Well, it’s been a busy few weeks and a hugely exciting watching a bike being born but my Cotic Soul is now here and almost finished bar a few tweaks to geometry (currently waiting on a blue Hope stem set for delivery tomorrow) and also a rear light due sometime this week. Owens Cycles in Petersfield did a fantastic job of putting everything together with great enthusiasm and advising on tweaks to my desired spec.

A key element for me was to incorporate as much British content as possible so the frame is British designed and Reynolds tubing (but sadly actually made in Taiwan). The brake levers, hydraulic discs, hubs, headset, seat clamp and stem are all manufactured by Hope in Barnoldswick Lancashire. The pedals are British too – by DMR in Sussex. The saddlebag is a Carradice Nelson Longflap saddlebag manufactured in Nelson, Lancashire and I even specified a Squire lock and anchor-point, both made in Birmingham. Sadly I have had to change the Hope seatpost (no layback) and the Brooks (Birmingham) Conquest saddle which was on my old bike because neither enabled me to get the saddle sufficiently far back on the frame for a comfortable position so both these components are now Crank Brothers made by our friends in the USA.

It’s not totally British of course – the tyres are Continental (German), the rims – French on the grounds that the Mavic rims on my tourer have served me well for some 17 years and there is of course the obligatory Shimano gearing.

I thought it may be worth me posting a handful of pictures of the resulting bike. It is early days but I have been thrilled with the ride feel which far surpasses my previous aluminium hardtail MTB. It feels very lively and communicative, yet more secure on treacherous terrain.

Airborne

Awesome looking bike,but not enamored with the saddlebag 8)

*uck me….that’s some set of brakes 8)

Very nice.

great bike – that’s some cockpit you’ve got going on there…

airborne’s cockpit setup:

(except with more blue bits)

😉

Nice bike, nice build but blue and red?……reminds me of my playdough days.

Very nice – really similar set-up to mine. Such lovely bikes.

somafunk – Member
Nice bike, nice build but blue and red

Err, its orange…. 😆

And yup, its a lovely looking bike fella..

Nice attention to detail, although the colour combo is not for me,
but you seem to have made a lot of adjustments to make the frame big enough to fit you.

Interesting colour combo.

After a few rides bet you lower that stem.

Good to get some feedback guys and my reasoning behind the saddlebag is that I’ve never really got on with rucksacks on a bike and it has to double duty as a bike to get my Daughter to school and she always seems to have a plethora of gubbins to cart to and fro!

Also in Autumn and Winter I always seem to be taking layers off or on so it’s handy but I’m not sure I would want it on the back when doing more technical rides.

Scamper you’re right about the stem – that’s just a temporary while I wait for the Hope 90mm 10 degree one so I’m expecting some of those spacers to come out once the real stem is on – the bars are definitely too high at the moment.

Re: the brakes I was going to go with 160mm rotors but it was Cotic who suggested I go with 183mm and after riding the red trail at Queen Elizabeth Park a couple of days ago and being a lard-ass I’m rather glad I did!

Seems like some of you like the blue bits and others don’t but as it’s always been my favourite colour I figured why not!

Always interesting to read people’s take on things though.

Airborne

Airborne, everyone is different but after playing around I settled on one 20mm spacer below the (55mm) stem. Ref the brakes, also started off with 160’s which also being large boned were fine for 90% of the riding I do but switched to 180’s for this years Alps trip, and left them on.

lovely build but that blue/orange isnt working for me either…