I was never going to buy this bike. I was going to just have a hardtail and a full sus. Simple. But, I kinda went for a bulldozer of a full sus that won’t be here til late May and that left me with three options for the three months between now and then. Just ride the hardtail, ride the Crafty or buy something new and shiny. I love my hardtail, but my arse is soft and many places are lumpy. The Crafty isn’t bad, but it has its issues and its going, so perhaps it should go sooner. And then Cotic launched their new FlareMAX….
The original FlareMAX (and indeed RocketMAX) both looked like interesting bikes. For a start, Cotic made them with a seat tube long enough for me (their 26/650b hardtails are just too short). The v1 geometry was a little ‘old school’ though, especially after a year on a Mondraker Crafty with its huge reach. Plus I’d heard stories of the bending moment on the shock causing a few issues and it has a 142mm rear hub, so I largely ignored it.
With the v2 though came what Cotic call “Longshot” geometry. A marketing name for what the rest of us call longer and slacker. Alongside a switch to metric shocks with more overlap and a 148mm rear end, things become a practical possibility for me. So, a hardtail for my week riding across the UK in May or buy a cool UK designed steel bike from a company I’ve always fancied a bike from. Sorry credit card.
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