The Flare Max has left the workstand and hit the trails!

Cotic Flare Max. First ride by Alex Leigh[/url], on Flickr

Cotic Flare Max. First ride by Alex Leigh[/url], on Flickr

Cotic Flare Max. First ride by Alex Leigh[/url], on Flickr

Finished at 10:30 last night. Rushing a bit today to get a ride in so tyres pumped to ‘about right’ and suspension set with everything off and rebound in the middle. Rode some local trails that have many tyre prints from my Aeris and Stache (both in 27.5 and 29+ mode) so useful for comparison

Hard to come to any definite conclusions after a short ride in good conditions, but I can say

– the bike rode like the demo. Sounds obvious but I loved the rocket demo but never loved my rocket
– It rolls better than the Stache which I guess makes sense but does seem to carry lots of speed
– It’s stiff. Noticeably stiff but very, very comfy. Even with conservative PSI in the tyres, could go down quite a bit to 16/14 prob. Something like 18/18 at the moment.
– The X-Fusion fork feels like a pike. Once it’d had a bit of use, I wound on a little low and high speed compression damping and went and played on my favourite tabletop. Really plush, controlled damping, stiff, feels very good.
– The x-fusion shock needs some tweaking. Started with too little air then too much. A bit clattery on the rear end. The climb setting is a good platform (2 out of 4), the trail setting (3 out of 4) noticeably plushes the back end up, the 4 of 4 fully open setting is a hoot but probably too soggy really.
– It corners like a madman. This is a bike that wants to party. Even with this sack of spuds on board. It’s kind of stache grip and aeris poise. It just wants to go. It’d be brilliant without brakes 😉

I’ll spend some time tomorrow setting proper sag and reading the fork/shock manuals but from a 90 minute blast – and knowing I’ve got my new bike googles on – it feels really special.

TLDR – fab. Buy one 🙂

Some build notes for the geeks out there:

Frame: Flare Max Medium
Shock: X-Fusion 02
Fork: X-Fusion McQueen with Roughcut Damper (defo worth having)
Wheels: WTB i35 on Hope Pro4 hubs. Both boost.
Tyres: WTB trail boss 3.0/Front WTB Ranger 2.8/Rear
Brakes: Zee – 180/180
Drivetrain: XT 1×11 10-42T cassette.
Cranks: RaceFace Turbine Cinch 170mm with Absolute black 32T chain ring
Seatpost: Custom(!) Reverb 150mm drop/440m total
Saddle: Charge Spoon
Stem: RaceFace Turbine 60mm
Bars: RaceFace SixC 780mm 31.8
Grips: RaceFace Nelson
Weight. Dunno about the same as the Aeris and more than the Stache. Wrong side of 30lbs but not by much. Seems to ride light. Feels heavy when you pick it up 😉

Build notes
– 32T is the biggest you can go. With the oval thick/thin, it’s close to the frame. It’s fine but you couldn’t go any larger.
– Chainline is good with non boost cranks and RaceFace BBm one spacer either side.
– Cable routing is a bit meh. The rear brake hose is routed inside the rear triangle where it’s going to rub the wheel. Lots of options, but I couldn’t find anything I was totally happy with for running cables.
– Reverb routing is good, slot behind the shock axle. Nice grommets as well.
– The frame is lovely. When building it, you see all the attention to detail.

Sweet ride.

Definitely one of the more appealing “plus” bikes IMO.

Sweet.

Btw, if it fits a 32t oval ring it’ll fit a 34t circular one.

Oh I didn’t know that. Every day’s a school day 🙂

NBS (New Bike Syndrome) in all its glory. I’d be exactly the same about it myself :-).

Looks nice. Big fan of X fusion forks myself. Why the change from the aeris out of interest?

Neither Cotics nor turquoise bikes have ever done anything before me but that looks mint! In a Guy Martin way as well as a spearmint way, Chief.

Yeah I’ve had enough bikes to know new ones are always the best. Big thing for me was I liked it as much as the demo. Not always been the case. And nothing fell off after a bit of a rushed build.

Off to the Ardeche a week Saturday. Took the Aeris last time and it was perfect. Its big, steep, rocky and pretty full on out there. Clearly the Aeris is the right bike to take. But…..

@dave – I really wanted a green one. Or orange. But I’m kind of happy to have gone Aqua as Kelvin from Cotic calls it. Or Turquoise as it really is 😉

@superstu – N+1 🙂 I kind of got into chubby bikes via the gateway drug of a full fat one. Bought a second hand stache and decided plus bikes make sense in the FoD. The Aeris is brill but I don’t ride it hard enough on local trails to really get the best out of it. The Flare Max felt like it’d be a perfect forest bike. And it probably will be.

But that’s all BS to be honest. I rode one, liked it, bought one.

Sold the fat bike, keeping the rest..

Beautiful that is. They look lovely in the flesh too a la Hopton demo day.

I wrote a thing.. http://pickled-hedgehog.com/?p=3743 although it’s mainly poking fun at fat bikes. Which is fine as I have one. Well had one anyway.

hey alex, i replied to your ardeche post last year; i’m the guy that lives here (still hot btw, 28 deg today!)
you still up for hooking up?
be a pleasur to show you and your group round my local trail network.
give me a shout.
email in profile.

Hi James – replied….. weather sounds good 🙂

hi alex, your mail’s not come through to me, checked my spam folders an all. did you just reply to mine?

Cwmcarn MTB by Alex Leigh[/url], on Flickr

Cwmcarn MTB by Alex Leigh[/url], on Flickr

My mate Dave (who has a Capra) is in the photo above… he liked it lots 🙂

Took FlareMax to Cwmcarn today. To see how it’d stand up to slightly more rocky trails. The idea being do I take this or my Aeris to the Ardeche next week. I was wary of the tyres – great in the FoD but sidewalls looked a bit flimsy. First proper DH. pinched the rear and cut the tyre on a bit of rock. Then realised i didn’t have my tubeless repair kit, or a usefully sized tube…

Got it sorted with a std tube and then it was fab. Rode both trails and the DH. Came home. harvested other bikes and now it has Reckon+ on both rims

Cwmcarn MTB by Alex Leigh[/url], on Flickr

Not sure they are still going to be tough enough for a week of rocks. Which is a shame as I REALLY want to take this bike…

Demo’d the new cotics at whinlatter yesterday and have completely fallen for the flare max. What a bike. Flies down hill and so easy to jump. Can’t wait to order one soon

Looks great. A mate of mine was taking his out today for the first time. Looked lovely, I was jealous. He was pretty chuffed with it.

Looks lovely Alex.

It is lovely 🙂 The false god that is Strava said nice things about some of the climbs and the descents. It’s such a well balanced bike to ride, but definitely appreciates a bit of audience participation… the Aeris is the same but by the time that’s getting really good, I’m getting really scared!

Every descent had a big grin on my face. And let’s face it that’s what MTBing is all about really…

Agreed! The grin is everything.

We had Sam and the Cotic demo fleet at our local ‘bike park’ yesterday.

Great day out, rode the Rocket Max and liked it. Proper XL sizing too.

For those that don’t know; Cotic will bring their demo fleet to you 🙂

Demo’d the Rocket Max in XL at Lee Quarry on Friday, 29er to deal with the rocks. It was really good, very impressive bike, the demo system they have is great. Get to ride the bikes on familiar trails so you can figure out what’s best for you. Really good.
On my list for my next bike anyway.

Great read, lovely looking bike. Must. Look. Away. Now. 🙂

go on Alex – bring the Flare! you’ll be fine on the rocks, those tyres are just what ou need round here! i’ve been creeping my tyre size up as much as possible since i’ve been here.
plus that way i can get a shot ; )

🙂 still dithering! Be in touch James re:riding. Not sure of the plan yet but as soon as we have an itinerary, will let you know. Will send you my mobile number as well via email…

great.
looks like i’ll be busy sunday to wednesday. leaves only thursday/friday to ride with you lot.

Congrats for the bike – beautiful!

One question – has anybody investigated if FlareMax and RocketMax are actually the same frames with different shock size (except paintings of course)?

If you check out the Cotic website I think Cy explains on there the structural differences, mostly that the seat and down tubes are lighter weight on the Flare compared to the Rocket IIRC
Edit: it is the top tube down tube and seat tube

http://www.cotic.co.uk/product/flareMAX

Lovely bike Alex, my envy is turning to jealousy.

Out of interest, how tall are you? I’m at the bottom of the medum’s size range and trying to picture a flare set up for me at 5’8″.

Ta

@jimw – thanks, I missed that before 🙂

@LAT – sorry been away (riding with jamiesilo up there ^^) – didn’t take the flare max probably for the best as I’d forgotten how sharp the rocks are out there. Maybe next year.

I’m 5ft11 but with short 31in legs. The flare fits well for reach and I managed (just) to shoehorn a 150mm dropper in there. My mate Steve had a go on a normal flare M on the demo day and he’s abut 5ft8 at best. No problem with sizing.

Worth dropping Paul a line at Cotic, he’s got the sizing all in his head or better still get on one of the demo days… or if you’re close to me, you can try mine.

Just seen your bike in another thread and remembered I’d asked about it here!

Thanks for the info.