We’ve just had Kelvin from Cotic round for a brew and to show us the new Escapade, here’s some photo’s and words from Cy about it…
Escapade is longer top tubed and steeper angled than the X which makes it better on the road, whilst still retaining the massive tyre clearances and superb versatility our road frames are well known for. Frames size use traditional road 54cm, 56cm and 58cm top tube lengths for easy fitting on the majority of riders.
The Dogsbody dropout from the Roadrat is used to allow singlespeed, fixed or hub gear set ups, and the stout tubeset with 35mm down tube from the X is retained. This gives the frame better stiffness with less flex around the bottom bracket area when loaded up or running singlespeed.
Improvements for 2014 are a lovely clean disc only layout, and a new RB3 9mm bolt thru axle fork with matching wheelset. This gives great security and stiffness to the fork and allows us to move the disc mount back to the traditional rear fitment which should make it an easier sell. A bit less ‘weird’ looking than our previous front left mounting position!!
We went disc only because the vast majority of the frames and bikes we’ve sold recently are specified that way, and disc brakes are coming to road bikes in a big way. The BRR517 brakes we spec work really nicely, and although we’re not doing a bike with them on, if you’ve ever tried the Shimano hydraulics you’ll have seen the future. The trickle down will happen soon, and disc really suit this type of bike. I put disc brakes on the original Roadrat because I said drivers are dopey and I liked stopping in a hurry. It’s nice to be able to finally roll out that proposition for you guys who prefer drops.
The RB3 fork is designed for use with our new wheelsets which feature a 9mm thru axle, but they can be used with your regular hubs. If you remove the skewer you can spring the forks apart to get the hub in, then you re-install your skewer. It’s nearly as stiff and just as secure as our thru axle setup, but we wouldn’t recommend it to people needing to get their front wheel out often or in a hurry. We still have some of the older style RB2 open dropout forks in v/disc option in duck egg or gritstone colour if you’d prefer these to use with your regular wheels.
All of these features – stouter tubeset with larger down tube, disc only, thru axle fork – have also been moved onto the Roadrat3.
There’s detailed information and photo galleries on the product pages:
http://www.cotic.co.uk/product/escapade
A few years ago Kelvin coined the phrase Life Bike as a kind of shorthand tongue-in-cheek name for that workhorse that does a bit of everything. Your going to work bike, your going to the shops bike, your getting away from it all bike. It may sound a little cheesy, but that’s exactly what the Escapade and the Roadrat represent for us, and hopefully for you too. Tyres big and floaty or small and fast. Derailleur gears, hub gears, single gear. Mudguards, panniers, bottle cages. Strip it all down and speed into the City. Load it all up and head off into the hills.
The Escapade available in Black Grape (as seen on the new BFe) and duck egg, with the Roadrat3 continuing in duck egg as well, but introducing dark olive as the alternative colour. We’ll get some pics of the olive next week when they arrive, but it’s a lovely understated colour. Unfortunately we got sent the duck egg Roadrat3 for photos so haven’t got studio shots sorted just yet, but we’ve had it on a test mountain bike frame that I’ve been riding this winter and it’s really nice.
Framesets are available to order now for delivery next Friday if you just need frames and forks. They start at just £249 for the frame only, £329 with the RB3 bolt thru fork, or £299 with the RB2 open dropout v/disc fork. We also have Roadrat2 framesets in medium gritstone still in stock if you’d still prefer rim brakes.
Bikes and rolling chassis will follow in a couple of weeks once we’ve had the bolt thru wheelsets built to suit. The bolt thru wheelset will be £175.
Cheers,
Cy.
Comments (7)
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Any info on weight?? It looks bloody good though 🙂
Cotic frames have always been about function over form. Having a through axle front fork to get the disc mount in the conventional place is, I think, a step back. Through axle road forks are on trend but they are as odd as disc mounts on the front of the forks and incompatible with most(all?) wheels currently available. I hope Cotic will carry on stocking the old style forks (disc only) as well as the through axle ones.
For me, purple with black logo doesn’t look right.
Any chance of a shot of the bb area?
Wondering how Cy has managed a 29×1.8 tyre clearance with a 68mm bb shell and road compact chainset without making the chainstays huge??
That’s the colour scheme from my old Raleigh Chopper MKII.
Plenty of disc hubs can be converted to 9mm bolt thru, including both the CC rebranded hubs Cotic use, and those from Hope. Wheels based on both will be available from Cotic.
It’s DT Swiss who offered it first (I think): http://www.dtswiss.com/Components/RWS/RWS-Thru-bolt-en
How cool would this be in black, with shiny black graphics and black bits……..or white come to think of it……
This looks great.
I think Specialized did 9mm axles before DT. I’ve used them a lot, including on my current CX bike. This makes a lot of sense to me.