Next up in our recurring feature on staff bikes, here is Will's Cotic BFe.

Will Swinden is our head mechanic, king of the spanners and probably the fastest bike rider at Cotic towers. He's also never scared. Ever.

This is Will's BFe, the bike on which he dominates the ThisIsSheffield winter dual slalom mate's races, which run every other Wednesday night between the clock changes, at various secret locations around Sheffield. True grassroots 'jumpers for goalposts' stuff, which mostly feature extremely slippery flat corners on wet grass or loamy forest floor. Watching Will drift his BFe at mach 10 in the dark is something that will never, ever get old. He does crash sometimes though, as you can see from his mudguard.

I asked Will how his bike rides, and his response was conclusive: “Sick. Seems to work at duals.” He also informs me that this bike is an undefeated heavyweight champion, having never lost an overall winter dual series since it was built.

Will got this size large BFe frame as soon as they came out, late summer 2017. The first Cotic model to hit the market with our now signature Longshot geometry. Pretty much all the components came from the Rocket he was riding before this bike, including some nice blue parts like the Burgtec stem and pedals, and the classic Pro 4 hubs from Hope. Will built these wheels himself, WTB Asym i29 rims are tough, and they need to be they way he rides it! They also give the 2.6 inch WTB tyres a great profile, and allow him to run silly low pressures for dual races. Vigilante up front, Trailboss out back.

One of his favourite components on this bike is the 4 pot Deore brakes. They've never been touched since new, and have some serious stopping power. Risk of an OTB is high!

The 160mm X Fusion Metric forks are monsters. Freeride forks on a hardtail is very Will, and keeps the bike where he puts it. It's built for strength and gravity assisted performance this bike.

As you can see, Will doesn't waste time washing his bike. “Lube the chain, wipe off the excess, don't wash it, no problems.” Simple and effective. I asked what he keeps in his Restrap frame bag, but you don't want to know.

Sam.

If you like the sound of Will's dual destroying BFe, get yourself on the new BFe hype! Will's build is broadly a Gold XT build, but you would get the latest 12spd iteration of that drivetrain, and the new and improved BFe with Boost spacing, tweaked and improved geometry and new colours. The closest spec to Will's would be a blue Hope stem with Burgtec carbon bars, some Hope Fortus35 wheels with blue hubs to top them off, and XT 4pot brakes with some Sweep HLR or HELM forks at 160mm. Objectively it's a better bike than Will's, but I wouldn't put money on you beating him at a race with one!