[Closed] Cotic Escapade - arrived / built

Nice that. Weight sounds a little optimistic 🙂

ohh that is very nice that !!

Floor looks good to 😆

I used kitchen scales... 🙄

Blimey, do they go up to 23lbs? That'd be quite a cake. Anyway with this sort of bike I don't think it matters too much. Does look good.

I shouldn't be rude, but that looks rubbish. It's how I'd imagine a 20 year old Kona or Orange Clockwork would look if you stuck drop bars on it, and daft dropouts. Seems identical to the Roadrat also.

The Soul looks nice though 🙂

Is there much difference to the X?

I think Duckegg blue is becoming a bit of a Cotic cliche, but I fancied it over the purple-ish alternative. Looks nicer than my X's gloss black, but will show marks a lot more I'd guess

Im not too sure of that, the paint finish of my (black) Soul started to look pretty shabby after only a few weeks and my mates bike wasnt finished particularly well either

For a premium product I expected better

It's how I'd imagine a 20 year old Kona or Orange Clockwork would look if you stuck drop bars on it, and daft dropouts.

Funnily enough that is why I like it 🙂

Looks fun, enjoy!

It's how I'd imagine a 20 year old Kona or Orange Clockwork would look if you stuck drop bars on it, and daft dropouts.

The Roadrat and X, and now the Escapade, are 'road' bikes for MTBers who've been MTBing for 15 to 20 years.

It's how I'd imagine a 20 year old Kona or Orange Clockwork would look if you stuck drop bars on it, and daft dropouts.
Funnily enough that is why I like it

Likewise, perhaps we should print age in the interests of full disclosure

brassneck (42) 🙂

It looks like the X has been dropped now - are these things CX-able?

Wonder if you need to be 40+ to like this sort of thing?

mrblobby (40)

I like it.

PJ (23)

Looks very slack and tall, what frame size is it? Looks like the X to me.

MM (20)

spot on miketually
i have raced my X too.
bloody hell im 57

bloody hell im 57

Don't worry Gramps, age is just a number.

Nice, but duck egg blue needs silver finishing kit

Looks pretty tall and I'm not a fan of that crankset. I'm still not convinced by the looks of discs on road bikes either.

Going to give it a light to decent 6.

It does look pretty fun though.

everyone (22)

I didn't realise you were that old nathan 😉

Old as the hills mate. I'm almost at the time limit of being able to leave Loughborough.

Well, to prove the point about old MTBs...

Steel frame are just steel frames aren't they? No - not in my experience.

As you can see, the Soul's frame was treated to a total refurb last autumn. Allowing for what I could have eBayed it for prior to the refurb, it probably cost me the same to refurb it as to buy a new one. But, with the X, I wasn't 100% comfortable with the basic geometry; the Escapade has a lower BB and longer top tube.

[img] [/img]

I did build up my Soul as a super commuter too, just to see whether I could use it as my daily driver (and thereby creating an opportunity to upgrade the MTB in my life). It was really quite different from the X and the Escapade. Fast? Yes - but not what I'd want to ride on a weekend road jaunt.

So - even when they look alike, I don't find that all frames ride alike.

Ben (33) 🙂

I like everything about that apart from the cranks, which wouldn't look good on anything but look double mega awful on that. Sorry! But otherwise very nice.

Front end still looks tall to me, seems to be a lot of head-tube.

Oh dear - the cranks aren't getting much love! They're just 105 5700 jobbies... didn't think they were that bad!!

I think you need a black outer chainring to make it fit with the rest of the kit. Also, bar tape would look better if it matched the saddle or frame colour. Otherwise, very nice!

I like it, is it a size large? I personally much prefer the natty purple version and when funds allow I shall be building one up.
Looks just the job for hopping over kerbs, and blasting down rough tracks on the commute.

Old school Konas never look wrong.

Jim (35)

Looks fun, I do think it would look nice brown bar tape and saddle...

I've been toying with replacing my tourer with one of these.
Are you going to put panniers on it?

DM (33)

Any road bike is fine for hopping down curbs and gavel/lumpy tracks, see Paris-Roubaix for the abuse a road bike can take.

I just don't get the Cotic it looks like it was designed to take suspension forks with such a high front end. I'd have thought a 29er would be as fast over most ground and you wouldn't need another bike, what niche is the Cotic trying to fill? Bizarre. Plus dropping the X makes it look like Joe Burts review of it was right all along. Why didn't they make a proper cyclocross bike as that could have been interesting.

I like that (37)

However tea towels and other cloth items need straightening I can see creases.

The cranks are uglier than me.

What size frame is that?

Shermer75 (39, natch)

It's a Medium (56cm top tube).

I rode it to the station this morning. A full lowdown is hard as I've not managed to fit / adjust the headset properly (resulting in tight steering), but on second impressions it feels like I will need to put a shorter stem on. (No surprise, given that all parts were a swap from the shorter top tubed X).

I used to have a brown saddle on a pre-X frame to match the brown tape, but it didn't look right TBH as the shades of brown were different!

how did the GP4Seasons go on the rims - easy or tight?

Croix De Fer owner here, I am jealous of your mud clearance.

Jamie (34)

I would have thought the high front end is to accommodate the large clearances. Cy has always maintained that with the Roadrat and now the Escapade, he wanted to provide alot of clearance, so that would push up the front end.

I love it. I've just converted my Roadrat into road/drop bar mode as a wet/bad weather road bike and commuter and it rides great and is not that much slower than my proper road bike (Giant Defy Composite). So if the Roadrat is anything to go by then the Escapade should be every bit as good. Having said that, one of the things I like about the Roadrat for the commute and bad weather is the more relaxed handling compared to my Defy. I'm guessing you might lose this with the Escapade as it has a steeper head angle?

Crap. The more I am looking at this, the more I think I might go for the purple....

how easy/fiddly is it getting the front wheel in, when splaying the forks apart whilst trying to align the disc in the caliper?

is the back end still the 132.5mm dropout or did it swap to 135mm (would be more logical if it's disc only now) ?

Looks alright. I'd have black everything on it though.

I did build up my Soul as a super commuter too, just to see whether I could use it as my daily driver

What's the deal with the fork ends? Does anyone other than DT do 9mm bolt through? Have they dumped the forward disc tabs now the wheel is disc brake ejector proof?

I'm afraid I'm another chainset hater. Needs to be black, or the rest of the finishing kit needs to be silver in my view. 🙂

It's a slightly odd beast. I quite like it, but I reckon weight plus annoying dropouts would probably grind me down. I've spent a while trying to use a Salsa Vaya as my main road bike, and have ended up retiring it in favour of something much lighter but with substantial tyre clearance.

Jamie - Member

Croix De Fer owner here, I am jealous of your mud clearance.

Jamie (34)

what he said, except my name isn't Jamie, and i'm 36.

i'm also jealous of your long top tube, and tall head tube (the handlebars on my 60cm are somewhere down by my knees).

s'nice that.

Yes, the [b]>X<[/b] is no more... it was in the Cotic range for 4 years though...

Can you use the Escapade as a cyclocross bike instead?
Yes, but you won't be whipping either wheel out quickly if you were to race it.
And, it's not race light.

is the back end still the 132.5mm dropout or did it swap to 135mm (would be more logical if it's disc only now) ?

Still 132.5mm - apparently there are 130mm hubbed disc wheels out there, although I didn't know that.

What's the deal with the fork ends?

You can squeeze a normal hub in there, or use a 9mm thu axle if your hub can be adapted (eg Hope).
There'll be a new geek page on the Cotic website explaining/showing at some point soon.
I'll post here when it's up.

Have they dumped the forward disc tabs now the wheel is disc brake ejector proof?

Yes.

Kelvin (40)

Been looking for a practical steel road frame for ages.
Price has put me off, especially the price asked for some very basic tubing.

This looks like it could just be spot on.

[b]Wahay![/b]
Cheap.
Steel.
Versatile.
Bound to ride well.
Rack & Guard mounts.
Discs.
Looks great.

[b]Boo![/b]
Same weight as my steel mtb frame! Which was actually cheaper.
The forks look a bit fiddly.

Right, best get saving then. 🙂
The Raleigh Chopper purple looks kewl.

Unless anyone knows of another nice steel road frame with all the mounts for a simlar price?

Frame weight is 2,060g / 4.8lbs - a bit lighter than I expected. Complete bike weight is just under 23lbs.

Is that frame + fork weight? Just wondering, even though weight is not really an issue if buying these sort of bikes, how it compares to the Croix De Fer.

[img] [/img]

Also, as it's hard to make out from pics, does the rear brake cable stay out of the way of a mounted bottle cage ok?

Routing looks the same as on the rat. It's fine with a bottle cage but found I needed a clip attached to one of the cage mounts to keep the cable in place and stop it flapping about annoyingly.

Any chance of a pic or two of the rear tyre clearance around the bottom bracket junction?