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Cy,

Morning! This one came out of a conversation I had with a very good Cotic customer last week when he dropped by the showroom. This guy has bought a few Cotic's (for which we are very grateful!) and had bought a couple of used examples of the recent titanium frames we have done; the SodaMAX and the Tonic. Over a coffee he was asking me if we had plans for a ti Cascade, and my answer took me by surprise!

Ti frames - shiny but harmful

I think what surprised me wasn't that I said "no, we're not doing a ti Cascade", but the reasons I gave. I have come to realise a lot of why we aren't doing titanium anymore isn't commercial, or quality assurance (although both are issues), it's that it doesn't sit well with Cotic anymore.

We've always used steel because we love the fact you can build really durable, long lasting frames out of them. Before we even did a Sustainability Statement for the business, we intuitively knew and liked the way our bikes aren't "disposable", which had to be better for our planet.

Once we realised - through the great work of Reynolds and Trek's sustainability reports - that steel is the lowest impact material you can make a bike out of, it all clicked. Add to this the fact that as offroad cyclists we are very aware of our surroundings and the changing climate, it left us wanting to run Cotic in a way that consistently strives to lower our environmental impact.

Steel has three key attributes which help us keep our impact low:

• It's low carbon impact in production and Reynolds use 100% recycled iron so very little new material is mined to produce our tubes
• It's got high fatigue resistance, so designed carefully and looked after properly it will last ages, and can be repaired if cracks do appear.
• At the end of it's life it can be fully recycled and used again in high quality material with very little carbon impact.

If you're interested, our Sustainability Statement is over on the website.

Cotic Cascade - Awesome steeliness

But when you consider titanium, it misses two of steel's big attributes, and is marginal on the third.

• According to the Reynolds report, titanium produces 3 times the CO2 of steel production. It's almost always made from virgin material; mined ore. Cross referencing this against the Trek report, this makes it almost as polluting as carbon fibre.
• Titanium does have high fatigue resistance and is also completely corrosion resistant too, which is great. However the difficulty in welding it completely cleanly and other difficulties in processing does mean titanium frames tend to have a higher failure rate than steel over time.
• Whilst titanium can be recycled, it's rarely done. Even when it is, it's a very difficult, high energy consumption process compared to steel and aluminium. It needs a lot of heat, and a vacuum furnace to stop it disastrously interacting with oxygen during the heating process.

As an aside, it's worth noting carbon fibre is:

• Very high CO2 impact (a little higher than titanium and about the same as stainless steel)
• Made from crude oil which has to be extracted from the earth
• Impossible to recycle sustainably and ethically, therefore mostly ends as landfill

Titanium might not be quite a dirty as carbon fibre, but it is a very high environmental impact material. As a result, it simply doesn't fit with what we want a Cotic to be anymore.

The lowest impact frame we make: The Escapade UK 853 uses a majority of UK sourced tubing, and its built and painted close to Cotic. Minimising supply distances is another key to reducing impact.

It you have a titanium Cotic, we're not berating you though! Hey, we had them made and sold it to you in the first place! But we've learnt a little more now, and decided that it's not for us anymore. The best thing you can do to minimise its impact - now we have built it and you have it - is to use it as much as possible for as long as possible. They are lovely things that will last years and years.

Ultimately we won't make another titanium frame - or stainless steel as it leaves a similarly large dent in our planet too - but we will continue to make amazing, beautiful, tough, long lasting steel bikes you can love for ages.

I know lots of my riding buddies who take the view that "it's just one bike, what's the harm?", but it's one of tens or hundreds of thousands of carbon or titanium bikes and parts that are made. If people didn't buy them, brands wouldn't make them. But by the same token, I think brands are being disingenuous to hide behind "it's what people want". Sometimes you have to do what you believe is right and take the lead.

We're not perfect, and I know we have a carbon fork on the Escapade, but we're trying to be better every time we make a decision. As we continue to learn and develop as a company, we will continue to work towards building the best bikes with the lowest impact.

Cheers,

Cy

Founder and Director

Cotic Bikes - A British Independent Bike Company Since 2003

www.cotic.co.uk

General Inquiries - Phone +44 (0) 7970 853531

Now open Saturdays for Showroom and Demo

Cotic Limited, 1B Broom Business Park, Bridge Way, Chesterfield, S41 9QG, United Kingdom