Cotic Goes 27.5 (but stays 26in too)

“A middle sized wheel frame what I drew” http://www.cotic.co.uk/product/soul275 .

With a casual remark on Twitter, Cy Turner from Cotic finally put an end to the ‘will they?’ ‘when will they?’ ‘will they also?’ wonderings from Cotic’s many fans. One of the original ‘hardcore hardtails’ the original Soul has been very popular with British trail riders (and further afield) as a no nonsense, hard-riding machine for just about any sort of riding. Some riders have been waiting to see if/when the British designer would go to the new middle-size wheels, while others were hoping that it would keep to its 26in roots. The good news is that, yes there’s a new 27.5in Soul, but there’s also still a 26in Soul, now in its third generation. Cake and eat!

Interestingly, not only is the seat tube big enough to take a 31.6 dropper post, but the seat tube has been slackened a little to reflect the fact that all dropper posts are in-line and so put your weight further forward than a traditional layback seat post. Slackening the angle a little bit puts the saddle back where you’d want it. 

Cotic’s description is below. What do you reckon? We’re working on getting one in to test as soon as possible.

Details are here: http://www.cotic.co.uk/product/soul275 while fans of the O.G. wheel size can reassure themselves with this page: http://www.cotic.co.uk/product/soul26

Cotic’s sales info is below:

“Presenting the new generation Cotic Soul: an update to the original long fork steel hardtail; now with 27.5″ wheels.

A trail riding machine in the truest sense, the Soul has amazing adaptability and all round performance. Tough, light, zippy, fun, interactive, durable, comfortable. It was initially conceived as a Modern Steel Hardtail and that where we have always aimed to keep it. It’s grown and adapted, with dropper seatpost compatibility, tapered headtube, and now for 2014 the addition of a 27.5″ wheel option. Not ready for 27.5″ wheels? You need the latest Soul26.

The Soul is happy ripping up the singletrack at your local woods or trail centre, crossing maps on your bivvy adventures, smashing rocks in the Peak or Lake Districts, or tearing down mountains on your summer holidays.

The Cotic Soul: The ultimate expression of the trail hardtail.

Soul275 available in Matte Gritstone, Matte Cotic Orange, and Matte Bright Blue. Soul275 brings together everything that made the original Soul26 great, and added 27.5″ wheels and our latest thinking on geometry and frame layout.

Exclusive Cotic designed tapered head tube uses a 44mm bottom end, yet maintains the traditional 34mm top end. It’s compatible with both taper steerers and 1 1/8” forks, so it’ll work with whatever you’re using now or planning to buy in the future. It’s elegant, high performance, and much lighter than a full 44mm head tube when combined with the Soul tubeset.

The lightweight oversized 34.9mm seat tube developed for the Solaris and this is carried onto the Soul275. It brings a dropper compatible 31.6mm seatpost size, it’s 10% lighter than the 28.6mm bulge butted tube we used up to now whilst being 15% stiffer. This is also a Cotic exclusive feature due to the proprietary manufacturing process we have developed to make use of this tube possible.

There is weight saved from the Ovalform top tube whilst maintaining strength, and dropper seatpost remote hose clips are included on the underside. The down tube is a Reynolds DZB design which eliminates gussets and brings back the clean lined beauty of the original Soul.

Geometry is our new Optimised For Inline layout. It brings together the best of our original Ultra Compact Geometry, with tweaks to optimise it for inline clamp dropper seatposts, 27.5″ wheels and 120mm forks.”

Photo gallery below: