just had a mail from cotic, seems merlin cant do the order so now lynskey have stepped in, same forming/new desgn and keeping the cowled drop outs. £1500. this may well push me on one bound for a lynskey built frame…shame theyre not closer in price.
After the success of Cycle Show, over the last 6 weeks I've been working really hard to get to a point where we could place an order with Merlin for the Sodas.
Unfortunately, 10 days ago Merlin stated that their OE production is
sold through for 2010 and the solution they offered me as alternative
wasn't acceptable. They certainly weren't able to give us a
commitment to the long term which we really wanted for both ourselves
and our customers. It's a shame, especially considering how much time
has been lost when we have a lot of very patient and very loyal
customers waiting for the Cotic Soda to make it's return to
production. However, as things were beginning to look shakey with
Merlin, I got in touch wiith Mark Lynskey about building us frames,
and he's been brilliant. Lynskey can build pretty much immediately,
have provided superb service and they've offered the level of tube
manipulation, shaping and finishing we have seen from Merlin on the
frame you all saw at Cycle Show, which will make the Soda everything
we want it to be. The added bonus here is that the frame can be a
little more Cotic in terms of final touches; the cowled dropouts are
back for one thing! There is, of course, the full Cotic warranty back
up, fully supported by Lynskey.
We have committed to an order with Lynskey, and will have 32
frames arriving in around 3 months with rolling orders coming in
during the year. The price will be £1,500 including all the usual
Cotic niceties such as a Hope QR, chainstay protector, vinyl down tube
decal option should you so wish, and UK delivery. They will be
available directly from Cotic, or from any of our official Cotic
dealers. To reserve your Cotic Soda you need to place a 10% (£150)
deposit with Cotic or your Cotic Dealer to be sure of receiving one of the first batch.
If you have any queries, please don't hesitate to drop us a line at
info@cotic.co.uk, or call 07970 853531.