The spirit of the Santa Cruz Bontragers lives on ...

[2manyoranges]

Well...worth a note in the retro rather than new section...I spoke to Cy Turner a couple of years ago since I was struck by just how much resemblance there was between the Cotic Soul which I had and the Bontrager Race OR frame which I had hanging in the workshop; the same gussets, the same balance of tubing in the main and rear triangle, a similar design for the seatstays, finesse and strength in a unique combination, oh...and made from very carefully spec'd steel. They really were so similar that I figured there must have been some awareness of the Bontrager. But no, apparently the Soul was designed using care, intelligence and insight from riding, and that took Cotic to the same place as Keith Bontrager in his garage in Santa Cruz. Pandemic stopped me fulfilling the promise of dropping in to Cotic with my Race OR, since they were interested to see one, and now it's gone to the West Country for a loving build. But the spirit of the Santa Cruz garage and early Cannery frames clearly lives on....and so I have just ordered this.....and when I ride it I will be thinking of the line of inheritance from the late 80's through to the very latest versions - which differ essentially only in a few details (44mm head tube) and being extremely stretched - yes, long, (relatively) low, and slack....maybe if KB hadn't sold the whole shebang to Trek, maybe this is exactly what he would be torching and selling these days...

 

[Stressed]

That's really interesting. If I ever succumb to the 29 I'll be looking at one of these

 

[2manyoranges]

Stressed - It's currently building up nicely - although suffering from parts mismatch due to COVID shortages. Purple hope rear brake and lever. Orange front. Red Hope headset. Brown Deity stem. It's looking like a bin sale at the parts factory at the moment. But it should ride brilliantly...

 

[Hotwheels.]

Well...worth a note in the retro rather than new section...I spoke to Cy Turner a couple of years ago since I was struck by just how much resemblance there was between the Cotic Soul which I had and the Bontrager Race OR frame which I had hanging in the workshop; the same gussets, the same balance of tubing in the main and rear triangle, a similar design for the seatstays, finesse and strength in a unique combination, oh...and made from very carefully spec'd steel. They really were so similar that I figured there must have been some awareness of the Bontrager. But no, apparently the Soul was designed using care, intelligence and insight from riding, and that took Cotic to the same place as Keith Bontrager in his garage in Santa Cruz. Pandemic stopped me fulfilling the promise of dropping in to Cotic with my Race OR, since they were interested to see one, and now it's gone to the West Country for a loving build. But the spirit of the Santa Cruz garage and early Cannery frames clearly lives on....and so I have just ordered this.....and when I ride it I will be thinking of the line of inheritance from the late 80's through to the very latest versions - which differ essentially only in a few details (44mm head tube) and being extremely stretched - yes, long, (relatively) low, and slack....maybe if KB hadn't sold the whole shebang to Trek, maybe this is exactly what he would be torching and selling these days...

That looks absolutely ace!

 

[Ally]

Nice observation and insight.

 

[sandgrown]

I've got a Cotic BFeMax arriving in December based on what you said 2manyoranges and I can't wait to get it built up!

 

[2manyoranges]

Sandgrown - excellent!

Sam and the folks at Cotic are so incredibly helpful and supportive. They always respond swiftly to queries and questions, no matter how small.

I spent a lot of time mithering over front suspension. The Grom has Fox 35s on his Transition and they are pretty stunning forks...but my are they expensive. I decided to go with some second-hand Lyriks...but what travel....aaargh...

After much dithering and re-visiting the people who actually know about suspension (MojO Chris Porter etc), I went back to first principles, and wound up where Ra cycles (Rafi Richardson) are at the moment - which is that people have too little sag in their forks, and too much negative spring and not enough positive ramp up.

The thinking this:

More travel on a brutal hardtail (BfEMax, Stanton Switch9er etc) is a good idea. But not squidgy uncontrolled softness or bounce. That means rapid ramp up on the positive side - (lots of tokens) and low negative spring.

https://www.ra-bikes.com/410
You need the sprung mass (the rider and bike, basically) to ‘hang’ in the suspension, so that not only does the suspension come upwards when it hits a bump, you need it to drop into a hole and ripples as you pass over them.

And really that’s enough to know what to do.

I went for 160mm Lyriks, but set up with 40% sag (a lot) and also had 150 and 140 air springs on hand should 160 be too mental. Set negative LOW. And then add tokens to control DIVE.

Verdict after riding in earnest on VERY fast and demanding descents, and long draggy climbs: perfect. Big Grin.

 

[sandgrown]

Thank you for the info 2manyoranges, suspension setup has kind of passed me by as I only had rebound adjustment on my last fork. As a heavy rider, I'd be opting for a lot of tokens in the fork anyway and I punted for the Pike Ultimate 150mm so I see a fair bit of fettling in my future!

 

[2manyoranges]

Excellent choice. Have a look at Rafi's comments on the Ra-cycles site and see what you think...

 

[2manyoranges]

Other thought is rims. I have been going for 35mm internal minimum and that enables LOOoooow pressures and give a great balloon shape to 2.35s....works really well on the BfEMax - lots of clearance and much traction....