BikeRadar have published their review of the Solaris. They like it a lot, which is nice.

"Of all the steel framed 29ers we've tested, the Solaris offers the best hard hitting performance without losing any of its cross-country nimbleness"

Ride & handling: Light but reassuringly tough; among the best 29ers we've tested

Cy would like it pointed out that he founded Cotic in 2002, not 1992 as it says in the copy. He was taking his GCSE's and sneaking into pubs in 1992.

Jenn Hopkins of Singletrack Magazine rode the Cairngorm Loop a couple of weekends ago on her Solaris long termer. It's a massive lap of Western Scotland taken on in one go. It took her 36 hours and full winter gear, because as you can see, it got a bit chilly. That fourth pic is Jenn boiling water to melt the flash frozen drivetrain on her Solaris after a sub-zero overnight bivvy. A suitably epic ride. Chapeau Jenn. Thanks for the pictures.

Following some negative feedback at the launch about the look and location of the spanner-flatted seatstay pivots on the Rocket - notably on Bikemagic - we have been looking for a solution. As you can see, we've found one! We didn't think it was possible to make pivot studs with the internal allen head, because our framebuilder's fastener supplier couldn't make them. However, we've spoken to some other suppliers and found one who can do the operation, as well as chrome plating them for longevity. These pics are the first ones installed on Cy's prototype frame.

All the Rocket frames will be shipped with the new pivots, and they'll be fitted to all the demo bikes from this weekend's Calver Demo onwards. Email demo@cotic.co.uk to book on for Saturday 12th May.

The production Rocket frames will be with us at the end of this month. Sorry for the delay for those of you waiting for your frame, but it took longer to get the paintshop to sort out the masking and decal work to be completely perfect (after we found the frames supplied for demo to be very slightly not what we asked for). It will be worth the wait, and if you're after a frame get one ordered as we've got lots going out in the first week.

James and Emma from Cotic AQR Race Team represented at the Wiggle Enduro 6 this weekend and came away with a hard earned 4th place in the Mixed Pairs event, narrowly missing the podium. Great work you two!

Mario's got a gritstone BFe and is a bit good on the steep techy stuff. Check out this video of him and his mate riding some pretty difficult terrain. Loving it!

Phil came to our first Calver demo on 14th April to test ride a Solaris. He liked it so much he bought one. He's also got a Soul, and his experience on the demo with our bikes' set up also has inspried a change for the better on that as well. We'll let Phil explain himself...

One happy man! Don't forgot, we still have places on our next demo this Saturday 12th May at Calver. Come and ride a Solaris or a Rocket. Drop us a line on demo@cotic.co.uk to book on and get full details of where we are, or give us a call in the office on 07970 853531.

Morning all. Our friends over at Wideopen Magazine has just launched their shiny new issue. There's no specific Cotic content this time, but it's a lovely thing and with the bank holiday coming up, it'll be great to read over a lazy morning coffee. Enjoy!

Morning all. Second Calver Demo Alert! It's not long until our next Calver Demo with the new Rocket and Solaris. On Saturday 12th May Paul and Joh will be your hosts with the most for some fantastic Peak riding on some lovely new Cotic bikes. As with the previous demo, it's booking only on one of 4 ride time options. Drop us an email at demo@cotic.co.uk to book on and get full details of where we are and what to do, or give us a call in the office on 07970 853531.

The demo runs from our place which is here. Bring ID, and a credit card to hold hostage.

Bikes currently available are:

• 10am - Rocket Large, Solaris XL
• 12pm - Rocket Small, 2 x Rocket Large, Solaris Large, Solaris XL
• 2pm - Rocket Small, Rocket Large, Solaris XL
• 4pm - Rocket Small, Rocket Medium, Rocket Large x 2, Solaris Large, Solaris XL

We've also pushed the boat right out and bought a kettle and some snacks for brewing up and a bit of fuel on the day. See you there?

Bit of an update on some 29" wheel work we've been doing over the last couple of months.

Firstly, the stainless steel project. We're not going ahead with this into production. There's probably a handful of you out there who would have one, and we thank you for your interest and belief in us, but it's not enough to justify getting even 30 frames made. Cy's just stripped his 931 29er to build up one of the Solaris demo bikes, and is now back on a production Solaris which he much prefers. His suspicions that the 931 frame wasn't stiff enough for his liking have proved founded as it's only taken a couple of rides on the production frame to realise that the torsional stiffness we added at the prototype stage of the Solaris project was definitely the way to go for the kind of riding we want to do with it. The 931 shares it's geometry with the Solaris, but it's surprisingly different in feel, especially with big tyres, bolt thru forks and 720mm wide bars on it. It'd probably suit some people, especially with shorter travel or rigid forks and narrower bars putting less load into the frame.

If it sounds like we're damning it with faint praise, we're not going to kid you, it wasn't quite what we'd wanted. However, just because it didn't suit our preferences exactly, doesn't mean it wouldn't suit someone elses. It handles beautifully, and it's quite bit lighter than a Solaris, so it's definitely got it's positives. Plus, having ridden a few 29ers now, it seems that the 931 isn't particularly lacking in stiffness as steel 29ers go, it's just not as nippy as the Solaris. As the production isn't going ahead and Cy's back on the regular Solaris, it does mean we have a completely unique and lovely shiny 931 frame looking for a home. If anyone's interested in buying it, drop Cy an email with a sensible offer. We're looking for around £800 for it.

The other thing we've been working on is a small sized Solaris. Despite being fairly firmly of the opinion that 26" wheels are better once you're below around 5ft 10in, we've had enough interest from people shorter than this to need to look into a small size. So, we got a couple of 16" frames with top tubes 10mm shorter than the medium (it's the shortest we could go whilst maintaining fork adjuster clearance). Paul was our test rider as he's 5ft 8in and runs a small Soul.

The most surprising thing was that with flat bars we were able to replicate Paul's Soul position pretty easily even with the much longer top tube. However, this was using an inline seatpost rather than layback, and a 60mm stem as opposed to 65mm on the Soul. Paul's done a good few rides on the bike now. Basically it's extremely fast rolling and secure - as you'd expect - but Paul can't really move the bike around. Due to the low BB, larger BB/head tube distance and longer back end, he hasn't got long enough arms and legs to throw his weight outside the wheels. This is compounded by the 29er having a much lower BB relative to the axles than a 26" bike. Seeing him ride, he's almost trapped between the wheels. We've went down to a 50mm stem to push him back a bit on the bike to try and counter this and it helped a bit, but it also made the steering too light and quick.

It's interesting, because Paul's a really talented and able rider, with a trials background, so he can and does move a bike around a lot when riding. He just can't with the 29er, so he doesn't like it. It's not as much fun as the 26" bike. The interesting thing is that once people are this kind of height, the 29" almost seem to define the use of the bike as something quite different to a 26" bike. If Paul wanted a light, comfortable, efficient thing for crossing a map, then the 29er would be good. For having fun and generally enjoying riding bikes, you won't be that surprised to hear he's back on his Soul. This is in total contrast to Cy, who at 6ft 3in didn't feel he needed to adapt much at all to the 29er, but he has long enough levers to get his weight moving outside the wheels.

We do have some options to work on though. We're going to get a slackset to knock the head angle back 1 degree to calm the steering down with the 50mm stem, and the slacker head angle would give more down tube clearance on the fork adjusters, which in turn allows about 8mm to be knocked off the top tube length of any production frame. The final option would be a j-bend cromoly down tube to pull the top tube right back to Soul terratory, but that will require another prototype.

For right now, Kate Potter of the AQR Holidays Cotic Race Team has got the other small frame to see how she finds it for racing on. It's much more suited to this kind of application, and Kate's position is more forward on the bike than Paul's despite her being shorter so it'll suit her better in it's current configuration. We're looking forward to getting some feedback from her.

So, for right now it's still very much a no on a small Solaris, but we'll let you know how our work goes when we've got some more options covered.

Been a bit quiet on here recently. Sorry about that. We've been a bit caught up in sorting demos out on the Rockets and Solaris bikes over the last couple of weeks, plus Cy did another lecture to the IMechE in Leeds last week. Anyhow, got some bits to catch up on, starting with this ace My First Cotic kids bike which Tim from the Isle of Wight built for his 8 year-old daughter Grace based around a XS BFe.

Here's what Tim had to say:

Great to see someone getting their first proper taste of 26" wheels on a Cotic. A couple of us have now stashed XS BFes for our kids having seen this!

These are photos from one of our X owners getting out there and touring. Here's what he had to say:

I think that says it all. We never really intended the X to be a touring bike, but we certainly wanted it to be a more rounded and usable bike that a purebred CX racer. Thanks Barney.

Rachel Sokal has won the 24 Hours of Exposure, to become the new 2012 European and UK 24 Hour Solo Champion. Well done to her, and the other team riders who did so well; Ant and Simon. NEVER forgetting the pit/training/coaching team behind them of course... Kate, Ian and Anne.

Still got some places for tomorrow. You can't book now, but if you're interested in any of the following bikes at the times they're available, head over to our place which is here for a ride. Bring ID, and a credit card to hold hostage. Give us a call on 07970 853531 tomorrow if you're coming.

• 10am - Rocket Small, Rocket Medium, Solaris Medium, Solaris XL
• 12pm - Rocket Large, Solaris Medium
• 2pm - Rocket Large, Solaris Medium, Solaris Large, Solaris XL
• 4pm - Rocket Large x 2, Rocket Medium x 2, Solaris XL

See you there?

Last week we flew a select group of UK journalists to Arizona (or was it the Mediterranean?) to show them what the Rocket can do. They enjoyed the dry dusty trails, and, we're very pleased to say, our new bike...

"It's a f—ing ace, planted, quiet-feeling bike – aesthetically you’re very aware of its steelness but it’s not really noticeable either way underneath you. The steel happens to be the metal to hang a very nice suspension design off. Nice and low slung between your legs, dead modern numbers, proper sized seattube that’ll take an up and downer post, easy front wheel lifter, easy to manoeuvre, poppy and lively rather than downhill ground sucker – I was really surprised how happy I was to ride it down stuff for my first go as well."
- Matt from Singletrack

"Powering up technical climbs, the bike feels light underneath you and traction is plentiful. When hammering tight singletrack it bursts from corners with urgency and flair, and punches pockets of trail into submission. The best thing is, you can feel every detail of the terrain transmit from the tyres to your fingertips as the Rocket reads the Braille-written story of the trail."
- Callum from BikeRadar

Due to a couple of cancellations, plus Cy forgetting to tell anyone he's building an XL Solaris demo bike, we've got plenty of spaces still left open to book if you want to come and join in our monthly demos from our base in Calver in the Peak District. Here's what is available as of today:

• 14th April:
• 10am - Rocket Small, Rocket Medium, Solaris XL
• 12pm - Rocket Large x 2, Rocket Medium, Solaris XL
• 2pm - Rocket Large, Rocket Medium, Solaris XL
• 4pm - Rocket Large x 2, Rocket Medium x 2, Solaris XL

• 12th May:
• 10am - Rocket Small, Rocket Medium, Rocket L, Solaris XL
• 12pm - Rocket Large, Solaris XL
• 2pm - Rocket Large x 2, Rocket Medium x 2, Solaris XL

• 9th June:
• All Rocket and Solaris bikes in all sizes on every ride are still available. Only a few bookings for this one so far.

Email demo@cotic.co.uk to book on and get full details of where we are and what to do.

We are pleased to announce that Kate Potter - our founding team member and first Cotic sponsored athlete - is back on the Cotic AQR Holidays team. She's decided to re-focus her efforts on coaching and guiding, as well as some racing when gets some time. We're chuffed to bits. Welcome back Kate.

Busy weekend. Thanks to everyone who took the time to chat. More words from Cy later hopefully. For now, enjoy these pics from drj0n...

We're selling our extra small sized BFe on eBay. The auction ends next week. It's a great little bike. Perfect as a trail bike for someone 5ft 6in or under, or a great play bike for jumps and 4X/BMX track mucking about. Happy bidding!

Our newest dealer has opened at Brechfa forest trail centre in West Wales. It's Cy's favourite trail centre, with some amazingly swoopy, bermy trails. Carl and Ivy have got Souls, BFes, Solarii and will have Rockets when they arrive. However, they're not just stopping there. On 21st May (the weekend after our second Peak District demo - still places available on that by the way), they'll be at Cwm Rhaedr near Llandovery with their entire fleet. There are rides planned, so get along and give a Cotic a shot on some great trails.

The first production Rockets left Taiwan on Saturday and are on the van for Mr UPS to deliver today. We've got the 4 demo frames arriving, and Cy will be building them up for photoshoots and for the public debut at Bespoked Bristol on Friday.

Excited. Nervous. Giggly. YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAYYY!!!

Pics later. We're off for a lie down....

Cy went out to Portugal for a few days last week to catch up with Kate and Ian Potter from AQR Holidays and get a bit of sun and some miles on him and the Rocket. Lovely riding, beautiful sunshine, nice hotel, great guiding. Can't really fault it! The Rocket was fun, especially on the fast summer tyres, but most people rode hardtails. It's easy to enjoy on most bikes really.

They've still got places for the weeks starting 17th and 24th March. Treat yourself to some sunshine! £450 includes everything except lunches and flights. Tell 'em we sent you!

We sent these pictures out of the mailing list this morning, and they've got such a huge response we thought we'd get them up here sharpish!

Reynolds have been working on a new stainless steel tubeset to sit under their uber-strong and light 953 products. It's called 931. It's basically a similar strength to 853, but stainless. It's a little cheaper than 953 and Reynolds and our factory (who are partnering with Reynolds as builders) were keen to show us what it could do, so we had them build me a Solaris shaped frame for Cy, and Paul's got a Soul shaped frame.

Pretty, isn't it?

Because it's similar strength to 853, it's not that much lighter than a Solaris as you have to use similar sections, so you basically save the weight of the paint. This has a 32mm seat tube/27.2mm seatpost whereas the Solaris has our new 35mm/31.6 seat tube/seatpost combo, but there's not a deal different in the weight of those. This also has a regular 1 1/8" head tube as they don't have material in 931 big enough to do a 44mm head tube, so that's a bit lighter. Overall the frame is about 0.5lb lighter than a Solaris, so around 4.4lb in large. The kicker unfortunately is the price. Even though 931 is lower priced that 953, this would still be a £1,200 frame. Given that it's not loads lighter than the Solaris, we didn't think it had much going for it apart from being massively pretty.

However, even in the short time since we sent out the email this morning we've been really surprised by the positive response. If you're interested in stainless steel options, drop us a line and we'll think some more about doing a limited run.

Apologies for yet another gratuitous blowing of our own trumpet, but people are sending us some really lovely emails about our new frames. This one from Ernesto....

Thanks Ernesto. Happy trails.

Sam took delivery of one of the first Solaris frames the other week and got this great shot on it's first ride on the Cumbria coast. Lovely. That's a medium sized frame there.

We sent a newsletter out last week explaining about the shock options on the Rocket. We've had a bunch of you who are Rocket-curious, mainly regarding the differences between the shocks, so we thought it'd make an interesting subject to run through. Grab a beverage and turn your screen away from the boss.

Fox Float RL - £1,350

The base option, it has fixed propedal roughly equivalent to setting 1 on an RP23. Rebound and lockout, high volume air sleeve and a really high quality feel. We tested a few different shocks to decide on the base option for the Rocket, and the Float RL was head and shoulders above most of the rest. Quality is the key word here - it feels smooth and solidly made in the same way an RP23 does. It's light and the fixed propedal works nicely with the bike as it's only a mild setting. A great shock and a great price too. If you can't stretch to one of the fancier options, you won't be disappointed with this at all.

Marzocchi Roco LO - £1,400

One of the shocks we tested against the Float RL for the base option, and was the other standout performer. Offer similar adjustments in rebound and lockout, but unlike the Fox it doesn't have any propedal style fixed compression support so it's super supple and has that wonderfully oily feel only Marzocchi products have. In the end we felt it offered something different to the Float RL so kept it on as another option as the supple feel, low pressures and high oil volume will work really well for the rider who is more gravity orientated, or maybe just doesn't like Fox shocks!

Fox RP23 - £1,475

Moving up, the RP23 doesn't really need much introduction. Legendarily good shock, only made better this year with Kashima coating for an incredibly sensitive feel. 3 position propedal lets you tune the amount of compression support, although now with Adaptive Logic putting the '3' setting on it's own switch, I just leave the shock wide open on '0' propedal most of the time for maximum bump performance. What we did find during testing though was a propensity to do a fairly pronounced 'dip then catch' cycle to things like compressions or pushing into berms. It's not something I like in shocks that much and it drove me mad on another bike I tried a few years back.

After a bit of a chat with Chris Porter from Mojo seems that the standard tune this year has a lower Boost Valve pressure than previous years which gives a more plush 'stuck to the ground' feel for people just riding along, but can give up it's travel a bit easily when the bike is pushed a bit. After trying a couple of things we've settled on getting a factory tune to increase the Boost Valve pressure. This keeps everything else on the set up nice and supple, but deals with throwing your weight around much better.

BOS Vip'r - £1,580

This seems to be the shock most people are intrigued by. We approached BOS UK agents R53 Engineering last summer, and discussed the options. When I explained we'd only be selling a few of these shocks due to our size and sales volumes, Roger insisted he got all the frame data so they could do a custom tune for us. It's the only way BOS work.

The shock itself runs at high pressure (around 20% more than Fox) and has rebound adjustment and a 'Soft/Hard' setting lever. This lever doesn't alter the compression, but pre-loads the shock internally choking down the travel a little. This still leaves the shocks incredibly supple so big gear mashers and out-of-the-saddle climbers won't get on with it too well on the climbs. In fact, the BOS is all about constant movement and traction which means it can feel a bit like harder work on long, smooth uphill sections. The flipside of this is that as soon as you're moving quickly across the ground, needing traction and grip and bump absorption it's quite astonishingly good. One of the main positive attributes is that it gives the rider an incredibly stable platform to work from. It doesn't over cycle or use any more travel than is completely necessary. The accuracy of the damping is something I've never experienced before. Along our test track it would regularly post fastest times and give the rider the most confident feel on the bike, and yet would have used 5mm less shock stroke than any of the other shocks. That's not to say it feels stiff or chattery, quick the opposite, the small bump response is very, very good, it just seems to have damping that gives out just as much travel as you need and no more.

The lack of lockout and the 'full supple, full traction' philosophy of BOS probably makes it less of an all rounder than the RP23 with it's propedal adjustments and tighter compression damping. But, as with the Marzocchi shock, if you're more interested in just getting through the climbs and then giving it maximum attack on the descents or contouring sections, you're used to coil shock type feel and you simply want the best performance when the going gets fast and rocky, the Vip'r delivers.

We hope that gives you a feel for what we're offering with the Rocket. Feel free to drop us a line if you have any questions or specific ideas about shocks you want to chat about.

Don't forget you can still book places on one of our Cotic HQ demos on 14th April, 12th May or 9th June if you're interested in a shot on a Rocket or a Solaris. Email demo@cotic.co.uk if you want to book a place.

Finally, if you want to see the production Rocket in the metal for the first time, we're launching it at the Bespoked Bristol bike show on 23rd-25th March. Maybe we'll see you there.

Now that people have had their Solaris's for a week or so there's been a fair few first ride feedback emails coming our way. They all seem very positive so far, but this was a particularly nice one from Richard in New Zealand.

It's pretty hard to beat having a job where emails like this are in your inbox on a Monday morning. This is exactly why we design bikes; to make people feel good riding them.

We published the geometry, sizing and specifications on the Rocket product page today, so all the info you need for the details of the frame, plus geometry and sizing are all there for you. However, if you can't be bothered to click through, here's the geometry right here. I know, we're just too good to you.

If you shake up all the numbers, throw them in the air and watch where they land, it spells AWESOME FUN BIKE. True story.

Don't forget you can demo a Rocket or Solaris at our Calver demo days on 14th April, 12th May or 9th June. We're also lining up a couple of event demos for later in the summer as well. Drop us an email at demo@cotic.co.uk to reserve a ride.

As of next week (20th Feb) we'll have another headset option for our new 44mm head tube equipped frames, the Solaris and the Simple. We will be stocking the Nuke Proof Warhead Headsets in either straight steerer 44IESS 1 1/8" option for £39 or the taper steerer fork version 44IETS for £44. As usual with headsets purchase direct from us, the price includes fitting.

Unlike the Hope option we currently offer, the Nuke Proof isn't interchangable between steerer types so you'll need to specify which one you want for your current fork.

These are great headsets which we've used throughout the last year or so on the prototypes of the Rocket and the 29er frames as they were some of the first to be available in the 44mm external cup layout which our new frames require. Good solid product.

Well that was a quite massive pile of frames sent out yesterday. PHEW! Got a few more to do this morning. If you ordered your frame with a headset we're doing those today so you'll have them Monday. If you ordered via a shop or without a headset those will arrive today. If you want to place an order we could be tempted to do a cheeky couple more if you ring this morning ;-)

THEY'RE HEEEEERRRREEEE! 29ers are landing this week, so get in touch if you want one. If you've got one on pre-order, give us a call with payment and delivery details too and we'll make sure you're top of the pile of frames going out. Delivery on all order will be early next week. EXCITING!

Here it is. DJ managed to bag this great shot of Cy's Rocket prototype when filming up in the Peak last week almost by accident. As you'll have seen the frame diagram you'll notice that the swingarm and seatstays aren't the right colour, and this is why we've not wanted to release pics before now. However, the sun flare hides the swingarm (had painted in Cy's garage no less!) and the very 2nd hand finish of a well used and abused prototype well enough to show you something the looks representative. Size and shape won't change at all for production and the orange of the front triangle is the production colour. The zip tie on the top tube is for checking hose clip position for remotes. The production frames will have proper clips for this.

Spec-wise, that bike has full XT 3 x 9 drivetrain, Magura Marta brakes, Fox Float 150 FIT RLC forks with taper steerer, DMR Vault pedals, Hope Pro2 on Duster rims (roughly equivalent to Pro2's on Flows), Maxxis 2.35" single ply tyres with tubes. It was a little under 30lbs before the Reverb was fitted, so it'll be a little over now. The shock is a 2012 RP23 with a tweak to the stock tune which works great. Mojo have informed us today that we can run with this on the production bikes which we're really pleased about.

Hope you like it. We're so proud of this bike.

ROCKET LAUNCH! Bring your fireproof overalls because we're lighting the boosters on the Rocket!

We're exhibiting at the Bespoked Bristol show this year on 23-25th March at Brunel's Old Station at Bristol Temple Meads station.

This will be the first public unveiling of the production Rocket and we're really excited to be showing it off in such a great location at such a great show.

We will of couse have the new Solaris and Simple, alongside our RoadRat, X, Soul and BFe.

Tickets are available from the Bespoked Bristol priced at £7.50 or 2 for £10.

See you there!

So you might have heard us going on (and on and on) about a couple of new frames we have coming; the Solaris and the Rocket? You have heard? Excellent!

As with all new bikes with some new ideas, we understand that even if you're interested in the bikes you want to have a good ride on one to help you make your decision. In order to help people like your good self have a nice ride on some nice bikes we're launching a season of monthly demos at Cotic HQ in Calver, right in the heart of the Peak District.

Why from Calver? It's actually pretty central, and there's is tonnes of amazing riding to be done up here. We'll do proper guided rides around our 75-90min local test loop which has some great climbs and really fun descents, and it'll give you a flavour of where and how we develop our bikes.

Come and make a weekend of it. Ride a demo on Saturday, do another local loop once you're done with us, a big Peak Classic on Sunday and you've had a lovely time.

Here's the plan; turn up at Calver on one of the following dates:

• 14th April
• 12th May
• 9th June

We're going to build a bunch of Rockets and Solaris's (Solarii?) and make them available for you to ride. Either Paul, Joh or myself will guide you, answer any questions you may have and generally have a nice time. Rides will go out at the following times:

• 10am
• 12 noon
• 2pm

If we're really busy we'll slide in a ride at 4pm too.

And as if Peak District riding wasn't enough on it's own, another great advantage of coming to the Calver demos is that if (as we hope) you're over the moon with the bike you've ridden, you can walk away with your new frame that very day as we're all set to prep and process your new frame whilst you wait.

You'll need to reserve the size/model of bike you want to ride and which ride you're planning on doing as we're limited to 8 people per ride. Drop us an email at demo@cotic.co.uk if you're interested and we'll book you in and send you details of how to find us and what to bring.

If you do take our advice and make a weekend of it, have a look on Visit Peak District for some accomodation and maybe some things to do for partners/kids. If you need route advice then both of these Vertebrate Guide Books for the Dark Peak and White Peak are ace and packed with info. And of course, our local Cotic dealer and all round top shop 18 Bikes are in Hope to help you with any kit you need/want/break during your stay.

Hope to see you at a demo.

We realise it's been 2012 for nearly a month, but what with being busy with the Solaris and Rocket we'd forgotten to publish the 2012 pricing on the RoadRat. The great news is that the frame and fork prices are dropping £60 and the bikes are dropping £75 across the board. As of this week the prices are:

• RoadRat Frameset - £250
• RoadRat Singlespeed - £575
• RoadRat Geared - £725
• RoadRat Alfine 8spd - £800
• Carbon Fork Upgrade on any of the above - +£100
• Tektro Lyra Disc Upgrade on any bike - +£75

All sizes and colours in stock. Why not order yours today?

Cy wrote another newsletter last week about why Cotic are moving to 44mm head tubes on the latest frames. Read it in the Geek section.

Here's the production look for the new Cotic Rocket in orange. The black frame will simply swap black for the orange shown here. We'd been resisting putting pictures up until the production frames arrive because the only bike we have right now is Cy's rather careworn prototype in the wrong colours. However, we do of course have paint diagrams for the factory, so here one is. Apologies for not seeing the wood for the trees! Hope you like it.

The Pedal Peak project what to open up Haddon Tunnels on the Monsal Trail. They need your support. Click the link below to register your support and comments as apparently they're encountering some resistance to this extension. We think it'll be great. The Monsal Tunnel openings last summer created an amazing cycling resource in the Peak, and the extension south of Bakewell will allow some great options for linking up some trails whilst avoiding the crazy busy A6 south of Bakewell. Get involved!

On Monday we dropped in on the lovely lads and lasses at road.cc for a coffee and a chat, and to show them this, our road bike prototype. It was very well received, which is nice, and we've been working on it for a while after Cy came back from Eurobike a couple of years ago bemoaning the lack of forward thinking on steel road bikes he'd seen at the show. It's a way off production as we need to get another round of pre-production frames in the correct tubeset (we're looking at moving to Columbus Spirit for production) and to try out some fittings for mudguards and a Cotic designed steel fork too. The general feedback seems to be that having mountings and clearance for at least 25c's with 'guards would be preferable for a lot of people.

We've been running 3 prototypes for a few months now with Paul and Cy riding the roads of the UK and Ian putting in the mega miles around his home in Luchon in the Pyrenees. Paul and Ian are both experienced road riders and are really enjoying the bike, so the overall fit and feel won't change for production. Cy's just amazed that for the first time in his life he owns a drop bar road bike he actually likes. Seeing as hating road bikes drove him to throw his teddies out of the pram and design the RoadRat, this is high praise indeed. Speaking of which, the bike in the pics is Cy's bike which has the XT cranks because of his preferred wide pedalling stance which looks after his wonky knees. The frame is designed to run all usual road crank types and has a regular threaded BB. Cy would also like it entered on the record, m'Lud, that those are the trekking version of XT with the inner ring removed so he's not a weak triplist (like he is on his MTB), it's a 36/48 double on there.

We got the first two production 29er frames last week and got the product shoot done on Wednesday. Now we've got the pics sorted, here's the new Simple 29er. You can read more about the all new Simple on the new and updated product page. We'll have Solaris production pictures up later in the week, but as this looks not dissimilar to the blue prototype bike we thought we'd get the lovely new colour of the Simple up first. Email us to reserve yours. They're arriving in about 4 weeks.

Cy wrote his final piece on the new Rocket in our newsletter last week. Here it is in our Geek page. There's a fair bit to it, so make yourself a cup of coffee and grab a few mins to sit down and have a read.

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Lot's of orange Souls arriving tomorrow, so orange will be available again in all sizes. Give us a call with your order if you need some brightness to light up the winter days. You'll have the best orange colour in the history of the world (possible hyperbole warning) on Friday if you do.

We have confirmed pricing on the Rocket. We are running with four shock options which should cover the bases for most people. As usual, price includes a Hope seat clamp, chainstay protector, bottle boss bolts, hose clips and delivery.

At the moment we don't have a coil option, but if demand is there we can get pricing on BOS Stoy, Marzocchi Roco and Fox DHX should you so wish. Drop me a line if you want to talk it over.

We'll be offering the Hope headset (2H) which is compatible with the 44mm head tube on the frame. Price when buying from us here at Cotic is £65 fitted, plus £10 for the 1.5 to 1 1/8" crown race adaptor if you need to run a straight steerer fork.

It seems there are some Ltd Edition Simples (26" wheel orange ones from last summer) left in Germany. Apparently the singlespeeders over there aren't keen on the Alfine routing we put on the frames. Each to their own I s'pose. Anyway, we have 4 large and 1 medium of these frames left. No charge for re-patriation, same £480 price delivered to your door. Drop us an email or give us a call if you want one before they all go!

They're on their way! Our first 29" wheel frames - the Solaris and the new Simple - have been shipped this week, and we've just received the first production frame of each via airfreight. A very exciting way to start 2012! They will be built up for product shoots next week then straight out to magazines and websites, and then onto our demo fleet. Look out for them in the media over the next couple of months, and look out for glossy product pictures on the product pages in a couple of weeks time.

Price is £499, and if you've already emailed us expressing an interest in a frame then please drop us another line or give us a call to firm up your order so we can get you your frame as soon as it's in the country.

Well, the last orders have been dispatched, the emails sorted, and the guys in Taiwan know we're about to shut for a week to drink and be merry. We're closed from midday today, all next week and then back on 3rd January. First dispatch of 2012 is on the 5th Jan for delivery on the 6th. Feel free to email us your queries, thoughts and orders over the shutdown and we'll come back to you as soon as we're back.

Thanks to everyone who's helped, tweeted, emailed, chatted and most of all bought Cotic kit this year. It's been an amazing year for us, and we couldn't do it without you. We have so much to be excited about bringing you in 2012 and we can't wait to get on with it. Have a great break, and we'll catch you on the flipside.

Just to make sure you get your Cotic order before Christmas, we're doing dispatch on Wednesday this week. So, get your orders in by the end of the day today, we'll ship tomorrow and it'll be with you by Friday gauranteed.

The latest newsletter was sent on Friday (sign up here) with a lot of information about droplink, our new suspension platform. For those you not signed up to the mailing list, we've put the information on our Geek section for your reading pleasure. We're warning you, it contains the words anti-squat and rate curve more than once!