Designed by Cy Turner at Cotic and produce by Five Land in Scotland, Neko Mulally’s latest race bike will have a steel front end.
The latest development in Neko Mulally’s Frameworks project sees the American pinner team up with Cotic to run a UK-made and designed steel front triangle.
Photos by Callie Horwath.
Aimed at solving the fatigue cracking issues of his aluminium race bikes, Neko Mulally turned to Cy Turner of Cotic to produce a steel front end with the same layout as the latest iteration of his Frameworks creations.
The steel Frameworks bike uses a stock Reynolds 853 RocketMAX Gen 4 downtube, with a same size and spec tube for the seat tube. The top tube is similar but uses a round tube instead of ovalform in order to stop the fork legs contacting the thinner outer portion of that tube. Its wall thicknesses are up two compared to the RocketMAX.
Gussets handle the strength and stiffness in key areas and a shuttle type shock mount allows for some adjustment to the kinematic. This gives the ability to move the shock pivot to reduce or increase the rising rate of the frame. There’s also another shuttle for a third option.
The frame design was developed with the help of Dan, lead designer at RAAW Bikes, welded up by Five Land Bikes in Scotland and painted by Cerakote Up North near Preston.
Unfortunately, with Neko out with a dicky hip, testing will pass to another rider, but who knows, will we see the steel machine being the preferred bike of choice when it comes to tackling the 2023 UCI Downhill World Cup?
