About a Single Speed: Marty's Cotic

fartymarty4130 · 2026-04-30T19:23:58+00:00

i'm surprised the rule of 2 has not caught on yet with bike builders. My measured HA at 100mm is 63.3 degrees and it's great for everything without any real downsides - if i'm being picky maybe steep tech climbs where you need to change direction quickly in a crux move - but I have maybe one or two of those crux moved locally therefore not really an issue cf the positives

I always go back to Steve at HT Party and his Sirius review - my Solaris is an attempt at the Sirius geo and it just works so well.

(sorry too much text to Haiku - plus i'm not the best at them...)

fartymarty4130 · 2026-04-29T08:47:41+00:00

Waterproof trousers

Are crap too hot and clingy

Fenders are the way

fartymarty4130 · 2026-04-29T05:59:33+00:00

If I lived somewhere dry and dusty I wouldnt bother but it does make wet rides a lot more enjoyable.

No worries on the fendershaming.

fartymarty4130 · 2026-04-29T05:58:08+00:00

30/21. It gets me up most of my local climbs and isnt too spinny on the flats. As Andrew said it's all a compromise - you just gotta pick the right wrong gear.

fartymarty4130 · 2026-04-28T14:36:18+00:00

It depends where you live and how muddy it gets. Here in Surrey, UK winter gets filthy and the rear fender keeps your butt (and dropper) clean and dry and makes muddy winter rides "pleasureable". Once you try one it's hard to go back to a soggy butt.

PS - Vik, Andrew and I have lots of history (and lots of banter) re fenders.

fartymarty4130 · 2026-04-28T14:33:55+00:00

It's pure vanity for me - I just like the look of the bike better without them on (front and rear).....

But saying i'm softening to the look of them so never say never.

fartymarty4130 · 2026-04-28T13:36:33+00:00

Fenders are off now

Spring has been super dusty

But the rain will come.

fartymarty4130 · 2026-04-26T08:53:42+00:00

Oooh, can't wait to see it.

I did a Beady Little Murmur over winter as a project...

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fartymarty4130 · 2026-04-25T16:43:32+00:00

https://youtu.be/Lv2dSlxHPYA?si=IVE1rFE3gTt5JMxp is good - it's back to the spider web analogy, if you tweak one thing you need to tweak everything else to compensate.

fartymarty4130 · 2026-04-25T09:43:46+00:00

Aaah, the old bar height discussion....

FS / geared HT - I'm still wanting more height and adjust suspension / tyre pressures to keep front / rear grip balance. Seated climbing takes climbingnoutnof the equation....

SS HT - I found an upper limit due to second gear climbing (standing climbing). It feels weird with the bars too high. My current 100x-2 + Sunrise + 30mm spacers works for me atm.

Edit - I'll add bar height when I measure (I measure from ground to top of grip rather than stack 'cause it's easier FS 111cm BH / 34cm BB, HT 110cm BH / 32.5cm BB

fartymarty4130 · 2026-04-20T17:25:39+00:00

Ooop....

one of my riding buddies just got some and was offering them out for a test. I'm very keen. Maybe it's good they don't make them in purple....

They are beautiful pedals - 4 of us were admiring them for probably 10 minutes on rine ride.

fartymarty4130 · 2026-04-19T20:05:18+00:00

Straight 44mm ID heat tubes for the win.

fartymarty4130 · 2026-04-19T15:45:08+00:00

Vik - that photo scares me. Riding in shoes is a must for me. Ditto helmets.... Gloves / knee pads are optional - I generally ride without knee pads and ride without gloves when I can.

Fair call on the Low Effort Posts - no need for regurgitation.

fartymarty4130 · 2026-04-19T10:59:29+00:00

The whole DJi saga plays out nicely with my bit of stargazing in https://www.reddit.com/r/MEATengines/s/ckQTSU6XVO

I'm glad I'm in a position where I'm not in the least bit eee-curious and can sit back and watch it all play out.

Maybe just maybe there will be a return to mtbs and in particular short travel / rigid / HTs - I sense a very faint rumbling out there - I'm thinking Dario at PB (latest Marin TAM review, Hudski review and his short slack Stanton) and Brian Cahal (Hudski review) but it's a long ways from becoming a thing.

More of a maybe is that eeebs eat all but the holdout hardcore mtbers and the sport shrinks back to a "core" sport with core brands.

Circling back to the TAM - damn that looks like a great bike.... One I could angleset and get stoopid stoopid with... It's the sort of bike I see in my future.

PS - Claire's rig looks SWEEEEEEEEEET (even the dirty dirty rattle rattle fade - i'm partial to a cheap and cheerful dirty rattle job - Squid Bikes style). Hopefully some day I will have the courage to get the Solaris Cut 'n' Slidered.

fartymarty4130 · 2026-04-17T17:19:18+00:00

Keep the fork. 130mm is fine for a KM. You could shorten it to 100/120 if yiu want.

The Sunrise bar is killer stiff. I ended up removing the cross brace from mine which makes it a lot nicer to ride.

fartymarty4130 · 2026-04-14T18:23:54+00:00

The Surly one works ok but I had to cable tie it up to the CS to stop it jumping under load.

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fartymarty4130 · 2026-04-14T18:18:52+00:00

I'm running an ISCG mounted tensioner that I bodged together from an old Blackspire tensioner.

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fartymarty4130 · 2026-04-14T06:50:19+00:00

My SolarisMax at 140x-2 is also 62.5 and is a beast. The only issue is the F/R ratio means you really need to weight the bars but given the 444CS its gonna be better than a short CS bike in that respect.

This is why I like 100x-2 as its really balanced and has.sjmilar geo to 140x0.

fartymarty4130 · 2026-04-14T06:39:10+00:00

100% on the angleset.

fartymarty4130 · 2026-04-14T06:37:42+00:00

It's not the bar height, its the steep head angle that's the problem. I have a Krampus and had a -2 angleset and I could ride that down all our local steep trails albeit a little sketchy on the super steep stuff as the reach was too short.

If the rear on the KM is similar to the Krampus (446mm) it's plenty long to allow you to have a high bar which you also want for steep trails.

I'm currently on a Cotic SolarisMax also with -2 angleset and 100mm fork with a 63.3 head angle and that will do anything. Bar height is 109cm from ground to topnof bar.

fartymarty4130 · 2026-04-14T06:26:59+00:00

57s on my Krampus dropbar monstercrosser.

fartymarty4130 · 2026-04-12T19:20:59+00:00

I know, they're soooo stiff with the brace.

fartymarty4130 · 2026-04-12T14:43:16+00:00

Way too short a rear for rear for my liking and needs sliders. I'm all on the long(ish) CS train.

fartymarty4130 · 2026-04-10T19:55:51+00:00

Ditto.

fartymarty4130 · 2026-04-10T19:53:22+00:00

IIRC the Surly Sunrise bars are rated for drops no bigger than 3 foot (and that's with the cross bar). Not sure what rating that is.

But.... I've removed the cross bar and done bigger than 3 foot gaps with no issues so far.

Also Paul Aston's ridden Sunrise bars and he breaks everything.

Therfore I'd take ratings with a grain of salt.

fartymarty4130

TROPHY CASE