What makes a cotic soul so desirable. I’m not an expert on frames but to me the soul looks generic.I like the look of some of the bikes pictured on here and the new colours are really nice. I’m just interested in knowing what makes them stand apart from other similar manufacturers. I’m not interested in the good v shit argument , i just want to what it is they have that others don’t.

for me, it’s just a nice bike to ride – I’m not good enough to know why, but compared to other steel hardtails I’ve ridden it is simply more enjoyable to ride up, down, under, over and around.

I’d like to think that this is because a lot of thought went into its design compared to other ‘generic’ steel hardtails because it’s a small brand with an owner/ designer who cares.

Well made, nice looking bike with little that anyone could actually fault designed for UK riding.

Oh….. And price….. Slightly too expensive and that makes them ‘feel expensive” and more desirable too. 🙂

Can’t comment on the most recent incarnation, but safe to say that previous versions had everything you could want in a trail hardtail. That elusive combination of planted climbing, stable descending, snappy handling and compliment tubing.

My favourite mtb of all time was a 99 explosif. The soul has come the closest to recreating that ride, but with more travel and discs.

I think you need to have ridden ‘back in the day’ to get the whole steel twang thing.

Steel bikes these days just don’t have it perhaps the Voodoo one by Joe Murray did, i’ve not ridden a soul to see if they do.

It’s the all-round best riding hardtail frame I’ve ridden. Sorted geometry, lovely ride quality, well made, and light for what it is.

Main downside for me was that most other frames I tried after mine couldn’t compare- when you’ve had one masterpiece it’s hard to be happy with anything else

What they have that other comparable frames don’t is critical mass in the marketplace. People buy them because people buy them. If want a HT but you’re not sure what, it’s a safe bet.

That’s why I bought one anyway – everyone said they were good and ultimately it’s not viable to properly demo a bunch of different frames.

Are they better than other comparable frames? Honestly I have no idea.

For me, it was the perfect geometry and bike felt like a dependable workhorse. I must be honest and say that I was extremely disappointed with the paint finish. I sold mine after 9 months and it looked as though the frame was donkeys years old.

So … in my opinion … overpriced for rubbish paint quality.

Still waiting for the rest of the bits before I build and ride mine. While I wait for the postman though I can say I’ve never been this excited about a new bike.

I think the fact that it’s Renyolds 853 tubing adds something. To anyone who likes bikes that means something good. From my 70 year Dad to a 16 year old reading MBUK.

Oh aye, the finish… Makes me wonder if it’s varied over time because mine was phenomenally tough, my Hemlock is too- best finished bikes I’ve had by a long way. (the Hemlock looks pretty sorry for itself but it’s taken a ridiculous amount of effort to get it like that)

Frankly if I wanted a bike with rubbish paintwork I would buy an On-One and, yes, I’ve had 3 of those! Darn cheaper too.

Mind you, I did buy a Simple off the Classifieds here. 🙂

Edit: funny you should say that Northwind, the Simple was years older than the Soul and paintwork looked in much better condition!

Moaning about paintwork on a mountain bike…guffaw

There’s no rocks in the South and I’m a wuss!

Moaning about paintwork on a mountain bike…guffaw

Mountain bikes witch crap paint…. Snigger.

EDIT
The Souls I’ve had my hands on seem to have had more than acceptable paint, to be fair.

A few years ago i spent well over £1000 on a custom steel frame, A soul is 85% as nice to ride, the custom is an extra 10% in my head due to the price, and the last 5% was down to a liberal dose of pixie dust inside the custom’s steel tubing that just made it “special”.

The paint on mine was fine. It was custard coloured, but still fine.

There’s no rocks in the South and I’m a wuss!

I assume by the south you mean up north in the South East 🙂 so if no rocks why the moaning?

I’ve slammed my carbon frames down the granite of dartmoor…it’s mountain biking they get dinged!

Emperors new clothes for sure. The rear tubes are just plain gauge steel so I can’t see why that provides any more feel through the pedals.

I used to have a condor fratello, and whilst it looks sweeeeet, it was no better to ride than my current winter hack kinesis which is aluminium, and that was supposed to be Dedacciai SAT 14.5 triple-butted throughout

Its either down to looks or in your head IMO

They may look generic but god is in the details – and the details are really well sorted. And because there are lots of happy owners confirming that there’s something very right about them they’re a very safe buy – you’d probably like one if it’s built appropriately for your riding style and if you don’t there’s a fair queue waiting for secondhand ones to pop up so they don’t depreciate too badly.

Mine goes up, along, round, over, down and airborne as well as I can whilst hardly ever feeling like its holding me back – and when it does it just takes a bit of skill/strength/fitness sorting. Thoughts like “I need a 150mm FS” or “a slacker head angle would be nice” or “my old XC bike could climb this better”, which have cropped up over our two years together have been replaced by “seriously, this bike is just perfect for what I do, I wonder how long it will last for?”

djglover – Member

Emperors new clothes for sure. The rear tubes are just plain gauge steel so I can’t see why that provides any more feel through the pedals.

That’s not all there is to a frame though. (IIRC Brant commented once on here that a lot of supposed “rear end compliance” comes from the top tube. Then again he also told me I’d fit a small Mmmbop, so what does he know 😉 )

I’m no engineer so I can’t give educated comment on that- but I had a BFe and a Soul and the difference is unmissable (the BFe didn’t last long as it just lacked the spark that makes a Soul stand out, it was competent but it didn’t shine). No idea exactly where that difference lives though.

i had a go on one, it was too big for me tho really. hth

The rear tubes are just plain gauge steel so I can’t see why that provides any more feel through the pedals.

Actually the rear tubes are butted 4130 chro-moly. I don’t really buy into the whole “ooh, it has some magic feel because it’s made by Taiwanese elves with special Reynolds 853 dust”, it’s just got geometry that works, is strong without being too heavy, is stiff enough not to feel wibbly without transmitting every bit of buzz, has the clearance to run big tyres even in the mud and lets me spend my MTB time on more riding and less faffing about in the garage building up new bikes chasing some ideal…

Northwind, which era of BFe did you briefly own?

It is palpably worth it in my experience; Kona Caldera, Soul, Prince Albert, BFe, Merlin Easton Ultralite, another Soul – in that order over the last ten years. It just works and in comparison to cost it is proportionally better.

I’ve slammed my carbon frames down the granite of dartmoor…it’s mountain biking they get dinged!

Erm, it wasn’t my only bike, I can’t ride for toffees so just puzzled that it looked the way it did.

I went from a p7 to a soul and have never looked back. When I first got mine, I wondered what the fuss was about. After a few weeks it twigged. Its nothing spectacular. It just do anything badly. It’s just right, to the point that you forget about the bike and just concentrate on enjoying riding.

chiefgrooveguru – Member

Northwind, which era of BFe did you briefly own?

A fairly early one- 30.9 seatpost 852 number, battleship grey (and a last-pre-CEN-Soul)

A fairly early one- 30.9 seatpost 852 number, battleship grey (and a last-pre-CEN-Soul)

I wonder how different the newer ones feel? Same geometry but very different tubing, much less huge at the back.