There’s some truly beautiful cycling to be had amongst the dales of Yorkshire, as those lucky enough to attend the first two stages of the 2014 Tour de France will soon find out. Well, those who explore further than the offerings of the promotional caravan. There’s also a strong bike building culture throughout the region, including Sheffield’s own Cotic Cycles.
Cy Turner and his Cotic Cycles have now been in operation for over ten years. Cy is a degree qualified Chartered Mechanical Engineer with 18 years experience across the railway industry and a very passionate mountain biker. In 2001 he was inspired to design the ‘Soul’, one of the first long fork-specific, durable steel hardtails on the scene.
The Roadrat is a more recent addition to the Cotic range and leans more into the ‘lifestyle’ sector. The Roadrat doesn’t claim to be a mountain bike but looks very comfortable — and capable — shod in a pair of Conti CX tyres. It’s a disc-only frame, with mounts for everything, and can accept internal gearing, derailleurs, triple chainrings, single-speed or a fixed drivetrain.
With clearance for up to 700Cx46C or 29×1.75″ MTB tyres, it’s an extremely versatile beast, tested on the harshest Yorkshire gritstone. At this stage, Cotic frames are made in Taiwan, except the Rocket, their Reynolds 853 full-suspension frame, made at the Bicycle Manufacturing Ltd facility, dedicated to producing locally made frames at a price to rival the Far East.
Special thanks to Richard Baybutt for the photography. Richard is one of the UK’s premier cycling photographers — his website is damn well worth a look.
