Hi,
I”m building up a Cotic Soul frame using my Boardman Team as a donor. I’m looking for recommendations to replace the boardman finishing kit and other accessories

So anyone got any suggestions for:

Stem
Bars
Seat post (not interested in a dropper)
Tyres to replace the Continental Mountain King.

My riding will be mostly cross country with a bit of trail centre stuff. I don’t do air and am getting too old for chucking myself down really steep things.

Any advice on potential pitfalls also appreciated

Thanks.

Good choice on the Soul. Mine is 4 years old now but still first bike out the shed!

I’m running 120 forks with 70mm Hope Stem (0 rise), 711mm Easton Haven bars and hope eternity post. Tyres….Nic up front (2.35) RR rear both 2.2.

I ride mainly Chilterns XC, natural stuff in Scotland & Wales and the occasional trip to Swinley. It’s never let me down.

I’d recommend either Easton, Raceface, Hope, FSA, Ritchey, Syntace, PRO, Bontrager or Renthal.

And for tyres go for Schwalbe, Maxxis or Continental.

On my Soul I’m running Easton Havoc bars cut to 740mm on a 55mm Ragley stem, I run a dropper but have previously used Easton & Nukeproof seatposts and been impressed with the quality. Tyres are a 2.35 folding Minion on the front and a 2.25 Racing Ralph evo pacestar snakeskin on the back. I realise this setup may not suit some but it’s perfect for me (have run narrower bard & longer stems but found the above works best).

120mm forks (X-Fusion seem to be best bang for the buck ATM, never had a pair myself like).
Stem and bars – Easton. Bars MUST be a minimum of 711mm. 750mm is obviously better though…
Merlin periodically do these on sale (which is where I picked up mine)
Seat pin – I run Thomsons mostly but they can be a bit small and end up sliding. I also have an Easton on one somewhere but they are a bit short. 400mm long is best ime. Eternity post ^^^ might be nice.
Tyres, I run Ardents or High Rollers, the HRs are pretty draggy though.
I like Hope headsets, picknMix if it’s a new (tapered) frame.
Can’t think of any pitfalls really. Except if you are going to helitape do it before you start spannering and I managed to ping an Allen key of the top tube on a Solaris build… Oops! 😳
I also like flats and Fizik saddles.

Truvativ carbon bars ,about 700mm, 65mm on-one cnc stem. On one had deals on both of them last year. FSA Headset.

120 rebas.

Nukeproof post, Specialized Captain 2.2 on front, RR on back.

I run mine with:
Thompson 70mm 0° stem
Thompson layback seatpost
Renthal Fatbar lite 20mm bar
2.25 Nobby Nics tubeless setup

Rides like beauty!

Look at Carbon Cycles for the finishing kit. Absolute bargain components, made to a good standard and usually come in at very good weights.

Or have a search through CRC’s sales sections. In the past I’ve picked up really good branded components for over 50% making them actually good value for once.

I wouldn’t be in a hurry to replace bars and stem unless you are unhappy with their dimensions. They’ll be pretty much invisible to you when riding. Maybe build it up with what you’ve got and see what you make of your riding position first.

I run 2.1 Nevegals front and rear on mine but am looking for a faster rear tyre.

Cheers Guys. lots to think about there

Ran mine with 740mm mt zoom carbon bars, syntace megaforce2 50mm stem, dropper (but had a pro koryak 400mm previously), RQs, dampfs or purgs. Go 1×10 too if you can.

If you’re looking for new forks I still have the fox float 120mm FIT RLC in immaculate condition 😉

Haven’t got the legs for 1 x 10 setup .

I’m going to stick with the Recon’s from the Boardman for now – If i start replacing forks as well as frame there won’t be much of the boardman left to swap over!

720 answer pro taper carbon bars on mine with a 60 mm Superstar stem, Reverb now, but liked the Thomson I had on it before. Spoon saddle.

I swapped everything over from my Boardman (although I’d already changed the tyres to much fatter/better ones and the stem to a shorter one) – apart from the seatpost which I changed for a Gravity Dropper. I realise it’s the one thing you said you didn’t want but I honestly believe it’s the best place to spend any money and not only slightly better than the other options, a whole world better!

I realise you didn’t ask for full builds and stated you were using mostly what you had but here’s my parts bin special.

I didn’t think I had the legs for 1×10 – how wrong I was! 🙂 This build is largely ‘what I had from other bikes and wasn’t using’ The bars in particular were a shocker as I hated them on my Zesty and love them on this. I know you’re saying ‘no droppers!’ but seriously you should reconsider. A dropper is the main component missing from mine. I can only recommend trying a decent one and being honest with yourself afterwards. Their main contribution is the ability to always have your saddle height ‘right’ without stopping all the time to faff with QR. They probably aren’t worth the money in real terms but compared to a lot of the bike rubbish we fork out for… I can’t think of anyone I know that hasn’t found they use it more than they thought. I’m mulling a Lev or Thompson as I’m limited by 27.2 and dislike the XF remote.

My mk2 Soul:

760mm Nukeproof bars
70mm RF Ride stem
RF Ride seatpost /SDG Bel Air (currently sharing these with my X)
RF Evolve (old self extracting) crank and BB.
34t Hope IBR
SS Nano thru’s
Zee FR RD with short XTR cage (clutch’n’carbon frankenmech)
XT shifter
Elixir R’s and 180/160
Ancient (2009?) Float 32 150s (QR) currently spacered down to 130mm.
Dodgy old Crossmaxes with Dampf Trailstar front and Nic 2.25 snakeskin evo PS rear, both tubeless
XT 11-36 cassette

It’s a fun bike that begs to be ridden and popped off things when JRA’ing. It goes up and down very well and is the total opposite of my also much loved Chameleon.

We’re getting married if my X doesn’t get there first.

Any recommendations with respect to headset for a MK3 Soul (tapered headtube) have a tapered fork and am tempted to go for Hope headset but would rather spend less if possible. Looked at Nukeproof and FSA, any suggestions?

Cferg

How about a Cane Creek Forty from Uk bike store or Bike24

Clergy

How about a Cane Creek Forty.

I’ve had a couple versions of FSA Orbit which were all fine, bearing lasted at least a year and a bit and cheap and easy to change once worn.

Currently using a Cane Creek 40, had it for about a year and so far so good, no issues ye …