Just In - Cotic >X< Weekday

Regular viewers will have seen us get a quick grope at the Cotic >X< at the Cycle Show a short while ago, and now we’ve got one to play in the dirt with. Hooray.

First thoughts out the box are that it’s a real looker, in its alternative colour to the “Correct For ‘Cross” orange one we saw at the show this is a stealthy gloss black, and we like it, lots. This is the Weekday model, at the magic "Cycle To Work" price-point of £1,000, and straight on the scales sans pedals it's 22.1lbs for the size 56, lighter than we thought it might be.

The frame is made of Cotic FX double-butted steel pipes and it definitely wears its mountainbike heritage on its sleeve. Cotic started life with the Soul mountainbike frame, a steel hardtail that proved quite popular among the off-road types, this led to a range of other MTB frames and then to the traffic-busting and bit-of-everything Roadrat. The >X< definitely looks like a cyclo-cross bike a mountainbiker would want to buy, a radically sloping top-tube, skinny wishbone seatstays, a 135mm rear end to accommodate a mountainbike rear hub for the disc option, cowled dropouts, clearance for fatter than usual tyres and lots of seatpost showing are all a massive come hither eyelash flutter to the gnarly off-road boys to come mix up their pleasures a little bit.

Gussets at the downtube/headtube junction add strength without weight and a matching pair on the chainstays mean the >X< can get away without a chainstay bridge, which helps mud clearance. There's eyelets on the frame and forks for mudguards and/or racks for that 'cross bike adaptability thing and even double bottle mounts on the downtube for epic rides.

Hanging off the frame is a mix of Sora and Tiagra with Cotic branded hardware. The drivetrain is Tiagra with Sora 9spd STIs, a 34/50 Compact linked to a 11-25 cassette with a Shimano chain with a SRAM split-link snuck in there for ease of removal and cleaning.

The Weekday comes with Tektro cantilever brakes but for a £75 upcharge you can have Tektro cable disc callipers fitted as the frame and fork have all the fixings for cantilever, V or disc brakes. The rear brake studs are removable for a clean look if you swap to discs and there’s disc-ready cable-routing down the left-hand seat-stay and a brace between the seat and chainstay to cope with the extra forces, the Cotic Components carbon fibre forks have disc-mounts and canti-studs as standard, and there’s even a little cable-guide on the back of the left leg, which is a tidy touch. Cotic Components disc-ready hubs make the switch to discs easier should you want to, and they're laced to Alex R450 rims with fast running Continental Cyclocross Race 700x35c tyres.

So, in the true British style of using a 'cross bike for a bit of everything the >X< Weekday looks useful for commuting over trashed roads, a dose of off-road thrashing and some CX racing, even at UCI level with discs thanks to the recent rule change, we'll try and do as much of all that as possible and get back to you with our thoughts.
www.cotic.co.uk