Today we launch the Cascade Gen2, an update on our genre-defying drop bar adventure bike we pioneered in January 2022.

Cascade is our drop bar adventurer. Mountain bike DNA crossed with drop bar versatility give it so many potential uses and luggage options.

Reynolds 853 brings fantastic durability along with legendary Cotic ride feel, and because it's a Cotic you know the handling will be superb.

I have found mine to be a fantastic foil for my droplink mountain bike. The rigid fork and drop bars reset my expectations in terms of what type of terrain I can have a go at when I ride it, but it's made trails that feel overly tame on my mountain bike feel really fun again. Whilst it's got the chops to cross continents, it's an amazing ride-from-the-door bike because it makes your local trails really fun. And I do mean fun, not "I might die if I don't hold on tight" that you can get when riding offroad on more conventional gravel bikes. Cascade has great offroad handling and ability, so you can really enjoy those snippets of singletrack and gaps between the fences. Choose some fast rolling tyres and it's entirely civilised riding along back roads as well. I'm a big fan.

On the flipside of that, we have customers coming from a more road background who simply cannot believe what they can get away with offroad on a Cascade. It has the Cotic mountain bike DNA shot through it, and we often joke that despite its versatility, the Cascade is a better mountain bike than our first mountain bikes. If you are more drop bar than MTB, the Cascade will make you feel like a superhero when you hit the trails!

Whilst it's focused on being a drop bar bike, it's a similar shape to an old school mountain bike, so flat bar builds work too if you are more comfortable with MTB style bars. It's a super configurable frameset design, with Cotic's Your Bike Built For You service, there's almost nothing we can't do for you on a Cascade.

Cascade Gen2

This one has slipped under the radar a bit as we are already delivering the first bikes to customers, and we needed to give priority to them.

However, now we are in full production with it and build slots are open here's the lowdown on the updates:

EU Manufactured Frame - Made in Portugal

The Gen2 frames are now made in small batches with our new friends in Portugal on a rolling monthly basis. Unlike with our other frame builders where we get a few months or years' worth of stock in one go, this approach allows us to be a little more flexible and should hopefully mean more sizes and colours available more of the time. This is why you will see different delivery dates for different sizes and colours.

Size Specific Tube Specifications

The front triangle still feature superb Reynolds 853, but now in size specific diameters to maintain ride feel across the range. All the Cotic refinements like the Ovalform top tube and precision designed gussets for maximum longevity are all present and correct.

A La Carte custom paint now an option

As a result of our frames now being made in the EU, we have the option to bring them in with the ED Coat corrosion dip protection ready for custom colours. Make your Cascade even more yours with A La Carte.

Updated Sizing

The Cascade Gen2 has updated sizing, with rider tuned reach changes on sizes small, medium, large and XL based on feedback from Cotic owners and our own experiences of the bike over time.

Sizing changes are subtle. A few millimetres shorter on all sizes except extra small, increasing comfort and bringing the height range of each size more in line with our other bikes.

Rest assured if you have already ordered or had your bike delivered, we took all this into account when recommending the sizing, even if you did a demo on a Gen 1 bike.

44mm Head Tube

The move to 44mm straight head tube retains the generous stack height of the Gen1, but with more flexibility on headset options and bag strapping.

The 44mm head tube uses a Zero Stack (ZS) cup which is 5mm tall. The difference in head tube lengths and stack heights on the geo chart compared to the Gen1 are simply to account for this component change, so the lovely, heads up position the rider experiences on a Cascade is directly maintained from Gen 1 to Gen 2.

Improved Cable/Hose Management

Control lines now routed under the down tube, adopting the design from the Escapade. This make multiple bottle or luggage cage installation on the down tube much easier, and bags are less likely to snag

UDH and Transmission Compatibility

Custom Cotic designed dropout bring SRAM UDH for easy mech hanger availability worldwide, as well as SRAM Full Mount transmission compatibility.

Overall

Broadly we have kept everything brilliant about the original, including the smooth riding steel Alpaca fork, and made usability improvements that will benefit everyone from the rider doing local laps of the woods to the explorer crossing a continent.

Stock colours are Army Green Matte and Damson Matte. I think I'm leaning towards Damson being my favourite, but they're both lovely, and the finish is super tough powdercoat.