Just finished bolting this together… It feels a little silly

IMG_1732 by Northwindlowlander, on Flickr

IMG_1731 by Northwindlowlander, on Flickr

Reason I can afford it is that the frame was bought cracked… Enigma welded it back up, STW provided the wheels, Ebay the forks, brakes and Truvativ crank, Andy Barlow the Easton bars… The rest I had spare from other builds.

19.75lbs, with a 2.5 tyre on the front and a 2.3 on the back 🙂 The fork is kind of scary, it weighs nothing at all but it’s had a quick test and didn’t do anything untoward. It’ll take me a while to trust them I think! (oh, also the Hed Doctor needed machined down to fit, and I had to thin down the bottom BB cup as it was fouling the steerer slightly)

Will probably give into temptation and titaniumise all the bolts just for completeness. And there’s a chance I’ll go back to dual ring on it, since it’ll probably do some endurance racing and I really like having a granny for those last grovelling climbs of misery. But for now, it feels brilliant, it weighs nowt and it’s quite handsome 😉

What trails do you ride it on?

None yet, with these forks… But it’ll be expected to ride wherever I do really- previous version did an uplift at innerleithen, got some funny looks putting it in the truck Mostly it’ll be trail centres and local XC though, that’s just what it’ll be best at. Occasionally it’ll get to do something a bit harder just for a laugh. The 2.5 tyre makes a big, big difference, gives it some squish and a lot more grip than smaller tyres do.

Other’n the forks there’s not a component on it that I don’t trust, put it that way- remains to be seen about those. Oh and the seatpost is shagged- tapers like a carrot 🙂

What is the weight of it?

Nice build.

I had to look twice at the second picture, there is a strange optical illusion with your chain and the crack between the paving slabs. lol

Me to thought you had a super long rear mech

Must say I like it and am tempted to go down the fully rigid route myself, also 20lb is not to be sniffed at bet its fast as

Other’n the forks there’s not a component on it that I don’t trust, put it that way- remains to be seen about those

and the broken frame! 😉

To be fair it looked lovely, not sure I’d have the balls to take it off road with those forks however! Any idea how much it would weigh with some bouncy ones on there? Glad the Hed doctor worked at least.

I can report that the pentlands were misery personified, not sure if it was my tyres but I could barely pedal on any of the inclines. I’ve been up there before and its looked worse but has been ok. Today was the opposite, melted slushy nastyness. Rubbish…

Nice, I like the forks where from, how much and whats the weight?

You need a better road bike 🙂

Once my bank balance recovers a bit I might pick up a set of Sids or similiar for it… These are just over 500g, so going over to a light 100mm fork would add about a kilo. (but would allow a skinny front tyre- swapping to my Karmas would save about 400g I think)

What are the odds of me cracking a Cotic? Well so far, 2/5. But I’m feeling lucky!

Eyerideit- £105-ish from Ebay, uncut they were IIRC 540g but the steerer’s about 2 feet long.

CHB- it’s a rather durably built Roadrat so you may be right! But sod it, I don’t like road riding enough to spend money on it.

That’s light for MB forks 8), carbon steerer?

That very nice looking….but your road bike sounds like it’s heavy. The roadbike equivalent of your Cotic would be 15lb something.

Aye, full carbon eyerideit, not a metal part on them. Which may not be a great idea. We’ll see eh! If they explode I’ll get another set of Exotics and some new teeth.

tonyg- yes, my road bike is pretty hefty but it does the job I need it to. (and my commuter is barely lighter than my downhill bike!)

Whats the issue with the forks? They look good? Why wouldn’t you trust them?

They just weigh very, very little. And also no reinforcement around any of the bits like brake mounts, crown race etc. Not to say they’re no good- I wouldn’t have bought them if I didn’t think it was worth a try.

Test ride with a full facer 😀

Weightweenie fail! It had an SLX cassette on it! And that oh-so-heavy inner tube round the chainstay!

Just put some road tyres onto it for tomorrow’s Red Bull Hill Chasers, in which I will embarass it. It feels redonkulously quick though despite the engine fitted. I think after that it’s getting ice spikers for an attempt at a ride at glentress on sunday (or maybe tomorrow, depending on how long it takes to fail to qualify)

Slight hijack, how much did Enigma charge for the repair? What was cracked on the Soda?

I have one in the shed with a cracked seatstay.. inspired by this build 😉

If memory serves it was £100 after all the postage etc. It had cracked between the toptube and seattube. They did a really tidy job- I asked them to put strength over prettiness but it didn’t seem to make much difference- though, worth mentioning they specifically didn’t offer a warranty for it.

Thanks, that’s not a bad price, I’ll drop them an email.
Now where did I leave those old Pace rigids…. 😀

Was that size in the sale or did you intentionally buy a a size smaller so you could run a 20 ft long seat post?

Edit: Ahhh I see, you bought it cracked, got it fixed, then put a 20 ft long seat post in the frame so you can crack it again.

I like your style, a serial bike murderer.

That’s Cotics for you, little triangles. Seatposts ahoy!

(it’s a 400mm seatpost but it’s set at about 50mm from max)

Cotic seatposts FTW!

Not a bad looking bike NW.

What 2.5 tyre is that?

It’s an oddball 2.5 Nevegal… Kenda don’t list a singleply DTC 2.5, and it has 2.35 stamped on it in some places and 2.5 in others. Light for a 2.5, something like 700g if memory serves, and it works pretty well at lowish pressures (and really really badly at normal ones). Been my rigid secret weapon for a while

Didn’t totally bring shame on it at the hillchasers but I think I might have been beaten by a chap on a beefy looking BFe 😆 I am not cut out for this.