The Flare 27.5" trail bike finally joins the Cotic Longshot crew, the steel Droplink full suspension bike gets longer slacker geometry and is ready to get rowdy on the trails from today!

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The new Flare has been in the pipeline for some time now, Cotic says. It's the final bike to get the brand's Longshot treatment, a design we are fans of here at off-road.cc. Our S=staffer Rachael loves her longtermer the Rocket with similar Longshot design. 

However said they we realised last summer that, although the geometry was sorted for the new Flare, they needed a particular linkage rate for this bike that they weren't going to achieve without a fairly major re-design and re-approval frame. They spent the time and worked the extra few months designing, developing and lab testing the new design, perfecting the bike for release. 

The Flare runs 27.5" wheels with up to 2.6" wide tyres, has 125mm rear travel and 140mm front. Splicing the DNA of the Rocket enduro bike with the swift and subtle feel of their legendary Soul hardtail (one our Jon loves too), it's designed to be a lively trail bike, and a brilliant all-rounder.

Cotic tell us the Longshot geometry ensures it's confident and calm in pretty hectic situations, but where the Flare excels is tight, technical trails. They say it's lighter and easier to move around than our MAX 29er bikes, with more compact dimensions than the enduro focused Rocket, but with the same droplink suspension, it brings more capability than their hardtails. 

The 125mm travel Flare gets a 140mm fork with a 66 degree headangle and a 74.5 degree effective seat tube angle. Reach figures are progressive with the small getting a reach of 444mm and a large 490mm. Effective top tube lengths are long though due to that effective seat angle being on the slightly slack side, something to think about when choosing the right size for you. 

Like the RocketMAX, the Flare front triangle is made from Reynolds 853 tubing right here in the UK by Five Land Bikes, where the complete frames are also finished.

Frame pricing starts at £1749 with a Hope seatclamp, delivery and the X-Fusion O2 RCX shock. DB Air IL is available for £1999. Bikes start at £2999 for the Silver build, going up to £6099 for the full dreamer Platinum Eagle eeWing build. There is limited stock available now, with more coming and due for early May. 

• All the product information is over on the Cotic site

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