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Well done Cy..
The time has come! I can finally reveal why we had to go all quiet on the Rocket for these last few months: Today we are announcing the from now on all Cotic full suspension frame production is happening in the UK, built at a new production facility I have co-founded. This factory is Bicycle Manufacturing Limited, or BML for short. Does what it says on the tin!
About 2 years ago I met Mike McDermid, who is my partner in BML and the manufacturing brains of the operation. We began working on this project after it became clear to Mike that using the latest automated techniques and equipment combined with high skilled hand made production, it would be possible to be competitive on price with Far Eastern supply on high end products with a flexible, high quality UK operation. Mike's experience with all areas of manufacturing are extensive, right up to designing carbon composites for F1 and Le Mans cars, (Williams F1, Wirth Research, Red Bull Racing) as well as some of the top names in the Aerospace and bike industry.
As you know, Cotic - like just about every bike brand in the world - sources frames and parts from the Far East. Some of the reason for this is price, but in most cases it's also to do with expertise. The Taiwanese and Chinese have factories and companies that just build bikes. Not aircraft, or car parts, or motorcycle frames as well, just bikes. They have expertise and make it very easy to source parts. They're very good at what they do. When we figured out that, if done carefully and correctly, we could be competitive on price for mid-to-high end products using the processes Mike had in mind, we were suddenly in a situation where the price was good and cutting edge manufacturing and material expertise was in the UK. So, all things being equal, I decided I would prefer to make some models in the UK. The pricing is similar, but the flexibility of production and the speed of development for new product tips the balance in BML's favour.
I realise that quite a few of you have been waiting a long time for Rockets, and we have been fairly evasive on the subject up to now. I can only apologise for that. I really hope you understand that whilst we were completely committed to success with BML all last year, until we got to this point - having pre-production frames in build - we couldn't be sure when we would be ready. We didn't want to put more pressure on the build up of the factory by putting some arbitrary production date on it. For those of you who have been patient with us; thank you so much. For those that decided to buy something else; I totally understand and would probably have done the same in your shoes!
We're very close to completing the first pre-production UK made Rocket frames, so look out for more on this in a couple of weeks. And before you ask, they are 26" wheel!! Once they've been finished there will be a brief lab testing and sign off period to dot i's and cross t's on the UK construction methods and we're aiming to be in build in early March.
If you want to see the full press release and some pictures of our production kit, head over to the Bicycle Manufacturing webpage to have a look.
I'm so excited about this project; the possibilities, the potential for new and interesting products, learning to weld myself! So much to look forward to. Welcome to our latest adventure!
Cheers,
Cy
Good to see, shame my next FS will be a 27.5 8)
Good to hear of some more UK bike production. Hope all goes well.
I'm currently doing my "told you so" dance 🙂 It's not a very edifying spectacle I'll admit, but good luck to Cy and the team.
Awesome!
Great stuff indeed.
Great, but I got bored of being told they were a month away 12 months ago and bought something different.
Shame, as the Rocket is a great bike!
Mike's been putting up teasers of the framebuilding equipment he's been making, so it's not a surprise to me - but good to hear it officially confirmed.
26" !!!!
Yikesigood luck with that
We are struggling to give away 26" full sus frames
Would you guys be able to produce for other brands as I am looking for a factory to make frames
Ace. A Rocket might be my next frame - fancied one anyway and it would be good to have a Yorkshire-made bike. 🙂
[i]Would you guys be able to produce for other brands[/i]
Reading the story from Drac's link that's exactly what they'll be doing.
Looking forward to the "I've cracked my Cotic" threads
😉
Brilliant news. A steel FS frame made round the corner from me. That's this summer's frame sorted. 😀
Sweet. 26" too 🙂
Ditto what ndg said. I loved the Rocket and was all set to buy one but after waiting the best part of 9 months I shopped else where.
Good luck to Cy, I admire what he's doing and wish I could of supported him, 26" wheels and all!
Great news!!!
As rockets have been out of stock for over a year and people have been waiting longer than this for a frame. They still have to wait till March maybe . Not the best business sense in my opinion.
Would have made far more sense to have ordered a last batch of Rockets from Tiawan.
Now all you've done is created a marketing storm 18 months ago about a new frame that got good reviews in the press and not had any to sell to anybody who actually wanted one for 12 months so they've bought something else.
Although Rocket is in the title of this thread I notice that the press release always refers to "all droplink frames", suggesting that it is going to be more than one model before too long. Lots of talk about carbon facilities as well. Interesting times indeed.
Good news for UK manufacturing, best of luck to Cy & Mike. I would like to buy a UK made frame!!
Great news. A British company making British products 😀
Will they be making HT frames too?
I'm not in the market for an FS frame but could be tempted to buy a solaris or whatever they bring out to replace the X.
If we'd have known quite how long it would have taken to get to this point I would have ordered another batch of Rockets from Taiwan. All of this is the benefit of hindsight, and we thought we'd be in production last summer. Things like finding that none of the off the shelf frame jigs did what we needed meant spending a lot more time and effort doing things we didn't think we'd need to do. It's not been ideal from the Rocket perspective, but once this project was underway it was so much more important to see it through. The other issue being that lead time from Taiwan is 6 months minimum, so even if we'd hit the button on that in June they'd only just be arriving now, just as we're about to be able to make them here.
Thanks for all the kind words. I'm so excited, and still shaking a bit having finally been able to tell people!
What are the implications for price, Cy? Have you been able to keep the costs flat?
I suspect you will only be getting positive feedback about this Cy, top work.
If you want to see the full press release and some pictures of our production kit, head over to the Bicycle Manufacturing webpage to have a look.
Is this the right link, Cy: http://bicyclemanufacturing.co.uk/
...assume it's not live yet?
UK & 26" double like!!
Great news, good luck with it.
I'm a Cotic HT customer and would like to see a British produced version of those bikes too.
As for the comments above about "good luck with 26" I am ONLY in the market for 26 bikes and components.
I'll take one.Sancho - Member
We are struggling to give away 26" full sus frames
Penistone? Marvellous! I'm going to hunt you down and pop in. Got all the staff you need? 🙂
well put +1As for the comments above about "good luck with 26" I am ONLY in the market for 26 bikes and components.
Oh god, even more reason for me to buy one of these!
Very good news! I hope other British brands make use of this new production facility.
Awesome work! And the joy of having your own local manufacturing is you can do rapid prototyping and small production runs so you can get great products to market in short times without having big risk - which is especially relevant in this confusing world of multiple wheel sizes.
We had a similar thing happen when we brought our manufacturing in-house - thought it would be much quicker to set up than it actually was but by the time that became clear it was too late to get another batch made by our previous contractors. Hindsight is a wonderful thing...
I really hope this works out for them. I'm another person who wanted to buy a rocket but couldn't due to stocking. I waited, and waited and now 650b is here, and looks here to stay, whether we want it or not. Given how aggressively it is being pushed I still suspect that fork/rim/tyre manufacturers will put 26" further down the priority list for anything other than DH as time goes on.
I don't want to get caught out by this so I was rather disappointed that the rocket won't be getting a 650b makeover. I keep frames for quite a while (my heckler is 10 this year) so buying something that is perceived as obsolete by the rest of the industry seems not to be the best idea going. I'm no supporter of 650b but for someone in the market for a new frame and forks it seems the only sensible way to go in the current climate.
Given that they are prototyping and the changes needed for 650b are fairly minor why not just make the change? I know it would involve swallowing their pride over the "26 ain't dead" thing but it seems to make better business sense at the moment and for the future.
Shame really, the rocket I tried is a great bike.
@shakelton how is 650b any different from 29 from a marketing hype perspective, how is it more likely to stay ? To me it sounds just the same as we heard about 29. If you keep bikes 10 years then it's clear you don't care about hype/having the latest thing for the sake of it - so just buy what you want
and just in time to take advantage of all the hardworking and well educated chaps coming in from Bulgaria and Romania.
They'll make a 650b if that's where the market is.
Still only seen 1 bike on the trails with tweeny wheels, despite all the hype.
Given that they are prototyping and the changes needed for 650b are fairly minor why not just make the change?
Because Cotic want to make a 26" bike as a priority? Other sizes to be in addition to, rather than instead of 26"?
although, I'd probably be playing around with swappable dropouts to have a bike that could swing both ways, or vary geometry a bit. assuming it didn't affect price too much.
[i]If you want to see the full press release and some pictures of our production kit, head over to the Bicycle Manufacturing webpage to have a look.[/i][b]...assume it's not live yet?[/b]
That's copied from the mailing list email, which had a link to a private page for mailing list and press people only. Everything from there is in the Singletrack news item now anyway :> http://singletrackworld.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/straight-out-of-south-yorkshire-announcing-bicycle-manufacturing-limited/ <
Its only a matter of time until 26" becomes as much marketting hype as 650b or 29". Just because it was the first wheel size that MTB's happened to have doesn't guarantee its future. Its pretty much there already for some types of bikes with 26" being reduced to appealing to the nostalgia crowd. What wheel size or sizes will feature going forward will depend upon the next generation of riders, not what we, the current generation think and currently buy.
But irrespective of the eternal wheel size debate that will continue to rage on, I really hope this venture is a huge success for Cotic and BML. Good to see stuff coming back into the UK and will hopefully mean that companies like Cotic can improve their responsiveness to customer and market demands and get an edge on the competition. Working in a manufacturing company myself, though foreign suppliers can work on a cost basis, when it comes to product development its much easier and more effective to have manufacturing and design capability on your doorstep. Despite advances in IT and communications you still can't beat sitting next door to the people you're working with.
Although I'm another who gave up on Rocket Watch and just gone from Bfe to Meta, this is good news and hope its a success. Will def be staying 26 so in the future who knows. 😀
if they got their own factory, they can surely pump out stupid-sized in between wheel frames for hard of thinking consumer sheep easily.
It's a hobby built arround riding in a circle with an element of life threatening danger, usualy in the cold and wet, often with mud and rocks rather than on the roads you've already paid for to make going places easier, and it costs a fortune to do for no rational benifit.stupid-sized in between wheel frames for hard of thinking consumer sheep easily.
And you're picking up on the wheel size?