I am looking for a bike to use as a ‘does it all’ road and bridalway bike, which one is the best frame to build into a bike to replace my hardtail and road bike?

Or something else that I should look at…..?

There are loads out there to choose from each as good as the other depending on your specific requirements, so you’re just as well choosing on the basis of brand preference and availability of colours. I’ve got a RoadRat so can extol its virtues and confirm they are perfectly capable and able as a ‘do it all bike’ and i’m sure the Escapade will be just as good. I’ve had it in single speed road mode (got tired of that very quickly), road bike mode and now a gravel bike-ish mode (basically road bike mode with 36c tyres) and been on proper road rides, rough track rides, messing around with the kids rides and it does all of that very well. Some will say its a bit flexible, but i’m not the lightest rider around and struggle to detect any flex no matter how hard I stamp on the pedals, and anyway, it’s not a super efficient race bike so a bit of flex is a good thing.

I have been riding an escapade for 2 months now for the same stuff your after it for and it’s solid. An excellent ride and takes bridleways in its stride.
32 sportcontact tyres roll really well and will only change if I get crazy in the mud in winter.

I am currently obsessing over the Fairlight Faran

Faran Frameset

I’ve owned both and preferred the Escapade for all round duties. Fell off the Roadrat and broke my arm when the Alfine hub didn’t engage. That put me off it a bit, probably a psychological thing.

I’ve been using and Escapade for all of my recreational riding recently. Rubble, dirty, gravelly and tarmac. Most of my local rides have all of those surfaces in varying quantities. It’s a very capable bike perfect for the none tarmac sections and surprisingly fast on the tarmac (with the right tyres, I’m running Schwalbe G-Ones in 35mm tubeless guise and they’re bloody nippy on tarmac)

Thanks for the replies. Did people buying the frames go with cotic for the builds or build themselves? Tempted by a self built 1x SRAM Rival or Apex build with what wheel set under £200…?

I built my Escapade, wanted something between their gold and silver options so went with 4700 Tiagra and BB7s. As above tubeless Schwalbe G-Ones are awesome, mine are on WTB Frequency i19 rims. I think Cotic do WTB wheelsets, or Hope 20Fives, so might be worth talking to them.

I bought both direct from Cotic. The Roadrat was the one used in the life bike video and I bought it in one of their warehouse clearances. The Escapade I bought as a singlespeed and then put gears on later. I’d definitely have an Escapade again.

I’ve always built up my own bikes but couldn’t be arsed this time so bought the gold 105 option with Hope 20Five wheels as a treat. Couldn’t be happier wheels are awesome and the build on the bike is top notch. One note was the 20Fives were a swine to tape up due to the deep spoke well, sine fitted though they lose maybe 2psi a week at most, they’re solid.

Interesting reading. I want a bike more suitable to the from-the-door riding I am able to do now which is (unfortunately) 80% tarmac/gravelly tracks. Escapade is top of my list as I am a Cotic fan.

I wanted a bike more suitable for from the door riding too. Somehow I’ve ended up with a Trek Stache, which is pretty much the opposite thing 😀

I’ve had a handful of similar frames, including a Cotic X, Escapade, Surly Ogre, Kinesis 4S and Surly Straggler in recent years.

The bikes that the OP would naturally consider will all be slightly different and it will depend on what emphasis you place on different needs.

I ran the Escapade with 28-37c tyres and various setups, including flat bars, singlespeed and a good few others. It’s a fairly light frame for what it is and has a decent number of mounts, but with a tall front end it’s definitely not a classic road racer. I used it for commuting, touring and the odd sportive – it was most comfortable with its use in that order.

After going back to a single bike for all my road needs, I’ve ended-up with a Straggler. The frame is notionally the heaviest, but it’s really very good quality and I’m impressed with the mounts – they just work better than any other frame I’ve put pannier, mudguards and cages on. It has clearance for 50c tyres / mudguards, which I currently run with either 41c Knards on Hope 20Five wheels or 28c GP4S tyres on lighter Kinesis Racelight wheels.

Overall, I’d say that the Surly is the most versatile and has the more classic geometry for road riding – whereas the Escapade is slightly better suited to comfortable and “safer” riding, and isn’t quite as versatile.

Others to consider would include the Genesis range.

I ran a Cotic X for this sort of thing for quite a while and loved it… until I sat on a Crosslight. I’m running a Crosslight 5TDisc now for this sort of thing which is a much more aggressive bike from a geo standpoint. I’ve got two wheelsets, the Kinesis with knobbly CX tyres and a set of RX10’s with 28c Conti GP4’s for more road type stuff. Compared to the old X, the Kinesis is little orange sports car. It wants to be thrashed. It’s very much a CX bike not a roadie though, so not necessarily what you want if club rides and centuries are on your agenda. Nimble and tough enough for singletrack in the Peaks if you want though.

Really, you need to have a bit of a think about what your riding priorities are and what you want to do. The Surlys Ben mentions above are good crossover bikes, a proper CX bike is better for some other things, but it may well be that what works best for you is a nice light 29er HT or even with a rigid fork?

Great posts and gives me lots of food for thought.

Ben H – Great help that, I’ll have a look at the Surly.

I really do want one bike to do all the road – 2-3 hours normally max but averaging 27KM/H so while not fast I like to keep it moving. Occasional longer rides (I am close to NY Moors and Dales) with bigger hills circa 1500-2000m climbing on those rides. Then I want something to jump on after work and hit the bridalways around me for 45-60 mins to have a laugh, hopefully some touring and then trips out with the kids.

Literally one for all, taking over from my carbon road bike and steel hardtail MTB duties…..

Oh and under £1200 if I can (budget was £850 originally) 😯 😀

I have an Escapade built up with an Ultegra hydro group set and some Mavic Aksum wheels .

Awesome .

Not ridden my Carbon road bike since . I hoping I find it much faster when I do but………

Genesis don’t seem to have the clearance for the bigger tyres?

How about some cheap/VFM Ti goodness, in the shape of Spa Elan Ti?

http://www.spacycles.co.uk/m1b17s21p3552/SPA-CYCLES-Elan-%28105-triple%29

I’d sell a kidney for Ti. If I was going Titanium I would seriously look at the Sonder Camino Ti. More ‘adventure’ than road but it looks so good!