetical contention. It also became apparent that my choice of stopping point had left me with the crossing of the flat Yorkshire plains into York to be done entirely in one go. Flat path and flat road, the only bit of the route where my mind began to resent things ever so slightly. Others had managed to make good progress into this section last night. Head down I mixed with the Saturday morning road riders and made it to York at peak tourism time, the route is pretty central through the city and there was nothing for it but to get off and walk through the crowds.

Haphazardly applying a bandage and tape to ease it I pedalled on, enjoying blue skies and pristine gravel through the Yorkshire moors. Carlton bank singletrack came and went, steep rowdy and loose riding (a highlight for me) and the passage of time was getting all the more distorted. It was at this point that I stopped for Pizza, I was contemplating pushing through the night, maybe making the finish before Monday or breaking the 3 days mark. All these endurance racers that you follow seem to have a tack for being able to muster herculean final day effort. As I placed my order for two large pizzas I sat down to witness the walls of the room pop and wobble around me. Perhaps it was exhaustion, perhaps it was the heat and lack of hydration or more likely a combination of the three. Whatever it was it made the prospect of pushing a potential 30 hours straight on the pedals seem entirely daft, and unsafe. After this stop began the great leapfrogging for the remainder of the race with Andy Bennett. On a section of road I noticed someone ahead that I was very very gradually catching. Never riding together for more than a short chat or so I hit the hay for the final night at midnight. I’d had to push on a bit further than anticipated given 20kms of riding had been through MOD land / bordering MOD land and that didn’t seem the wisest place to bivvy. A check of the dots in the morning and I could see that Andy had pushed on to nearly 4am.

From here on in an incredible surge of adrenaline spurred me on to the finish line, the body felt amazing head to toe and Andy and I took it in turns to drop the other on a climb and then make a navigational error or pause for another reason. Andy would beat me in to the finish line after a particularly vague trail through a field (which proved a nightmare for those tackling that section at night). 3 days 8 hours on the clock racking up 611km and an insulting 9998m of height climbed (had I noticed at the time I think I may have just gone a little bit further). Pub food and pints passed the time as we waited for Chris, the organiser, to arrive. We shared stories of dry trails with the bikes not even needing a clean after so many hours in the saddle, where we slept each night, avoiding frosts or finding food. It was an incredible few days, made all the better that it was only a few hours up the road!

Two years on this Rocket have flown by! Richard's was one of the first longshot Rockets in the UK, back in February 2018. A (now much-loved) cosmic paint job and black graphics turned many heads, and the addition of some choice components sets this rocket apart.

The paint code was plucked from the catalogue at a boozy christmas party in 2017 and when the frame turned up it was love at first sight. Its first public appearance was the Howard St Dual in Sheffield. Baybutt was promptly dispatched by a certain Ratboy but no blame can be laid on the bike for that exit! Since then he's completed the Megavalanche, the Peak 200 (self supported 230km round the Peak district, off road, in under 24 hours), the Brighton Big Dog, Golfy, Kilburn, Wharny, Rivelin, Wales, Vision line, Morgins, Samoëns, and countless sketchy adventures in between. He logged over 300 rides in 2019 and the majority were aboard the now infamous Crystaäl.

For the bouncy business, he's gone for Cane Creek front and back, and gone up on the weight for the coil to give more support for compressions. He's keen to try a big can air shock on the next build - if he ever stops riding this one! Hunt supplied the Enduro Wide rims, shod with WTB tyres - 2.6 Light, High Grip out front and currently a Judge 2.4 out back. Setting up tubeless is not a task he shies away from so depending on the weather it gets swapped to a Trailboss tough fast 2.6 or a Riddler semi-slick for uber speed! He's also been testing the 12 speed Sunrace 51t cassette since before the microspline confusion was cleared up, linked to a 34t oval ring from Superstar at the front. The Oval just gives your foot a nudge over TDC when you need to get into the power the most. Oval for life now. The pièce de résistance are the eeWing cranks - a treat to himself after winning Pinkbike photo of the year in 2019.

Control wise, the ubiquitous Burgtec pedals (only on their second rebuild in at least 5 hard years) take care of the feet, whilst a pair of very very worn Sensus Swayze grips (somehow) keep his hands on the bars. The third contact point is a Fabric Scoop saddle - comfy straight from the box, it's now pretty polished after hours and hours of bike time.

It's going to take something very special to get him off this bike but the new gen4 Rocket might just be the key... We'll see. "The best mtb I have EVER owned" - Baybutt

You can get yourself pretty close to this build with a gold spec Rocket and a few extras which are available now. EeWing cranks and the comfy cockpit kit will go a huge way to making your next bike feel super special.

Singletrack have just posted up the review they did of the fabulous Cotic Flare.

"It’s fiendishly difficult to find any negatives about the Flare."

"The interplay between the hugely effective Longshot geometry, droplink suspension and the steel front triangle provide an energetic, almost hyperactive character."

We have Flare in stock now in all sizes and colours, with the new-for-2020 135mm travel update using the fabulous Cane Creek DB Air IL shock. That bike on test was also the 2019 Silver build. Right now you get the awesome SLX 12spd.

And if you can't get enough Flare, this also give us another chance to post Guy Kesteven's life affirming "Jason Statham of bikes" quoting live ride review. Enjoy!

Next up in our recurring feature on staff bikes, here is Will's Cotic BFe.

Will Swinden is our head mechanic, king of the spanners and probably the fastest bike rider at Cotic towers. He's also never scared. Ever.

This is Will's BFe, the bike on which he dominates the ThisIsSheffield winter dual slalom mate's races, which run every other Wednesday night between the clock changes, at various secret locations around Sheffield. True grassroots 'jumpers for goalposts' stuff, which mostly feature extremely slippery flat corners on wet grass or loamy forest floor. Watching Will drift his BFe at mach 10 in the dark is something that will never, ever get old. He does crash sometimes though, as you can see from his mudguard.

I asked Will how his bike rides, and his response was conclusive: “Sick. Seems to work at duals.” He also informs me that this bike is an undefeated heavyweight champion, having never lost an overall winter dual series since it was built.

Will got this size large BFe frame as soon as they came out, late summer 2017. The first Cotic model to hit the market with our now signature Longshot geometry. Pretty much all the components came from the Rocket he was riding before this bike, including some nice blue parts like the Burgtec stem and pedals, and the classic Pro 4 hubs from Hope. Will built these wheels himself, WTB Asym i29 rims are tough, and they need to be they way he rides it! They also give the 2.6 inch WTB tyres a great profile, and allow him to run silly low pressures for dual races. Vigilante up front, Trailboss out back.

One of his favourite components on this bike is the 4 pot Deore brakes. They've never been touched since new, and have some serious stopping power. Risk of an OTB is high!

The 160mm X Fusion Metric forks are monsters. Freeride forks on a hardtail is very Will, and keeps the bike where he puts it. It's built for strength and gravity assisted performance this bike.

As you can see, Will doesn't waste time washing his bike. “Lube the chain, wipe off the excess, don't wash it, no problems.” Simple and effective. I asked what he keeps in his Restrap frame bag, but you don't want to know.

Sam.

If you like the sound of Will's dual destroying BFe, get yourself on the new BFe hype! Will's build is broadly a Gold XT build, but you would get the latest 12spd iteration of that drivetrain, and the new and improved BFe with Boost spacing, tweaked and improved geometry and new colours. The closest spec to Will's would be a blue Hope stem with Burgtec carbon bars, some Hope Fortus35 wheels with blue hubs to top them off, and XT 4pot brakes with some Sweep HLR or HELM forks at 160mm. Objectively it's a better bike than Will's, but I wouldn't put money on you beating him at a race with one!

Following the movement restrictions imposed last night by the UK Goverment I wanted to update you on our situation.

Isolation:

We have been on full distance working protocol this week and will continue to do so. Due to the way we are structured, and keeping in accordance with the restrictions, we are all working from home except Mechanic Will, who will work in isolation at our Calver workshop. We will maintain this until further notice from the government.

This being the case, Will is not only building bikes and prepping frame orders, he is also having to do some of Hannah's job in terms of dispatch. Packing the orders and small parts for posting. What this means in practice is that we are still very much operational, and open for (online) business, but it might take a couple more days that usual to get your order to you.

At the moment the couriers are still running, so we are still able to get deliveries of parts and ship out, but they are extremely busy so we are having to fit around them a bit. However, we will now to dispatching everyday rather than doing a big dispatch on a Thursday, so hopefully this will keep things moving.

Related to this, we have put in place a delivery quarantine protocol to protect Will, so if we receive parts stock deliveries for a bike build or frame order, it will be disinfected and left overnight before being opened. We really can't be too careful at this point, and I'm sure waiting an extra day for your bike as a result is a small price to pay. Thanks for understanding.

Spring Party:

I think it's fairly obvious by now that we are cancelling the Spring Party. It's highly unlikely that movement restrictions will be lifted by the end of April. We re-schedule the Water Vole Classic for the Autumn once we have a better idea of what we can and can't do later in the year.

Respect:

Thankfully the Government restrictions on movement allow for one period of exercise outside per day, and cycling is still included. Yes! You have to ride on your own, or only with people you live with. Please, please, PLEASE respect this restriction. Our Brand Ambassdor Wayne from Chamonix MTB tells me that they started out with this level of movement in France 2 weeks ago, and people were still doing 100km rides in groups, so cycling was banned. Spain went straight for the ban. This WILL be taken away from us if we abuse the small freedom we have been granted. But for now, the sun is shining, and we are allowed to ride, so let's do that. Singletrackworld have done a great summary of the current position in the UK. Worth a read.

If you're reading outside the UK, then I hope the restrictions in your country aren't affecting you too badly, and you are safe and well.

In summary, we are still very much up and running, so if your job is secure, support your friendly purveyor of steel loveliness. Maybe get a frame as a build up project, or a new bike to enjoy the empty trails? We are looking forward to hearing from you.

Keep safe and well. Strange days indeed.....

Thanks,

Cy Turner

Founder and Director

Cotic Bikes

From today we are offering a Love It Or Your Money Back guarantee on all our bikes and frames. If you don't love your Cotic within 30 days of purchase, send it back and we will give you a full refund.

Confident

We know from the popularity of our Demo Tour that people are really interested in our bikes, and our approach to design, handling and customer service.

We also know that lots of our demo rides result in people buying a Cotic because they love it once they have tried it.

Well think of this as the ultimate demo ride: You get to ride the exact spec of bike you want, on your trails, for a month. We are so confident that you will love it before the end of that first month that we are willing to give you your money back if you don't. If for whatever reason you don't want to keep the bike, just send the bike or frame back in useable, saleable condition and you get a full refund.

Terms and conditions apply. See the 'Returns' section.

We have some lovely new caps ready for coming sunny days. The caps are 5 panel with webbing strap for adjustment. Available in sand or black, both with a woven "Cotic" logo, stitched on for extra hold. £20 plus postage (or free postage if you add one to your bike or frame order). Get yours ordered!

Things are moving fast with this, and it only took a few hours for Monday's statement to be rendered partially out of date.

Demo Tour:

In addition to all the steps we announced on Monday (if you missed it, you can see the full statement in the post below this one) we have taken the decision to cancel the Demo Tour until further notice, based on the Government advice on Monday evening regarding Social Distancing and limiting Non-Essential travel.

Whilst we all find riding our bikes very important, I think for the moment the business of trying out new ones by driving around the country does count as non-essential, so we're on hold. So, as of Cannock this weekend, and unfortunately including our long planned and very much anticipated Ireland tour, Demo Tour is cancelled until further notice.

What I would like to say is thank you to everyone who overwhelmingly responded to the Monday statement when we thought we were carrying on. Sam should have been in touch by now to let you know. If you have been in touch about demos, we will keep your email on a separate mail list and we will be in touch just as soon as we are back on it.

In the meantime, we have some plans to help you make a decision about buying your new Cotic without the demo tour. Keep an eye out for an announcement on Friday. If you'd like to hear about that first, sign up to the mailing over at cotic.co.uk/contact.

Spring Party:

The only thing we are leaving on the calendar for now is Spring Party - the Water Vole Classic. It's scheduled for 18th April. I'll be honest, we're aren't super optimistic that it will go ahead, but it can be cancelled at fairly short notice so for now let's leave that in as something to look forward to.

Sales and Shipping:

As I mentioned on Monday, we are very much open for (online) business, and even if we all end up self-isolating we can still operate due to the way we're set up.

Couriers within the UK are still shipping without restriction, and most are now putting place alternative measures to signing for items like taking photos. What we do recommend is making sure you wash your hands as soon as you receive for your delivery.

Call 07970 853531 to chat, or email info@cotic.co.uk

I'm sure I'll be in touch again about this as the situation unfolds, but for right now - and always - look after yourself and eachother. Ride a bike. Smile. Keep things in perspective.

Thanks,

Cy Turner

Founder and Director

Cotic Bikes

With the Covid19 situation escalating, I wanted to explain where Cotic is with relation to this.

Demo Tour:

Whilst we consider it safe to do so, we will continue to run demos. They rarely involve more than 10 people, so they aren't a huge gathering, and they are also outdoors which also helps minimise the risks.

What we will be doing is being sensibly cautious. We will no longer be accepting walk ups on the day, even on Open Demos. Booking with us is essential. Email demo@cotic.co.uk. We will no longer be using sign on sheets on the day. When you book on the demo, we will email you with the information we require (emergency contacts and the like) so you effectively sign in online. If you haven't provided this information prior to the demo, you won't be allowed to ride.

Sam and Darren won't be greeting you with handshakes or anything like that, and we won't be sharing tools. We will have hand santiser on the van from Monday 16th March.

For the next couple of weeks, demos happen to be relatively close to us – Cannock and Leeds – which means Darren and Sam can be home each night and don't have to stay in hotels. At the moment these events are still going ahead, but obviously we will adjust as things change. We will be in touch if you are booked on if we need to cancel for any reason.

We would really appreciate your feedback here too. How do you feel about doing demos in the current situation? What would you adjust in terms of numbers of people and how we run things to make you feel comfortable?

HQ at Calver:

From today (16th March 2020) we are no longer doing demos at Calver. We will not be open on Saturdays, we will not offer factory demos and we are suspending the Factory Collection service for new bikes from today. However any bikes booked for collection already will still go ahead.

Finally, regarding your own health, please be fair to Sam and Darren, us and our families and if you are feeling even vaguely off, please don't attend. What we cannot stress enough is that if you feel even remotely off colour, do not attend. If you know of someone in self isolation, do not attend.

Even if it's on the day, just call the demo phone 07398 189114 and let us know. We'll see you again soon, and let's all be safe.

Sales and Shipping:

Currently the only place in the world we can't ship to is Italy. All other services are open and available for all our products as of today. That is likely to change rapidly, but we will adjust to the situation as we go. Couriers within the UK are still shipping without restriction. What we do recommend is making sure you wash your hands as soon as you sign for your delivery.

As you might imagine from a working bicycle assembly workshop, we have extensive handwashing facilities already which are used regularly. Covid19 also only lasts a maximum of 12 hours outside a host, so even if there was by some small chance as infection at our end, it would be gone by the time your product reaches you. What we do suggest is washing your hands immediately after you have finished handling the cardboard packaging that your Cotic arrives in.

As for the company itself, we're small enough that not only is communication easy, but we all want to look after and do our best for eachother. As I mentioned above, we already have extensive handwashing facilities anyway, but I have made sure that everyone knows that if they are even remotely concerned about how they feel, they stay at home. Most of us remote work from time to time anyway, so we are well set up to handle home working for multiple members of staff, and it shouldn't interrupt our service to you. Let's talk bikes and keep the stoke high where we can. Call 07970 853531 to chat new bikes, or email info@cotic.co.uk.

Look After Eachother:

Most importantly, in the immortal words of Bill and Ted, “Be Excellent To Eachother”. Keep hands clean, don't handshake, appreciate others' points of view. I have been elbow bumping friends in greeting on occasion, and Rich is rather taken with the Namaste bow.

Best of all, ride your bike. We couldn't be into a better sport than cycling if we need to stay healthy and keep away from the crowds, or your other fitness activities like gyms are cancelled. If you do end up in self-isolation, we can still get you a frame to build up, and you can then go and ride it in the hills to keep fit and strong and keep your head in a good place.

Thanks,

Cy Turner

Founder and Director

Cotic Bikes

A few months ago Cotic owner, head of University of Sheffield Cycling Club and all round nice person Emma Morris got in touch asking what I thought to the idea of creating a cycling event for local women and local cycling groups on International Women's Day. I loved the idea and we got the ball rolling straight away with how the event could come together in a limited amount of time. We decided on Norfolk Arms as the perfect location, it's on the edge of Sheffield/Peak District and has easy access to a network of different trails for the mountain bikers, and great scenic road rides for the roadies. A plan started to come together.

We hired a marquee at the pub (which serves good food and drink!), got local bike-wear brand Polaris involved, Vertabrate Publishing books came and brought a pile of books, from guide books to inspirational women's adventure books, Komoot did an exclusive maps offer and sent some goodies for everyone to enjoy. Cafe Adventure organised a brilliant charity raffle to raise money for RideForCharlie, the prize donations were so generous. We had a great event, we just needed the weather and the riders! We expected around 40 women, and hoped for more, but didn't know what to expect with it being the first event of its kind. Before we knew it we looked round and had nearly 80 eager women ready to ride!

The riders were split into groups, MTB long ride, MTB short ride, Gravel ride, Road ride. Some riders took out a Cotic demo bike, it was a great opportunity to try something new! The atmosphere was buzzing, everyone came back smiling and chatting. The raffle raised an impressive £176.05! What an amazing turn out and event, same again next year, Emma!?

On April 18th Cy & Paul will be in California at the Sea Otter Classic. A bit like when your parents go away for a weekend, what do you do; Throw a party of course! This year we're going all out...

There's a field on a hill literally across the road from the warehouse and a chance meeting with the farmer has revealed that the sheep aren't there on the weekend of April 18th. So we've hired it and will run the best Dual Slalom race Calver has ever seen. There's a DJ booked, we'll get some slabs of beer from Abbeydale and show you the simple joys of sliding sideways on a flat turn, next to your pal, against the clock!

Before the Dual kicks off at 4pm we've got demo bikes going out and an owners ride for Cotic CC folks at 1:30pm. There'll be hot drinks, fish & chips, stickers galore and obviously the best bikes ever to drool over. The spring party is a highlight of the calendar and we can't wait for this one. Dual racing will sign up on the day. To book on a demo or the owners ride you need to contact demo@cotic.co.uk See you round ours soon!

New short sleeved riding shirts just arrived. Light & silky feel, casual style, tech fabric. Printed by the Banana Boys. Fit is a little slimmer on these so if you're in between sizes, size up. £20 Click HERE to shop.

Our good friends Banana Industries have done us a solid and helped produce some great new clothing that will last you a really long time. Organic cotton, recycled plastic bottles, ethically sourced and with minimal transport. These are the best quality t's we've stocked and are about as green as you can get.

T's are £22, Jumpers are £40. UK postage for merch orders is £3 (free postage if it's going out with a bike or frame). Click HERE to shop.

Alongside that we've cut the prices on the last few pieces of merch we had left. if you're a small or an XL then check out the deals as there's only limited sizes.

Lastly we're selling these woven logos separately so if you want one to stitch to your panniers, cap or rucksack then head to the order page.

We are now offering the 90mm Hope XC stem on our Escapade builds as an option. Along with being light and stiff and made in the UK, they are also available in all the usual Hope colours, for that finishing touch.

To continue our recurring feature on staff bikes, here's Hannah's Cotic Flare.

If you've read previous news stories about my introduction to mountain biking you'll know that around 4 months after I started here at Cotic I took part in the Ard Rock Enduro after winning the Maxxis competition (hence my lovely High Roller II Double Down Maxxis tyres!). I was definitely fully thrown in the deep end.

For a while I had Paul's old prototype green Flare. When the Flare production was being moved to Five Land in Scotland the opportunity came up to have my own shiny new Flare, and I just loved the RocketMAX teal and had to have that! It's not a Flare colour, so this Flare really is a one-off. It's also pretty special because we tested out gold decals on it to see how they would work and last.

The Cane Creek Air IL is my shock of choice, I previously had the X Fusion O2 RCX fitted and found it just didn't suit me. Being a lighter rider I found the Cane Creek's adjustability and great dampener worked much better at keeping me planted on the ground. Another one to mention are the Hunt wheels, they're nice a light and roll brilliantly. Big thumbs up from me.

One thing I really like are my super comfy WTB PadLoc grips. The bars cut diagonally and the space is filled with soft rubber at the ends.

Here I am at on the Women of Steel ride at Gisburn before the HopeTech Women's Enduro 2019. A great event and well worth going, either to to cheer on the riders or to take part.

Three years ago I did a bunch of testing with a bunch of different bar widths and heights, learnt a lot and sent out an email to hopefully help you figure out what might be good for you and your Cotic. This came up again recently on a Singletrackworld forum thread trying to help a guy get comfortable on his new SolarisMAX, so I reposted my essay for him to read. Given how long it's been since I sent it, and given that it's even more relevant now to our Longshot geometry, I thought I'd give you a chance to read it or revisit it, along with a few updates and thoughts I have picked up along the way.

A lot of what I wrote there holds well for the current bikes, because what I couldn't say when I wrote that blog was that all the testing I did apart from the older 60mm stem setups was done on my first prototype Longshot geometry 29er frame, which with some more development became the FlareMAX Gen2, our first droplink Longshot bike.

Moving onto our current bikes I run an XL RocketMAX with a 35mm stem, 5mm spacer under the stem, Cotic Calver bars (25mm rise) still with my 775mm width over the grips I established during this testing. This is a key point: The bars themselves are actually cut to around 765 to achieve 775mm over the end of the grips with my WTB Padloc grips. Your actual bar width is the usuable width of your bars. If you have open ended lock on grips, it's probably 20mm narrower than the actual width. It's worth considering.

Sweet Spot?

One cool thing I picked up from that Singletrackworld thread is a Pinkbike article about the so called 'sweet spot' for handlebars. It's based on physiology measurements and it's really interesting. Have a read.

The base assumption is that your handlebar width is as follows:

If you’re male, multiply your height in millimeters by 0.440

If you’re female, multiply your height in millimeters by 0.426

For me at 189cm tall, that give me 1890 * 0.44 = 832mm. That is seriously wide! If you have read my original blog at the link above, it's also likely to be the reason why I wasn't uncomfortable when I ended up with uncut 800mm bars giving me an actual width across grips of 815mm. However, that isn't what I settled on as my preferred bar width. If you read that Pinkbike piece further it suggests most people will be comfortable between the 'Sweet Spot' width and 5% less, which for me would give me 790mm. Given I actually prefer running 775mm, this is rubbish right? Well, no! It's a great rule of thumb to give you an idea of where you should be aiming, and as the article quite rightly says, there are a bunch of other considerations, not least of which is,

"If you ride in trees , make sure your bars fit. Duh."

Well, quite! The top point it makes is,

"There are lots of advantages to making your bars narrower: more range of motion, more pulling strength and better shoulder health, to name a few."

Refering back to my original testing, more range of motion and more pulling strength definitely chime with me for why I ended up on relatively narrow bars for my height. Having narrower bars means that when you have a lot of angle on the bike you aren't reaching as far, your arms stay bent at the elbows so you remain mobile on the bike. This is another function of Longshot geometry and longer bikes in general - you ride them with a lot more angle to get them through corners effectively.

Higher Baby!

And all this is before we get talking about the height of the bars. To quote from my previous email:

"I've noticed my ability to run my bars higher as my bike has got longer. With a longer bike you stand up in the middle of the bike, without your weight being pushed back as your limbs extend. I have now realised that low bars counter the shorter bike by pulling you down and forward again so you can weight the front wheel. However, on the XL RocketMAX I can easily weight the front wheel [due to the length and the 35mm stem] so I don't need to compensate with lower bars."

I think it's particular 'thing' for people who have been riding quite a while - long enough that they learnt their skills when bike geometry was rubbish! - that low bars are seen as a good thing for certain applications like all day easy going rides, or more XC type riding, but this just isn't the case. We don't need aero on a mountain bike, and I'm sure those old low positions where all about compensating for poor bike geometry. If you have your bars higher, but can still weight the front wheel easily then it's a win all round. With higher bars you can almost certainly put out more power more easily, and with less likelihood of injury to your back or shoulders too. The ability to deliver a lot of force through very flexed hips is not a common one. Chris Boardman made the Lotus bike work as much as anything because he's something of a genetic freak who can put out huge power from that incredibly low aero position. It's almost guaranteed you are not so blessed, so get your bars up and see how it helps!

If you're looking at our bikes, we always supply at least 20mm of spacers to allow some stem adjustment, but if you'd like more, just add a note to the order. We can do up to 40mm and because we assemble every bike to order here in the UK, we can get it just right for you. If you want to go higher using bar rise instead of spacers, we have all the Renthal bar options up to 40mm rise. As I have probably said before, we build your bike for you.

This blog was first published via our mailing list. If you want to hear about all things Cotic before anyone else, then make sure you're signed up.

Since we got properly into offering complete bikes, we have worked in partnership with WTB to supply the tyres on our bikes. We loved the original Vigilante, and when they introduced the current G2 series tyres in late 2018 they made some fantastic tyres for your Cotic bike. Larger casings, great feeling constructions with the brilliant Slashguard option if you don't need the full Tough, but Light won't be quite enough.

Rolling on from our positive experience with the originals, the G2 Vigilante in 2.5" Light Slashguard High Grip became the front tyre of choice for all our MAX drop link bikes, with the monster 2.6" Vigilante on the 27.5" drop link bikes and on the hardtails.

Judge-ment Day

Whilst we pick a default which we think is most appropriate for each build, there are a few options on the WTB tyres. The Judge 2.4 Tough is our default rear option for the RocketMAX and Rocket, and it is SERIOUSLY grippy. Brilliant for the sloppy conditions at this time of year in the UK and elsewhere there isn't snow on the ground. The Tough casing combined with relatively small volume (huge side knobs make up the width) mean you can run low pressures without worry and they have great feel. I run mine at 22spi on a HUNT TrailWide. However, it's a chunky beast and can feel a little slow on harder packed terrain, and the smaller volume means its a bit more chattery through the pedals on fast, rocky terrain. This is where the Trail Boss comes in....

Boss-ing It

Don't be fooled by it carrying the same name as the original 2.25" Trail Boss. That was quite 'exciting' in anything other than smooth dry conditions. As you can see from the photos (and if you've done a demo, probably experience the grip too), the new version of this tyre spaces out the knobbles, makes them much bigger and then adds a bunch of volume too. The 2.4" Tough is your go to option if you need protection from cuts (such as slate) or you just like hitting things hard on your MAX bike. If you're looking at a 27.5" drop link bike or any of the hardtails, there is space for the huge 2.6" version. This has big - almost Plus sized - volume and floats over bumps at very low pressures. With Cushcore installed, Chay and Swinny were running these at around 18 psi when they race EWS Finale in 2018 aboard their Rockets. Regardless of size, both roll faster than the Judge due to the lower profile tread. They're not quite as good in full slop, but they are a great all round option.

Finally, there is the Trail Boss Light Slashguard. Again, don't be fooled by it carrying the 'Light' designation, it's all about the Slashguard. Whilst not as bombproof as the Tough, these tyres have reinforcement up the sidewall to keep them protected and stiff, giving fantastic feel, grip and support.

They save 300 grams over a Judge Tough, and they are my tyre of choice for the spring/summer months. I don't really ride anywhere where cuts are an issue, and despite the fast, rocky terrain I like locally, the Light Slashguard Trail Boss has done fine work on the rear end of my RocketMAX for the last two summers. I even ended up running one in Finale (not intentionally, I got my tyres mixed up!) and it was fine for 3 solid days of hitting those trails. Granted, I'm not the toughest person on tyres, but don't discount these out of hand just because you've always needed something tougher before. I used to have to run Tough 2.3 Breakout on the rear, but the extra volume combined with Slashguard means I can save a chunk of weight for a livelier ride in the summer months. This is the default option on the FlareMAX and Flare for exactly these reasons.

Handing Down The Verdict

There's a new guy in town for the front end though. From this week we are replacing the 2.5 Vigilante with the Verdict 2.5 Slashguard High Grip.

I have been running this tyre for nearly a year now after Swinny tested one, loved it and raced it throughout the 2019 EWS Continental season. Sam has one on his RocketMAX too and we are all massive fans. It rolls well for such a big tyre, but it has grip to spare and such a positive feel. It just edges the Vigilante for me; the feel of it as I go into corners just suits my style a bit better, and the range of conditions it works in is very broad. Goodness knows what the 'Wet' version with even bigger knobs is like. This one is savage enough! Everything from full slop, to trail centre to baked hard Italian mountain trails, it's been great, and I'm excited to be offering these to you on our bikes.

In the big volume 2.6 sizes we are sticking with the Vigilante. As I said above, it's a brilliant tyre, and in that size it has all the grip you could possibly want, but for the 2.5 the Verdict is the way we're going.

Remember, all of these are no cost options once you have WTB tyres specified on your Cotic bike. We assemble right here in the UK, each bike to order. Your Bike, Built For You. If you're not sure which might be best, trust us, go with the default option. All these tyres are great! But if some of the above has chimed with you for your riding, hopefully you can switch up the tyres to something perfect for your riding and your local conditions. That's our aim.

Cy was recently asked for an interview with gravelbikes.cc to talk about all things gravel, steel and Cotic. In their words....

Gravelbikes.cc - After interviews with titanium and carbon bike makers, it is time to talk more about steel bikes. I own a steel bike and love the comfort and springy feel of it but can steel be still relevant in the era of highly modified carbon frames and titanium that also changes for the better? To find out I talked to the founder of Cotic Bikes.

Read the full feature over on gravelbikes.cc

The iconic Steel City Downhill is back for it's 10th Birthday on June 13th 2020. It's our favourite event of the year, and we have been involved from the very start. Cotic have been at every single one. We can't wait!

Here are just a few highlights of one of our favourite days of the year.

Last weekend we hosted the 4th annual Beat the Winter Blues ride for our owners club, Cotic CC. For the first time, it didn't snow! Glorious blue skies and a brisk temperature were the order of the day, and around 30 of us took to some classic Dark Peak trails.

Boss man Cy lead the way up a muddy first climb onto Win Hill, before pedalling into a meaty headwind on the way to the top of The Beast, a legendary Peaks descent.

All in one piece, we climbed again and flew down The Screaming Mile, where Darren foolishly sat right next to a stream crossing with his camera! He got wet, but this photo was worth it.

The stoke carried us back up the hill for a run down Hagg Farm, with Sam and Cy holding the gates meaning everyone got a flying run down, a rare treat.

Pints in the pub was a perfect end to a great day in the hills with a top bunch of riders.

Big thanks to everyone who came along, it was a brilliant day out with a top bunch of riders on a variety of different Cotics. Keep an eye out for the next Cotic CC event, they always book up fast. We are open to suggestions for CC events too, so get in touch if you have any ideas. Remember, if you own a Cotic, you're in the club.

The fourth Cotic Beat the Winter Blues ride, and the only one without any snow! For January the Women of Steel joined in on the Cotic CC ride and set out on a Peak District ride. W certainly picked the right day for it, we were so lucky with glorious sunshine; vitamin D levels were topped up and we were all smiling for it. More write up from the Cotic CC to come, Women of Steel keep your eye out for the next couple of events to be announced soon!

To start off our recurring feature on staff bikes, here's Sam's RocketMAX he uses for the demo tour. Find out why he chose this bike and what changes he's made to make it his own...

Despite being our longest travel and most capable descender, I ride a RocketMAX for everything; from demos at trail centres to downhill tracks, night rides from the house and big days in the Lakes. My RocketMAX is the best fitting and most capable bike I've ever ridden. For those occasional demos where I'm following a local down a steep, technical trail I've never ridden before, I can completely trust the bike to look after me. That being said, I can still pop and skip my round a trail centre, or charge down rocky Peak District gnar all on the same bike.

When the longshot RocketMAX came out, my first go on one was in the infamous Tweed Valley. On an exclusive demo day with a local club, we were riding Cresta Run, a classic downhill track at Innerleithen. I remember thinking to myself, mid corner, how I hadn't ridden those trails for several years and the last time I did, I was on a 10 inch travel DH bike on an uplift day. The RocketMAX was guiding me down the hill with tonnes more confidence and control, and I'd pedalled it to the top, and it wasn't even my bike!

I had to have one, and this is it, Violet. Metal-on-metal with a generous helping of purple parts, size small. Cane Creek takes care of the bits that go up and down, I spend a lot of time setting people's suspension up and making tweaks to improve their demo rides, so I've become quite picky with my own set up, and learnt a lot. I love the amount of adjustment the Helm fork has, and the grip from the rear shock is brilliant without sacrificing pop and playfulness.

My favourite part on the whole bike has to be my uber bling Rust Titanium handlebars. The perfect shape, not too much backsweep, and a dreamy compliant feel. I'm ultra fussy with bar set up, my brake levers have to be just so, and anything not in the right place throws my head! The silver Hope stem and matching Burgtec spacers complete the look. Diva and proud.

I'm a big fan of the Shimano Zee brakes. All the crisp lever feel of twin-pot Shimano brakes, but with just that bit extra modulation which lets you trail-brake on steep, loose surfaces without locking the wheel. For the small weight penalty I'd much rather have brakes that feel great, and have monster stopping power when you need it.

Burgtec take care of pedal duties, as you can see they've seen some miles, but are still on their first set of bearings and are faultless. I wouldn't run anything else. They look great on the black Hope crank with purple chainring too. I've recently switched to a 170mm crank from a 175mm, and it seems to suit me really well.

Super fast engagement on the Hunt hubs is the dream, once you've had hubs that kick in this fast, you can't go back. The TrailWide wheelset keeps some weight off the bike where it matters most, and give the WTB tyres a great shape. I've just fitted a Verdict 2.5 for winter duties, and I'm super impressed. The Judge 2.4 out back rolls better than a tyre that chunky has a right too.

It's taken years to find the right saddle, but I've got there with the Fabric Scoop. Just as comfy on the last demo lap on a Sunday as it is on the Friday afternoon, and looks sleek with the stealth graphics. Ti rails for added bling too, it sits on top of a OneUP 150mm dropper post. This being so short overall means despite me running a small frame I can still get the saddle right out of the way for those critical steep moments.

Reckon it needs more purple bits? Ti bolts might be an idea...

Super happy to be named No6 in the Top 10 Gravel and Adventure bikes of the year by road.cc and off.road.cc.

"The Cotic Escapade is a brilliant bike. I haven't had so much fun in ages off the beaten track, and that all comes down to the way it handles and how it feels underneath you.

For a 10kg bike it is so agile and it's fast. The geometry gives it a racy ride......, yet it also works on the road too. It's a little more expensive than some near-rivals, but I'd say it's worth the extra."

The Escapade is a real Swiss Army Knife of a bike, from tough disc road on fast 700c's, to gravel bomber with 650b Plus WTB tyres, via bike-packing on the way. Thanks so much!

Hannah writes: In November 2018 I met Nat, she came into Cotic's office wanting to look at a SolarisMAX and told me all about her plans to ride the Tour Divide. Her attitude was contagious and I had no doubt that she'd complete it, even though she had little bike knowledge! I followed her progress on her tracker and was so pleased to see that she'd finished - and enjoyed - the experience. She's written about her journey below, have a read, get inspired and set yourself a challenge for 2020...

Nat writes: The Tour Divide, for those that don’t know, is a 2745 mile off road ultra-endurance mountain bike race. It goes from Banff in Canada, all the way down through America to the Mexican border. It’s 200,000 feet of climbing which is the equivalent of climbing seven Everest’s from sea level. It’s self-supported. There are many challenges and dangers, the wildlife; bears, mountain lions, rattle snakes and tarantulas. Extreme weather conditions, desert riding, hike a bike sections, wild camping, the tiredness of riding consecutive days and travelling solo in new countries.

What can I say? I like a challenge and as soon as I read about the Tour Divide, I knew I had to do it. I didn’t own or ride a bike when I made this decision in November 2018! I just had a strong feeling this would give me the opportunity to improve my Rheumatoid Arthritis whilst facing more fears and becoming braver. My training began and seven months later, this June, I headed out into the wilderness with around 160 other racers.

What an epic journey it was! The winner, Chris, finished in 15 days. It took me 42 days, 1 hour and 38 minutes, averaging 65 miles a day. I was last! But then in context, less than 50 percent of those that started the race completed it. I reckon the bears helped me out a bit!

This was a huge adventure, physically and mentally. How did I complete it? I decided from the start that the important part was to finish. I knew there would be many challenges along the way, some I could try to prepare for, and some I couldn’t - like doing a puncture repair on my backup water bladder the night before I went into the great basin dessert and having 96 miles to ride before the next resupply. To add to the challenge, when leaving in the dark I went the wrong way and added another 10 miles to my ride that day!!

The enormity of the challenge sparked and inspired me. I am so thankful to have the mental and physical well-being to be able to take on this wonderful challenge. I find joy in the most challenging circumstances. I am just so grateful to have this new lease of life after successfully managing my Rheumatoid Arthritis through lifestyle. To be able to ride over a mountain, in a thunderstorm, with noise so loud it rattles your bones, the lightening so close you find a fellow rider hiding under a fallen tree, as they were so scared of getting struck. One day, I was wet through as it had rained for hours and I knew I had to keep riding otherwise my body temperature would drop too low. On arriving at Platoro mountain village, in the dark, desperate for a warm shower and bed, the place was closed up! Thankfully a kind individual got myself and the fellow rider I’d bumped into that day, beds for the night. Had he not then it would have been a cold night in tents, but then that would have just been another equally awesome memory.

I loved it all, the highs, the lows, the nature; especially the precious little hummingbirds and bears. The lovely locals, the riders I met and the inner peace I found along the way. When I finished last, it felt like the biggest win, on a personal achievement level but also as a collective: the Tour Divide community had supported and encouraged me via the Facebook group, throughout my journey, following me on my tracker right over that finish line. That final day, after 42 days of consecutive riding, I realised something that has really stuck with me: we can't all be the best, but we can have the best time, and try our best.

Firefly was my teammate throughout. She was built around the Cotic SolarisMAX. I didn’t know much about frames, Jamie from ‘Cycle Inn’ of Beeston recommended Cotic and I headed up to Hope Valley. Such a lovely bunch and good vibes meant I left very happy. Her vibrant red colour influenced her name and I fell in love with her and riding. I’m no hard-core rider, I was just someone who was sparked by the Tour Divide. I believed beyond doubt I was ‘meant’ to ride and complete the race, I decided I could, and I would. The only reason I gave myself for not finishing was being on the way to hospital in an ambulance.

Before heading out to Canada my training was partly around learning to ride off road and becoming fitter. More so it was about over coming fears, learning to ride solo, in the dark, in strange places, camping on my own, then gaining the experience and confidence in myself to care for Firefly. There was lot of preparation involved, the bike and equipment took some sussing out, so many options and opinions. As a complete novice coming into this new world it was all very daunting. My advice on this would be to use the Facebook groups to research, reach out to people for advice, then step back, write a list and make your decisions. Once it’s all together head out for a mini adventure, this way you figure out what works or needs tweaking.

What would I say to anyone who’s going to ride the Tour Divide? Firstly, enjoy the whole journey, from the moment you decide to ride until the finish line and then back into life after. This ride is life changing. Secondly, go with a positive mentality, make the most of it all, the good, the mud, the pain, the heat, the tears, the laughs and the scary bits. My most challenging times became my strongest memories and had the most profound lasting positive impacts. Finally, approach with flexibility. The Tour Divide is quite a beautiful beast and has no interest in your plans. It likes to throw the unexpected at you, some of the front runners this year were caught up and held back by a severe snowstorm. Flexibility enables an acceptance of going with the flow, facing challenges as they arise and adjusting to accommodate the unexpected.

The best advice I gave myself and share with others is to be completely present in the experience, every moment. It is such an intense experience, even months after finishing I can close my eyes and be right back there, it’s such an energising feeling. Then each day do your best and celebrate all your successes, it’s your personal journey and the Tour Divide will send you away with many gifts. It truly is a life changing experience.

Know that you can never be prepared for every eventuality, but you can have the confidence in yourself to resolve the challenges as they arise on route. I learnt so much from the ride, but especially to pack light, then pack lighter and then make sure it’s even lighter, I got this about right on the last few days!

This journey, as with life, was about embracing and enjoying it, being grateful for good enough health and to be there, taking part. To have the opportunity and means to be able to take on the challenge. Then to acknowledge that each day is a gift and an opportunity for joy, to smile and spread some happiness.