Richard Baybutt is Cotic’s marketing man, he’s also a wheelie machine and Megavalnche slayer, and this murdered out Longshot Cotic Rocket is his current ride of choice.
Richard didn’t know he was going to be doing this bike check with us when he arrived at Singletrack Towers, but as soon as we opened the hessian sack and removed the gag he was quite forthcoming with the details.
The Longshot Cotic Rocket is the current generation Cotic Enduro bike, one which the Cotic team will be running in 2019, and continues Cotic’s tradition of building bikes with the latest geometry from steel.
This all black bike is Richard’s personal Rocket Longshot painted in the same Cosmic Black we saw on the new Solaris Max. Look closely and you might spot the stealth black Cotic graphics.
Richard is riding a medium sized frame, which is progressively long, low, and slack. With a 170mm travel fork plugged into the short 110mm head tube, the 2019 Cotic Rocket sports a reach of 453.6mm, a 64º head angle and 74.5º seat tube angle.
The 170mm Cane Creek Helm fork is matched to a Cane Creek Inline rear shock with 500lbs coil in place. We tried to eke out Richard’s suspension setting but he kept shtum.
Getting up close with Rich’s bike we soon spotted a few very cool and rare items like this Rideworks stem. The is prototype no.3, has survived 1000’s of machine test cycles and even a trip to Alp D’huez without missing a beat. Another trick item is the Yorkshire rose stem cap made by Chris Perry, a silversmith based in York (wonder if he would do an STW cog?).
Attached to that prototype stem are a set of 800mm wide Joystick Analog carbon handlebars shod with long Sensus grips. The additional grip length gives Richard plenty have scope for moving around the bar, and he tells us when things got a little sketchy out in the Alps he found he gripped his bars further in, effectively cutting down bar width on the fly.
Shimano XT brake levers give plenty of 1 finger stopping power despite being plumbed into the standard 2 pot calliper and not the newer 4 pot model we reviewed earlier in the year.
An XT 11-speed shifter lives on the right-hand side of the bar while a Bike Yoke lever lives on the left. The dropper is the same Revive model as we reviewed last year, has 160mm of travel and is topped with a Charge Spoon saddle.
This being Richard’s own bike there are a few items that he is particularly chuffed with. A Sunrace 11-50t cassette is one of them and was fitted to the bike in preparation for the Mega. Richard wanted to be able to run the largest chainring upfront he could, a 34t Superstar ring in this case, while retaining enough of a range to tackle the up’s and downs of Alpine racing.
A OneUp integrated chain guide, supplied with all Rocket frames, keeps the chain in place while a Unite bash guard from Hookit Products is in place to fend off rock and log strikes.
3-year-old set of Burgtec Penthouse Root Beer pedals look like they’ve had a pretty hard life but are still going strong. Interestingly the middle pins have only recently been installed, and previously they had been run without to minimise the chances of a nasty shin to pin interface.
Hope Technology makes a few appearances on Richard’s bike. The headset and bottom bracket both hail from Barnoldswick, as does the seat post clamp and the hubs which are laced to WTB 35 asymmetric rims. Will Swindon laced these hoops up, and the fact that they’re 12 months on and still going strong is a sign of a good wheelsmith.
WTB also handles tyre duties. A 2.5in Convict up front and a 2.4in Riddler on the rear. The Riddler might look a little lacking in the grip dept, but Richard assures us that it offers enough and it rolls extremely well.
Cotic riders and fans will have noticed the Cotic x Restrap collab frame bag. Apparently, these digital camo bags will be available very soon from Cotic so keep your eyes peeled.
Rich uses his to carry a few trail essentials such as a single Pink Pedros tyre lever, inner tube, Fabric multi-tool, brass valve adapter for using petrol station pumps, red electrical tape, a BikeSure free thinking Buff, a chain link and a Stanley Blade because “cutting zip ties with teeth is well hard”.
Finally, the pièce de résistance is a set of Decathlon lights. One little LED blinker for the front and a red one on the rear, just like an F1 car.
We would love to hear your thoughts on Richard Cotic Rocket Longshot. If you have any questions let us know in the comments section below and we’ll try to answer them for you. Also, let us know if you would like to see more bike checks like this.
Comments (27)
Leave Reply
Post Comment
Good bike check!
That last picture! haha. 🙂
Nice bike. Where does Richard buy his shirts from too?
Yep, more bike checks please. In fact please bring back the bike porn section of the magazine.
murdered out with a silver top cap and orange pedals?
@nwmlarge thanks 😀 Glad you enjoyed it!
Ok @edd more bike checks on the way 😉 Would you all be interested in STW staff bike checks too? Personal bikes obvs, not test bikes.
@poah, a Murder Of Crows includes crows with various eye colours including white, brown and blue (pedals are Root Beer brown) so…. I think “murdered out” still works 😉
Yup – more bike checks please. Love the Cotic and seeing what kit people run. Nice to see somebody running WTB tyres instead of the normal Maxxis choices…
@rugbydick I believe the sweet plaid shirt that Rich was sporting is from SOMBRIO.
Like this. Another vote for bike checks; as informative as reviews are, what people are actually using on their personal bikes is more telling.
Another vote for more bike checks like this. Bikes that people buy with their own cash / choose to ride and how they’ve modified or set them up.
Si
He carries a knife blade for cutting zip ties, but doesn’t carry zip ties?
Yep @singletrackandi bring on the staff bike checks
“Root Beer brown“
Errrr no they’re not- They my fine sir are PEANUT BUTTER!
And may that be the end to that!
Pity he forgot his helmet. Knob.
A peanut protector ;-d
Richard is handsome and has a pleasant air about him. His bike is cool and I like it’s special camo fanny-pack.
More bike checks, I love bike checks.
nice pack. want.
very nice bike.
How tall is Richard actually? Bike looks a bit big for him in that last photo but I don’t always believe what my eyes appear to tell me
@oldejeans in the last photo Richard is sixteen red bricks high…think things had got to him by then. On a good day he stands taller.
Please never write “Murdered Out” again.
Ever.
Nice bike.
Would be nicer in pink, or any other colour than black, but nice just the same.
And yes, ‘Murdered Out’? Get in the canal……
I like the way some parts of the bikes are battered and bent……..like a normal bike!
Yes, more bike checks please as long as they are not stock.
The interesting part is seeing why someone chooses a certain part.
Let’s see what the line of the frame looks like without the ugly looking bag under the cross bar for **** sake!!!!!!!!
I do like Bike Checks, real bikes in the real world.
As a monthly/weekly feature, you should select a random subscriber each month to submit a bike check questionnaire and photos .
Maybe have a “likes” poll, and every 6 months the “winner” would get a freebie to test and review.
Ciao