Cotic Escapade

dnrc

Just posted to another thread about my one of these but thought i'd put mine up here with pics.

I wanted a cross/winter bike and bought a genesis which was a little too big so i used it as a donor to build up an escapade. Since buying this i've also shifted my galaxy as this should do it all.

- 58cm Duck Egg Escapade frame + Forks
- Alexrims Cross wheels off ebay with rotors and cassette (almost brand new)
- some used bb7's off ebay
- mainly tiagra groupset etc off the genesis.
- Fizik Tape
- Charge Spoon off another bike
- schwalbe cx tyres (just cheap and cheerful for now)






It's not a high end build by any means and isn't light but:

-It looks good (i think)
-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.

dnrc

oh, as you see it there measured with my top quality luggage scales from the pound shop it's supposedly 12kg.

arran77

Very nice, I've got one of their mountain bikes and have seriously looked at one of these when I have the money 8)

Twelly

Nice one. Im no longer the only Escapade owner. How are you getting on with it. Put many miles on yet?

dnrc

cheers chaps.

I bought it for much the same reason as you did TwellySmat, i'm in norfolk so an mtb is rarely needed but i wanted to be able to do some trails/cross country. When i found this frame it looked just the ticket, can do road/trails and touring with it.

Not done lot on it yet, i only got the front mech last friday so just had a couple of shakedown rides so far, about 50 miles. Enough to tell I like it though.

Think I will get a second set of wheels for road use and over time upgrade a few of the bits for better stuff.

How do you find yours?

RideOnTime

old school style... nice....

Twelly

Yeah its great. Tyres are important to unlock the capabilities of the frame. Feels very planted off road and comfortable on road. Ive just stuck a pannier rack on mine and it still handles well with a load of weight on the back.

dnrc

old school - exactly, i aimed for a retro/modern look and am please with how it came out.

I'm hoping to do some off road stuff tomorrow now i've made sure everything works ok. With the wheels/tyres i have It's currently set up for exactly that. In future i will maybe get some road oriented spare wheels/tyres or just upgrade the ones i have for some better/lighter ones.

Glad to hear it works ok with the rear load. Part of the reason for getting this was bike consolidation and i would like to do some tours on it as well.

I stripped down my proper road bike a couple of months ago for cleaning/maintenance and then got distracted by this project so for now it's my only bike (not counting the MTB) so it will get a good amount of use in the near future.

dnrc

I have now done 2 more 30 mile rides on this taking in road, gravel, grass, fields, footpaths, bridleways etc and can happily report it's very good at everything. also some of the most fun i've had on a bike.

It's liberating and fun to just turn down any random track you see.

It handles well on everything and is comfortable and still sprightly on the road. It's exactly what i wanted from this type of bike.

If anyones wondering about sizing on these (i saw some reports where people say the size comes up different) my road bike is a 58x58 with an 80mm stem. This is the 58 cm again with an 80mm stem and they both fit perfectly (i'm just over 6`)

oldbazza

Funny you should say that about sizing my still unfinished Planet X xls is the same size as my Ridley Icarus road bike even though it seems that the general concensus is that you should get a smaller cross frame;maybe something to do with road frames now being smaller?
Nice bike btw .

meagain

I like that very much - a proper bike. And as you say, two sets of wheels/tyres will make it a genuine "bike for all occasions".

dnrc

I've now bought another set of wheels to go with this

Hope Hoops. Evo Pro 2 hubs on Mavic Open Pro Rims.

Makes a huge difference on the road. It was pretty good on road with the other wheels and tyres but now it's a completely different animal. Goes lovely. There is hardly anything in it at all between this and my proper road bike.

It is truly a bike for all occasions now.

If my proper road bike wasn't so pretty i probably wouldn't even bother building it up again now. This is that good.

I'm really happy with it.

Off to the Nurburgring with it this weekend for rad am ring.

dnrc

Took this to the nurburgring a few weeks ago for rad am ring.

Did a circuit of the off road track on the friday and then again on the saturday, swapped the wheels over for the road ones and did two laps of the racetrack on the sunday.

Absolutely brilliant weekend and the bike was superb. It managed the off road without issue, obviously there were bits where my mate was quicker on his full MTB but there were loads of other bits where i was quicker.

On track with the hope wheels it was fantastic. Fast, good handling, comfortable and stable.

Hit 57.4 mph on it on the racetrack.

junglemap3000

Wahey! Just place an order for an Escapade, thanks to these positive reviews

junglemap3000

p.s. congrats on the nice build, and your performance at the Nurburbring.

dnrc

cheers dude, it was a brilliant weekend and i'm going to try getting a team together for the 24hr race next year.

hope you enjoy your escapade, i've got nothing but good things to say about it.

having two sets of wheels makes it a genuine all purpose bike, i haven't ridden any of my others since getting it.

I plan to try a short loaded camping tour on it next month too.

dnrc

OK, so I have done some upgrades:

Changed both hubs to take bolt through axles (getting the hope hub in the front fork was a struggle) and bought some DT Swiss RWS axles.

Then I simply wanted to get rid of the washing line gear cables at the front and get a tidier seatpost and stem.

Hidden gear cables means changing shifters and switching to ten speed, and you probably know how these things go, one thing leads to another etc etc so I ended up with Dura Ace 7900 Througout !!

I think It looks the part though:

dombhoy

Looks amazing great bike and upgrades

Paul 8v

Did you ride "The 'ring" whilst there were cars going round? :shock:

ugo.santalucia

Nice, as you seem to be keen to spend money on it, not tempted to replace the faux leather bar tape with some real one? It just feels so much better in your hands

dnrc

Cheers all.

No. Didn't ride the ring when cars were on it. Once a year they have rad am ring and let cyclists at it for a weekend. It's well worth a trip. The off road track is available all year round.

Not considered leather tape. I quite like the feel of the fizik stuff. It needs changing again now so I may consider it.