[Closed] Cotic Rocket update from Cy

It's long overdue, I realise, but I felt it was time to update you on the Rocket situation even if there's not much to say, unfortunately.
First things first, we are no longer working with BML. Mike and I got to the point where we couldn't agree on how to move it forward in a way that worked for both Cotic and BML, and we haven't been working with him since 5th September. The reason why I didn't say anything at the time is that, as with anything involved in a partnership, there was a lot of things to sort out legally and financially and I wanted to be clear of all that before saying anything further. Since then I've been doing everything I can to make it happen, finding new fabricators to work with, adjusting the design and processes to work better with them, trying to get final prototypes made, but we're still not there and we still don't have a definitive frame design signed off.

As for where we go from here, we still don't know for sure. We know there are Rockets in our future, we love the bike and we're desperate to get them back on sale, but realistically, regardless of where or how we get them made we are months and months away from having anything on sale. One thing for sure is that it won't be a 26" wheel frame. It's not that we think they're rubbish, or anything like that. Quite the opposite. My main bike is my Rocket 26. But commercial reality has to have a bearing on this, and although it was completely beyond our control, the wholesale adoption of the 27.5" wheel has made the situation more difficult for us.

The main problem from a practical point of view is that to package the 27.5" wheel the frame has much more in common with the 29er prototype we had made in Taiwan, and that 29er wasn't right. It didn't have enough stiffness and needed improvements which would read across to the 27.5". Developing processes, tooling and construction techniques to make the 26" wheel frame which was effectively very different from the larger wheel frames we know we need for the future made less and less sense as time has gone by. It was never just a case of making an identical frame to the Taiwanese version, because they are set up to make parts of the frame in ways which are very expensive or prohibitively difficult to do over here.

Trying to get things made over here is the hardest thing I've ever tried to do, and to know that not achieving it has let so many people down really hurts. This has been the most stressful, most difficult year of my life. We're still working on the project, and we will see where it takes us. It might be that in the end we have to go back to Taiwan and get them made there again. Regardless of where it's made it's a great bike which we have spent an awfully long time developing and we want people out there riding them. UK made would be great, but if we find out it doesn't make sense on any cost or quality grounds then we can't keep chasing a dream.
On the flipside of all this, we've had a great year with the hardtails and the best year ever on commuter bikes. We still have a great relationship with our suppliers in Taiwan and continue to do great things with them with all our non-suspension products. Thanks to everyone who has bought one this year, and all the years we've been doing this. We love that you love Cotic bikes and we love hearing about it. It makes us keep on keeping on!

Cheers,

Cy