New Cotic Rocket is a steel frame ebike with external battery

“It’d be interesting to know why their frame only offering is really just a fully custom build.”

They’ve said it’s to meet legal requirements for selling ebikes. Does anyone sell frame-only e-bikes?

I asked as Bird were intending to sell frame/motor etc only ebikes and Static currently do.

Riding my fatbike this morning, which has a full inner triangle frame bag, it got me thinking that if the Cotic maybe had a custom frame bag that hid the battery and allowed a small amount of zipped storage above, I’d be quite into that.

I don’t mind a bike with a frame bag and the lovely slender steel tubing would work well with a bag.

I’ve expertly mocked up a professional Photoshop rendering of it.

• 

I can’t stop imagining using this as a basis for a cotic pinion bike. Frame minus and e-gubbins, plus adapter to fit a pinion gearbox.

Intradrive’s motor-gearbox wouldn’t even need an adaptet, jus’ sayin’…

That Intra-drive looks good, even bolted to an Orange. But how much, £10k? I’d also need to budget a few belt tensioner spares.

https://www.pinkbike.com/news/intra-drives-combined-motor-and-gearbox-fits-bikes-designed-for-shimano-ep8.html

https://www.intra-drive.com/product_EMTB/

I don’t want the eeb but though, I just want a lovely steel full suss gearbox enduro sort of bike

Just watched a couple of Cotic’s own videos and half watched while Guy Kes played in the background. The battery doesn’t really stand out that much to me. Certainly not as much as some of the proposed frame bag suggestions would.

It’s not a looker with that battery, but having read the full article (the ‘development history’) and the rationale behind it all I get the reasons why. It’s going to split opinion for sure.

The thought of a full-power e-bike that weighs <22kg, in the XL/C5 size I need, with geometry I know works for me, from a company I like…

A few days on from me writing the above… After the ‘acclimatisation’ period, this’d now be top of my (theoretical) e-bike shopping list. It’d be between this and a Saturn 16 MGU, but that Nicolai is a ridiculously weighty thing. Decided I care much more about how a bike rides than looks – within reason. Obviously not ridden one but I like how every other Cotic I’ve owned (8 of them…) , so it’d be a safe bet.

Not that I’m the market for any £8k+ e-bike.

“ Decided I care much more about how a bike rides than looks – within reason.”

I was looking through my Strava pics and was shocked at how awful my Levo looks vs my Moxie that’s in most of the recent ones. I really don’t notice when I’m with it – either it looks better in person than in photos or it’s so much fun that I look on it with very rose-tinted glasses!

I’d be quite into that.

At one point, that was considered. With a shelf built into the bag to carry stuff above the battery. It would make it much harder to take the battery off though, and it being such little hassle to remove or swap the battery proved to be a big benefit during testing.

@weeksy – we hired Kenovo SL’s up the Golfie the other week, it was great fun but confirmed to me that my fitness is part of my pleasure. I’m not a hater, quite the opposite, I lap up all the ebike stuff, just not ready to stop pedalling myself yet.

That time will come and they will be truly amazing by then…

As for the Cotic, its already grown on me but I’m too tight to spend that kind of money.

Thing  is @mugboo , it doesn’t need to be one or the other, it can be both.

This week I did 2 Eeb and 2 manuals, but they were different rides with different goals and different terrain. Today’s Eeb ride I would still be out now 3 hours later trying to finish in the slop if I were on the Status. But at times like you, I want the fitness, training etc.

Buying an ebike doesn’t have to mean it’s all you ride ever.

Buying an ebike doesn’t have to mean it’s all you ride ever.

I must remember that. They seem like an addictive drug to me

They seem like an addictive drug to me

That’s true, it’s very easy to get sucked into as it changes how you ride trails, trails that were a chore for example, they’re now hit at pace and become fun. So it’s easy to get hooked into hitting everything faster as that’s fun as we all know.

But I guess you need a bit of self discipline to ensure you keep using the manual

New Calibre Bossnut announced this week – £1500 for what looks a very capable bike with a reasonable spec.

£8.5k eBikes (not aimed just at Cotic) – I struggle to see where the extra £7k goes. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

They seem like an addictive drug to me

That’s why I sold mine

I like it. Form following function and practical experience. I think it looks better than the really fat downtubed ebikes albeit not as good as the really sleek lightweight ones.

I’m not looking to buy an ebike like this for a good few years (/decades, hopefully) but I hope something like this is stil around. On a shorter timescale i’d be interested to see a gearbox bike coming off this as suggested above.

Major disappointment is that it wasn’t called something like the ArcJeht or Orion or something!

Given the arguments for weight saving of having the battery non-integrated in the tube and so on, and the desire for bikes to actually feel like bikes when you ride them… why attach the battery to the frame at all. Seems like the next step is to decouple the battery from the bike completely and wear it. They’re bout the same weight as a hydration bladder and I use one of those because I’d rather the weight of the water was on my back than on the bike

Given the amount of whinging that happens when bikes don’t have bottle cage mounts, I can’t see folks wanting to wear batteries.

Some early conversion kits did come with backpack batteries. They didn’t catch on.

They didn’t catch on.

I think they’d probably  catch on most things 🙂

 

 

Things, fire…

At one point, that was considered. With a shelf built into the bag to carry stuff above the battery. It would make it much harder to take the battery off though, and it being such little hassle to remove or swap the battery proved to be a big benefit during testing.

The battery needn’t be IN the bag. It could be like a bag above and then the bottom section is basically open but on velcro so you simply lift a side or both sides to get to it.

My Orbea Wild has a removable battery behind a small panel that comes off with a tool-free twist lock. I have a spare smaller capacity battery that gets used for big shuttle rides and it’s an absolute doddle to change the battery to be honest, plus you also have the advantage that the battery itself isn’t completely covered in mud and crap.

A friend had one of the earlier Focus Jam bikes which had a piggyback battery in addition to the main, integrated frame battery, so similar mounting style to the Cotic (presumably). He had to attach a short plugged cable from the battery to the frame to use the piggyback. Presumably the Cotic is electrically-attached by just sliding it onto the mount?

I’m sure things have improved, but the piggyback battery on his Focus always had a tiny bit of play in it which gave you an annoying, audible rattle on a downhill.

But yeah, I think a frame bag with liftable covers on the lower part would both hide the battery, AND keep all the crap off it too.

Just a thought 🙂

Looks like a steel version of my 2018 Vitus E-Sommet. Which was brilliant bike, alloy, 23.5kg in XL with proper tyres etc. Was also £3300 but that was then etc

Still think my 2023 Wild looks better though, even though the battery isn’t (easily) removable. Also not £3300

Personally I’d much rather have something that’s easy to maintain in our great British climate. Never understood why instead of applauding a British manufacturer for doing something different, we just bash them for being too expensive and too out of touch. Same with Orange. I like the fact the battery isn’t bespoke to the bike and I like the fact it can be removed entirely for swaps or for charging. Sadly I don’t have ten grand and I don’t want an e-bike, but if I did, I’d absolutely be considering one of these. I applaud Cy for doing his own thing and not building another four-bar e-bike that looks like every other four-bar e-bike out of a far-eastern gigafactory.

I think a lot of these big swoppy carbon things enclose the motor so much that if any water or muck does get in it sits there causing trouble. My mate has a Santa Cruz and they as good as told him that trapped moisture gets boiled by the hot motor and fritzes it. Even though the power cable is properly sealed by our motor cover, water and muck can drain out of ours. We wouldn’t have used Shimano if we didn’t think it was up to the job.

Thats reassuring to know when my EP801 bike (rise) turns up. It does fit with anecdotal stuff you read on the web too about moisture in the motor being the killer. I am tempted to buy a small dehumidifier to put in the cabinet where I will keep my Rise.

My other half’s Rise sits next to a dehumidifier. Gets throughly dried out before going on charge.

When you see the new Rocket next to Cotic’s other full sus bikes, it doesn’t actually look too bad.

https://www.cotic.co.uk/bikes/full-suspension

The price difference between the uk made and Taiwan made frames is £800, so we could see a cheaper Taiwan made rocket one day at a more reasonable price of £7,999. (Sarcasm emoji)