Just built a Ti frame nice and light to use as a child tower/commuter/occasional delamere/towpath kind of bike only to find that the frame was cracked. Need to replace it with something ASAP. Cotic Soul frame only half a pound heavier than the Ti so am tempted but not sure how it’d feel with some rigid carbon forks (100mm corrected) and slick tyres. Should I look at something else or does anyone have theirs set up similarly?

Bump

I did almost that over winter a couple of years ago- rigids and fast mtb tyres (snow!). Was brilliant tbh, comfy over distance and nicely aggro in traffic, away from lights etc. Silly expensive for the job obviously and I didn’t like leaving it in the bike racks.

The Soul is really excellent. I ‘upgraded’ from a Soul to a used Soda on 07. I was in love with it’s light weight and ride but discovered it was pretty wobbly downhill – and had some near misses. When it was stolen, I was too poor to replace it so I went back to the Soul. I was surprised to find that I preferred it. I’ve not ridden the latest fat-tubed Souls though so I can’t comment on those.

I’ve Slapped some 2.0″ Larsens on mine as the roads were crap after the long winter. They are quite fast and still leave you with the option of a quick offload run if it’s not too full on (I have a couple of ‘short cuts’ that run through wooded paths and a farm track so can’t take my road bike. But I’m only 6-6.5 miles each way. Just lock my forks on the road.

2.35″ HR’s are waaaaaaaaaaay too draggy (did I mention they were draggy?). Take it from me….

I run mine with rigid carbon forks and it does seem particularly quick on the road even with 2.25 tyres!

I quite fancy some rigid forks for mine for a winter alternative. Any recommendations ? Current model, tapered head tube.

I used Exotic 29er carbons in mine- slacked it off a bit, very nice. Tough- never felt like they were at all unhappy with being bashed around. Nice bit of give/flex in them. Not especially light though.

On the Soda I’ve gone with a set of Hylixes- shorter for more 100mm-ish geometry, it just seems more appropriate. TBH I’m shy of recommending them, they’re crazily light, all carbon, they don’t really inspire the same confidence. But they do weigh nothing at all, and look nice. They’ve done nothing wrong, so far but still.

I use a Soul for pootles with the boy in his Weeride and also the odd commute which has some offroad(ish) bits. forks are rigid (broken suspension). the geo’s a bit wrong to challenge the fast commuters and my wheels are a bit heavy, but if you like a more gentle ride in to work, it’s good fun.

Did a Wessex 100 [miles] charity ride on a 26″ hardtail fitted with Continental Contac Sport tyres a few years back. It was hard but I reckon those narrow bald tyres helped at lot.

My commuter Soul has 700C wheels with 42mm CX tyres, single speed 41×16 and On One 26er carbon forks. It works for me but I fancy some 700×37 Sport Contacts for some more speed.