Background: - I was riding an old skool steel MTB with slicks for commuting and some larger distances, in hindsight it wasn't too shabby, however I wanted larger wheels for a faster/ smoother ride. As I would occasionally bunny hop this up and down curbs in traffic, I wasn't ready to go proper road bike stylee; SO I did a bit of research and thought Cotic Roadrat, seems like it ticks most (not all) of my requirements.
So Far: - I'm just under 5'10" and have owned a Medium Long Roadrat (with its generous 140mm headtube) since September, built up with a very low stack height headset (21mm - Crank Brothers), 110mm stem and flat bar, with bar ends for the big hills. Horizontal dropouts are a PITA IMO. Anyhoo, there are definitely some improvements to my previous ride (smoothening out of Sheffield's awesome roads with larger wheels); HOWEVER I don't feel as confident carving corners as sharply, my centre of gravity feels too high and even some gusts of wind are making it feel like the front (esp.) wheel wants to come away from underneath me. At speed the handling is a bit jittery and the flexible quality which dampens things down when coasting along seems to make the bike squirm about quite a bit. I considered trying out a Small version of the frame as it would knock 15mm of headtube off and possibly stiffen the ride up marginally with more compact triangles, but I don't think it'd be the best long term solution.
In a potential new frame, I would like to have generous clearance for tyres up to 35 / 40mm plus guards and would prefer vertical dropouts with least amount of toe overlap possible. I'd like to be able to run flat bars and definitely have canti brakes AND/ or discs. A shorter headtube is probably a basic requirement!? Carbon isn't a material I would consider.
If you're a Roadrat (or similar) owner and have any constructive criticism/ advice on frames that might be of interest/ worth considering, I would be incredibly grateful.??? ...OR should I make the jump to drops on a Cyclocross machine!? (Help, I'm confused)
Surprised that you're finding it too high - 140mm isn't that tall. Have you tried flipping the stem? Sorry if that's obvious.
Have a look a the Boardman Sport hybrid.
If you're a Roadrat (or similar) owner and have any constructive criticism/ advice on frames that might be of interest/ worth considering, I would be incredibly grateful.??? ...OR should I make the jump to drops on a Cyclocross machine!? (Help, I'm confused)
I used to ride a flat-barred Rat. I rather liked it, but in the end I sold it and built a Soma Double Cross DC - it's a disc-compatible steel cross-like, drop-barred frame basically. It's faster and sharper than the Rat on the road and nicer off road. I did try an X for a while, but I though the steering was sluggish, though it might work for a slack-brained mtber who'd never ridden a road bike. Hence the Soma, which feels right to me.
I don't really have the bike analytical skills to comment on the rest of it, but after the intial 'this feels a bit weird' thing with drops, they make lots of sense on road and off. I can't see why anyone would want a flat-barred road bike tbh.
To john_l: I have a 17 degrees stem, inverted, which makes it near perfectly horizontal. Thanks for the recommendation.
To BadlyWiredDog: Thank you for the advice, the Soma Double Cross looks pretty sweet. I had spoken to Paul of Cotic before buying the Rat, about the >X<, and I think he talked me out of it, slack doesn't sound like a bad thing, possibly more stable at speed...
I'm toying with the idea of a Planet X Uncle John in small, 110mm headtube (takes an integrated headset), same fork requirements as the roadhog fork, so could swap that over and trial it out for £175 + headset cost.