The Classic BFe is the hardnut of the Cotic family. It shares its geometry with our Soul trail bike, but takes things in an altogether more direct and aggressive direction for riders wanting something to depend on in the craziest terrain. Certified for 100-160mm forks, the BFe will take the fight to the trail from the Megavalanche to the 4X start gate, taking in hard trail riding and crazy steep uber-tech on the way.

Are you after the new updated BFe? If so, click here...

Developed in the mountains of the Pyrenees and the dirt jumps, 4X and DH scene of the UK, the BFe has been reborn for 2010 with all the capabilities of its illustrious 853 predecessor in an incredible value package. The outstanding Cotic hardtail geometry is carried over which maintains the same 'pin the front wheel in' attitude our hardtails have become famous for. The rest of the package carries all the essentials to deliver the legendary Cotic ride to a whole new audience.

A Reynolds 853 down tube forms the backbone of the chassis, its incredible strength allowing us to keep the weight down, whilst 853's air-hardening little brother Reynolds 631 steps in for top tube, seat tube and head tube duties. This maintains the toughness expected for airborne activities as well as meeting the latest CEN regulations at minimal weight; at 5.4lbs the BFe is trail bike light, but crazy tough.

Our new signature Ovalform top tube maximises handling accuracy whilst minimising vertical harshness and the Ovalform philosophy is also applied to the seatstays, where vertical ovalising increases vertical compliance when the rider is standing. It's a detail feature, but we've done everything we can to make sure the frame is always on your side, however lairy it gets beneath the wheels.

Carefully tapered gussets manage the front end stiffness into the rest of the frame, and the Reynolds 631 air hardening head tube combines with these to give incredible fatigue life and huge impact strength. All this adds up to give the BFe incredible precision for those crux balance moves, and huge stiffness so you can get that snap out of the gate or haul through that rock garden. ISCG05 mountings, simple and clean dropouts and no seat tube bottle bosses for maximum saddle dropping complete the picture.

All mountain, 4X, trail ride, downhill, jumping : BFe will do it all.

• Reynolds 631 main tubes, with Reynolds 853 down tube - stronger than cromoly, air hardening. Maximum strength at minimum weight.
• 2mm thick Reynolds 631 head tube for maximum impact strength and fatigue resistance.
• Ovalform top tube and seatstays for boost precision and maximise compliance.
• Custom plug reinforced 35mm seat tube for massive pedaling stiffness.
• Bridge-less S-bend chainstays with Cotic Hexten gussets for improved fatigue life and huge mud clearance.
• ISCG05 mount.
• 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 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 - 14.5" (XS), 16" (S), 17.5" (M) and 19" (L). The frames are designed to be compact and chuckable.
• Weight - 5.4 lbs for the 16"

The classic BFe is available in our largest range of sizes, from XS up to our standard Large. [NOTE: the Classic BFe is no longer available in Large, check out the new BFe if you require a Large] The XS size features teeny weeny 14.5" seat tube length and a 22" top tube. It's all about the 4X and dirt jumping here. Our 4X rider Robbie Rickman is 6ft 3in yet rides a standard small, so his feeling was that for proper bike chucking we needed something smaller in the range. At the other end of the scale, seeing as the BFe shares its geometry with the Soul we re-introduced the large for the full size range so people who can't quite stretch to Soul can get their hands on the amazing Cotic handling and frame design. Or you could be a really tall guy who want to run HUUUUUUUUUUGE forks. Whatever you want really!

The chart is a guide to frame size. Ultra Compact Geometry means that the frames are small and long. You can take this two ways. You can either have a regular position coupled with a small and chuckable frame, or you could go for the next size up and go long and racey without feeling like you're riding a gate. You lot are just too different to say for sure, so drop us a line at size@cotic.co.uk and we'll be happy to discuss set up based on what you're riding at the moment.

Seatpost diameter: 31.6mm (wise to get a decent length one)

Front Mech: 34.9mm (Top Pull)

Bottom Bracket width: 73mm

Headset: 1.125" only

• Bright Shiny Blue with white Wrap panel under the lacquer
or
• Gritstone with reflective black decals

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 sus 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. 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 it's 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 stirling work as a general trail bike once a suitably nice seatpost was found. 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 'Zoch's, DeeMax's and 4Pot 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.

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! Cycle Show at ExCeL had our new model (BFe and Simple) in their brand new production forms. Ace.

Feb 2007: Second batch ordered with revised chainstays with minimal crimping and 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!

Feb 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 pretty nuclear orange colour as an option.

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

Oct 2009: BFe moves on........