Duck Egg Cotic Escapade - Its changed again!
Comments
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tietze wrote: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:
oh...0 -
Soooo, I went a bit mad last Autumn and bought a new frame, which meant buying a new groupset, new wheels, new bars, new ste...... blah blah, this was the result: viewtopic.php?f=40044&t=13013658
So now I have a light, fast, drop bar road bike, so what to do with the Cotic?
Decided that after years of using hydraulic disc brakes on mountain bikes, I just can't do with the cable BB7's but there is no way I am spending £300 on shimanos hydraulic/mechanical sti levers....
Ended up with this:
Shimano Deore hydraulic disc brakes (160/140)
Stans Alpha 340 on Superstar Switch Evo hubs
Hutchinson Piranha 2 CX 34mm (running tubeless with Superstar tape and Stans sealant)
Dura Ace 10 speed bar end shifters
Vision TT base bar
Ultegra 10s rear mech, medium cage (just in case I want to stick an 11-32 on)
Ultegra cassette 11-28
Ultegra front mech
Sram Apex compact chainset 50/34
Topeak rear rack
Charge Spoon saddle
Deda leather look tape
It has some DMR flats on for the moment but I have some Shimano M520 SPD pedals which can go on when needed.
So now it is exactly halfway between the carbon road bike and the steel mountain bike.0 -
Test ride this morning threw up a couple of issues, the front brake does not work. New pads, same disc that was working fine with the BB7 and no leaks, but just no braking whatsoever. Bit of an odd one. It was bled not long ago by the LBS so I wonder if he has bodged something somewhere, its going back in on Monday anyway.
Bars are a tad uncomfortable, nothing too noticeable but I suspect on 30+ mile rides it may be an issue. I'm going to put another wrap of tape on and have a play with the position.
Other than that it's great, different but very nice to ride. The tyres are actually lighter than the touring tyres I had on before and because there are no tubes I have dropped enough weight to counter the drag of the knobbly bits. Its super comfortable now, springy steel + high volume tyres = pluuush. Tyres have good grip on grass and mud.0 -
TwellySmat wrote:Test ride this morning threw up a couple of issues, the front brake does not work. New pads, same disc that was working fine with the BB7 and no leaks, but just no braking whatsoever. Bit of an odd one. It was bled not long ago by the LBS so I wonder if he has bodged something somewhere, its going back in on Monday anyway
The bleed procedure I follow for Shimano brakes (Epic Bleed Solutions) tells you to reposition the lever several times and pump the lever to remove pockets of air that can get trapped in the reservoir. Maybe this wasn't done when they were bled and now you're using them in a strange orientation, it's freed the air and they need a bleed again.0 -
To be honest I think it looks like it would be bloody uncomfortable on those base bars, especially trying to use the brakes but if it works it works0
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Looks Bloody Awful. Couldn't you have sold the BB7's your MTB Stoppers (as fitted) and found the extra cash for some TRP HY/RD which would work with your Road levers and give probably 90% of the braking performance of Full hydraulics.
They are such old tech nowadays with integrated road hydraulic braking systems, that some of the Hope Convertor boxes must also be available at a good price if you must have hydraulic lines.0 -
I tried a bike like this has ended up, with, quite surprisingly, a Cotic Soul. Crazy how these bikes end up! It was very odd, and it got stolen. Enjoy the bike, and let us know how you keep up with it!0
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tim wand wrote:They are such old tech nowadays with integrated road hydraulic braking systems, that some of the Hope Convertor boxes must also be available at a good price if you must have hydraulic lines.
Still surprisingly pricey. But with integrated options coming in at around £400, even at £200 the V-twins are a more cost effective option. That and the fact that anything Hope is expensive.0 -
All I had to buy was the bar end shifters. £50. Everything else was knocking about in drawers waiting for a purpose. It rides well. Brakes are, believe it or not, right at the end of my fingers.
Not to everyone's tastes I guess but hey, its an inexpensive experiment and it is keeping me interested at the moment.
I love the comment saying it looks bloody awful and then in the same comment suggests hanging a box under the stem with countless cables and hoses springing out of it (the hydro/cable converter things look terrible in my opinion and I have ridden a road bike with one on and was not impressed). I think I'd rather spend half the money and have better brakes. Thanks for the input though.
On a side note, I came home today to find the aftermath of a small explosion. The front Piranha CX has blown off the rim while sat in the house doing nothing. The tyre was seated well, looked straight and had approx. 35-40 psi in it. Looks like the bead is deformed on one part so I'm trying to decide whether it was a faulty tyre or incompatible rim/tyre combination. Will take the rear off and check it. Good thing it didn't go when I was doing 30mph on it yesterday!
Anyone had experience running these tyres tubeless?0 -
Countless cables? Last time I checked most people could count to four. two Wire brake cables in two hydraulic lines out. Exactly the same as any brake system with in line connectors.
I suppose its a subjective thing. When you first posted it , I loved this bike and it was in my mind as a back burner for a similar build this spring. I don't want to be insulting but what you ve done now looks like a mish mash to solve a problem you never really had.
Personally I ve never seen anything engineered by Hope that looked ugly, admittedly its not the best solution but IMO it knocks the socks of of yours.0 -
tim wand wrote:Countless cables? Last time I checked most people could count to four. two Wire brake cables in two hydraulic lines out. Exactly the same as any brake system with in line connectors.
I suppose its a subjective thing. When you first posted it , I loved this bike and it was in my mind as a back burner for a similar build this spring. I don't want to be insulting but what you ve done now looks like a mish mash to solve a problem you never really had.
Personally I ve never seen anything engineered by Hope that looked ugly, admittedly its not the best solution but IMO it knocks the socks of of yours.
I highly recommend getting one, brilliant frames, probably one of the most versatile frames about. You can knock off all the socks you like then
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I must admit, I loved this bike with the drops, it looks a bit odd now. I suppose like you say, it's not cost you anything to try this. Cable discs aren't too bad as long as they're adjusted right, I don't think I've ever run out of braking power with them but they are fiddely0
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At the rate I get bored and move on to the next project, it may well have drops again one day! At the moment I'm enjoying trying something different and once I have worked out these teething problems it should be a good crack to ride. Going to try and get a few off road miles on it, there is a potential SDW attempt happening this year within my riding group and I think this may be in with a good shout of getting me through it.0
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Hope you come up with a workable solution. It will be good to see what you achieve. I do have to admit that nearly £250 for the Hope V Twin is a lot of money for all be it a well engineered (bodge).
More and more main stream bikes are coming O/E with hydraulic lines, and I am sure this will be refelected in market prices and equipment availability soon.
Saw some STI/ Cross levers that someone in the states was selling which were basically and old style shimano parallelogram style lever grafted onto the front of a drop bar brake, so you could run MTB groupsets on a cross frame. again it looked a bit odd, but if people don't give these things a try, kit will never develop and we will all be riding the same shot.
Ironic really as it was this kind of thinking that started Hope off.0 -
This made me chuckle after reading you weren't buying another bike for weight, then that you have now bought a carbon road bike. That's the kind of thing I would do.TwellySmat wrote:At the rate I get bored and move on to the next project...
I managed to get an ex-demo TRP Parabox which is similar to the Hope thing with a master cylinder under the stem. It doesn't exactly add to the beauty of a bike I grant you, but it works a treat. I only paid about £50 for it so it was a bargain, even though it had been removed by a poorly trained chimp so was a bit of a faff to fit.
Saying that if you're happy with it as it is leave it like that and as Mr Wand says I reckon proper hydraulic STIs will be dropping in price as the market develops.
Still loving the Cotic frame, very happy with my Solaris. How is the paint finish coping with wear and tear? Was thinking about putting helicopter tape on it but wondering if it would make the matt finish look too shiny.0 -
I have taped this one up, just on the areas with cables, as I do with every frame. It's holding up ok on this bike but my BFe is looking very tatty. I think Cotic have had issues with paint finish in the past, they were selling off a bunch of Soul frames that had a poor finish and they couldn't justify selling them at full price. Get lots of heli tape on it.0
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Ultimate commuter/pub bike mode....
AXA Defender lock - just been to Barcelona for a week and the bike I hired out there had one of these fitted, they are brilliant!
Bell hidden under the tape
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