Cotic Escapade

[olivertomberry]

Anyone riding an Escapade? Liking the look of it - great tyre clearance, carbon fork, all the mounts you could ask for, good for 700 & 650b wheels, pretty light... could run it as a drop or flat bar. Life bike contender?

Good to hear thoughts!

oliver

 

[SkipdiverJohn]

I wouldn't consider any bike with carbon fibre in it's structure to be a lifetime purchase. Steel yes, anything else, no.

 

[olivertomberry]

Sure, but the fork can easily be replaced, can't it? Point taken though.

 

[SkipdiverJohn]

Sure, but the fork can easily be replaced, can't it?

Quite possibly at the moment you could obtain a replacement fork, so long as it's either a generic off-the-peg one or the manufacturer is willing to supply it separately.
What happens though in 10 or 20 years time when the bike has long since gone out of production? If it's a bike-specific item, it's highly unlikely to be available new. If generic, you might still be in luck, so long as standards were still current.
The excellent availability, both new and used, of bits for steel frames is a massive advantage. I have no qualms whatsoever about using secondhand steel items such as forks, but I would not ride a secondhand carbon fork or carbon frame with an unknown history and possibly hidden structural accident damage.

 

[chriswoody]

Depends what you want to use it for really. The tyre clearance whilst bigger than most, is still not the biggest, my bike has clearance for 50mm for example and the latest iteration of my Kona will take over 60mm and that's in just 700c size, 650b will allow even fatter tyres. I find 44mm tyres the ideal width for the riding that I do, however, it all depends on what kind of terrain you are going to be riding on. Granted though, you can specify 650b wheels which would allow wider tyres.

I can't say I really see the attraction of carbon forks either, for one thing they don't come with mounting points for cages, a useful feature if you want to go bikepacking. If your going to be going for a steel frame, then my personal preference would be for an all steel frame rather than a half and half.

I see they have some interesting build options as well. I don't see the attraction of road groupsets on a bike designed for off-road use, however they do offer some other options that would be lovely, like SRAM Apex or Shimano GRX. Again, it just depends on the use you want to put it to. I'm probably using my bike 80% off-road, so I find features like clutched derailuers, hydraulic disk brakes and 1 x drivetrains, really useful.

Overall, it looks a nice bike though and I like the fact you can specify the bike in a multitude of ways.