As soon as upon a time gravel bikes used to sit down someplace between highway and mountain bikes. By exploiting the advantages of the newest elements and manufacturing, they mixed the velocity and effectivity of a drop-bar all-road bike with a extra steady geometry, wider tyre clearance and kinder gearing from the mountain bike world for quick using on and off tarmac.
However issues didn’t cease there. ‘Gravel using’ is a broad church and producers have rapidly developed bikes to fill each attainable area of interest: from high-paced UCI racing to multi-day adventures to reckless enjoyable on technical MTB trails.
The Cotic Cascade sits effectively and actually within the last class. It is a bike designed to hunt out each final little bit of enjoyable on the paths.
Building
Cotic is a British bike firm established over 20 years in the past. Based mostly in Sheffield, it’s famed for its metal mountain and gravel bikes. The Cascade happened by Cotic’s experimentation to discover a bike to sit down in between the all-road Escapade and the Solaris, its hardtail mountain bike. The goal was to develop a motorbike that felt assured and enjoyable however had the power to maneuver swiftly over longer distances too.
The Cascade differs from the remainder of the bikes in our Better of the 12 months take a look at because it’s a motorbike constructed round mountain bike geometry and elements to present the journey a assured really feel and wonderful dealing with. As with all Cotic bikes, the Cascade is constructed from 853 Reynolds tubing for a (comparatively) light-weight and springy journey. The ovalised and tapered tubing offers the Cascade its crucial power and compliance however can be offers the bike a clear and trendy look.
The Cascade’s geometry makes for a cushty journey
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The Cascade will get a lot of its stability and talent from the MTB-inspired geometry. Our small-sized bike had an extended steady wheelbase of 1092mm, that’s 40 – 90mm longer than the remainder of the bikes in our take a look at. A part of the size comes by the longer chainstays (438mm) and half by the entrance triangle. One other standout dimension is the 68o head tube angle which, when mixed with the fork offset, offers the Cascade a lot of its steady dealing with. Together with the stem the attain of the Cascade is just like the opposite bikes we examined however its stack is round 50mm increased which supplies a way more upright using place.
Tyre clearance aplenty! You may match as much as 2.8″ vast tyres when you’re operating 650b wheels
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MTB hub and BB spacing give loads of tyre clearance so that you’re in a position to run as much as a 2.4” (about 53mm) tyre on a 29” wheel or 2.8” 650b. There’s much more clearance on the customized metal fork so you possibly can go greater on the entrance for much more grip. On that observe, you possibly can simply run a 100mm suspension fork on the Cascade if you would like a bit extra consolation or technical functionality. This isn’t a motorbike for slick and thin tyres.
Just about all of the cabling runs externally, including to the old school metal aesthetic but in addition making servicing on the highway many occasions simpler. As many metal journey and gravel bikes, there are a number of mounts to suit limitless combos of drugs as you want.
A threaded BB is a pure companion for a metal body
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The Cascade is out there as a frameset or with a number of totally different construct choices in each drop and flat bar variations.
Our evaluation bike was the drop bar bronze construct geared up with SRAM Apex 1×11 drivetrain and brakes, Hunt XC wheels, WTB Ranger 29 x 2.4 tyres, WTB Rocket saddle and a variety of Cotic branded ending package. Different construct choices embrace Shimano GRX 1×12 and SRAM Power AXS 1×12, and flat bar choices utilise MTB shifting programs. Unsurprisingly this type of bike isn’t gentle compared to the carbon-framed gravel racers in our take a look at, ours weighed in at 12.4kg. There are some straightforward weight financial savings when it comes to wheels and a carbon fork if you wish to go lighter.
All bikes are constructed to order which permits Cotic to supply a number of choices for various elements; you possibly can improve particular person components like wheels or backside brackets, or select a measurement/choice to go well with for elements equivalent to bars and tyres. Seat put up choices embrace a dropper put up as we had on our take a look at bike.
The journey
As you may anticipate, using the Cascade is sort of a unique expertise to a few of the different gravel bikes we had on take a look at. The place is rather more upright and relaxed which is more likely to be rather more comfy on your higher physique than a conventional drop bar bike, but in addition actually helps you see the path forward.
The management and steering are fairly totally different too, rather more direct to your enter on the bars than bikes with steeper head angles. That is actually evident whenever you flip at low speeds, because the Cascade simply will get on and turns with loads of management and steadiness.
The mix of tyre clearance and slack geometry make the Cascade an awesome match for the UK’s diversified gravel trails
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The metal body and massive quantity tyres present loads of consolation which makes it simpler to remain within the saddle on rougher gravel than another gravel bikes. Unsurprisingly, it’s comparatively sluggish in its straight-line velocity than a conventional gravel bike so that you’ll wish to plan your journey to be rather more off-road than on.
I’ve actually loved some fast laps by native trails and paths on the Cascade. These are little patches of wooded trails linked by lengthy sections of paths and tracks. They’re the type of trails which might be fairly boring on a contemporary lengthy and slack MTB and there’s a variety of pedalling in between them. Though I can nearly journey them on my gravel bike, it’s a bit tough on the physique for many days so I simply follow the linking tracks and paths. I can confidently and comfortably journey all of the trickier trails on the Cascade after which fortunately spin the few gravelly miles to the subsequent part. It’s made my native using enjoyable once more.
A dropper put up solely additional provides to the Cascade’s capabilities
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The Cascade is massively succesful on the tough trails, so when you like extra technical using, you’ll love what you are able to do on it. But it surely’s additionally a superb bike for highway riders who’re on the different finish of their off-road journey and have but to refine their off-road talent set. It has a extremely planted really feel and can roll over unfastened and tough stuff with superb management, leading to a great deal of enjoyment and confidence for the rider.
Worth
At £2,149, the Cotic Cascade with bronze construct boasts a superb worth that makes it aggressive towards equally specced bikes in our Gravel Bike of the 12 months awards.
