Archive: BFe 26 Classic

Cotic BFe 26 Classic in Matte Bright Green

Discontinued. This page is kept as an archive record for owners and for anyone researching an older Cotic BFe. The information on this page is for historical reference.

Years of production: 2005-2016

The classic BFe 26 was later replaced by a new BFe 26 with updated geometry: see BFe 26 (2018). The BFe 26's brother was the BFe 275: see the BFe archive.

The BFe 26 is the hardnut of the Cotic family. It shares its geometry with our Soul 26 frame (see the Soul archive), but the BFe 26 likes a more, shall we say, direct approach.

The BFe 26 is for hard riding. You can run with a 100mm fork for 4X and dirtjump duties. You can plug in a 160mm fork and send it, but don't oversend it, down the Megavalanche. Those are the two extremes of the fork build options. Most BFe 26 builds end up somewhere in between and perform mighty fine as bold-as-brass rag-around play bikes.

Fun with a capital F, Durable with a capital D: Burly Iron.

What's new in 2012

The BFe was made over for 2012. Although the magic geometry formula wasn't changed, the new BFe sported the latest industry standards and adaptability: a new tubeset, a 44mm head tube up front, a full set of dropper seatpost cable guides, new dropouts, ISCG05 mountings and no seat tube bottle bosses (for maximum saddle dropping). The handling was still the same "pin the front wheel and ride it out" attitude the previous BFe was renowned for.

New tubeset: A Reynolds 853 DZB (Dual Zone Butt) down tube formed the backbone of the chassis, its incredible strength and butting technology allowing us to keep the weight down. The top tube, seat tube and head tube used our new high strength Fm heat treated cromoly for outstanding durability. This was a Cotic designed tubeset with all our signature features.

New head tube: A 44mm standard head tube brought full steerer compatibility, so you could fit any of those big stiff forks: traditional 1 1/8th, tapered or even 1.5".

All of this added up to give the BFe more precision than ever before for those crux moves. There was huge stiffness on tap. You could get that snap out of the gate, or haul through that rock garden, and the BFe just delivered.

At just 5.4lbs the frame was trail bike light, so riding all day was never a chore. There's a good reason the BFe was awarded Most Versatile Frame in a test. Where the Cotic Soul covered the XC to All Mountain trail riding spectrum, the BFe began at All Mountain and took things as far as you wanted to go. All mountain, 4X, trail ride, downhill, jumping: BFe would do it all.

Frame details

Cotic Fm heat treat cromoly throughout with Reynolds 853 DZB down tube. Maximum strength at minimum weight
44mm standard head tube for maximum steerer compatibility and durability
Ovalform top tube and seatstays for boosted precision and maximised compliance
Cotic exclusive design reinforced 35mm seat tube for massive pedalling stiffness and dropper seatpost compatibility
Dropper remote hose clips under the top tube
Bridge-less S-bend chainstays with Cotic Hexten gussets for improved fatigue life and huge mud clearance
ISCG05 mount
Cotic cowled dropouts with replaceable mech hanger
Legendary Cotic geometry. Minimum 100mm travel forks for 4X action, up to 160mm forks for rock flattening
Low slung design keeps the frame out of the way for those tight situations, and a long top tube lets you ride up to the trails without breaking your back
No seat tube bottle bosses, so the saddle can be dropped all the way down
Steep seat angle and short 16.5" chainstays pin the front in for ultimate grip, handling and cornering ability
Sizes: 16" (S), 17.5" (M) and 19" (L). The frames are designed to be compact and chuckable
Weight: 5.4 lbs for the 16"

Geometry

The chart is a guide to frame size. Ultra Compact Geometry means the frames are small and long. You can take this two ways: a regular position coupled with a small and chuckable frame, or go for the next size up and go long and racey without feeling like you're riding a gate.

Frame Size	Small	Medium	Large
Seat Tube (centre-top)	16" / 400mm	17.5" / 440mm	19" / 480mm
Top Tube Length (effective)	22.75" / 577mm	23.25" / 590mm	24" / 610mm
Head Angle	68.3° (66.8°)	68.3° (66.8°)	68.3° (66.8°)
Seat Angle	71.3° (69.8°)	71.3° (69.8°)	71.3° (69.8°)
BB Drop	-13mm (-2mm)	-13mm (-2mm)	-13mm (-2mm)
Head Tube Length	100mm	110mm	120mm
Usual Height Range	5'5" - 5'8"	5'9" - 6'0"	6'0" - 6'3"
Reach	392.6mm	403.0mm	419.3mm
Stack	544.7mm	553.7mm	563.7mm
Stem Length	50-90mm	50-90mm	50-90mm

All measurements based on a 140mm travel fork sagged 30mm. Figures in brackets are static for a 140mm fork. Add or subtract 1 degree to the angles for a fork 20mm longer or shorter.

Component sizes

Seatpost diameter: 31.6mm (wise to get a decent length one)
Front mech: 34.9mm (top pull)
Bottom bracket width: 73mm
Headset: 44mm cup

Development history

Early 2005: Feedback from some of the AQR Luchon brigade and some of the harder riding UK Soul owners leads to some interesting discussions about a possible 'big brother' to the Soul, but stronger and stiffer for doing really stupid things on and running much bigger forks. With reasonable weight, reliable suspension forks at 140mm travel and above coming onto the market and riding styles and terrain choice progressing fast, it seemed like a good time to consider a tougher member of the family.

September 2005: Two prototype drawings complete, one small, one large. Geometry is identical to the Soul, as something to start with. Tubing is considerably changed: oversized and thicker walled down tube and top tube, gussets added following the design lead of the Soda development, beefier head tube, larger section seatstays and wishbone, ISCG tabs just for good measure. I wanted to radically increase the torsional stiffness and therefore handling accuracy of the frame, but Reynolds didn't make the tube I wanted. In the end, the massive 35mm seat tube was made by cutting down an 853 down tube and using a custom designed plug weld insert in the bottom and adding a shim to the top for 30.9mm seatposts. The frame still used 853 for the front end, so although all the tubing was larger and thicker than the Soul, it was still sensibly light given its enormous strength.

November 2005: Prototype frames landed! I got the large sized frame to use instead of my Soul, just to see how it would stack up as a general trail bike given how much stiffer it was. The small was built up as a dirt jump/slalomy type thing and given to assorted nutters to try and break.

Spring 2006: Things are going well. My large has done sterling work as a general trail bike once a suitably nice seatpost was found. The first two rides on an old gas pipe bit box post in the right size had me rubbing my back and wondering what the hell I'd done! However, a quick call to Rory at USE had a nice SUMO installed and the ride was toned down from 'ouch' to merely 'sporty'. Some 150mm Pace Fighter forks exercised the front end and a lot of fun was had generally stuffing it down the throat of any rocky trail that dared to get in my way. Even at the longer travel the standard Cotic hardtail geometry seemed great, with just a nudge forward on the saddle rails required to keep things good for climbs with the forks wound out. At the lunatic end of the scale, the small had been dirt jumped, dropped and generally 'pinned' all over the place and the frame and wheels were pretty much the only bits left working! For a bit more of a work out, it was shipped out to Luchon to be Chef Russ' 'bike for when the lifts are shut'. Russ is an astonishingly good rider, and by the end of the summer the little BFe had sprouted 150mm Zochs, DeeMax rims and 4 pot brakes.

Summer 2006: Feedback overwhelmingly good, strength good, time to move to production. The only thing people had picked up on with the frames was a mere visual hiccup: all the tubes in the front triangle were 35mm, which made the down tube look oddly weedy as your brain expects it to be bigger than all the other tubes. Odd, but true. So, despite the 35mm tube being perfectly adequate, and with the first generation of 160mm forks hoving into view on the horizon, calcs and FEA were redone for really big forks and a 37.3mm down tube (the largest Reynolds make). ISCG mounts were redesigned in line with the new ISCG05 standard.

The model name was settled upon after the usual strops, bunfights and name calling, but Kelvin came up with an absolute peach of a logo to really capture the play on words.

October 2006: Launch! The Cycle Show at ExCeL had our new models (BFe and Simple) in their brand new production forms. Ace.

February 2007: Second batch ordered with revised chainstays with minimal crimping and a 73mm BB shell, just like the Soul developments of the same time. Sizing changed. The stock Cotic small/medium/large breakdown hadn't really worked, with the larges being hard to sell and very tall guys buying a medium and going very marginal on the seatpost. I decided to drop the large and increase the seat tube length on the medium by 20mm so tall guys would get enough seatpost insertion but the same size rest of the bike in terms of top tube length and head tube length. Thus the 'Big' size was born.

Summer 2007: Approached by a young lad called Robbie Rickman with a CV and a pitch to ride a BFe in 4X competition. We liked the cut of his jib, our team sponsors helped out with some of the bits and Robbie got his first bike in August 07. Robbie being 6ft 3in and still wanting a small frame got the sizing debate going again!

February 2009: Drawings updated for BFe. After 2 successful years, riding on tough frames like this was progressing and the Big size was becoming a hard sell. I'd also learnt a great deal about gusset design and detailing during my research into CEN compliant frame design. All this fed into a mildly revised BFe with more shapely and thicker gusseting, standard Soul dropout, and the stock 17.5" seat tube medium size re-introduced. We also decided to shake the rather low key grey colour option up a bit by adding a Cotic orange colour as an option.

June 2009: Production versions of the Feb 09 frame design arrived.

October 2009: A fully redesigned version of the BFe (known internally as BFe2) is launched at The Cycle Show, moving the frame into a whole new area. The frame was designed to meet two needs: firstly we needed the frame to be CEN compliant, and secondly, to move the frame into a price point below the Soul. We calculated that by replacing the top and seat tubes with 631 material in thicker wall, but keeping the 853 down tube, we could keep the strength of the frame up whilst keeping most of the weight off. The down tube makes about the biggest single difference in weight on a frame. We also deleted the massive oval seatstays from the original 853 version and used slimmer 19mm stays to improve the ride and offset some of the weight gain from the 631 tubing. The dropouts were simplified to a plate design, and our new Ovalform top tube design developed on the new Soul was also included, bringing a boost in torsional stiffness. The Soul and BFe still shared the same Cotic hardtail geometry, so the BFe began its life not just as the toughnut of the Cotic family, but also as an entry level option for trail riders to get their hands on our bikes' handling for a little less cash. It also marked the introduction of our bright blue and gritstone colour options. The development was a massive success, with BFe sales easily matching Soul sales within a couple of months.

June 2012: After three years in production, BFe2 is superseded by the latest iteration (which we call BFe3). Having done a lot of work with various different geometries over the previous 2 years, we still decide that the original geometry offers the best blend of fun, ability and speed, so it stays on for the third iteration of the frame. The big changes are another revision to the tubeset, bringing in stronger custom butted heat treated cromo to replace the 631 top and seat tubes to reduce the weight, the addition of the Superlight dropout and replaceable hanger from the Soul, dropper seatpost hose/cable routing (the exclusive Cotic designed 34.9mm seat tube as always allowed larger diameter dropper posts to be fitted on all iterations of the frames) and finally the move to a 44mm head tube to futureproof the frame and allow fitting of taper steerer forks. Proves to be the most successful BFe yet.

January 2014: Still proving it can stick it to the competition, the BFe continues into 2014 unchanged except for the addition of the new Black Grape colour option.