I think it looks ruddy marvelous. Will it be lighter than a Kaffenbak??

Does look good. Had it been around a year ago I may well have got one instead of the rat.

I have a Roadrat that I don’t use, and I still find myself wanting the escapade, so that I can not use that instead.

Guess it’s 135mm rear but:

Yep can’t see why they didn’t just bite the bullet and do a qr15 fork, unless they are expecting that to become a standard for cross bikes.

You can twang a standard wheel into the bolt-through, though, it’s not 9mm-bolt-through only. You could think of it as a captive QR arrangement I suppose.

Northwind – Member
You can twang a standard wheel into the bolt-through, though, it’s not 9mm-bolt-through only. You could think of it as a captive QR arrangement I suppose.

If you’re ballsy, you can do that and run without a QR.

I found the web page 10 days ago while snooping on Cotic’s site and placed and order straight away. Not sure about Black Grape, so I’ve gone for Duck Egg.

Hopefully I’m at the front of the queue for a Medium, to replace my X… I’ll give them a ring to chase it up anyway. 🙂

Interesting.
I guess there are just more 9mm QR wheels out there than 15mm.

Does 15mm thru axle format incur a licence fee to Fox/Shimano?

Whichever they chose, they’re not the first to do it.

On a similar note, now that it’s disc only at the back, does that mean it gets proper 135mm treatment, or still the 132.5mm and splay/squash a bit to fit 135/130mm hubs?

Now… do I bin my ca.1989 road bike that never gets used, in favour of a roadrat or escapade? (Darker purple or jet black would be nicer though).

I for one would welcome an avalanche of used Xs onto the market 😆

there’s one on the classifieds now…

I found the web page 10 days ago while snooping on Cotic’s site and placed and order straight away. Not sure about Black Grape, so I’ve gone for Duck Egg.

Hopefully I’m at the front of the queue for a Medium, to replace my X… I’ll give them a ring to chase it up anyway.

Did you find the 29er and 650 FULL SUSS too?

Yah, i want an exceedingly cheap one though 😉

Sorry for the hijack.

Northwind – did you get my email about the wheels?

those head and seat angles!? 😯

I for one would welcome an avalanche of used Xs onto the market

I did briefly ponder flogging my X frame and replacing with a Escapade. Then I realised that was a stupid, pointless idea.

forks a solution for a problem that doesn’t exist IMO

forks a solution for the same problem that Magura worked around by angling the dropouts forwards 45deg rather than backwards like most roadbikes IMO

With all the lawyer lips nonsense, I’m surprised something like this wasn’t more common.

You can twang a standard wheel into the bolt-through, though, it’s not 9mm-bolt-through only. You could think of it as a captive QR arrangement I suppose.

Good luck with that if you’ve got a heavy duty rack bolted to the fork too, while trying to line the disc rotor into the calliper at the same time. Of course you’ll be doing this one handed, as it’s wrong to put your bike upside down to fix it. 🙂

I like the captive/QR arrangement, means I can twit around off road and over curbs etc and eliminate that ‘what if I didnt actually tighten my wheel properly?’ momentary thought.

I’ve been waiting for this bike to show up since Cy hinted at it a few months back. I’m sorely tempted to swap all my components over from my trusty Pompetamine/Alfine as I much prefer the Cotic low slung ethos, and imagine that standing up and cranking away on this frameset would be a much less gate’like & thigh bashing experience than on my Pomp, although, I wish Cotic would stop mentioning ‘lovely clean lines’ and then blast their frames with multiple cable anchoring points and clunky dropouts.

The Pompetamine works so well as it was essentially built around an Alfine only set up (or SS if you insist in not buying a Pompino). The idea of running geared/hubbed/ss at any given moment doesnt personally add anything for me, I prefer my bikes to be made for one purpose – and clean lines!
Hey ho, im sure im in the minority anyway. I think it looks really nice other than my minor gripes! (would look ace with some King Mango components splashed on that Grape colour scheme)

Back to running hub gears, where do you fix the full length outer cable? I can only see one tab along the chainstay, the other looks to be for running a mech. There appears to be another derailleur cable guide on the head tube but I cant spot any other hub gear cable points.

My point being, does this mean its a bodged cable tie affair when running hub gears?..

Fork seems a bit steep at £80?

Just had a thought.. I’m guessing that you can split the outer cable on an Alfine cable run after all, as per conventional type set ups?

If so, ignore my previous digression. (although a full length cable outer is preferable for maintenance reasons in my experience).

and imagine that standing up and cranking away on this frameset would be a much less gate’like & thigh bashing experience than on my Pomp,

the problem is with your peddling dynamics not the bike.

I’m dynamic, dont worry about that.

I’d wager you wouldnt say the same to Cav?

(the problem is more likely related to my tree trunk’esque thighs)

I’d wager you wouldnt say the same to Cav?

i wager you have neither the power, speed or souplesse of Cav.
🙄

You’d probably win that bet on at least 2 fronts.
I’m not going to make any more wagers with you.

Cheer up, its a sunny weekend ahead!

Quads of the God’s me. ”Only man i’ve met with a postcode for each calf”

Jesus wept, a new fork/hub standard for road bikes?

*bangs head*

If you don’t tighten your wheels on properly, you deserve the consequences! (I have, and did).

Alfine routing is the same as the Roadrat… I’ll see if I can post a photo here…

Roadrat Alfine by CoticLtd, on Flickr

Jesus wept, a new fork/hub standard for road bikes?

it’s not really a road bike though is it, more of a hybrid towpath bike.

Indeed… I didn’t use any actual “road” getting home from Singletrack on it.

Not a new standard really anyway… been around since about 2009 hasn’t it?

Looks great, only slight gripes are the rear facing dropouts (no good for removing the rear wheel with a mudguard fitted) and the fork dropouts (unless you can get a decent dynamo hub to fit) otherwise perfect!

I think the Surly Straggler still edges it on the above two fronts.

Although I prefer the caliper mounting on the chainstay.

What on earth is it?

Looks great, only slight gripes are the rear facing dropouts (no good for removing the rear wheel with a mudguard fitted) and the fork dropouts (unless you can get a decent dynamo hub to fit) otherwise perfect!

Just get some of the plastic bits that you pop the mud guard mounts into (like the SKS ones have at the front) so you can pop it out to quickly remove the back wheel. Link here.

Good to see they’ve removed the stupid top tube cable guides. Most annoying. I’ve ripped a pair of trousers on mine 😳

mrblobby – Member

Just get some of the plastic bits that you pop the mud guard mounts into (like the SKS ones have at the front) so you can pop it out to quickly remove the back wheel. Link here.

FFS. I had a set of chromoplastics on my Roadrat, I set them up with a massive gap at the back so I could get the wheel out, never occurred to me to just use the quick release things. What a div.

I can confirm that Northwind’s roadrat and mudguards do on fact allow for rear wheel removal (it’s mine now)

I hear you can use the mudguard quick releases to make that easier

Thanks for the confirmation kelvin.
I’m going to bloody well buy one.

I like infact I like alot
I have owned a Pompino and a Kaffandbak for 12 years and they are ace no other road bike has apealed to me till now
My card is a twitching cos my 26er Simple and Soul need company

Do it dodger!!

I’m slightly cursing and wondering if I’m a Med or Large.

I went with a 58 on my X and still run a good 6-8″ of seatpost around town, although I do drop it for descending off road.
The 56 I slung a leg over felt like it would be at full adjustment of everything. There are times I’ve wondered if a smaller frame might’ve been a good choice but not many. I’m a medium on most other things that don’t say ‘Santa Cruz’ on the downtube.

I’ll have to get the measuring stick out and take a good look.. And think about whether I need another bike in the category. My X is a great mix of practical and offroad and certainly not for towpaths only. Rocky descents are a lot more comfortable with a sus fork on a MTB though… I’m a little worried I would end up using one and not the other. My X has already surprised me and displaced a regular HT on many rides ending up my most ridden bike.

Not entirely sure I get the criticism about axle: unless you have multiple cross bikes you aren’t really going to be putting a wheel like this on anything else, and something like a pro2 and RWS / SS 9mm qr would make the issue largely go away. Cy’s still tackling the wheel ejection potential issue that the X did with the drive side caliper mount. Not convinced that’s not a more elegant solution. Maybe a middle ground and keep 9mm for rigidity and cant dropouts forward a la 26er QR sus fork?