For a couple of years now Cotic has been making in-roads into the hearts and minds of mountain bikers with the frankly sublime Soul. The frame geometry on the Soul favours fun and chuckability with the comfy compact, Reynolds 853 steel steed making for a bike you can ride all day.

And now they're branching out onto tarmac...

The man behind Cotic, Cy Turner, has gone the same route with this latest incarnation as he did with the Soul, which was designed as a bike which he himself would want to ride - then being lucky enough that a great number of people agreed with him.

So for the Roadrat gone is the usually cramped geometry of a road-based bike, creating a feel which mountain bikers will immediately be right at home with. Gears more suited to the off-road fraternity are also present, as are disc mounts.

It seems a safe assumption to make that the Roadrat will follow its cousin's lead and be available as a steel frame to be personalised as anyone sees fit. Indeed with this bike it seems even more apt since it is being touted as a bike for everything apart from mountain biking. And if it works anywhere near as sweetly as the Soul Cy Turner could have another cult hit on his hands.

At the moment this bike remains a prototype, with a promise of production if enough people seem interested.

Time to start making our interest known....