Duck Egg Cotic Escapade - Its changed again!
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Well who says you need a light bike to go fast.... took all 10kg of the Cotic around the New Forest Spring Sportive yesterday and produced my best effort at a sportive yet. 62 miles, average 17.2mph. After the first 30 miles, I was averaging 20mph! Im going to put it down to the bike being more comfortable, therefore less fatigue and also I would have made up a few seconds on all of the descents and tight corners - it handles and brakes like a mountain bike so I was swooping around everyone on fast corners. Loved it, great day. Ill stick a picture up this afternoon in its current state.
No racks and guards going on, unless I take it on an adventure somwhere (which is likely!).
I wont be swapping the saddles, white on my MTB would not work, the brown hides the mud much better. Plus I like the simple look on the roadie with everything black or white apart from the frame.0 -
Only just noticed the saddle is a little bit p**sed, felt fine yesterday but will level it out and see if it is more comfortable.
32mm Randoneurs on and still bags of clearance.
10.51kg0 -
Lush... How do you find getting the wheels up to speed with those tyres on?0
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Its obviously much slower to accelerate than my old Ribble which was stiffer and had 23mm Ultremos but for a very puncture resistant, comfortable, wide tyre they are great. Ugo recommended them to someone else so thought I'd take a punt for £30 a pair.
The wheels are great. Rims are light enough and Superstars hubs just roll so much longer than anything else I've ridden.0 -
Muddy bike on the carpet in the background? I would have been shot!TwellySmat wrote:[/url]0 -
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New Topeak pannier rack with picnic basket attached. Chilled day out with beer cycling and sandwiches.
I have also decided to never worry about the weight of a bike again. With the basket and rack on today, the Cotic must have been pushing 16-17kg and I was quite happy pushing away at 15mph on the flat today. Hills were no worse than usual. I would take my comfortable, practical, heavy bike which I handles great and I can load a weekends worth of kit on than a flyweight CF racer anyday.0 -
Very nice, loving the colour. Thinking about getting some Randonneurs for my Cross light, you seem to like yours 8)
I have to say, this type of bike with bigger tyres and disc brakes make so much sense - so comfy and fun to ride on and offroad. After doing some big descents on my roadie today, I certainly missed my discs!Titus Silk Road Ti rigid 29er - Scott Solace 10 disc - Kinesis Crosslight Pro6 disc - Scott CR1 SL - Pinnacle Arkose X 650b - Pinnacle Arkose singlespeed - Specialized Singlecross...& an Ernie Ball Musicman Stingray 4 string...0 -
Totally, the discs are great, not quite up there with the Deore hydros on my MTB but on the road you don't need that sort of power. Tyres are ideal. They do a couple of other versions too - a slick which is faster presumably and one with a raised tread for more grip off road.0
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That looks lovely, much better in the blue than purple with the black logo. I saw a frame in a new shop on Saturday and drooled slightly. There's a lot to be said for discs and more clearance, I love my Pro6. I was looking at a Cotic X at the time, but I didn't like the canti mounts on it. The Escapade looks better.
I'm running 32mm Randonneur Pro Cross which have a bit more tread and they roll remarkably well on tarmac. Bought them for winter use and light off roading, but might just leave them on.0 -
Far out, that colour is beautiful! Would love a bike in that colour one day.0
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nice bike mate, I've just knocked together one of these too. I wanted a cross bike and bought a genesis which was a little too big so i used it as a donor to build up an escapade.
Got a 58cm escapade frame, some almost new wheels and some used bb7's off ebay and groupset etc off the genesis.
It's not a high end build by any means and isn't light but:
-It looks good
-It can pretty much go anywhere and do anything
-It's a very nice ride, handles well and is comfortable
-Despite the weight, comfort and the fact it has 35mm cross tyres it's not all that much slower than my proper road bike
I like it a lot.0 -
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I love this bike. Absolutely spot on, perfect!0
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Quick update on this. Have put a few hundred miles on the Cotic now and still very happy. Have put the MTB away and started getting out on the road more in preparation for Ride London in August. Training is going badly, I will probably die halfway up Leith Hill.
Anyway, I have 'raced' up the Escapade a bit to give me any small gains I can squeeze out of it.
Ultremo ZX tyres are on - half the weight, higher pressures and much faster, If I can go until August without getting a p*****e I will be persuaded they are reliable enough to use on the day.
Rack and any surplus weight gone - bike now stands at a whisper over 10kg which is as light as it's going to get realistically
I have swapped the Charge Scoop for a Selle Italia saddle I had lying about - after persevering with the Scoop, I have given up, it's not for me, or my arse, which is weird as I get on very well with the Spoon on my MTB... The Selle Italia never gave me any problems when it was on my old hardtail so fingers crossed it is a bit more comfortable over the long runs.
Riding on the road more has enabled me to gradually drop the front end to where it is now (slammed). I can comfortably hammer along in a nice flat position now. Strava tells me I am getting faster so something is working.
Poor picture as the proper camera is out of action at the mo.
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That seat height looks taller than me
Hell of a strain on the post/seat tube clamp, is post an 'Exotic' carbon?
Love the colour tho.Cervelo R5
Cinelli Saetta
Giant XTC
Raleigh Classic0 -
Its within the minimum insertion limits. Yep Exotic carbon/ti from carbon cycles. Cotic recommend an extra long seatpost because of the short seat tube and sloping top tube and when you combine that with all 6'3 of me, this is the result. And before the bicycle nazis crawl out... no the frame isn't too small, the reach is perfect with a 100mm stem.0
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Considering this frameset myself. I've been told that the steel fork is flexible. In relation to that do you experience fork vibration when braking with the front brake?0
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Yep, under hard braking it can judder a bit but you get used to it. It is a very bendy fork, you can see it springing when you hit a hole or rut. I think you can buy the frame only if that would bother you. It is by no means a stiff race frame so don't kid yourself when buying one, but it is very comfortable.0
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Thanks for you reply! I must admit my experience with different forks is quite limited. I'm currently riding an aluminium Focus Mares AX 4 on singletrack and road and I have only tried a Stevens Gravere and a Cannondale SuperX. My Focus Mares fork vibrates sometimes when braking hard (fitted with Tektro HY/RD). There was immense amounts of vibration in the Cannondale SuperX which probably wasn't a stock build (cantilever brakes and carbon frame). The aluminium Stevens was fitted with Tektro Spyre brakes that did not have much braking power and/so the fork didn't vibrate when I did a short test drive.
How long is that seat-post you have fitted?
I look forward to test driving the Escapade in a few weeks time.0 -
TwellySmat wrote:I have also decided to never worry about the weight of a bike again.
You re going to turn in to one of those wierdos that buys a fat bike and a load of alpkit frame bags and rides across the rockies are nt you
Nice bike - cotic fan too!We're in danger of confusing passion with incompetence
- @ddraver0 -
ddraver wrote:TwellySmat wrote:I have also decided to never worry about the weight of a bike again.
You re going to turn in to one of those wierdos that buys a fat bike and a load of alpkit frame bags and rides across the rockies are nt you
Nice bike - cotic fan too!
No... :roll:0 -
I would love to do that to be fair, I won't grow a beard though. Seems to be a requirement for fat bikes!ddraver wrote:TwellySmat wrote:I have also decided to never worry about the weight of a bike again.
You re going to turn in to one of those wierdos that buys a fat bike and a load of alpkit frame bags and rides across the rockies are nt you
Nice bike - cotic fan too!0 -
Looking forward to do a testride on the Cotic Escapade tomorrow, this will decide if it will become the frame for my bikebuild. I still have a lot of questions, but I guess the most pressing are related to changing tubes and doing road-side repairs (yes we do have a lot of flint spread around here in Denmark):
[*] Is it possible to remove the rear-wheel with a rear fender mounted? (will be touring and riding in rain at some point)
[*] Is it hard/fiddly to mount a normal quick-release front-wheel with disc brake?
My wheels can be converted to 15mm thru axle for the front wheel and 13mm thru axle for the rear, but then I would need another adapter going from 15mm to 9mm for front and 12mm to 10mm for the rear. It is probably doable, but I have not yet found such "thru-axle-tubes".
I tried to do a comparison of my Focus Mares AX frame and the compact Escapade frame, while the drawings are most probably not precise in any way it provides some hints on the different geometries:
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I haven't got guards on mine so I can't say, but the horizontal drop out does make it a bit more fiddly to remove rear wheel. If you had a full length guard on the back I imagine it would be a pain because of the direction the wheels has to move in order to come out.
Only ever used mine with a 9mm through axle but the fork is very springy so I would imagine it would be easy enough using a standard QR.0 -
i haven't got guards on mine either (yet) but would think it wouldn't be totally straighforward. I will probably get some of those quick release things that you get with your front mudguards to go on the back too when i kit it out for winter.
as for the front, it depends. One set of my wheels pops straight in and out of the front with hardly any effort (these have shimano deore hubs)
But the wheels with hope hubs were a real struggle to get in and out. took loads of force and bending etc. As you can change the hubs to take bolt through axles i soon changed for them.0
