For a good few years now, Cotic’s Cascade has surprised road-based gravellers with its impressive capability found within its steel tubing. Now, the British steel frame aficionado has brought a long-awaited update to its gravel bike, including revised sizing, refreshed cable routing, and UDH compatibility to work with the latest in drivetrain tech. Here’s everything you need to know.
- 2022 Cotic Cascade review
- Cotic enters the e-MTB market with the 150mm Rocket
- British brand Cotic ditches titanium – will others follow?
The Cascade is Cotic’s take on what a gravel bike should be, and for the brand, it’s a Reynolds 853 steel-framed machine. And now, the bikes are made in small patches in Portugal. That move allows the brand more flexibility as it no longer needs to order in large batches, which means that we may see more frequent updates and new colours of the Cascade throughout its lifespan.

New for the Cascade is size-specific tubing, so each frame size gets its own set of Reynolds tubes in varying diameters in a bit to achieve a consistent ride feel, regardless of the frame size you’re riding. As usual, you’ll find the brand’s Ovalform top tube and gussets all to boost durability.
With the size-specific tubes comes a refresh in the Cascade’s sizing. As a result of rider feedback, each size has received minor tweaks to improve comfort while making the sizing more similar to Cotic’s mountain bikes. As such, we’re told that each size is a few millimetres shorter. So expect a 414mm reach on a large frame, a 69-degree head angle, a 69-degree seat tube angle, and a 439mm chainstay length.

Another change to the bike’s tubes is a switch to a 44mm straight head tube that aims to retain the stack height found on the Gen 1 bike while offering more flexibility on headset options, and making for an easier time when mounting bags. As standard, there’s a Zero Stack headset cup, and any geometry changes here, compared to the first-generation bike, are merely to account for that component change, says the brand. So there should be no effective difference in the ride position.
The brand has then jumped onto the UDH bandwagon, and rightfully so, I reckon. With SRAM’s T-Type drivetrains becoming popular in mountain biking and growing in favour among the gravel audience, it’s a move that just makes sense, even if you’re not going T-Type. Of course, Transmission compatibility is cool and all, but UDH hangers are universal and easy to come by.
Finally, the Cascade Gen 2 benefits from a tweaked cable routing layout. Now cables and hoses are routed under the down tube, making luggage mounting on the down tube easier, says Cotic.
Oh, and the bike runs the steel Alpaca fork.
As for pricing, framesets start at £1,350 and full builds start at £2,620.
