Who’s running a Soda as a do-it-all bike?

How does it fair?

Sort of got it in my head that the Soul is more playful whilst the Soda is more for going lighter and faster. Care to prove me wrong?

Can anyone comment on the new Soda compared to the old one?

I cant compare it to the old one.
But, i go through a lot of bikes and i bought this and put an xt build on for general messing about.
Since riding it for 5 weeks in the alps ive ditched all other bikes and xtr’d this and now using it for racing duties. It’s awesome in my opinion.

I’ve got a Soda as a do it all bike. I’ve had a variety of hardyails and FS bikes over the last three years – often two or three at a time, and this is the bike I chose when I wanted to whittle it down to one. I built it up generally tough but light for local trails and swap to a wider high-rise bar, gravity dropper and 2.35 tyres for bigger stuff. It’s about 22.5lbs in the lighter mode and 25lbs burly. It’s comfortable and fun. Not as quick as a FS bike on the big stuff, but holds it’s own. Mine’s the 2009, so same tube profiles as the Lynskey one, but up to 130mm forks – that said, I reckon it’s sweetest at 120. I ditched my adjustable travel forks for 120s. According to Cotic they ride pretty much the same. The only reason the new Soda is only rated to 120 is that to get it to 130 within the CEN regs would have made it too heavy. The XX on mine is a bit OTT TBH, but it didn’t cost me a lot.

xc:
not massively different components, but lots more confidence:

They both share exactly the same geometry, so they’ll both do playful really well. The Soda’s low weight just allows you to do the faster, racier thing better than the Soul should you so wish.