New Cotic Cascade?

Saw a post on Cotic’s FB earlier about a new bike called the Cascade, kind of a drop bar MTB/bike packing bike but seems to have disappeared now before I could read it on their site in full no sign of it anywhere now?! Looked mint though, look forward to seeing it properly!!

https://www.trademarkelite.com/uk/trademark/trademark-detail/UK00003553951/Cascade

You weren’t imagining things

Looks like a teaser on social that it’ll be released tomorrow…

Is it like a Genesis Vagabond ?

I’m guessing something like a Vagabond or Kona Sutra Ltd, so 29 x 2.3 clearance, dropper post compatible, fairly slack and a thousand frame bosses for frame bags, fork racks and top tube bags. But just a guess.

Something like this maybe

https://www.cotic.co.uk/product/cascade

Looks nice….anyone want to buy my kidney

Noice 😊

There are a shitload of photos here: https://www.flickr.com/photos/coticltd/albums/72177720296229085

And (by the looks of it) development stuff here: https://www.flickr.com/photos/coticltd/albums/72157713723722201

Oh, that looks nice

Looks great if you live somewhere with amazing trails

Damn you Cotic……👌

Looks great if you live somewhere with amazing trails

Not true! I use mine most for hour or so rolls around the local bridleways and lanes. All those trails near my house that were written off years ago as too dull on a Rocketmax or having too much road to link them up. Perfect on the Cascade. It’s brilliant for making less than stellar local trails engaging and fun.

It’s a bit of a balancing act though, you need sufficient offroad to justify this over an Escapade or similar. I’m o 700x45c tyres on my gravel bike, and I’d need a whole other landscape to make bgger tyres than that a good idea, but that sort of offroad quickly becomes hardtail MTB territory where you’re better off on a Solaris.

I think I know the sort of trails Cy is talking about; short blasts of suburban singletrack and smooth woodland trails with a scattering of roots.

There’s loads of them on the fringes of west Sheffield and exactly the reason I bought my Sutra Ltd, you can run fast rolling but higher volume tyres (got WTB Nine Lines in 2.25 at the moment) which make those same trails a lot of fun.

If I didn’t already have the Sutra I’d be putting myself down for one of these for sure.

@cy – thanks for that

Stupid Q: Do you have demo bikes at your base?

@ElShalimo Not yet, but we are aiming to by end of Feb. If you’re not already, sign up to our newsletter email list at http://www.cotic.co.uk/contact. You’ll hear about that (and a lot of other things) there first.

tuboflard

I think I know the sort of trails Cy is talking about; short blasts of suburban singletrack and smooth woodland trails with a scattering of roots.

Yeah, not saying they don’t exist, just it’s a fairly specific niche – choice is a good thing though. I’m fortunate enough to have a (Cotic 🙂 )hardtail and a gravel bike, I don’t find myself needing this in between – it’s too offroad for where I use the gravel bike 95% of the time, and for me drop bars are to much of a compromise for where I ride the hardtail (although it’s very pretty and shiny and I certainly wouldn’t refuse one if offered)

Nice location for the promo vid 👌

(My local trails 😁)

@honourablegeorge There’s definitely overlap, but I find it’s the geometry in particular that it limiting for offroad jaunts with something like the Escapade with 650×47 tyres. It’s great on the road and on dirt roads, but anything too much bumpier and it gets quite unhappy. The Cascade is way more confidence inspiring, but with that drop bar, multiple hand position comfort for long days too. The SolarisMAX has Longshot geometry, so whilst with XC tyres it would spin along quite nicely on everything the Cascade would, it’s actually way more capable than that with a little more chunk on the rubber, so it just depends on what you want your ‘other’ bike to be. For me with a RocketMAX as my main bike, I don’t want another mountain bike, and the Cascade offers more versatiility and a different kind of ride feel.

Loving the colours and it’s great to see something different, but for me I reckon the Escapade is perhaps a tad more versatile than this and lighter to boot. I have an Escapade frame on order, but I did briefly think about swapping to a Cascade, but looking at it more it feels like it would overlap with my Spur a fair bit, definitely so in weight terms and I want something lighter, faster that I can use for road/gravel work with a bit of singletrack thrown in. @Cy, any ideas if we’ll see more than just renders of the Escapade before the frames arrive in March? Can’t wait for mine to arrive!

I’d love one of these…

It’s the first time I’ve thought I’d consider replacing my Pickenflick … the ‘flick is great on easier local trails, but does get out of its depth on chunkier (but not yet MTB terrain), and is also quite tiring for longer bikepacking trips where you encounter a variety of terrain.

It’s different enough to my Ragley BigWig HT to consider it. But as my Pickenflick (with another set of wheels) also doubles as my road bike, the Cascade perhaps takes me a bit too far away from that.

Hmm… 🤔

@cy – yeah, I guess for me, if I’m riding offroad where I need that extra capability and slack geometry is going to be useful, then I want a flat (well, riser) barred bike that I can be jumping about and having fun on, and for me, drop bars (especially the brakes) aren’t the right tool for that at all. I do see bikes with drop bars way up high and flared out and angled back, for me that kind of defeats their purpose somewhat, they’re no longer giving an aero position, it’s trying get them to a MTB/Brake hand position but that’s compromising everything else they’re good at.

TBH, I’d prefer a bike like this with flat bars – maybe you need two versions of it, like the original Roadrat had, a slightly longer TT version for flat bars (I still have one of those in the shed, just need some wheels to rebuild it back to former glory)

Looks good to me, just what I’ve been looking for. May put some Jones bars on for bike packing though.

I have to say, I really like it!

But my do it all bike is a Mk1 Solaris with rigid carbon forks and a set of carbon jones loops. Which really is a bit too similar to this to justify anything else in this sort of category. Particularly with a gravel bike as well

@lawman91 Thanks for the kind words, and for your patience on the Escapade. We should have photos of the new colours in about 2 weeks.

@honourablegeorge Depends on your definition of slack. 69 on the Cascade is slack for a gravel bike, but the solarismax longshot geo at 66 with 35mm stem is wildly more capable offroad, and less happy on road.

As for building the cascade with flat or risers as a kind of old school xc bike, that’s definitely something you could do if you prefer mtb style bars. We haven’t talked about it at launch because it’s a lot to take in as it is, and there are little bumps in the build for a flat bar because the cascade is flat mount brakes. In normal times we could rely on being able to pick up the occasional set of flat mount caliper mtb brakes, or the adaptors but at the moment we can’t. More than happy to talk to customers about this option and advise though.

No bright colours 🙁

Long article over there —> on GritCX

New Cotic Cascade – just what sort of bike is it?

cy

@honourablegeorge Depends on your definition of slack. 69 on the Cascade is slack for a gravel bike, but the solarismax longshot geo at 66 with 35mm stem is wildly more capable offroad, and less happy on road.

True, but given the same tyres, there’s not that much downside (in my mind) to a Solaris on road, but there’s a massive advantage in fun and capability as soon as you’re offroad. I should shut up, I’m not at all trying to be critical, it looks a lovely bike, just that it’ll suit very specific rider and maybe that’s not me.

This is the sort of bike I’ve been pondering – off road tourer that can handle a bigger tyre for the fun stuff.
Have been looking at Mason ISO, Shane Bahookie Dropbar – this is a fair bit cheaper. I’m ok with that 🙂 but by the time I’ve put a dyno wheel and other bits & bobs there’s probably not much in it.

No bright colours 🙁

Definitely needs an orange option 😉

I should shut up, I’m not at all trying to be critical, it looks a lovely bike, just that it’ll suit very specific rider and maybe that’s not me.

😀 The problem is that you own a HT and a gravel bike, which have enough distance between them. If you had this, there’d be too much overlap between the 3 bikes. If you only had a longer travel FS (for instance) then this would make more sense to replace your HT AND gravel bike.

When I first saw this I immediately started shaking the piggy bank but now I am not so sure. I have just got back from a short ,basically gravel, ride in W. Sheffield on my SolarisMax which has made me think where would the added value of a Cascade come from? It’s probably a bit lighter than the SM but would the slightly improved road performance make it worth buying?
I must say if I didn’t have an SM I would be in the queue.

IdleJon

If you only had a longer travel FS (for instance) then this would make more sense to replace your HT AND gravel bike.

But then I would have fewer bikes. Nobody wants that 🙂

The problem is that you own a HT and a gravel bike, which have enough distance between them. If you had this, there’d be too much overlap between the 3 bikes. If you only had a longer travel FS (for instance) then this would make more sense to replace your HT AND gravel bike.

This … somewhat unexpectedly, is where I suddenly find myself.

I’ve just gone n-1 down to three bikes (gravel/SS HT/FS), and genuinely considering this and going down to 2 bikes! What’s bloody wrong with me?!

@hardtailonly – you need to go and sit on the naughty step and reflect upon you poor behaviour

@hardtailonly – you need to go and sit on the naughty step and reflect upon you poor behaviour

I’ve done that. And I still want one! 😁

So, it’s the Mountain Biker’s Gravel Bike?

What’s bloody wrong with me?!

Pretty soon, your username 😛

But then I would have fewer bikes. Nobody wants that 🙂

and

I’ve just gone n-1 down to three bikes (gravel/SS HT/FS), and genuinely considering this and going down to 2 bikes! What’s bloody wrong with me?!

I picked up a Marin gravel bike last week, one of their more off-road focussed gravel bikes. It fits into my collection – 150mm FS, 140mm HT, Genesis Vagabond, new gravel bike, cross bike. I have every possible type of ride covered and can be on the wrong bike on every ride I do! 😀

The cross bike needs to go, and probably the Vagabond, but I just can’t bring myself to sell them yet.