what are the forks cotic escapade like? I was thinking of buying the escapade frame and fitting kinesis dc37 disc forks.. but this might be a bonkers idea

I don’t know if the kinesis dc37 disc forks forks will shave enough weight to be worth it (?)

Depends on the rest of the build. If your paying a fortune on carbon bits n bobs would make sense. If there’s more emphasis on comfort then steel forks are a much nicer ride ime, worth the weight penalty.

If I was concerned about weight I wouldn’t be buying that frame.

Indeed, nor would I adorn it with bike jewellery either. I can’t help but feel Cotic have missed a trick here. Why no 853? If they can do the Soul for £500?

The gas pipe is not what I want. And I wouldnt pay £329 for it for the reason above.

You can get a Kaffenback2 for £250.00

Why no 853? If they can do the Soul for £500?

For some reason, as soon as you put 853 into a road/cx frame, the price sky rockets compared to the mtb equivalent. I’d love to know the reason why.

Road 853 are typically ALL 853 tubes. Unlike MTB frames where the 853 sticker usually means only a few tubes are 853. So the comparison is not equal.

The current Soul only has 2 x 853 tubes, doesn’t it?

But it says Cotic on the downtube! This stops it being a dull overpriced heavy hybrid. 🙄

The gas pipe is not what I want. And I wouldnt pay £329 for it for the reason above.

What defines gas pipe?

Anything that isn’t Reynolds 853+? For example is the Croix De Fer using 725 gas pipe?

/curious

What defines gas pipe?

For me anything that’s not oversize O/D and thicker than .8-.5-.8 butted main tubes.

Merak, the Escapade frame (without forks) is £249, so half the price of the Soul frame.
Doubling the price of the Escapade would put it out of the reach of many of us for the kind of bike it is.

Tubing wise… lots going on with the latest version of the Fe tubeset on this and the new Roadrat.
Side by side with my old Roadrat from a few years ago, only the seattube looked to be similar size/shape wise.

So how would one find out stuff like pipe thickness? For example, Cotic just list their material as ‘Custom butted Cotic Fe Cromoly’.

Jamie – Member

What defines gas pipe?

Anything that isn’t Reynolds 853+? For example is the Croix De Fer using 725 gas pipe?

Keep up grandad. It’s all about 953 now – Even 853 is just crappy cheapskate gas pipe.

Anything less than 953 and the cool kids won’t talk to you.

Jamie – Member

So how would one find out stuff like pipe thickness?

853 would have been nice is all. We are all happy to pay the money for the Soul. It would have been the same with the Escapade.

Its not a budget bike for most people likely to buy it. The frame and fork are being built up with say King headset, and maybe 105 or Rival or equivalent. Maybe some nice wheels just like the Soul. I’m not being unrealistic there, check the forums to see what folk are building.

I’d want my frame a bit lighter is all. If there were an 853 version it’d be just as popular as the Soul I’d imagine.

See the Genesis day one frame for example.

Anything less than 953 and the cool kids won’t talk to you.

Not a problem. Cool kids haven’t spoke to me for a while now 🙁

Merak, there are not many steel disc frames under 2kg bare frame weight, irrespective of price. Its a strength issue not a weight thing.

“So, the Soul uses oversize sections in similar wall thickness to any other steel XC frame. What does that get you? Huge strength and longevity for a similar weight to other frames out there. But lets put that into context for a moment. To get the same strength, stiffness and fatigue resistance as the Soul out of a frame made from regular cromoly, it would be nearly 0.5lb heavier than the Soul due to thicker tube walls.”

Blurb from cotic site, so basically you dont need the same strength on a road/cx as the Soul, so no net weight difference really.

853 would have been nice is all

Without you knowing the actual specs of the tubeset used is this not a little bit of a pointless statement?

You want 853 because….? because it’s 853 and this frame isn’t?

Or because you know it would be X% better(?!), Xg lighter, and Y% nicer to ride?

I think far too many people get hung up on having a particular tubeset/sticker (or even partial tubeset in a lot of cases) without actually knowing much about the differences and whether or not it will make any noticeable difference.

What’s the bare frame weight of the Escapade? I can’t see a figure on the website.

Can’t see if on the website either, but I wouldn’t go on website weights anyway.

this guy weighed his medium/56 at 2060g

Personally I’m not bothered what it’s made of. But please either offer vertical dropouts or paragon sliding dropouts. I’d happily pay more for paragon sliding dropouts. Frame would be perfect for my needs then.

I wouldn’t go on kitchen scales weight either.

Id like to know definitively though.

#devils avocate It will never be all things to all people, its snobbery on my part.

Would like that weight figure though.

I wouldn’t go on kitchen scales weight either.

2060g is 2x the weight of a comparably priced carbon chinese frame. Why are you quibling over whether the scales were accurate to +/-5g? Do you need an uptodate calibration certificate to tell you that if you’re worried about weight, it’s definately not the kind of bike for you.

Just wanted to know rather than speculate. Got an hour to kill, bit of baiting you understand.

Well ‘in the region of 2kg’ is about as good as you’re ever gonna get without calibration certificates for every set of scales used when a person says ‘mine weighed X’ 🙂

as TINAS says, it’s not light compared to Carbon (or even Alu), but then it’s not really a comparable product and not being sold on its weight.

blimey this one (thread) took a new course 😆