Cotic BFe Review - BikeRadar

Cotic are now one of the leading lights on the homegrown British microbrand scene, sprung from the success of their original long forked steel XC/trail bike, the Soul. For 2007 they've introduced two new steeds: the singlespeed specific Simple and this, their do-it-all frameset, the BFe.

The frame

Our frame for this test was their pre-production prototype built up for aggressive trail riding. However Cotic assure us that production frames will be the same apart from a slightly oversized down tube and the colour - battleship grey, not black. Made from oversized Reynolds 853 main tubes and straight-gauge chromoly stays, the BFe is a stiff and strong frame designed for the whole gamut of aggressive riding: freeride, downhill, 4X, trail and jumping - an ISCG 05 mount is integral to the BB shell - and is rated for single-crown suspension forks with a minimum of 100mm through to 160mm (4-6.3in) travel when sagged.

Cotic's long fork Ultra Compact Geometry means that their frames are long and small, with a short stem for agile steering. The BFe tweaks the Soul's 71-degree head/74-degree seat angles to accommodate the 160mm fork, resulting in slacker 69-degree head/72-degree seat angles.

The oversized seat tube features a custom internal sleeve reinforcement to ensure rock solid lateral stiffness. Similarly, the back end sees the same diameter and oval profile tubing used for both the bridgeless chainstays and the wishbone seatstays, ensuring that power is direct and instantaneous. The BFe also has Cotic custom cowled dropouts, and open-ended reinforcing gussets on both the top and down tubes at the head tube junctions and on the snakestay chainstays at the bottom bracket junction.

The detail

The BFe is available as a frame kit rather than a complete bike, so we won't dwell too long on the spec, however, Cotic built up our test rig for trail riding with a sorted spec sheet.

The ride

Getting the travel and geometry right over such a range of suspension travel is always going to be tricky, but out of the box fork sag is key - too much and the front end heads towards being pitched too low and steep, making for interesting handling; too high and the steering becomes vague. We spent most of the test period with the Pace fork wound up to the full 150mm travel , sagged a third, and the BFe became a surefooted beast able to mix up diving into turns with planted predictability, helped by its rigid lateral stiffness.

It's when things get rough and tough that the bike begins living up to its name in its surety of purpose but whether or not it can make the jump to the 4X track we've yet to find out. We'll be building one up specifically to put it to the test. It does, however, have its work cut out for it: pitched somewhat on the fence, frames of this type have a history of being misunderstood. However, it's certainly a capable machine that should extend Cotic's appeal to riders looking for a hard-hitting and versatile hardtail.

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