Am off to Morzine next month and can’t decide whether to take my Cotic Hemlock or Cove hustler?. My Hemlock has old style chainstay and would have to upgrade if taking it. I have a gut feeling the Cove is the correct bike but the adjustablity of the Cotic with the 2 rockers is making it a harder decision than it should be. I am not a Downhiller by any stretch, so will not be chucking whichever one I take off any mad drops. Having said that I have the feeling the cotic is just a tad light for the Alps!! Any views opinions!

Suppose it depends a bit on what you want to do in Morzine but of those 2 it’d be the Hemlock for me. Do upgrade the chainstay though, it might be fine but it might not… Mine survived France and some UK downhill then snapped on some flat local singletrack Cotic were spot on about the replacement, but it’d put the mockers on your trip.

Is the Hustler really so much tougher?

You might be lucky upgrading the stays now the hemlock is discontinued. Do Cotic keep lots of spares?

I’d take the hemlock. I’ve got a spare set of the old chainstays that have done about 50 miles you can borrow as a back up if that’s any good to you. They are just languishing in my spares box.

mildred – Member

Do Cotic keep lots of spares?

I’d be very surprised if they don’t have a good stock of that part tbh.

Surprised by feedback, as is exact opposite of what I expected. Having said that it is making me feel better about taking the my Cotic as it is the bike I had originally chosen but am only now having second thoughts. In my mind the Hustler is the tougher of the 2 frames but maybe not by as much as I am imagining. I do feel the chainstay/seatstay upgrade will be required though and that is going to set me back £300, which I could do without.

Having said that I have the feeling the cotic is just a tad light for the Alps!!

AQR use Cotics for guiding in the Pyrenees and they stand up to that just fine. They’ve got a couple of Hemlocks as hire bikes as well. Unless yours is built particularly light I reckon it’ll be fine…

The guide bikes probably see more mileage in a year than most peoples bikes will see in 5 years, in fact Cotic use AQR for product testing. If a Hemlock can go for a year of constant use in the Pyrenees, it’ll do 2 weeks in the Alps with you!

stumper:

“I do feel the chainstay/seatstay upgrade will be required though and that is going to set me back £300, which I could do without.”

No reason to change the seatstay, that was just an incremental upgrade.

Thanks for advice, replacement chainstay only and the Cotic it is. I have it built with Talas 36’s DT Swiss wheels and Hope V2’s with 203 rotors front and back (I want to be able to stop!!) I think the only other tweak I am going to make is a set of wider bars, and maybe take off the front big ring and fit a bash guard.

My Hustler was awesome in Morzine. Didn’t do the road gap on it but on 90% of the trails it was spot on.

Was great on the Mega too.

Took a G-Spot to Morzine last year and that was great too but going back to the Hustler this year.