Once upon a time gravel bikes used to sit somewhere between road and mountain bikes. By exploiting the benefits of the latest components and manufacturing, they combined the speed and efficiency of a drop-bar all-road bike with a more stable geometry, wider tyre clearance and kinder gearing from the mountain bike world for fast riding on and off tarmac.
But things didn’t stop there. ‘Gravel riding’ is a broad church and manufacturers have quickly developed bikes to fill every possible niche: from high-paced UCI racing to multi-day adventures to reckless fun on technical MTB trails.
The Cotic Cascade sits well and truly in the final category. This is a bike designed to seek out every last bit of fun on the trails.
Construction
Cotic is a British bike company established over 20 years ago. Based in Sheffield, it is famed for its steel mountain and gravel bikes. The Cascade came about through Cotic’s experimentation to find a bike to sit in between the all-road Escapade and the Solaris, its hardtail mountain bike. The aim was to develop a bike that felt confident and fun but had the ability to move swiftly over longer distances too.
The Cascade differs from the rest of the bikes in our Best of the Year test as it’s a bike built around mountain bike geometry and components to give the ride a confident feel and excellent handling. As with all Cotic bikes, the Cascade is constructed from 853 Reynolds tubing for a (relatively) lightweight and springy ride. The ovalised and tapered tubing gives the Cascade its necessary strength and compliance but is also gives the bike a clean and stylish look.
The Cascade gets much of its stability and ability from the MTB-inspired geometry. Our small-sized bike had a long stable wheelbase of 1092mm, that’s 40 – 90mm longer than the rest of the bikes in our test. Part of the length comes through the longer chainstays (438mm) and part through the front triangle. Another standout dimension is the 68o head tube angle which, when combined with the fork offset, gives the Cascade much of its stable handling. Including the stem the reach of the Cascade is similar to the other bikes we tested but its stack is around 50mm higher which gives a much more upright riding position.
MTB hub and BB spacing give plenty of tyre clearance so you’re able to run up to a 2.4” (about 53mm) tyre on a 29” wheel or 2.8” 650b. There’s even more clearance on the custom steel fork so you can go bigger at the front for even more grip. On that note, you can easily run a 100mm suspension fork on the Cascade if you want a little more comfort or technical capability. This isn’t a bike for slick and skinny tyres.
Pretty much all the cabling runs externally, adding to the old skool steel aesthetic but also making servicing on the road many times easier. As many steel adventure and gravel bikes, there are multiple mounts to fit endless combinations of gear as you wish.
The Cascade is available as a frameset or with several different build options in both drop and flat bar versions.
Our review bike was the drop bar bronze build equipped with SRAM Apex 1x11 drivetrain and brakes, Hunt XC wheels, WTB Ranger 29 x 2.4 tyres, WTB Rocket saddle and a range of Cotic branded finishing kit. Other build options include Shimano GRX 1x12 and SRAM Force AXS 1x12, and flat bar options utilise MTB shifting systems. Unsurprisingly this sort of bike isn’t light in comparison to the carbon-framed gravel racers in our test, ours weighed in at 12.4kg. There are some easy weight savings in terms of wheels and a carbon fork if you want to go lighter.
All bikes are built to order which allows Cotic to offer several options for different components; you can upgrade individual parts like wheels or bottom brackets, or choose a size/option to suit for components such as bars and tyres. Seat post options include a dropper post as we had on our test bike.
The ride
As you might expect, riding the Cascade is quite a different experience to some of the other gravel bikes we had on test. The position is much more upright and relaxed which is likely to be much more comfortable for your upper body than a traditional drop bar bike, but also really helps you see the trail ahead.
The control and steering are quite different too, much more direct to your input on the bars than bikes with steeper head angles. This is really evident when you turn at low speeds, as the Cascade just gets on and turns with plenty of control and balance.
The steel frame and big volume tyres provide plenty of comfort which makes it easier to stay in the saddle on rougher gravel than some other gravel bikes. Unsurprisingly, it’s relatively sluggish in its straight-line speed than a traditional gravel bike so you’ll want to plan your ride to be much more off-road than on.
I’ve really enjoyed some quick laps through local trails and paths on the Cascade. These are little patches of wooded trails linked by long sections of paths and tracks. They’re the sort of trails that are quite boring on a modern long and slack MTB and there’s a lot of pedalling in between them. Although I can just about ride them on my gravel bike, it’s a bit rough on the body for most days so I just stick to the linking tracks and paths. I can confidently and comfortably ride all the trickier trails on the Cascade and then happily spin the few gravelly miles to the next section. It’s made my local riding fun again.
The Cascade is hugely capable on the rough trails, so if you like more technical riding, you’ll love what you can do on it. But it’s also an excellent bike for road riders who are at the other end of their off-road journey and have yet to refine their off-road skill set. It has a really planted feel and will roll over loose and rough stuff with amazing control, resulting in loads of enjoyment and confidence for the rider.
Value
At £2,149, the Cotic Cascade with bronze build boasts an excellent price that makes it competitive against similarly specced bikes in our Gravel Bike of the Year awards.
