For over 10 years now, we have given money and support to trail adovcacy. It's a hugely important thing for us. We give back to the community that builds us as a business. And as riders we get more acceptance, more help, more trails. It's a win-win.
The two major benfactors of our donations over the years are Ride Sheffield and Tweed Valley Trail Association and it's hardly surprising that both feature heavily as success stories in the ongoing development of mountain biking in a new film Trails on Trial.
This has been produced by Manon Carpenter and Tommy Wilkinson and explores the relationship between rider built trails, landowners, and how this can be understood to improve the number of trails we all have to ride. It's also a call to arms for all of you to get involved. If there isn't a local trail association where you live, try starting one. Even if it's just becoming the point of contact for mountain bikers for the local landowner. After all this time we're still quite a diffuse group. We're not 'joiners' and we don't feel the governing bodies speak for us, and landowners often do want to engage mountain bikers, but don't know how.
Have a watch of the film, and then have a listen to podcast. Manon and Tommy are on Downtime this week, which has much more detail of what's happening, but also how you can help. It's such an important subject. Please have a watch and a listen.
And as I mentioned, we do put our money and effort where our mouth is. We donate 0.5% of our turnover each year to trail funds, and we have just given Tweed Valley Trails Association another £1000 specifically to help them clear up after Storm Arwen. We have also been helping maintain the Lady Cannings trail and Richard is a big player at Bolehills BMX track, both right here in Sheffield.
You can donate to most of these trail associations directly, so think about how much access to these trails is worth to you. And if possible, get involved and get digging to maintain the trails. Through Ride Sheffield, one of the massive tools we have is to lever more access and acceptance in the outdoor community is our willingness to dig. Volunteer days keeping bridleways clear, digging drains, and generally being a force for good on the trails gives us huge political capital with land managers. This is mainly because pretty much no other user group does this. We start being seen as part of the solution, not part of the problem.
So, watch and enjoy the film. Listen to the podcast and then figure out how you can help make mountain biking better for all of us.
Coming February 2022 (reserve yours now) we have new SolarisMAX hardtails arriving with a few small tweeks. There are four colour options... we have the popular Supernova Orange and Midnight Blue, but also two new colours... a revised and returning Hubble Purple, but also the entirely new Froggat Green.
Who's still standing in the Whamageddon...? A few of us have lost already.
We've some good news to make you feel a winner again though, the good people at Restrap have made and delivered fresh stock of frame bags.
Handmade in Yorkshire, all three versions of our frame bag collaboration are now well stocked, and ready to be sent out. All are custom made to fit our bikes, and make perfect gifts for someone who rides a Cotic.
There are two different versions which fit underneath the top tube, size specific for different frame sizes. These are great for quick access on the fly, meaning the Jelly Babies are never far away. There is also a design which runs below the shock on our droplink frames, so you can keep the weight low in the bike and still run a water bottle.
If you are in any doubt which version to order, don't hesitate to drop us an email, and we'll give you a helping hand. Oh, if you add a note to your order, we'll be sure to use anonymous packaging and tape, so as not to spoil any surprises.
I hope you have managed to avoid being 'Whammed' yet. We have some more gift ideas over on our merch page. Cotic riding and casual attire for those that love our bikes.
Pretty much all of us here at Cotic live in our Cosy Sweaters for half the year. They're soft, warm, understated and hard wearing. Perfect for throwing on for that post ride pub or cafe stop.
Like the jumpers above, our tech tees come from our Sheffield based mates Banana Industries. Responsibly sourced and brought to life by a great local company of riders.
These tech tees are lightweight, wicking and great for riding in. They are cool in summer as a single layer, and work really well as a base layer in the colder months. Simple Cotic branding using a 'no feel' print, they pair technical features with a casual style.
We've also got some great casual tees in stock in small and medium, including the awesome Le.Blue x Cotic Jeht tee.
Stocking fillers galore, take the stress out of Christmas shopping and head over to our merch page to order. Shipping on merch is just £3 in the UK.
Trees are going up, everything is getting mulled and you're trying not to get 'Whammed'.
It's that time of year again already, but fear not, you can stop scratching your head trying to figure out what to get for the Cotic Rider in your life this Christmas.
Beanie – As soon as the helmet comes off after rides for the next few months, a warm hat goes straight on. Warm, stylish and ready for winter.
Water bottle – UK manufactured bottle, made with EcoPure, an organic additive that causes the plastic to biodegrade in landfill. BPA Free, 500ml and a nice compact shape to fit in our frames.
Socks – Cosy black socks with our headbadge logo in white on both sides. Great for riding or chilling.
Bundled together for just £30 + £3 postage, a perfect stocking filler.
Today we are letting the cat out of the bag - we are doing an ebike. It's very early days, and we only received these first four prototypes about a month ago, but we wanted to let you know what we're up to with this one.
I'm sure you have a tonne of questions, so here's a quick FAQ on where we are and where we're going:
Why haven't Cotic released an eMTB yet?
We haven't released an emtb yet because we wanted to wait until the tech was a bit more mature, but mainly because the current supply issues combined with prototyping in Taiwan means that it takes a very, very long time.
When did you decide to make an ebike?
We have been looking at it for about 5 years, but things really came together about 3 years ago when through our OE connection with Shimano it became clear we could use STEPS.
Why did Cotic make an ebike?
It's a huge market, and it's a part of the sport now, and they're fun! It massively increases the accessbility of mountain biking to people who maybe aren't strong enough to get 'out there' on a regular bike. Cotic is 18 years old. We have customers from our early years who might well be getting to an age where riding a regular bike isn't fun or even possible anymore. For others it gives more bang for buck if you only have a limited time window for riding. As good examples, we've done big rides that would normally take me 3.5 to 4 hours in just over 2, and Cy's ridden more with his wife in the last two weeks with her having the ebike than in years. That last one alone makes it a reason to build one on a personal level.
Why isn't the Cotic ebike steel?
We have played around with a few ideas, but all variations on the theme of it being a droplink bike. We definitely had a few ideas of how we could use steel, but nobody likes the look of the external battery bolted to a skinny tube, and if you are going to go big on the down tube to put a battery in there, there is absolutely no benefit from using steel. Steel needs to be small diameter and thin wall to get those beautiful ride feel characteristics. Here, aluminium is definitely the way to go. That said, we have an absolutely sick idea for a steel frame, but it would cost a huge amount of money and I doubt any factory would even countinance making it, so we're keeping it sensible (both price and technical risk) for our first product.
What is the progress of the project so far?
It's a slightly frustrating product to develop; because it's aluminium and will be produced in the Taiwan we had to prototype over there, which always takes a few months. There's been a couple of bumps in the road with a change of vendor, and then Shimano releasing the (larger, 630Wh) 8036 battery which meant redesigning the down tube, and adopting metric size shocks, but really the main issue is that Covid hit and it's taken until now to just get 4 prototypes. Overall it's been long and frustrating, but see also everything else with bikes right now.
On the bright side though, we're looking forward to the fun part now, which is riding and developing the bikes properly. We have one in each size so everyone at Cotic can get involved, and friends beyond the company too. We had our first afternoon of team ebiking last week and there were a lot of laughs, and silly climbs attempted.
Why did you choose Shimano STEPS for the drive system?
We used Shimano because (if you have an OE account with them) are the only ebike drive provider who doesn't require you to commit to 100s or 1000s of units per year for them to be interested in supplying you. Plus, Shimano stuff is generally well thought out, we have a great relationship with them and the warranty support should be pretty solid too, so it all points to good things for a smaller brand looking to get an ebike off the ground. The bikes use the top end EP8 drive unit.
What have the first ebike rides been like so far?
Fun, scary, confusing, uplifting, frustrating, puzzling, silly. A big power bike is quite a different thing to a regular bike, so managing the power output, the weight, how that affects the geometry and how you plan your rides. It's quite different. We're just into the calibration side now we have OE software access, so I'm looking forward to finessing it a little. We have a frame in each of the 4 sizes all built up, so we're all having rides, feeding back, figuring it out. What we will say is that we think it's quite a good bike already. There's definitely some things to sort, but it's not far off.
What's next for the bike?
Nail down the drive spec, internal installation and wire lengths and get the Shimano kit ordered. Then it's trying a few different configurations of geometry and specification of the bikes so we can order the frames as soon as possible.
What's the spec of the Cotic ebike?
Nothing is fully defined yet. Our emtb won't be an exact replica of one of our current bikes, but it's very much a variation on the theme. As you can see it runs our proven droplink suspension and Longshot geometry, so you know it's going to handle and feel great. The prototypes are certainly a solid start. Others may come after, but we're focusing to doing this one right for the moment.
Are you concerned about the sustainability of the product?
The battery issue is a worry, but given that's a global issue with electric cars etc, the solution will have to present itself. We suspect it will be in the form of battery farms or similar. Just because a battery is done in it's initial application, doesn't mean it's useless. If it still holds 70% charge and can happily charge and discharge at a low, steady rate, we see old batteries being used to store electricity generated by renewables where the performance isn't such an issue. You can even build your own powerbanks using old cells relatively easily. One of our friends already does. These seem like a good solution to us, but unfortunately we have no influence on whether it becomes a widespread option. Closer to home, the relaibilty of the drive units is still improving, and we really hope that a refurb option comes online for the warranty replaced units that fail in service.
When can I buy one?
Cy signed the drawings off in July 2019, we only just received prototypes, and Shimano tell us even if we order now we won't get drive units and batteries until the end of '23 earliest. So, these are 2 years away from production as a minimum. We'll reveal more when we have the final spec nailed down and a firm delivery date. We're not fixing any dates. There's no point. We have literally no influence over when the kit arrives, so to try and put a date on that is to add stress to a situation that doesn't need it. We're keen to get it to market, but it will be ready when it's ready.
Finally, whilst we'll be stoked if people are interested in this, please don't get in touch just yet. It's lovely that people are keen, but the bike isn't finished; we don't know the spec, the price, or even exact dates. We are fully committed to, and concentrating on, regular bikes as much, if not more, than we ever did.
We've teamed up with Finnish Eco dish-ware company Kupilka to bring you the perfect cup for your brews or breakfast, either at home or out in the woods.
At 370ml it'll be the only vessel you'll need on your adventures.
4 colours - Conifer, Cranberry, Oak or Coal.
Made in Finland from Kareline®, using EKOenergy, they have a super low carbon footprint and can be easily recycled or even burnt at the end of their life. But that's along way off yet.
Last week we launched our Mullet mixed wheelsize option for all our Droplink full suspension bikes. We now have our first ride review of a bike setup with this option, from ex--Singletrack Tech Editior Andi Sykes. Enjoy!
Today we launch our 'mullet' mixed wheelsize option on all our droplink full suspension bikes. Pairing a 29er front wheel with a 27.5" rear to give more wheel clearance in steep terrain, and a more playful feel on the trail than a full 29er bike.
Having more room to move over the bike and minimising that unpleasant meeting of back tyre and shorts is a good thing, especially for shorter riders.
The new Cotic Mullet option is fitted in our otherwise stock 29er droplink bikes; the RocketMAX, Jeht and FlareMAX - with a Works Components 1 degree angleset installed to correct the geometry. As such, it is simply a build kit option on any of our full suspension models.
When you fit a smaller rear wheel wheel to a 29er bike, the BB drops about 10mm, and the head angle slackens nearly 1 deg. By installing the angleset to steepen the head angle again, this also acts to lift the BB up too. Check out how the Jeht's geometry is affected in these tables:
Overall, the head angle is almost identical, but the reach, front centre and wheelbase are all a little shorter. The seat angle gets a touch slacker, around 0.5 deg depending on the model, and the BB is 4-6mm lower.
These geometry numbers are based on a regular 27.5" x 2.5" tyre.
SO WHAT DOES THIS MEAN ON THE BIKE?
The upshot of these changes on the geometry are that the bars will be a little higher and a little closer to you when stood up on the bike, and assuming you are happy pedalling a very slightly slacker seat angle there is hardly any difference in the cockpit room when seated.
If you do nudge the saddle forward to compensate for the seat angle, you might need to be a little careful with your sizing if you're on the boundary between sizes. Consider sizing up if you're looking to run a mullet build. As always, we're here to help with that so please get in touch if you're in any way unsure.
The shorter wheelbase and smaller rear wheel does everything you expect from a Mullet setup - it's a little more lively and easier to turn, with lots more clearance over the back of the bike in very steep terrain.
The BB is 4-6mm closer to the ground in Mullet mode, but Chay didn't find that something he noticed when testing when running 170mm cranks.
TESTING.
I did some testing a couple of years ago on mixed wheelsizes with Chris from Downtime Podcast and whilst it wasn't my preference as a tall rider, Chris really enjoyed the feel of his FlareMAX with the smaller back wheel. At the risk of promoting another bike brand, Chris re-visited the subject very thoroughly just last week.
He and two other riders around 173cm tall (who would typically ride a medium Cotic) all did timed and subjective back-to-back testing of a bike now available as 29, Mullet and 27.5 only. It's worth a listen if you're mixed wheelsize curious.
One of the key testers throughout for this project was Chay Granby, our one time racer and long time Brand Ambassador. Having raced and rallied most generations of Rocket and RocketMAX across 26, 27.5 and 29 wheel sizes, he was the perfect person to help me figure this out.
Interestingly, given a lot of the advantages are claimed to be for shorter riders, Chay is as tall as me - 189cm - and currently prefers to ride a 27.5" wheel Rocket.
OVER TO CHAY...
"Having raced the RocketMAX (29er) and Rocket (27.5) both in national and EWS events I like to think I had a pretty good relationship with both bikes, and all Cotics from 2013 for that matter. (they were 26" wheel that year! see picture)
I'm never going to deny that the RocketMAX is ridiculously fast at covering ground. That's a given. Faster than the Rocket 27.5, but not as nimble. Obviously those smaller wheels are going to turn easier.
I was in the fortunate position to have 2 identical bikes from 2 race seasons: One 29 and one 27.5 so I could do back to back rides and tests. The bottom line is I always found the 27.5 to be that bit more playful and fun. It's not as quick granted.
But that opens up a question about "why do you ride your bike to start with?" Is it to become a World Champ or is it to have fun?
I was always curious about combining the two to bring both elements into each other. So when the market demand decided for us all that 27.5 was going to have to stop (from Cotic sales point of view, anyway - Cy) it was an obvious thing to test.
Now, I am talking about a very small margins in difference, so some may say "don't bother". But for some riders, just to have that smaller back wheel to give more room on the very steep stuff, whilst still having the improved rollover on the front felt great. Also something I had noticed was the hairpin corners where you could feel its just that bit easier to get round. Again some folk may have no issue on the full 29er, and that's fine. It's a personal opinion of what ever suits you.
I took the RocketMAX Mullet to a full spectum of riding spots including Torridon, the Golfie, Laggan Wolftrax, Farmer Johns, Revolution Bike Park and my local the Peak District to name a few. I wanted to do a thorough comparison to my 27.5 bike and not just have a spin and say "yeah, its fine!"
I matched the tyres, wheels, inserts, suspension setting and set up to be sure its not just 2 different bikes.
The end result was I loved it. It's certainly still fast and just lets you be that bit more nimble when required.
The mullet definitely deserves to be considered, because if you can have half the fun I had, you'll be doing ok.
Cheers, Chay".
In addition to Chay's testing, Wayne Coats over at Chamonix MTB has been trying out his RocketMAX in Mullet form:
"Let me start by saying I love my RocketMax, but since jumping on it from the 650b Rocket I struggled to put my finger on what was going on underneath me, some days I would pull big gaps on my mates and then the next day I would struggle to keep up and make the bike work. I ride a medium Rocket Max, I’m 175cm and suffer with short legs, so the medium is bang on for me. Oh and I should also point out that I ride day to day in Chamonix in the French Alps, famed for its steep tech, rocks, roots, sharp switch backs and surprises.
After a bit of puzzling I decided to bite the bullet and try a mullet set up.
Straight away the bike felt familiar, it gave me the same feeling I had riding the 650b Rocket but with a little more composure, I don’t know if its a placebo effect but I feel I can move the bike around a lot easier, muscle it and drift in to corners with more ease and predictability. I couldn’t tell you if its a faster set up but I’m puzzling less and that means I’m having more fun.
Don’t get me wrong the full 29er experience is amazing I just felt for me it was hard to stay consistent on it, the mullet works for me on my day to day riding be it local laps to big alpine single track descents, its definitely a confidence inspiring setup which lets face it is no bad thing!"
WANT ONE?
The Mullet option is available to spec from today using Hope Fortus wheels, Works Angleset and WTB tyres on our FlareMAX, Jeht and RocketMAX bikes.
It's a no-cost option on the Gold XT builds, and we have put together a Silver Deore 1x12 Mullet build using the excellent value Deore groupset too.
Due to the lead time on Hope wheel orders it's a minimum of 5 weeks delivery on a Mullet bike at the moment, assuming we have everything else in stock ready to go.
If you have an older Cotic droplink bike and think this option might be interesting, it is backwards compatible up to a point. The headset you need is the Works Components 1 deg angleset EC44/EC44, which you choose based on your head tube length.
I would strongly recommend getting a shop to install this with a proper headset press. It needs time, accuracy and a steady hand even with the right tools.
The only downside to doing this conversion on an older Cotic is that the seat angles aren't as steep as the current generation bikes, so making them even slacker might not result in a comfortable seating position even with the saddle pushed right forward.
A Gen2 FlareMAX for example (the 2018 version with Longshot geometry) has a seat angle some 2 degrees slacker than the current bike, so could get quite out of shape with this conversion done.
Same goes for pre-Longshot bikes, although through the lens of 2021 and our experience with Longshot geometry now I am kind of tempted to say just put a smaller rear wheel in your RocketMAX or FlareMAX Gen1 and see how it feels. It'll slacken the angles and drop the BB and still won't be as slack and low as the current bikes!
I'm happy to work up the actual numbers on CAD for you if you have a specific bike in mind, so drop me a line if you're curious.
THERE ARE NO STUPID QUESTIONS.
If you're interested in this option, but have questions, don't be afraid to ask. This took a fair bit of puzzling out, and we do this for a job. Drop us a line on info@cotic.co.uk and we can help you out.
We have one small BFe complete bike in stock right now.
This frame was returned for a size swap, and as we didn't have a photo of a complete BFe, we built it up as a photo bike.
It seems a shame to disassemble it, so we can let it go for £2699, and you could be shredding on this very bike this coming weekend.
The bike is built with a full Shimano SLX 1x12 groupset, the excellent Cane Creek Helm fork, Hunt TrailWide wheels, X Fusion Manic dropper post, WTB Vigilante tyres and Cotic finishing kit. All components are brand new, the frame is very lightly used with next to no evidence of being ridden.
It has only been ridden briefly before being exchanged for a bigger size.
If you'd like to order this bike, email us on info@cotic.co.uk with your name, billing address and a phone number, or call us on 07970 853531.
There is only one in the building until the 2022 batch arrives in May.
Introducing the great value Shimano Deore 12 speed equipped Bronze Builds
We have a limited number of the excellent Shimano Deore 1x12 drivetrains in stock now.
This means we can now offer the brilliant value bronze level builds on all UK made droplink full suspension bikes, for dispatch in a matter of days.
Using a 10-51 cassette on Shimano's microspline freehub body, this groupset gives you a huge range of gears with reliable shifting and durable materials. It can be mounted on Shimano, Hunt or Hope wheels on your Cotic, and in stock right now.
“Shimano’s Deore 12-speed groupset offers some of the best value performance and reliability out there.” - Bikeradar.
“Shimano absolutely nailed it with the new Deore group, creating a budget-friendly drivetrain that leaves little to be desired when it comes to its performance out on the trail.” - Pinkbike.
With our new Bronze Builds, you could be riding a UK made frame very soon, for a lot less than you might think.
FlareMAX and Jeht bronze builds - £3599.
RocketMAX bronze build - £3999.
We are also able to offer a brilliant value bronze BFeMAX build, starting from just £2339. These will ship late December/early January once the frames arrive, and we've worked through the existing orders.
You can pre-order a BFeMAX Bronze Build now, with just a 20% deposit.
As with all Cotic bikes, the Bronze Builds are assembled to order at our Peak District HQ. The are fully customisable so if you have any questions about spec, please get in touch.
We're back again, this time with a quite often overlooked part of the bike fit/comfort equation.
Rolling Weight and Gearing
If you're riding a small size bike, there is a very strong chance you aren't putting out as much power as a taller rider. It's here that weight of certain components and gearing becomes important. And it's not just women vs men. Paul is 5ft 8in and has been riding the Jeht to help me with some development. When he first got on the demo bike, it was running our harder hitting tyre setup - WTB Verdict Light Slashguard front, Trail Boss Tough rear, and the stock 32t gearing.
I ride an XL 29er bike, and I run a similar setup, just with the slightly lighter (but still 1100gram) Slashguard version of the rear tyre and find it no problem at all. There's an element of getting used to it, and it's not really fitness either. Paul's very fast, but more weight needs more strength, not necessarily more fitness. I'm hardly a squat legend, but being taller and heavier I'm naturally a little stronger.
Paul's usual bike for the last 3 years has been a Flare with 27.5" wheels and recently the Wolfpack Trail 2.4 tyres. Whilst he eventually got on with the WTB tyres (he needed the beefy setup for racing Ard Rock), he only got comfortable with it by dropping the chainring to a 30t to even out the gearing compared to his smaller wheeled bike. [side note - 29" wheels effectively make your gearing about 10% harder that 27.5" wheels due to the larger diameter, hence the need to gear down on the 29er]
He's now fitted the Wolfpack tyres to the Jeht too, which are better suited to his local riding and also the best part of 300 grams per wheel lighter. It's something I've really noticed this year when setting up the bikes for my daughters too. They could pedal a lot longer once I put some Wolfpack tyres on their bikes, and making the gearing lower too.
Under Pressure
Tubeless is also worth considering if you haven't already. Although it seems daunting and faffy if you haven't done it before, the reliability benefits and much lower weight are well worth it. You can also run very low pressures. In fact, it's really worth spending some time experimenting. With my fairly stout WTB tyres, even weighing 85kg and riding a RocketMAX I can run my tyres at 19psi front, 21psi rear. Lighter tyres aren't as supportive, so need slightly higher pressures, but if you're a lot lighter than me, you won't need as much pressure either
Extension of Suspension
Think of it like an extension of your suspension; you wouldn't run the same pressure in your shock as me, so why run the same pressure tyres? Also, unless someone is the same weight as you and runs the same brand tyres, there's no point asking other people what they run. I have to run 2-3psi more in Maxxis tyres than WTB to get them to feel right and not constantly bottom out on the rim on rocky descents. Don't be afraid to experiment. The best thing you can do is buy a digital tyre pressure gauge (the Topeak one is good), and have a go.
There's an element of choosing appropriate tyres for the terrain here. The Wolfpacks are a fantastic light, all round option, but if you live somewhere like the Lakes with a lot of slate to cut tyres, they are not the one at all. Likewise if you're planning to race a few enduros, but your riding consists of built trails and some woodsy riding, with occasional visits to bigger terrain, go with something that suits 90% of your riding. We're always happy to advise if you have any questions.
As for gearing, because of the nature of how we have to buy groupsets, our stock gearing is 32t chainring on the mountain bikes. However, if you do feel you want an easier option, just let us know. We can usually source smaller rings if that's what you would prefer. And if you already have your bike, aftermarket rings from the likes of Superstar or Unite are UK made, easily available and great value.
Hopefully that's another element of bike 'fit' that you have found useful. I guess it also shows that fitting your bike isn't just about the dimensions of the frame, it's worth thinking about other parts of the system too.
Jo is the newest addition to our roster of awesome ambassadors. Hailing from Essex, now in Wakefield, Jo is a teacher at a Pupil Referral Unit and one of the main instigators of the Trash Mob Academy.
Jo got in touch with Dom from Trash Free Trails back in 2020, asking to use their logo on a set of lesson plans she was developing to help her kids. Things snowballed very quickly and we ended up working very closely on the Trash Mob academy project and through that got to know Jo better.
Her passion for connecting her pupils with nature and easy-going attitude when faced with all manner of issues is what endeared her to us. Jo is working with us to bring cycling & nature to more diverse communities who might not feel like they have a voice in this area. More people on bikes is only ever going to be a good thing. You can read about the TFT project here.
She was introduced to mtb by her partner Gavin and has since spent more than a lot of time riding her bike in the mountains of France and the mini-mountains of the Peak District. After riding a FlareMAX on one of the many sessions at Leeds Urban Bike Park, she was convinced that a Cotic would be her next bike but with a few bikepark and uplift trips planned, a Jeht was a better choice.
"Joey Jeht" was put together around a Gold Eagle build - Cane Creek suspension, Hunt wheels & WTB tyres. Burgtec finishing kit is on its way but since she was keen to just get out on the new bike, we found some spare bits to get her rolling.
Who is Jo?
Profession/passion: Work within an alternative provision for students with Social Emotional mental health needs and have been excluded from mainstream education. It is my professional passion.
I am also a passionate Trash Free Trails ambassador that loves to incorporate their core values and nature connection into my teaching.
First bike: Pink Ladies Rayleigh Zest, got it second hand brakes only worked for me and only had 4 working gears… I was the only one that loved the bike 😍💗
Current bike: Cotic Jeht 😍🖤😍
Favourite trail: The Return ride from Morzine to Les Gets
Dream trail: Not sure… somewhere in BC or New Zealand would be a dream to ride.
Best mtb invention in the last 10 years: Good E-bikes - I’ve seen so many people being able to continue riding thanks to them.
Pick two cyclists from history to be your parents: Missy Giove and John Tomac
If you could be anyone for a day who would it be: I’m quite happy being me right now… although I’d love to be the person who knows all the government secrets… that would be cool 😎
If you could do another job for a day what would it be: Food Critic on Master Chef
What would be the title of your autobiography: Just Jo…
One thing people probably won't know about you: I used to be in a street dance hip hop crew and I’m really good at chess. (I know that’s 2 😝) xx
We're super stoked that Jo is part of our crew. Cotic ambassadors all bring something a little different to the table. Click on the links below the photo to have a read about our awesome family and follow their adventures on our socials.
This is your saddle position in the highest point (dropper up) for good pedalling. There's a rule of thumb called The Lemond Method where you measure your inseam in millimetres, multiply by 0.883 and this a good start.
As with everything human and bike related, there are variables. I (Cy) had a professional bike fit this year (to try and sort out my decade old rubbish right knee), and my saddle height was brought down from where I had had it for years at 815mm, to 807mm from BB centre to saddle top.
Using the Lemond Method, in bare feet it gives me 799mm. In my cycling shoes it gives me 816mm. All of this is affected by your crank length. I run my saddle at 804mm on my gravel bike, because the cranks are 5mm longer than on my mountain bike, but the pedals are thicker so the foot platform is closer to the saddle. See? Lots of little variables. However, what I would say is that based on my own experience, doing the Lemond calculation for bare feet and then cycling shoes and going somewhere in the middle would be a great place to start.
If you're keen on a pro bike-fit and are in the Sheffield area, I can highly recommend Fit4Physio. Otherwise, ask around your friends and see who has a good reputation in your area.
Saddle Position
Another outcome of my bike fit was to push my saddle forward to help reduce the torque on my knees. This is something that's becoming easier on modern mountain bikes as seat angles are steeper than they were a few years ago. One thing I didn't do at the same time was change my saddle angle. Because I had quite a rearward saddle position (because I've been riding for years it's where I've come from and what I'm used to) I would have quite an angled down saddle at the nose, so take pressure off and makes things comfortable.
When I moved my saddle forward, I was sat up straighter and my hips were more open. After a few weeks I had a really stiff back, and after chatting to Fit4Physio., and a bit of experimenting I found that it was my saddle angle. I was having to hold myself really stiff through my back which made it sore. I adjusted the angle, tipped the nose up a little and basically rode it better in a couple of rides. There's an element of my being middle aged and therefore stiffer and more sensitive to these things, but it's a lesson we can all learn. If you are having back trouble, try moving your saddle a little for a couple of rides. Move it forward, seeing how it goes. Tip the nose up a little, see how that goes. Don't like it? Tip it down and see how that goes. A little bit of experimenting goes a long way, and in this more than any other thing, EVERYONE is different.
Contact Points
Saddle and grips are key to any cyclist. For the saddle, we have been really impressed with the WTB Fit Right system which helps you identify the correct saddle width based on your wrist measurement. Sounds mad, but it really works. Saddles are also quite counter-intuitive. My wife used to run quite a wide, thick padded comfort saddle, but on longer rides it would actually get less comfortable. We used the Fit Right to find a WTB Speed She saddle. It's still quite deeply padded, but it's much smaller and narrower than her old saddle, and also much more comfortable. At the other end of the scale, just because your female, doesn't mean you necessarily need a women's specific saddle. My youngest daughter is only 13 and quite slim built, and based on the Fit Right measurements would actually suit a medium width men's saddle. At it happened the suggested size was pretty much the same as the Fabric Scoop saddles we stock, and it really suits her. Much more than the WTB Speed She, which was really a bit too wide.
Hannah:
There's a lot of saddle chat on women's cycling groups! It's a much debated topic, and so different for everyone. I find that the WTB Deva saddle works for me and Cotic ambassador Kelly-Jayne likes the WTB Koda saddle. Saddle height was something I found took a little while to get perfect when I first starting out cycling, perhaps a combination of things contributing to this - shiny new Five Tens and trying out different saddles! If you aren't sure about your saddle, see if you can borrow a couple from friends. Some brands and shops even do demo saddles now, so ask around.
Discomfort in saddle height or saddle angle can show up in your lower back or as knee pain, so it's worth spending time to experiment as Cy says, get it right to avoid any injuries.
Stretch! Move!
An often overlooked part of fitting your bike better. Stretching, more flexibility and mobility is the best way to pain-free and more enjoyable riding. Do something. Rich and Paul here at Cotic use one of the Youtube yoga channels. I (Cy) learnt a lot during Strength and Conditioning training over the years, combined with physio mandated specifics. Hannah used to dance so has a lot of experience from that and finds working stretching into your day the best way - waiting for the kettle to boil? Have a quick stretch! Advert break? Stretch! Little and often.
I have always stretched before a ride, but now I do a few minutes morning and evening (see also: stupid stiffening middle aged body). Throw in a few exercises. Do 5 minutes, it doesn't have to be loads before you feel the difference. We cannot recommend it highly enough. It's different for everyone, and it's always worth changing things up to keep it fresh, but the key thing is to do it.
There's quite a lot in this one, but we felt it was all very interconnected, so worth mentioning it all.
"The Cotic FlareMAX G4 is a down-country bike that refuses to be pigeonholed. Thanks to a respectfully lengthy geometry, huge range of custom options and wide fork travel optimisation, it's a versatile bike for many different riders, and it's tough not to like."
It's a fantastic review and well worth a read, as Liam really "got" the bike. Understood what it was all about.
"For a bike running 125mm of travel, I've been incredibly impressed at what this bike is capable of. It's a monster on the climbs...."
UK Launch Edition frames are in stock now, as are XT build kits. Bikes start from £3830 for the Silver XT build, with other options including the same build as the test bike available right now. You could be riding by the weekend.
Bike fit is a big subject, and we are all still learning about it. A recent conversation with Hannah sparked the idea for some helpful how-to's on this subject. We were chatting about my kids bikes. This year my two daughters graduated onto full suspension bikes. Both girls now ride a Small sized FlareMAX, but each bike is tailored quite differently to suit the rider. In discussing this with Hannah, we realised that although they're similar heights to her [OK, who am I kidding? They're both taller than me now...Hannah] we all have different set-ups and preferences, it isn't a one-size-set-up-fits-all and there isn't a magic answer in bike set up. Even for a bike designer, it is a trial and error, give things a go process, especially when helping less experienced riders with totally different proportions fit their bikes.
Out of all this grew the idea for a short series of explainers and tips from Hannah and I for making your bike work better for you. This first one is about bar width and cockpit setup.
Bar Width
It stands to reason that if you're on the shorter end of height spectrum, you probably won't need bars quite so wide. We offer two options with our bikes as a stock offering - 780 uncut, and 750 cut down. However, we cut them to order, so if you know you prefer something narrower, just let us know.
At the moment we supply Cotic Calver bars in 25mm rise, and on the 29er bikes you might prefer something a little lower. We can get the optional Renthal bars down to 10mm rise, and if you have a set of favourite bars you can always send those in to us to fit onto your new bike. Remember, it's Your Bike Built For You.
As an example, my youngest daughter Cara (13) is 5ft 6in, but really prefers narrower bars. She's not super strong, and doesn't ride very often, so wide bars just make her shoulders ache. She runs 700mm wide bars flat bars and I put a couple of spacers under the stem to lift them a little to make it more comfortable for seated pedalling. My eldest daughter Lauren (15) is a little shorter at 5ft 5in, but is a totally different body shape and likes a little higher and wider front end. She uses Race Face 12mm rise bars cut to 740mm with the stem on it's lowest setting with no spacers under it.
At the other end of the scale, at 6ft 3in on an XL RocketMAX, I run a 25mm rise Calver bar cut to 770mm so it measures 780mm across the ends of the grips. I run a 5mm spacer under the stem. I've tried 38mm rise bars, and although they're comfortable for steep descents, I found them really hard work on my back on climbs, like my hands weren't low enough so I was kind of 'pushing' them up rather than 'pulling' back strongly on the bars to brace my pedalling effort. Paul recently found similar when jumping on a Jeht demo bike where a customer had previously put 20mm of spacers under the stem.
Over to Hannah....
On my Small Flare (27.5" wheels, so it has a lower front end stack height than the FlareMAX Cy's kids ride) I run 760mm bars when measured across the grips. It's suited me up to now, but I recently tried Lauren's FlareMAX and enjoyed the 740's, so I'm going to give something a little narrower a try. As I'm still relatively new to mountain biking, I assumed that slightly sore shoulders were possibly just part and parcel of riding (which up to a point they are - Middle Aged Editor), so I'll be keen to see if a slightly narrower setup feels more comfortable for longer.
Here I am with my Flare!
Kind of opposite to what Cy and Paul found for their setups, I run 25mm rise Calver bars with 20mm of spacers under the stem. I really like an upright riding position, and it suits me. I think it's possibly my background riding horses, but it works for me. That said, on Lauren's bike (the 29er), the stem is right down and the bars felt about the same as on my 27.5" bike.
Experiment!
As you can see, there's no hard or fast rules for bar width or height, but a bit of experimentation is key.
Firstly - height. All Cotic's are supplied with 20mm of spacers on the steerer for adjustment, and even if your bike doesn't have this much, it's worth trying out with what adjustment you do have. If you are on the shorter end of the height spectrum - particularly if you ride a 29er - get that stem as low as possible and see how that feels. If it feels good and you might want to go lower, see if any of your riding buddies have lower rise or flat bars in their spares box you could borrow for a ride or two. Going too low with very wide bars can limit your ability to lean the bike, so do just think about how the bike is working. It's so quick to change you can even do it on the trail if you like.
If you are a little taller, try the extremes of adjustment and see how it feels. Which do you prefer? You'll soon figure out where the compromise lies.
Width - Obviously cutting bars down is a very permanent change to a component on your bike, so if you think you might get on with narrower bars and want to try it, here's a little hack: buy some cheap double clamp lock on grips with open ends. You can now fit these and slide them in from the ends of your bars without cutting them for a few rides, to see where you feel comfortable. Just remember to measure from the end of the bar to the grip and make it even on both sides. You might have to be a little careful between the trees whilst you are trying this out, but it's a small thing compared to trashing a set of bars by cutting too narrow. Also this way, you can try a couple of different options and see what you like most. The key thing is to try it for 3 rides at least to make sure you feel any differences fully. Once you are happy, cut the bars down.
That's it for the first instalment. We'll be doing these every week or so for a while to cover a bunch of subjects, and get you feeling better on your bike. And we really want this to be a conversation, so do reply to this email and ask some specific questions if you have them. We're here to help.
Introducing the Silver XT droplink builds, this could be your new bike, dispatched within a week.
As you probably know, every Cotic bike is built by us at our Peak District HQ. Thanks to this flexible way of operating, we are able to adapt to the challenging supply situation in the bike industry at the moment.
We've put together a build for both the FlareMAX and the Jeht based around a Shimano XT 1x12 drivetrain, and using Rockshox Revelation RC forks, Deluxe Select+ shock and Shimano MT620 wheels.
The RocketMAX Silver XT build uses the Rockshox Lyrik Ultimate fork.
FlareMAX or Jeht - Silver XT build - £3830
RocketMAX - Silver XT build - £4320
Order today, ride it next week. Get in while you can.
That is the single word used to describe why an organisation like Trash Free Trails exists. A disconnection with yourself, nature and the planet is what leads to the spiralling litter problem we see all around us.
The act of reading this little piece shows that you’re more than likely already aware of the problems and quite probably upset at seeing the state of our trails & wild spaces. Trash Free Trails hope to reconnect people with the environment and therefore move us (and ultimately corporations) into practices that benefit nature and ourselves, rather than harm it.
Dom Ferris, the main instigator / pied piper / spark maker got in touch back in 2018 asking for support to raise awareness for his new idea “Trash Free Trails”. We hooked him up with a bike, a few contacts and left him be, to work out where the idea would take him. We’ve been hanging out in the wings of the organisation since then, helping out where we can, trying to find our place and work out how best to utilise our resources.
In 2020 Dom called to say he had started working with a teacher in Wakefield called Jo. Jo was piloting a scheme at her pupil referral unit; kids with a range of issues - difficulties with conventional learning, sometimes fragile home situations, a lack of decent role models and often anti-authoritarian behaviour. The 6 lessons held in the classroom and at Leeds Urban Bike park with a professional coach, aimed to (obviously) pick up a load of litter & single use plastic from the trails, give them some MTB skills and most importantly reconnect them with nature. This initiative is called the Trash Mob Academy and has been the most meaningful project I’ve [Baybutt] spent my time working on since joining Cotic. As part of Cotic’s involvement, I went to photograph some of the sessions and from the very first trip I realised they were onto something special. As adults we recognise the warm glow of doing a good deed - sometimes for purely selfish reasons of wanting to feel good in yourself (Responsible Hedonism) and most of the time, recognising a problem whether that be on a macro or global level, and wanting to change it for the greater good. Seeing that spark of inspiration & care manifest in someone right before your eyes is quite something. This was literally IT. The best day at school ever.
So with our involvement with TFT ratified, it’s opened the doors to a huge host of opportunities. In the last 12 months we’ve organised trail cleans at Greno, Parkwood & Bolehills, attended the State of our Trails summit in Anglesea, helped host the Trash Mob Academy tour where we travelled to trail spots around the UK promoting the format of the lesson plans to teachers and mentors, and worked on a film detailing the project to be premiered at bike night during Kendal Mountain Film Festival.
Last weekend I attended my first A-Team gathering where TFT organised a whole host of activities to bring together all the people who are directly responsible for creating, organising and nurturing the trail cleans and their associated projects. The creative & caring minds that Dom has accrued is phenomenal and working with such a group is both a privilege and a pleasure.
TFT has done some brilliant work in its short few years and there’s a lot more coming. Hopefully we’ll reach a point when organisations like this aren’t needed but connecting people with nature feels like a life-long mission, of which I’m more than glad to be a part of.
If you want any more information about the Trash Mob then have a look at this link and keep an eye out for the film coming soon.
Some good news for your Friday. We have some bikes in stock, right now!
Thanks to our 'Your Bike Build for You' policy, we are able to offer an almost infinite combination of parts to build up bikes with.
We've put together some Gold Shimano XT builds using parts we have on the shelves at the moment, which you can order today, for delivery in a matter of days.
Take that, 2021!
We have a limited number of Shimano XT 12 speed groupsets in the building, and recently had a drop of Rockshox forks meaning we can offer complete builds on our UK made FlareMAX, Jeht and RocketMAX bikes.
This means if you order one of these builds today, we can build your bike next week and you could be hitting the trails on a brand new Cotic next weekend.
Do you need a new Enduro bike? The RocketMAX Gold XT build uses Rockshox Lyrik Ultimate forks, Cane Creek Kitsuma shock and Hunt TrailWide wheels for £4999. You could also opt for the Rockshox Deluxe Select+ shock option for £4599.
Looking for a more all round trail bike? You need the Jeht.
The Jeht Gold XT build uses Rockshox Pike Ultimate forks, Cane Creek Air IL shock and Hunt TrailWide wheels for £4649.
We also have Rockshox Revelation RC forks and Deluxe Select+ shocks bringing the price down to £4199.
For a more pedal friendly downcountry whippet that can still look after you when the going gets rowdy, go for the FlareMAX.
The Gold XT FlareMAX build uses Rockshox Revelation RC forks and Deluxe Select+ shock, which are in the building now, for £4199.
We will have a delivery of SID Ultimate forks and Cane Creek Air IL shocks due early October, which would make the build £4649.
As usual, if you have any questions please get in touch.
You could be enjoying the end of summer and the loamy Autumn trails on a brand new Cotic full suspension bike. Our Allen keys are ready, we'll look out for your order.
As I'm sure you are well aware, these are crazy times in the world of bikes, with parts availability all over the place. However thanks to our unique way of doing things, Your Bike Built for You, means we are able to navigate the lack of parts availability at the moment and offer you a few options for your next bike.
One of which, is a Rolling Chassis.
Frame, headset, forks and wheels. All ready and waiting for your parts.
We have good stock at the moment of forks, wheels and headsets which we are able to supply with frames ready for you to fit your existing parts.
In the building right now we have UK made FlareMAX, Jeht and RocketMAX frames; as well as a limited number of Tonic frames, which we can dispatch to you in a matter of days.
There is a Rolling Chassis option on the order page for each bike, so you can select your fork, shock and wheels and transfer all your drivetrain and finishing kit from your current bike straight over. A great way to refresh your ride without having to wait months for one component to come into stock.
There are also a handful of the gorgeous Tonic framesets in stock in XS and Small sizes in the building, which you can also as a rolling chassis. Is it time for some jaw dropping titanium gravel action in your life?
We have wheel options in stock from Shimano, Hope and Hunt as well as fork options from Rockshox and headsets from Cane Creek and Hope.
If you have any questions about our Rolling Chassis builds or which of your parts will fit our frames, please don't hesitate to get in touch. You could be on the trails on a new Cotic frame sooner than you think.
Our 29er do it all trail bike with 140mm of rear wheel travel is now available from stock in its new limited edition Gloss Metal finish. This is the second option from this run of UK manufactured Jeht frames, and is just as classy as the Gritstone option, but a bit less stealthy, and a whole lot more shiny.
One thing to note is that we're now offering the JEHT as a rolling chassis (frame + shock + headset + forks + wheels), for those upgrading and wanting to reuse components from their current bike, or for those that just can't wait for Shimano or Sram parts to arrive with us for a complete bike build. We're doing this for all our models now, check out the order pages to investigate prices and options for rolling chassis.
We have just about caught up on sleep and rest after a fantastic weekend at Ard Rock Enduro. After a very challenging few years the Ard Rock Reunion was a really special event, and it was so great to see it back. It felt brilliant to hang out with the mountain bike community again, with smiles and laughter all around it was clear to see that everyone was feeling the same.
Having spent a couple of days last week digging out our EZ-up, flags and other bits of our expo stand which had been lying almost forgotten for the past 18 months, me and Rich headed north to the glorious Yorkshire Dales in a rental van. Boo is no more I'm afraid, having been sold last year when it became clear demos weren't happening any time soon. We arrived in beautiful Grinton to the Ard Rock site and a palpable sense of excitement, even before any racers had arrived, it was clear this was going to be a special weekend, despite a few less people in attendance.
Sunshine out and tunes on, we set up the stand while chatting to some familiar faces in the industry, we weren't the only ones buzzing to be back in the wild and at a bike event. The first day felt like a group therapy session for bike industry staff! The stand mostly set up and well strapped down in preparation for the varied weather forecast, we swung by the Hunt Wheels stand and grabbed Dan and Paddy for a bike ride. We headed for a quick lap of the old demo loop, which if you've been before you'll know is just as spicy as some of the stages. The view down into the valley looking over the event site is pretty special, at least until the rain rolled in, not for the last time that weekend. After a dose of classic Swaledale singletrack we met Paul at the BnB and headed for a pub tea, a big weekend ahead.
Friday is practise day for those racing the main Enduro and Sprint races on the Saturday. We were on deck sharp to put the finishing touches to the stand and greet the biking public. If we thought the excitement was there on Thursday, it was nothing compared to Friday. Many stoked faces chomping to get stuck into practise and check out the stages. The famous deluge and flooding of 2019 had made a mess of a few of the sections, so there were a few new parts to learn, a nice challenge for the seasoned Ard Rock veterans. We waved our riders Dave Camus, Chay Granby, Hannah Saville and honorary team rider for the weekend Stu Bailey off up the hill. Big shout to Mel Fife and Kelly-Jayne Collinge who were sadly both 'pinged' at the last minute and couldn't make it, next time ladies!
Even before our first brew of the day, the new UK made limited edition Jeht was getting a heap of attention. The Stealth Gritstone colour clearly a popular look, with many people coming back for another ogle and considering their next trail bike. If you are thinking of getting one of these, I'd advise you to act fast, judging by the reaction this bike got at Ard Rock they won't be sitting on the shelves for long.
As lunchtime came round, riders began to roll off the hill back into the arena, most of them looking a bit muddy and there were some interesting expressions going around. The damp weather had made a few of the stages very slippery, and a good few egos had been kicked back into line. In previous years we've had wall-to-wall sunshine at Ard Rock, with dry shale for your tyres to hook into and grassy turns boasting velcro-like levels of grip. These had been transformed into soapy wet limestone and off camber turns slick as glass. All action, no traction. The riders were beginning to realise getting round clean would be the aim of the game on Saturday's race. Speaking of which, Dave had lost a fight with a drystone wall, and Hannah had hit the deck too. Her hand held awkwardly and looking a couple of glove sizes bigger. She's made of tough stuff though, and cracked on regardless.
Me and Paul decided we probably should scout out a route for Saturday evenings Cotic CC owners ride, the first one in almost 2 years. Rich manned the stand for an hour and we kitted up and went for a pedal, I had a trail in mind I'd vaguely remembered from a Dales Bike Centre ride a few years ago but definitely needed to remind myself where it went before taking a group out. A savage headwind up the road climb was most unwelcome, but the trail was worth it, and perfect for the CC ride. Back in the pits, after an afternoon figuring out the stages the riders had got their mojo back and were fired up for race day. A few beers into the evening and everyone was feeling nice and relaxed, the racing almost playing second fiddle to the sociable festival atmosphere. Wheelies in the dark back to the BnB topped off a brilliant day.
Rich awoke early Saturday morning, he'd managed to sort himself an entry to the enduro race to follow our riders round and document the day. A solitary breakfast with just pre-race nerves for company he was up on the hill before me and Paul had opened the stand for the day. In an attempt to avoid being held up in traffic on the stages and dodge the worse of the forecast rain, our racers had opted for an early start. We recommend doing this if you are chasing a good result, but most people go to Ard Rock to ride round with their mates for the 'race within a race' and bragging rights in your riding group. Rich had teamed up with local eco friendly clothing legends Banana Industries, and had decked out our riders in party shirts with a lairy cartoon vegetable pattern. They definitely turned heads and wearing matching outfits with your mates bolsters the team vibe, sure they were all after a good race result, but after everything that's happened in the world, fun was the main aim.
Stage 2 was already claiming victims with it's super slippery wooded section near the bottom, and Hannah hit the floor again, landing on her injured hand. She jumped back on and made it to the finish line, but some patching up was required. Bitter shandies at 10am in the pub after stage 2 certainly helped, our team were the first to the bar!
Me and Paul had a big day on the stand back in the event village, lots of interest in the bikes so thanks to everyone who swang by for a chat. It was great to be able to chat face to face with customers again, and lots of you enjoyed seeing the bikes in the flesh after months of drooling over pictures online. It was also lovely to see so many happy Cotic owners coming by to say hello, putting faces to names was great, and seeing everyone's Cotics with their own personal touches being enjoyed was a treat.
By mid afternoon, just after the rain had set in, our team riders were back. Thanks to the early start they had managed to ride 6 of the 7 stages in the dry, with only the final stage being a wet one. Mud covered and grinning like idiots, they were all back in (mostly) one piece and absolutely buzzing. After 2 years of no racing, Chay bagged 10th place in vets, a top result. Despite crashing, bits of the inside of her hand becoming 'outside', and what she would later discover was a broken thumb; Hannah Saville took 10th in a stacked women's field. She even beat EWS under-21 winner Polly Henderson on one stage! Seriously impressive stuff, heal up quick Hannah. Camus got 44th in the huge masters category, remember there is no elite category at Ard Rock, so he was up against the likes of Joe Barnes and Craig Evans, a great result. Media man Rich took an admirable 57th, and judging by the mud all up his arm, that included a bit of lie down on the last stage too.
Despite looking like it was set in for the evening, the rain lifted in time for the Cotic CC owners ride on Saturday night. We scoffed a pizza and 10 stoked Cotic riders coaxed their legs into action for a nice social ride on the route me and Paul had scouted, I can confirm the road climb was much more bearable without the headwind. A real mix of bikes with a couple of Souls, Jehts, FlareMAXs and RocketMAXs, all looking resplendent in the evening sun. We rode rocky singletrack down a gully which wouldn't have been out of place on one of the race stages, flat out grassy trails, a techy stream crossing and a steep chute to session. The Yorkshire Dales really is a mountain bike heaven, in just an hours ride we had a great mix of trails. Rolling back into the event village for a beer after a fun ride with mates, man how we've missed that sort of behaviour. More Cotic CC things to come for sure.
The beer flowed, a bottle of port made an appearance and the Cotic stand was busy into the night with tales of racing, crashes and heroic saves. Hannah got a fresh mohawk after a few beers and the DJ played 90s bangers all night, the festival feel was in full swing. Proper.
Myself and Paul took it steady though, as we had managed to bag entries into the intro race on Sunday morning. We were greeted by sunshine and a dry forecast for the morning, so party shirts on and a hungover looking Rich left to hold to the fort, we set off. It's a good couple of years since I've done a bike race, and I don't do many of them, so I was a bit nervous that morning. The intro race is one of the slightly shorter races on the weekend, taking in stages 4 – 7. The sprint race on Saturday uses stages 1 – 3, and either are a great option if the idea of the full size race is a bit daunting. The long transition to the start of 4 would be a lovely ride in the dry, as we passed the bottom of stage 2 we could see why so many riders had had a sit down. The greasy chute at the end looked horrendous, here's hoping for a dry weekend next time.
Eventually getting the long climb done, we caught our breath and dropped into stage 4. Moorland singletrack quickly fed into a fast gully with blind crests and big berms, the addition of a number board to our bikes and tape either side of the trail seemed to flick a switch in both mine and Paul's heads, we were flying! A well spotted high line here, sending a blind drop there and it was over pretty quickly. It felt good to get a stage ticked off, and the nerves were long gone.
Paul cleaned most of the climb up to 5, which is very much his forte. I had a go, but decided my energy was better saved for the stages. 5 was a proper laugh; fast and open with amazing corners and some jumps that had I looked at first, I probably wouldn't have sent! We were both saved by the longshot geometry on our Jehts at one point, as we came over a blind crest to find we really should have turned left. Somehow the bikes got us through the rocky ditch on the inside of the corner and kept us upright, thinking perhaps we should reign it back a touch.
Heart rates back under control, we had a quick snack and dropped into stage 6. Everyone who raced the previous day had told us how fun this one was, and they weren't wrong. Fast and flowy through the moonscape with more jumps and berms. Paul was fully pulling away from me when I heard a marshal ahead shout “ohh unlucky mate!”, he'd punctured the rear tyre. Fortunately the transition from 6 to 7 involved riding (pushing) up past stage 6, so I was able to rescue him with a tube so he could finish the stage. Gutting though, he was on a heater.
The nerves had crept back in ahead of stage 7, the last one. We were expecting a slippery grease fest. What we got though, was a brutal wind. As soon as we passed through the dry stone wall at the top, the wind almost stopped us dead. Pedalling down steep rough trails on tired legs into a gale was hard work, but the wind had dried out the trail nicely so traction wasn't an issue. We caught a couple of other riders on this one, which cost us some time, but neither of us are serious racers so it didn't bother us too much. The great thing about Ard Rock is that riders of all abilities are welcome and encouraged. It was really good to see such a huge variety of people riding all sorts of bikes.
Steep grassy turns and blind jumps dropped us to the bottom of the stage just as the heavens began to open. 4 dry stages, definitely a win as far as we were concerned. Timing chips handed back in I was surprised and very happy to see I was sitting in 5th place in the senior category, which held until the end, my best race result ever. Very happy with that. Paul was either 3rd or 4th on all the stages other than 6, so without the puncture he'd most likely ended up 3rd in vets, seriously quick. A very enjoyable ride, thanks for manning the stand that morning Rich!
There really is no event quite like Ard Rock, after a very challenging few years for the organisers it was amazing to be back in Swaledale again. A huge thanks to the Ard Rock team for pulling it off against all odds. Having the bike community back together was very special, in a strange and busy time in the industry with new challenges every week it was a lovely reminder of why we do this. Seeing so many happy faces and feeling the joyous atmosphere was very special, thanks to everyone who came by the Cotic stand to check out the bikes and share the stoke. The stages were amazing, banter flowing, the food top quality and being outdoors in a breezy field definitely helped quash the Covid apprehension.
We strongly advise you get yourself entered to next year's Ard Rock Enduro Festival, when it will be at full capacity again with families and spectators back. We will definitely be there.
Big thanks to Vicky and Rhubarb at The Laurels BnB in Reeth, the Ard Rock team, Banana Industries for the rad party shirts, Dave, Hannah, Chay, Stu, Rob, the good folks from Hunt for the stoke and everyone who came by the Cotic stand. See you next year.
Today marks the end of Rocket sales. Our original droplink bike, launched with 26" wheels and 150mm travel in 2012 to much acclaim, morphed through four generations to grow 27.5" wheels, pioneer Longshot geometry, and into the current 165mm travel beast.
We know there are lots of you out there who love your 27.5" wheels. We do too, but as with any business sometimes market forces and commercial reality to have to make a decision for you, and that's what has happened here. Whilst we have sold many hundreds of our 29er droplink models in the last two years, since the end of 2018, 27.5" droplink bike sales have been a fraction of this.
Even with the current Gen4 UK made frame, as we still get our rear ends for these frames made in Taiwan, there are certain minimum order quantities we have to meet. Unfortunately it got to the point where we were selling less than a full batch of rear ends per year, so at that point we have to stop.
It's been quite a ride, but realistically our customers have spoken, and they are choosing 29" wheels for their bike much more often than not.
Fortunately, our 29" wheeled bikes are also rad, and the RocketMAX continues the hardnut spirit of the Rocket name if you want something burly for going fast on. For the more all round proposition there is the 140mm travel Jeht, and for responsiveness and pedalling fun the FlareMAX is there for you.
The UK Made versions of the RocketMAX, Jeht and FlareMAX frames are in stock right now, and can be shipped to you quickly as a frame only. That's a great value way to upgrade your ride experience and get that new bike feeling.
As usual for 2021, complete bikes are taking longer, but we do have some parts availability and if you have a few of your own favourite bits, send them to us to be built onto your new Cotic. Drop us an email or give us a call to discuss all your options. We Build Your Bike For You.
I know a few of you have wondered when we will be offering demo on these bikes again, and for the rest of 2021 we won't be able to offer anything. Up to now, and in future I am very mindful of keeping everyone safe until Covid really is a thing of the past. Mainly the issue is parts availability. We simply can't spare the parts to build demo bikes when we want to put customers first. However there is a solution:
For the last couple of years, you have been able to buy a Cotic, take it for a few rides, and within one month if there's any reason why you don't want to keep it, or would prefer another model or size, just send it back for a swap of refund. Think of it as an extended demo ride on your home trails. Sounds pretty good, right? Obviously there's some Terms and Conditions, but we have always been fair and we wouldn't offer this if we weren't pretty confident you would love it!
Whilst we're pretty sad to be saying goodbye to the Rocket, I also want to celebrate some of the amazing media that it has generated over the years. We have had so much fun making videos to promote these awesome bikes, and so as a final goodbye, here one of our favourites Enjoy.
Our 29er do it all trail bike with 140mm of rear wheel travel proved extremely popular when we launched it at the end of last year, with the UK made launch edition selling out within days, and the Taiwan main production batch flying out too. Given the delays in the supply chain at the moment, we have grabbed the opportunity to produce a limited edition run of UK manufactured Jeht frames, in 2 stunning finishes.
Stealth Gritstone is the sleekest and most subtle colourway we have ever done, and as you can see provides a perfect canvas for some serious colour matching. If you are lucky enough to be coming to Ard Rock this weekend, you can check out this gorgeous display bike which looks like it flew through the Hope factory screaming “Tango me baby!”. You could of course go for all black components for the ultimate stealth bomber look.
We will also have a small run of Gloss Metal frames coming just as soon as the paint has dried at our Scottish friends' awesome workshop. We've used this colour on the Rocket in the past; a very classy finish.
The Jeht is a seriously capable bike, agile and nimble enough for ripping round a trail centre, comfortable enough for big days out in the hills and capable enough to look after you when the going gets steep and rowdy. 150mm fork and our industry leading longshot geometry give you bags of confidence in every situation; from flat, loose turns to wet and rooty chutes. All on a bike more than happy to scramble it's way back up the hard way.
We have Stealth Gritstone frames in stock now in small, medium, large and XL in limited numbers, and Gloss Metal are only a few weeks away in all sizes too. Three shock options; Rockshox Deluxe Select+ is a great 'fit and forget' shock, Cane Creek Air IL is a brilliant damper for trail riding and the Cane Creek Kitsuma is the one for heavier riders or those who like to charge.
We can hardly believe it, but we are going to an actual event this weekend! In the flesh! One of our absolute favourites which has been absent from the calendar since 2018, we are going to Ard Rock Enduro Festival!
Rained off (which is a bit of an understatement) in 2019 and obviously it couldn't happen last year, so it's been a long time since we rode and partied in the beautiful Yorkshire Dales, and we are very excited to be heading back. It will look a little different this year, with a bit more space and a more chilled vibe on the menu, but it will be great to be involved with a bike event in the wild again.
Sam, Paul and Rich and heading up and we'll have a stand open from 9am Friday, Saturday and Sunday (unless we manage to sneak entries for ourselves to the intro race Sunday morning!). We are showing off some stunning display bikes and well loved staff bikes, and are very much looking forward to chatting to you all, catching up with familiar faces and making new friends. Please do swing by our stand and say hi, check out our bikes and hang out. As usual, the stand will be open into the night so come join us for a beverage.
Perhaps the most exciting part of all, we'll be going for the first Cotic CC group ride in 18 months! If you'll be at Ard Rock with your Cotic, please join us for a social spin at 6:30pm on Saturday from the Cotic stand. Most likely a lap of the demo loop, the pace will be full social.
Probably around an hour/90mins and we are aiming for chats, beers, wheelies and skids. We can't stress enough how much we are looking forward to this. If you're racing on the Saturday, bring extra jelly babies so you can join us! We are aiming to start pedalling at 6:30pm, so please to be at the stand a little before then.
We won't have any demo bikes this year I'm afraid, any Covid concerns aside, we simply don't have enough parts to build any up. We will have some very pretty droplink bikes for you to ogle, including something very special, drop by our stand to check it out. If you've been hankering over pretty photos of our bikes for the last few months, this is a great opportunity to see them up close and personal.
We have a full squad of Cotic shredders getting stuck in between the tapes; Dave Camus, Chay Granby, Kelly-Jayne Collinge and Mel Fife will all be flying the Cotic flag at full speed. Be sure to give them a good cheer if you are watching trackside.
Best of luck if you're racing, hopefully we'll see you there.
It's been a pretty hectic June here at Cotic getting on top of orders as shipments have come in, and dealing with being a mechanic down coinciding with staff holidays. For those of you waiting patiently for your bike or frame, I wanted to update on where we are and the problems we face as parts become available.
We have worked really hard this month to get on top of frame back orders as we had several hundred waiting to be prepped and shipped at one point. It's been all hands on deck, with Richard and I in the workshop getting frames ready for Dispatch Queen Hannah to pack and ship. We are almost up to date on frames now, so if you've received your frame in the last month, I hope you're enjoying it and it was worth the wait. We have certainly had some lovely emails letting us know that's the case for some new owners. Thank you!
For bikes the situation is somewhat different. I know some of you have been a little bit frustrated with delay after delay, or finding your build pushed back after other parts arrive. We try to keep you up to date with what we're being told, and I know it's frustrating and the temptation is to shoot the messenger (or Sam and Paul in this case), but we're only telling you what we are being told. Production and delivery dates are still moving almost daily. Please be kind, and know that all we are doing is trying our best to keep you informed.
We currently have a temp mechanic, but only for a short time, and we are looking to fill that gap for the rest of the summer. Darren's broken thumb should be healed fairly soon so he will be back on it too, but even at full staffing, bikes do take a while. We currently have capacity for 20-25 bikes per week depending on the complexity of the builds. For a lot of June we only had Chief Mechanic Will on bike duty whilst we ploughed through frame orders, which means we're down to 10-12 bikes per week, hence the delay on some deliveries.
The other thing that drives our decisions - and can sometimes change what you have been told about your delivery over night - is the still almost completely random stock deliveries. For instance, we had the 29er hardtail shipment arrive at the end of May, we let several hundred customers know, and set out to get them out as fast as we could. Then Shimano and SRAM both out of the blue dropped 10 sets of each of some Escapade parts which suddenly unlocked 20 bike builds. We dropped straight onto them not because they were "jumping the queue", but quite the opposite. We have been waiting for some parts of months and months, and the arrival of these bits unlocked orders for people who had been waiting since October 2020 for their bike. So, whilst I can understand if you have ordered your frame in February or March you feel you have been waiting a long time - and you have - the fairest way we can see of working through this huge backlog right now is simply to work in chronological order of the builds that have been released to production.
This will continue to be the case throughout the summer. On the mountain bike side, we have imminent shipments of long ago ordered suspension forks, but these arrive in bulk. These "chunks" of stock suddenly release weeks' worth of builds into production, so we do take a bit of time to catch up with ourselves with these deliveries arrive.
Please rest assured that whatever the delay to your bike or frame might be, the only reason for that is that someone who has been waiting even longer for their order has slotted in ahead of you. At the end of the day, it's 8 of us doing our best to get your order out as fast as we can.
Our first "big" meet-up of 2021! Finally! We decided to meet up at Bolehills, a large pumptrack in Sheffield. The Bolehills crew have worked so hard on the track during lockdown, it was great to go back and see what's been done. The track has something for everyone, with a pumptrack, roll-able jumps and moving up to the big jumps. That week we happened to have Lauren and Lily from the local school for work experience! Hannah now wasn't the only girl at Cotic HQ! We invited them along to our Women of Steel Bolehills event, here's how it went:
Lauren writes....
At first, both Lily and I were nervous to get started as it had been a while since we last rode our bikes. But once we got comfortable, it was a really enjoyable evening. It really helped that everyone there was super supportive and considerate to the fact that we were beginners.
When we first got there, we were both really nervous about what to expect. We worried that we would need to be more experienced riders to attend. But Cy assured us that that wouldn’t be the case. And it wasn’t. Everyone there made us very included, and they all encourage us to push ourselves. This attitude made us (and no doubt other beginners) feel welcome at the event. Another thing that helped us to feel more comfortable was that so many other people (of different levels of experience) were there.
We decided to start out on the pump track, instead of going straight onto the proper track. We did this to get used to being on our bikes again, after a while. Lily also rode around the field opposite the track to familiarise herself with riding her bike. After a while of stumbling around the pump track, we attempted the back straight on the actual track. We chose this part of the track because it was easy enough for our ability, but still challenged us. Cy made sure that we were okay and guided us around the track when we first got started. The whole event had an amazing atmosphere. It was really laid back and relaxed. Meaning we didn’t feel pressured to be on the track the whole time or having to ride at a certain standard.
Lily writes...At the end of the night, Rich bought fish and chips for everyone there. Everyone was chatting to each other and sharing bikes (and food). It felt really special. We both felt really inspired by all the experienced women riders there. They are incredible! And they made us want to continue riding in hopes of becoming as experienced as them in the future. Thank you to everyone who came out for the event, it was a really great night!
Keen cyclist, member of the local uni mountain bike club, founder of Women In Cycling Festival and all-round lovely person Emma Morris set herself a challenge of riding 100 miles of mountain bike trails, she faced more obstacles than you can imagine - but overcame it all to complete the challenge, and she came away smiling.
Emma writes... Last year whilst undertaking the obligatory COVID zoom quizzes, my friends and I decided we wanted to ride 100 miles whilst conquering all the great Peak district descents. Our first attempt was on Summer Solstice 2020, but some bad route planning and poor time management meant we only managed 81miles.
Convinced we had it in us, we planned for another attempt in late 2020 but a few mishaps got in the way. First, I broke nine bones by face-planting a car, and then my friend Diesel - jealous of my broken bones - decided to shatter his leg in a motocross accident. But, after all that we remained keen. All year we were chatting about the ride, refining the route and getting hyped! In another obstacle, our bikes took a bit of a beating during some seriously intense winter riding. My new Cotic Jeht not yet ready, Cotic were generous enough to lend me a Flaremax for the big day. We just had to hope Diesel's bike would survive the ride.
Setting off at 2.40am - with our bikes and bags fully loaded - it felt like we were going on a proper adventure and we were stoked! We reached 50k by 7am and we were feeling great. The furthest point was Glossop so we were never that far away from home. It was both awesome and depressing looking around the hills and seeing exactly where we had been and where we had got to go. We'd done Stanage, Bamford, Hathersage, Froggatt, Curbar, Baslow, Hassop, Longstone, Eyam, Shatton Moor, Bradwell before 10.30am.
As we were riding up Pindale, we decided to save energy and cut out Cavedale and Winnats Pass. BEST DECISION EVER! Instead we headed up Rushups Edge to Jacob's Ladder - boy was that painful when you're tired and carrying 21 hours worth of food and water...
About 100km in (around Potato Alley) I hit the wall- it was the biggest test of mental strength I've had. We were pushing as fast as we could but still going slowly. Tiredness and hunger hit me hard and I had a silly crash. All was fine though and we kept saying 'just keep pedalling and just keep smiling'.
As soon as Glossop was in sight it was like a second burst of energy. The hype was high and so was the energy. We were pedalling some comparatively easy miles and at this point we knew we were going to make it to 100 miles. This felt incredible!
However, half way down Cutgate, Diesel's free hub started seizing - oh no, here we go! Luckily, we bumped into some unprepared riders with a flat tire and whilst we provided them with the tools to fix it, they helped us to get Diesel's cassette spinning again. This was our longest rest point and the first proper conversation we'd had with anyone but each other.
We hit 100 miles around Ladybower after coming back over Cutgate and now the final part: getting home.
We were determined to finish on our local routes, so we headed back up via Bamford Edge, past Stanage and along Burbage. By this point, our bums hurt, our feet hurt and we'd been pedalling for 15 hours (20 hours elapsed). We were very tired so we decided to avoid a nasty crash on the tracks and head home on the road.
21 hours after setting off we had done it. Although our bodies were in pain, we felt incredible! We'd ridden 114.5miles (184km) and it felt great to know that we had really pushed ourselves mentally and physically - sooo cool!"
Vacancy – Full Time Mechanic and Dispatch Clerk – 3 month contract
Updated 10/06/21 to a Full Time Position
One of our current mechanics has crashed their bike, so this position is now offered full time. Deadline remains Friday 11th June 5pm BST
Cotic is a growing bike company based in the Peak District, specialising in high performance bikes which we design and develop, market, distribute and sell directly ourselves. As with most of the bike industry, here at Cotic we're super busy at this time. As parts shipments become available to fulfil customer orders through the summer months, we need a skilled bike mechanic to help us out with frame preparation, complete bicycle assembly and packing frames and bikes ready for shipment.
Here at Cotic, every single frame we sell is faced, chased and prepped by us, and every single bicycle we sell is assembled from the frame up, right here in the UK. As such, a successful applicant will be a skilled bicycle mechanic, experienced in all aspects of assembly, including hydraulic disc brake line trimming, tubeless tyre setup, headset and BB installation and setup of multiple types and brands of gear systems. Although professional qualifications such as Cytech are of interest, they are not a requirement of the role.
On the dispatch side of things, you will be required to learn how to partially dis-assemble the complete bikes and pack them into our award winning custom bike boxes under the direction of our full time Dispatch Queen Hannah. Training will be provided.
Cotic is a small, close knit team of 8 people. As well as contributing to keeping stoke high by getting bikes to customers as quickly as possible, we welcome any and all ideas across any part of the business. You can be an influence as much or as little as you like.
At Cotic, our values are rooted in respect for our employees and customers. We champion diversity and inclusivity. We are committed to equal opportunity for all and we embrace new and different perspectives. You can learn more about us on the About page. Click Here
Updated 10/06/21: The job will be based at Cotic's Calver, Derbyshire HQ, for 37 hours / 5 days per week for a minimum of 3 months.
Rate offered is £9.50/hour.
You will be required to work your hours as 5 complete working days between Monday and Friday. You will not be expected to work at weekends or unsupervised.
At the end of the contract period we will review our ongoing resource requirements and decide whether to continue with an extended contract at that point. This is flexible in both directions and no commitment is required or offered by either Cotic or the Employee to extend beyond the 3 month initial contract.
Submit CVs and covering letters to cy@cotic.co.uk by 5pm BST Friday 11th June 2021.
07/06/2021 - UPDATED We're Hiring! FULL Time Mechanic and Dispatch Assist
Vacancy – Full Time Mechanic and Dispatch Clerk – 3 month contract
Updated 10/06/21 to a Full Time Position
One of our current mechanics has crashed their bike, so this position is now offered full time. Deadline remains Friday 11th June 5pm BST
Cotic is a growing bike company based in the Peak District, specialising in high performance bikes which we design and develop, market, distribute and sell directly ourselves. As with most of the bike industry, here at Cotic we're super busy at this time. As parts shipments become available to fulfil customer orders through the summer months, we need a skilled bike mechanic to help us out with frame preparation, complete bicycle assembly and packing frames and bikes ready for shipment.
Here at Cotic, every single frame we sell is faced, chased and prepped by us, and every single bicycle we sell is assembled from the frame up, right here in the UK. As such, a successful applicant will be a skilled bicycle mechanic, experienced in all aspects of assembly, including hydraulic disc brake line trimming, tubeless tyre setup, headset and BB installation and setup of multiple types and brands of gear systems. Although professional qualifications such as Cytech are of interest, they are not a requirement of the role.
On the dispatch side of things, you will be required to learn how to partially dis-assemble the complete bikes and pack them into our award winning custom bike boxes under the direction of our full time Dispatch Queen Hannah. Training will be provided.
Cotic is a small, close knit team of 8 people. As well as contributing to keeping stoke high by getting bikes to customers as quickly as possible, we welcome any and all ideas across any part of the business. You can be an influence as much or as little as you like.
At Cotic, our values are rooted in respect for our employees and customers. We champion diversity and inclusivity. We are committed to equal opportunity for all and we embrace new and different perspectives. You can learn more about us on the About page. Click Here
Updated 10/06/21: The job will be based at Cotic's Calver, Derbyshire HQ, for 37 hours / 5 days per week for a minimum of 3 months.
Rate offered is £9.50/hour.
You will be required to work your hours as 5 complete working days between Monday and Friday. You will not be expected to work at weekends or unsupervised.
At the end of the contract period we will review our ongoing resource requirements and decide whether to continue with an extended contract at that point. This is flexible in both directions and no commitment is required or offered by either Cotic or the Employee to extend beyond the 3 month initial contract.
Submit CVs and covering letters to cy@cotic.co.uk by 5pm BST Friday 11th June 2021.
19/05/2021 - Cotic Soul Named Most Influential Bike Of The Millenium
Cotic Soul - One of Bikeradar/MBUK Most Influential Bikes Of The Millenium
Cy Writes.....
More podcast action! This time the learned folks at Bikeradar/MBUK have done a podcast choosing their Most Influential Bikes Of The Millenuim, and rather wonderfully Tom chose the Cotic Soul.
Although not in production anymore, the Soul was our founding model. The dream bike I wanted, but couldn't find anywhere so I designed it myself. I also accidentally started a bike brand as a result! If you don't know it, but want the full story, have a watch of our 15 Year Anniversairy video below.
As well as talking about the Soul specifically, they were all rather wonderful about Cotic as a brand. To be honest I'm a bit overwhelmed! The whole podcast and all the choices are interesting and relevant, but if you just want the Cotic bit then skip to around 28 minutes in.
What's the real relationship between brands and media?
Cy Writes.....
A couple of weeks ago I had one of my better work days by heading out for a ride with Rob Weaver from MBUK / Bikeradar. I was collecting the RocketMAX they had tested on Enduro Bike Of The Year.
Chris from Downtime was along as well, so we sat down and chatted about the real relationship between brands and testers. You can read the full Bike Of The Year round up over on Bikeradar.
You can still find a lot of cyncism out there about bike tests, but I have yet to meet a tester who wasn't in some way committed to providing the best advice they can. Rob is the absolute epitomy of this, and for us as a brand, that integrity is important. If more people believe tests are rigorous and accurate, the better it is for us as a direct selling brand when we get a good write up.
Anyway, I won't spoil any more. Grab a brew and have a listen to the player below, or search for Downtime Podcast on Spotify or iTunes and make sure you get subscribed.
After inspiring us to look at the SID/Wolfpack based build kits on the FlareMAX, Guy Kesteven does what he does best and tells you all the reasons why the Gen4 bike is ace. Enjoy!
We're like buses - no new bikes for a few months then two in a week! Here's the full lowdown on our updated Short Travel Trail/Downcountry/Used-to-be-called-Mountain Biking bike, the FlareMAX Gen4.
The Generation 4 FlareMAX retains the 125mm and most of the geometry of it's predecessor, as we really felt we had hit a sweetspot with that. It combines the confidence inspiring elements of Longshot geometry with a lively and easily cornered feel that's intrinsic to a bike that's going to be speeder biked between the trees along swoopy, singletrack trails.
What's new is the adoption of the Jeht style seat tube and linkage arrangement, which boosts seatpost insertion by 20mm and ensures that the vast majority of riders will be able to fit at least a 150mm drop seatpost to the bike. At the business end of the suspension, we have adopted Metric 210x50 shock sizing to futureproof the bike, and the actual seat angle experience by the rider is a tough steeper than the Gen3 (around 0.5 deg depending on saddle height). Our 2021 swingarm completes the picture with easy clearance for up to 2.5" tyres.
There is now a Rockshox Select Plus shock option, alongside our long standing, super tuneable, high performance Cane Creek DB Air IL. This carries our Cotic developed Base Tune ready to ride.
In terms of ride feel and intent, the biggest change for Gen4 is the adoption of some build kit options for riders looking for more of a scalpel than a hammer. All the builds now of the options to specify a Rock Shox SID Ultimate 120mm fork (in iconic blue), HUNT XC Wide wheels and Wolfpack Trail/Cross 2.25" tyres. This combination of parts drops 1.65kg from the weight of a more trail orientated spec, coming in at just 12.7kg for the Gold XT build complete bike. Just how lively these parts make the bike has to be felt to be believed, yet it's not at the expense of capability. The Longshot geometry and great tyre compound give you astonishing composure in steep situations.
The SID, XC Wide wheels and Wolfpack tyres are an option on all the builds - they're cost upgrade on the SLX based Silver build, but no cost options on the Gold XT and Gold Eagle builds. In July there will also be a Gold Eagle AXS option using the latest wireless groupset from SRAM. These can be reserved now for delivery in July.
If you want your FlareMAX a little more all round capable, we have Rock Shox and Cane Creek 130mm fork options, and our more usual HUNT Trail Wide wheel/WTB 2.5 Slashguard tyre combo on the Gold Build, and Shimano/Continental on the Silver build.
Available right now are the UK made Launch Edition frames which will only be made until July. They are available in Sydney Blue and Gritstone Blue/Green Fade. These frames start at £2,099 with the Rockshox Select Plus shock, or £2,199 with the DB Air IL. Complete bikes start at £3,799 with SLX/HELM equipped Silver build, up to £5,249 for the Gold Eagle AXS build. As always these are just starting points and we have options for different forks, wheels, tyres and suspension throughout the range. Availability on bikes is going to be July at the earliest due to parts deliveries and availability, but frame orders can ship this week if you're quick. They are in stock now in all sizes and colours.
In August the Series Production Taiwan made frames will arrive, which will be in Hubble Purple and Matte Slate Grey. All the same build options and frames options are available, but £300 lower priced. So, frames start at £1,799, and bikes start at £3,499. As more Rock Shox are delivered later in the summer, the Silver build bike option price drops to start at £3,149 with a Revelation 130mm fork.
Today we launch the Cotic Tonic, our titanium gravel bike. Ever since we launched the Escapade back in 2014 we have had requests for a ti version. Well, wait no longer! Using the same proven geometry as the Escapade, but rendered in gorgeous polished 3Al/2.5V butted titanium, the Tonic really is our drop bar dream bike.
The Tonic is based on the Escapade, which has been a gravel bike since before there were gravel bikes. Our drop bar bikes have always had big clearances and discs, but we think that works just as well on road as off it. Sure you can speed it up on something like a 700x28c, but we supply the bikes with big volume 37c slicks. They roll really fast, but float over the potholes in the road and bumps in the trail. With the improved clearance provided by the latest Wide Chainline gravel cranks, you can run up to 700x44 or 650x50 Road Plus.
The frame weighs just 1,647 grams, which saves over 600 grams compared to the Escapade.
We have just 32 of these, and they're the only Tonics we are getting in 2021. The framesets are in stock right now for £2,199 including a Hope seatclamp and UK delivery.
At time of writing, the frames and forks are in stock. and if you want a frameset, we can ship this week.
MBUK and Bikeradar have just published the reviews associated with their important Bike Of The Year test. It's the 4th year running they have invited a Cotic bike to be a part of the review, in which they bring together what they consider to be the best and most important bikes of the year. Just to be asked is a privilege and we're very happy to be in the top 8 again. This year, they asked for the RocketMAX to make a return in the Enduro category. Although we didn't quite make the top 3 this year, we got a great 4/5 score (the top 3 all got 4.5/5) and they clearly loved it.
"Composure and comfort when really pounding through the ugliest of terrain have definitely been elevated, but it’s still a more engaging, feedback-rich ride compared to some of its counterparts with similar amounts of travel."
"Uphill, I found the Cotic really easy going. This is thanks to a combination of that relatively steep seat angle, roomy cockpit and stable suspension that remains calm and almost bob-free when seated."
And - with not a small amount of Schadenfraude for the 'steel is heavy' brigade - ".....the overall weight of the RocketMAX at just 15.12kg....was actually the lightest of all the bikes in the Enduro Bike of the Year test."
They were riding the Gen3 RocketMAX in medium, based around a Silver build with upgraded wheels, tyres and suspension. Unlike a lot of bikes and frames right now, we have some availability, or the frames are in production right here in the UK all through the year.
Head over to the product page to learn more and order yours.
Wes Fife was our rider on the Development Squad, then moved up to the pro team in 2019. After a year in the wild, finding himself between sponsors and without a bike, he knew the door is always open and we'd help if we could. Luckily we had an old SolarisMAX frame his kit would fit onto and he could charge the Tweed Valley on some quality steel again.
If you've never experienced the steeps above the Innerleithen Golf Course then put it right at the top of your list. One of our favourite places to ride ever and you'll be as comfortable up there on a light SolarixMAX as you would a full-fat RocketMAX.
Luckily Wes is fast enough on any bike and has loved the winter slithering about on his SolarisMAX. No pivots to clean and shock to service. The perfect sledge for the inclement months, especially on the loamy side in Cademuir where these shots were taken.
Now the clocks have changed and his new ride is on the way he's retired that frame for the time being. Maybe we'll see him back on it next winter... Or maybe we'll see you on one of our hardtail frames next winter instead?
29 or 27.5. A range of travel capabilities from 120mm to 160mm. All the tabs for bottles or bags if touring / bikepacking is your thing. A supple and sprightly ride, plus most importantly, clearance for mud; We will have a bike in our range for you.
Be like Wes; don't stop riding in winter, get a hardtail.
Today we're introducing our new tyre option: Wolfpack. These tyres are designed by the man behind a lot of Schwalbe, Conti and Specialized tyes who has started up on his own. We first became aware of them when Guy Kesteven started running them on his lightweight Downcountry FlareMAX project bike last year. He's been ripping about on these for over a year and they're still there, and he's been super impressed with them.
Over the last year we've realised that as awesome as our WTB tyre combos are, they're definitely on the heavier, grippier, larger side of things. They're brilliant for the kind of riding we do around here, but we definitely felt there was space for something lighter and livelier for more XC/trail sensibilities. We got some Wolfpack tyres in to try and we've been really pleased with them. For a start, despite having some casing protection and good grippy compound, they weigh between 300 and 400 grams per tyre less than a 2.5" WTB Slashguard tyre, so you'll be saving up to 800 grams of weight - and rotating weight at that - by going Wolfpack. Perfect for those longer, pedally rides. Solaris and FlareMAX kind of rides.
There is a whole range of Wolfpack tyres, but we have chosen a great all round package in the Trail 2.25" front and Cross 2.25" rear. Despite their good weight and great performance, these aren't some toothless XC race tyres. These are proper mountain bike tyres with decent grip. Wolfpack do several racier options than these, but we felt these offer a real sweet spot in terms of not being too specific whilst still offering plenty of speed advantage.
There's a full 4.5/5 review of the Wolfpack tyres over on Bikeperfect.
From today you can order your Cotic with the Trail/Cross combo, which is a fantastic option if you need something lighter and faster for your bike, whilst still maintaining a good grippy compound and decent durability.
Singletracks website have just published their review of the Jeht. It's a fantastic write up and video.
"At the exact same weight as the 140mm carbon bike I recently tested, the Jeht has no issue getting up to cruising altitude. The initial suspension movement is notably supple..."
"...when you pull as hard as you can across this bike its natural springy nature comes to the fore. If you haven’t yet experienced aggressive riding on a steel bike, I would highly recommend giving it a try. This one feels fantastic."
"I didn’t expect that a steel 29er with long chainstays would be this much fun to throw around, but the Jeht is. The higher shock pressure provides a formidable spring to push against, and the return energy allows for some stupid-fun descending."
"Every bike asks to be ridden a little differently, and this one leans hard in the fun and adventure camps."
They were riding the Launch Edition Jeht, but the identical geometry Taiwan made Series Production frames are due to arrive with us any day now. An unlike a lot of bikes right now, we have some availability, as well as gorgeous new colours.
Head over to the product page to learn more and order yours.
Last summer our ambassador Wayne (Chamonix MTB) LINK took his Rocket on a pretty big day out. Living in the birthplace of modern mountaineering, when Wayne says it was a big day out, you'd best believe it. Have a look...
After a 7am start in Chamonix, it’s time to load up the trailer and head out to Crans Montana, Switzerland to ride the Plaine Morte. Plaine Morte is an epic trail that follows an ancient bisse/aquaduct all the way to the valley floor, ending in the town of Sion in the Swiss Valais.
Getting to the summit involves some logistics but multiple cable cars and a few hours later we are stood at almost 3000m, next to the Glacier Plaine Morte roughly translated as the dead flat glacier. Unfortunately the atmospheric cloud we ascended through managed to block the incredible view we’d been promised!
Fortunately, we weren’t just here for the views and after a quick flowy, rocky single track ride to warm up we were straight in to the only uphill/hike a bike section of day – with 44km of descending ahead of us, a short climb was to be expected.
Shortly after arriving at Wildstrubell Refuge we were straight in to the descent and a rowdy start to the ride – a rocky, loose, off camber moonscape of a single tack laid out ahead of us.This trail definitely isn’t for the faint hearted, with steep committing chutes to descend, but the amazing surroundings help to take your mind off the tech.
By the time we reached Lac Plan des Roses the cloud was clearing so we took the chance to stop for a speedy lunch. With more than 2,000m of descending still ahead of us we kept it quick and cracked on. Leaving the loose rocky tech behind us we entered the high alpine pasture, which is less steep and a lot more flowy and fun. The beautiful Barrage de Tesuzier lies ahead and then s the fun really begins.
The bisse takes us over sketchy bridges and through small caves where a good head for heights is vital - did I mention the ride involves some via ferrata? ;-) Hike-a-biking through a network of caves definitely adds to the adventure and is actually a more recent addition to the trail - health and safety thought it might be a good idea to bring these walk/aqua ways in to the mountainside rather than tacked on to the cliffs.
After navigating the caves it’s back out into the trees, with blue skies above us and some amazingly fast singletrack under our wheels. This was a big day but it was well worth it - 45km, 2900m of descending and around 500m of climbing throughout the day, together with the views and the trail, made for one hell of an amazing ride!
Well, it took a few days of digging to get there, but we finally have our new working practices in place for our EU customers. We contacted all our customers individually that had orders already placed with deposits last week, as we wanted to make sure they understood their situation fully.
EU Exports - New Rules
Before I get into this in detail, please remember that this is Cotic specific. We have a particular implementation because of our UK made frames and also because we sell predominantly mountain bikes. This means our bikes generally have very high value suspension bolted to them (the same, if not more than the frame cost sometimes) which is what stops us qualifying for tariff free trade on bicycles in all cases regardless of the origin of the base frame. Some other companies will have different tariff applications, because of their supply and bike spec situation. So, without further ado, this is what you can now expect from Cotic:
UK Made Frames
UK made frame only orders (so that is currently RocketMAX and Rocket) attract Zero duty when shipped to the EU. This is regardless of the damper specified, and can also stretch to include headset and BB and certain other items usually associated with "frame only" orders, mainly because in the vast majority of cases it involves UK made Hope parts.
Taiwan Made Frames
All Taiwan made frame only orders will attract 4.7% import duty, and the associated handling fees for customs. As an example, we have calculated that a customer in the EU with a BFeMAX frame ordered will pay EUR40-50 more now.
Complete Bikes
All Cotic bicycles attract 14% import duty. This means that with handling fees our bikes have become EUR350-600 more expensive depending on specification.
The flip side of this in our home market is that this also works the other way, and our European based competitors bikes have increased in price by 20% or more, which means we are now more price competitive in our home market. Silver linings and all that...
All purchases made by EU customers are now charged without 20% UK VAT. This means the price you pay Cotic will be much lower initially, but you will have VAT and the import duty and fees applied in transit, which will be payable by the customer to the courier when the frame or bike arrives.
Shipping
If you live in the EU and already have an order on with us for a frame or bike, then shipping is still included in the price and we will honour that regardless of what happens in the next few weeks.
We aim to continue with that with new orders, but we are keeping an eye on pricing. At the moment the prices remain similar to pre-Brexit, but some services such as DPD Road is currently suspended whilst they figure out their new border operating procedures, and the other services available are currently giving out 11-14 day transit times. Again, I suspect this is due to needing new and more involved operating procedures at borders. It will improve over time as the new rules settle in, but we reserve the right to increase shipping fees if we see major increases on our usual services.
So that's it. Thanks for your patience, and as always, we're on the end of an email or the phone if you're unsure about anything. We're happy to talk things through.
The chances are, if you're reading this, then you probably own or have owned a Cotic. Whether it was a brand-spanker or pre-loved, you are already in the Global Cotic Cycling Club (CC). Pretty simple initiation process huh? We've been running events, rides & parties for a few years now but obviously 2020 put a kibosh on most of that for now. In the meantime we want to expand the reach and hopefully spark some other owner-run events in regions far from our HQ. Here's where you come in...
We want your stories. Personal, happy, sad, informative, inspirational, reflective or random. On-topic, off-topic, long or short. Motivational or morose. A love letter or a diss track.
Where were you when you first got “that” feeling? Where’s the one place on the planet you call home? What have you been through to get exactly where you are today? What’s been your biggest loss or your biggest gain?
We want to hear about the ride that changed your life (for better or worse). We want to hear how you got into riding - or even the just outdoors. How you would encourage people into outside spaces - and how to reach those people? Who’s influenced you? Does your job affect how you approach your sport or is your sport your job? What was your first bike? Or maybe it isn’t about riding at all…? What one thing would you like to share with this planet if you had the chance?
Pictures are a huge part of this project so add some colour to your reply with a handful of memories. Attach a current portrait (if you’re comfortable with that) and any other photos that give some extra depth to the words. Take your time digging.
Your location is super important - this shouldn’t be your house of course, but your local spot or city. The place you’re at now. For example if you're from Ireland but now live in Germany, tag the spot in Germany. Somewhere we can drop a pin on our map.
Lastly, if you’d like to carry on the work, build a scene or invite others to your world, leave your social media tag or email and we’ll include it so people can make those connections.
Thank you for being a part of this. We can’t wait to hear your tales. Please email us at global@cotic.co.uk and we promise to read all your submissions.
Happy New Year! If you got a few days off over the last week, I hope it was enjoyable. Now the UK has left the EU and a trade deal has been reached, I wanted to let everyone know what our understanding is at the current moment.
The UK Situation
For UK customers it's effectively business as usual, and we will be building and shipping whatever we have in stock as soon as possible for you. For those enormously patient hardtail frame customers, what I can confirm is that the frames are due into port in the UK on 23rd January. They are in a container, on a boat, right now. What I don't know is how long it will take to clear them through customs, and I suspect it will take longer than the usual 4-5 working days. As always, your patience is appreciated, and if you feel you can't wait any longer then cancellation with full refund is always an option. These are unprecedented times, and peoples' situations change quickly. We will never hold you to an order you made months ago if it doesn't suit anymore.
EU Exports
Despite the trade deal having been signed between the UK and the EU, there is still some lack of clarity on the charging of import duty for certain Cotic product lines. However, some things we know:
At the moment we are clear that UK made frames (so that is currently RocketMAX and Rocket) attract Zero duty when shipped to the EU.
All purchases made by EU customers are now charged without 20% UK VAT, and they will attract VAT in the country of delivery which will be payable by the customer to the courier when it arrives. This will apply even if you ordered before 31st December 2020 and paid a deposit. Don't worry, deposits don't attract VAT, so you won't end up over paying any taxes if you have a deposit with us. If you paid in full, this also leaves you unaffected because completed transactions made prior to 31st December 2020 are to remain under the previous rules.
This situation will persist for 6 months whilst the new EU/UK VAT collection system is put in place.
The unclear situation is with Taiwan produced frames, and possibly complete bikes using Taiwan made frames. The Zero duty situation is for goods that are "UK Origin" or have a significant proportion of UK 'value add'. For the UK made frames they easily meet these requirements because they are more than 70% UK made or processed by value.
What we are currently trying to ascertain is whether our EU customers who have bought Taiwan produced frames or bikes assembled using the majority of Taiwan sourced parts might need to pay some import duty. This is because the rules regarding items being of "UK origin" are a bit unclear, and the 'value add' by Cotic possibly doesn't add up to a significant enough percentage of the value of the end product supplied to qualify for zero rating. I am currently going through the full trade agreement to try and figure it out, and we are in touch with our industry body to get to the bottom of this.
The upshot of all this is that for this week at least and maybe longer, and until we know exactly what the duty situation is, we are not shipping anything to customers in the EU. We want to give ourselves time to understand and apply the new rules correctly, and then be able to explain them to customers. There will be increases in shipping prices as well due to the couriers having to clear products through customs now, so once we have all the costs understood, we will be in touch to agree any cost increases with you.
If you have an order placed already, but don't wish to pay the extra fees, then we will cancel and refund. No problem at all. At the very least, we will do everything we can to look after you whether you want to complete the order or not.
What I really want to stress is that as soon as we have a firm operating procedure and pricing for our friends in the EU, we will start shipping again, but in the meantime you are more than welcome to place provisional orders with us so you can make sure you have a place in the queue for our upcoming deliveries.
Rest Of The World Exports
If you've got this far, well done! For our customers outside the UK and EU, it is business as usual and we are looking forward to hearing from you.
Production/Supply Outlook
Longer term, we are still facing demand like we have never known, as is the whole rest of the industry. As a result I have placed forward orders for our frames and parts for bicycles up to the end of 2021, and in some cases into 2022. Lead times on some parts like grips and saddles is now pushing out to over a year, so whilst we have good stock now and for the medium term, through the middle of the year I would expect us to have to make some substitutions to keep bikes going out you. It is here that the strength of our decision to assemble bikes in the UK really makes a difference. We can discuss these options with you if some parts stock is dwindling, or we can leave some items off the bike and give you a discount as a result. We have done this throughout 2020 and will continue to do this where we need to in 2021 to make sure we get you your new Cotic as soon as we can manage.
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