A pair of black Cotics

Basil Hume
Basil Hume Posts: 54
edited September 2012 in Your mountain bikes
I thought it was time to do a little thread for my pair of black Cotics - a 2010 Soul and a 2012 >X<.

I've always enjoyed tinkering my my bikes and, for the last 10 years or so, have constantly changed parts on existing bikes rather than bought off the shelf. I've always had a "serious" mountain bike since being 14 years old, but have found I also need a hyrbid or road bike for day-to-day duties and commuting.

It's a bit of an accident that both my bikes as Cotics, but they do reflect what so many Britons seem to want in their lives as well as their bikes - the traditional and modern mixed well together.

Soul

Bought in 2010 to replace a Pace RC305, which I'd been riding since returning to hardtails after years of full suspension. For my own riding, you just can't beat the versatility of a hardtail and the Soul personifies this. It's happy to perform in any situation and is a very well-made, well-finished frame.

IMG_2631.jpg

Part Soul Wt (g)

Frame Cotic Soul, Medium (2010) 1,995
Fork DT Swiss XMC 130 (2009) 1,695
Headset Hope threadless 90
Stem Thomson X4 90mm 169
Bar Easton EC70 riser 31.8 155
Grips ODI Lockon Yeti 108
Shifters XTR M980 Rapidfire 10sp 201
F Mech XT M770 band 152
R Mech XTR M980 Dyna-Sys 177
Chain XTR M980 HollowPin 265
BB Hope external BB steel 109
Cranks XT M780 175mm 750
Cassette XT M771 11-32 10sp 264
Chainrings XT M780 24/32/42T 0
Pedals M540 SPD 353
Brake levers XT M785 Disc 266
Brake callipers XT M775 Disc 270
Rotors Hope Floating 203/160mm 300
Hub F Hope Pro 2 Evo 185
Hub R Hope Pro 2 295
Rims DT Swiss XR400 Disc 32H 800
Spokes DT Swiss black 400
Tubes Conti Presta 26" 250
Tyres Conti X King Pro 2.2 1,140
Skewers Hope QR 124
Seat clamp Hope QR 30.0 52
Seatpost Thomson Elite Layback 27.2 228
Saddle SDG Bel Air RL Ti (cow) 270

Weight (kg) 11,063
Weight (lb) 24.39


>X<

After a succession of mountain bikes with slicks, hyrbids and road bikes, I decided that I really needed the drop bars of a road bike but also disc brakes. I think there's a lot of demand out there for this sort of bike and that manufacturers have been slow to respond, so I found my choice of frames and components somewhat limited. The >X< got a fairly iffy review as a 'Cross bike on over on road.cc (though better ones more recently, e.g. Singletrack), but it's still one of the small number of disc-ready frames that you can use with drops - let alone in steel.

As with the Soul it's a beautifully finished bike in a non-fussy way, with a ride that's much better suited to urban road surfaces than my past road bikes. It's been a great workhorse and I can see it staying a while, but I'm going to be very interested once lighter weight disc-ready road wheels and disc brakes come out as that's where there's most weight to lose on this build. The best thing is that it's really opened-up the kind of riding that I can do; I just love popping down a bridleway or rough lane when I'd be thinking about it twice on a racer.

The main component note is the mix of road Tiagra STI shifters with an SLX rear mech, Avid cable discs, XT hubs and a Deore 11-32 cassette (Tiagra crankset shown, but now changed to 105). This setup is far better for my riding than using pure road components, but it's fairly unrefined compared to the XTR/XT combination on my Soul. I'm doing about eight or nine times as many miles on my >X< as I am on my Soul, so I may need to upgrade these parts!

IMG_2630.jpg

Full spec:

Part >X< Wt (g)

Frame Cotic >X<, 56cm (2011) 1,975
Fork Cotic Road Hog steel 1,050
Headset FSA Orbit XL 2 101
Stem Easton EA50 100mm 140
Bar Easton EA50 31.8 280
Grips Fizik Microtex (ant. brown) 50
Shifters Tiagra 4500 STI 9sp 493
F Mech 105 5700 28.6 band 97
R Mech SLX M662 253
Chain SRAM PC991 297
BB 105 5600 external BB 97
Cranks Tiarga 4550 175mm 772
Cassette Deore HG61 11-32T 9sp 290
Chainrings Tiagra 34/50T 0
Pedals M520 SPD 380
Brake levers Tiagra 4500 STI 0
Brake callipers Avid BB5 Road 410
Rotors Avid BB5 160/140mm 230
Hub F XT M756 244
Hub R XT M756 435
Rims Mavic TN719 Disc 32H 1020
Spokes DT Swiss black 400
Tubes Presta 700c 250
Tyres Conti GP 4 Season 500
Skewers Shimano QR 80
Seat clamp Cotic clamp 50
Seatpost Easton EA50 27.2 275
Saddle SDG Bel Air (black) 300

Weight (kg) 10,469
Weight (lb) 23.08
Cotic Soul - Fox 32 RLC forks, XTR go, XT stop, Hope / DT wheels, Thomson / Easton / Hope finishing

Cotic >X< - 105 and SLX go, Avid stop, XT / Mavic disc wheels and Easton finishing

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