If you spotted our Bespoked show coverage, or indeed if you have been on the website over the last couple of weeks, you will have noticed a new Cotic logo and a different look on the show bikes we have been presenting.

People who own Cotic's or follow what we do are so passionate and supportive, and I appreciate every single one of you for that. I also know that you often appreciate the detail and background to what we're doing, so let's get into this.

As you know, I spend a lot of time focussed on the physical design and engineering of our frames. For the brand work, I brought in the help of Nick Larsen, the man behind Charge and Fabric (and for those with very long memories the Pashley TV Series bikes) amongst many other things. We wanted to reflect the effort I put into the bikes in the look and feel of our brand, the paint finishes and all the other touch points of the company.

We have been working on the brand update for a while now. It's not just our logo / wordmark, it's also refreshing our website and the whole experience of buying a Cotic, hopefully making it a little more approachable and easier.

We've been exploring a lot of options, and our objective was to rethink the way we approached both the branding and the paint finishes so we could create something recognisable from afar, but also accentuated the frame itself. Make more of those elegant steel lines.

Historically, big down tube designs have been the predominant graphic of Cotic frames. Some, like the wrap design from the 2010's, were very recognisable to those that knew, but pretty much impossible to understand to those that didn't! The current down tube design it much more easy to read, but maybe a little more conformist. Now with a smaller, but legible wordmark located on the top tube, we have more space to explore new paint finishes and ideas, whilst establishing a distinct Cotic look.

Rest assured nothing is changing about the frame designs themselves, and all the things we stand for. Cotic is still steel bikes and low impact. We will always value ride feel and longevity over anything else, and we build bikes for you, the riders. We are just updating the brand.

We're really excited about the change, but as you might expect, there is a process of crossover between the down tube graphic and the new top tube based look. I want to show you what that will mean for new bikes ordered now.

From now on, this is the Cotic look.

For droplink bikes, each model has a Stock colour as follows:

FlareMAX - Teal Gloss

Jeht - Sage Matte

RocketMAX - Ember Gloss

You can specify A La Carte colours on any of these bikes. There is also the new option of the spectacular three colour fade (white Cotic branding area, then two other colours) like the FlareMAX show bike on top of the A La Carte single colour choices.

The incoming Cascades look like this:

Standard colours here are Army Green and Damson, with the option to open up your choice of A La Carte paint for an extra £150.

Rocket will also get the top tube logo look for new orders from this week, and this bike is A La Carte only. You chose your colour, we paint it! The three colour fade like the show bike is also there for you, giving the option for something truly individual and special.

The feedback so far has been super positive, and it's nice to change things up. Here's to the future!

Thanks

Cy

Founder and Director, Cotic Bikes

Welcome aboard to our newest supported rider.

Megan is based in London and heavily involved with all sorts of bike related activities.

She will be riding her brand new Froggatt Green Escapade, decked out with some choice Hope componentry. She has lots of exciting plans, in addition to her regular coaching and involvement with Velociposse, the London based community cycling club for women, trans and non-binary riders.

As soon as her new bike arrived, she headed right out to the Welsh hills. Over to Megan:

We're stoked to be working with Megan, and are looking forward to seeing more of her adventures over the summer.

If diaries align, hopefully she'll be joining us for some Women of Steel rides too.

Cheers,

Sam.

We are heading up the UK off road cycling hot spot that is the Tweed Valley for a demo weekend.

We have some spaces available, so join us to test ride a Cotic at Glentress on Saturday 17th and Sunday 18th May.

We'll be set up at Riders Retreat Tweed Valley - formerly called the Glentress Hotel - on both days, with demo bikes available for you to test ride.

Whether you are interested in our mountain bikes, gravel bikes or both; you can try them out on some of the best trails in the UK.

If you'd like to book on, simply email demo@cotic.co.uk or call us on 07970 853531.

Test rides are completely free, you'll have each bike for around 90 minutes and you can try several different bikes or sizes.

Booking is essential, so please get in touch.

Cotic CC Ride.

While we're in the area, lets ride bikes!

If you own a Cotic mountain bike, join Darren and myself for a social ride on Innerleithen's famous Golfie trails on Friday 16th May.

We'll aim for wheels rolling at 14:00 so you can knock off work at lunchtime and hit the trails. Bring your Cotic, and expect steep and technical trails. We'll keep the pace sociable and the vibe chilled. Exactly how long we ride and which trails we do will depend on the weather and the group, but we'll ride for at least a couple of hours.

If you've never ridden at The Golfie before its a great chance to try it out. If you're unsure, just drop us an email and we're happy to chat about it.

If you'd like to join this CC ride, please drop an email to demo@cotic.co.uk so we know who's coming.

We can't wait to get back to the Tweed Valley, hopefully we'll see you there.

Cheers,

Sam.

Chesterfield Showroom and HQ bike demos

Our Chesterfield showroom opening times:

Wednesday — Friday (10am — 4pm)

+ Saturday 7th June

Find our showroom at:

Cotic Bikes
Unit 1B Broom Business Park
Bridge Way
Chesterfield
S41 9QG

what3words ///ramp.rails.taps

BOOK A SHOWROOM TEST RIDE

Office Hours

Catch us for emails and phone calls on the following hours:

Monday — Friday (9am — 5pm UK time)

Closed Monday 26th May - UK Bank Holiday

Call us on:

07970 853 531

Jo Burt ventures up North to talk all things Mint Sauce, and the collection, in book form, that is "Lost Summers and Half Forgotten Afternoons". There will be a chat about the book and the history of Mint with Jo, led by Max Leonard of the publisher, Isola Press, then a Q&A and book signing. Books will be available to purchase on the night, and there'll be original vintage Mint artwork on display.

The event is ticket only as we have a maximum capacity limit here at Cotic HQ, and these are £5. Complimentary refreshments are included (tea, coffee, soft drinks), but we're not licenced so feel free to bring your own beer if you want to.

You may have spotted on our social media over the weekend that our Bespoked show bikes featured a very special headbadge.

We have teamed up for an exciting collab with Hex Components on a super limited run of stunning titanium headbadges.

These gorgeous pieces of bike jewellery are 3D printed in titanium, with Ben at Hex Components hand polishing each one individually to bring out the depth in the design.

Only 10 were made in this limited run, 2 went on the show bikes and a few were snapped up at Bespoked before we even got chance to share them with the world.

We have a very small handful in stock and they are available to order now on our website.

They are £100 including UK VAT, plus £5 postage in the UK.

Ben at Hex Components is a great guy, and a huge fan of his Cotic Jeht.

Big thanks to him for doing such a fantastic job on these headbadges. His design puts some beautiful detailing into the headbadge to really make the Peak District inspired design sing.

Grab yourself something really special, quick before they're gone!

Happy trails,

Sam.

We love the way a lot of Cotic's are bought by people spreading the good word about amazing steel bikes. It means a huge amount to me, and we want to spread the word further. So, I need your help to understand where you first heard about Cotic, so we can get more people on Cotic's!

If you wouldn't mind, could you click an option in the following poll? Thanks.

Feel free to share. Thanks.

Last weekend a very special A La Carte painted FlareMAX was at the Sea Otter Classic in California, in collaboration with our new friends at Tailfin. The bike was fully kitted out with Hope parts and wheels, and our other old friends at WTB brought the speed with their new Macro tyres, Volt saddle and grips.

As well as showing off what we can do with our A La Carte custom paint service, the custom made bags were a collaboration between Cotic and Tailfin to fit around the suspension, and demonstrate that bikepacking doesn't have to mean a gravel bike or hardtail.

Whilst he was at the show, John from The Radavist took a typically beautiful set of photos of the bike. Here are a few, but get over to The Radavist for a full rundown.

If you are interested in Tailfin bags, get in touch and we can talk through options. And if you want want your own special painted FlareMAX - or any droplink bike for that matter - we can certainly help there too. Make it yours. Make it a Cotic.