Been thinking about a new bike for a while now to renew my love of cycling. 2 young kids put a stop to that for a while!

Was going to go new full suss but after looking at budget and a few new bits on my old Enduro I've decided new hardtail is the way forward.

I have an Old Mountain Goat which is a singlespeed and the front end could come off that and onto a frame, probably same with quite a lot of the kit so a cost effective option.

Question is … Which to go for Cotic Soul or Kinesis Decade Virsa? I know one is cheaper but are they really that far apart in performance terms? Anyone got experience of both?

Oh and another thing, the old goat is same colour as Soul in orange! I'd attach a pic but can't seem to see how I do! (In defence I'm getting old …)

Ta.

Paul.

I go for the Decade….then i would say that as thats what i ride. it's a fair bit cheaper than the soul and probably not much heavier plus you can go either SS or geared which is a bonus, the colours better as well (green). I managed to pick a frame up for £275.00 from Ebay….

just check it out you know you want one….

Soul if you can afford it. If you buy the Decade aren't you just going to spend your time wondering how much better the Soul would have been?

No i'm not going bite….grrr… 👿

Both on my short list, but they are different sorts of bikes – the Decade would be the sensible choice (for me)as it's to rebuild my commuter and use as an SS quick blast bike in winter, but the Soul is a dang nice bike.
If it were to be my only bike I'd lean toward the Soul on balance.

Decade is my only bike and it goes to Cannock once a month and other trail centres without any worries, commutes every day to work and then gets thrashed around the local skate park at lunch times….loves it.

Just noticed how far those forks are dialled out – does it play nicely like that everywhere, or do you live at the bottom of a steep rocky hill? 🙂 (not trolling btw, genuinely interested – I've only had a few minutes on the Decade, with around 100mm up front).

PS – was that £275 new? <Must … resist ….>

isn't the Decade for about a 100mm fork where the Soul is for a 120-130mm fork?
conincidentally, my name is Paul and I also own an old Enduro and a Cotic Soul – it's your destiny

Have the forks set to 120, and although I took on board Benji's (STW tester) comment about the optimum setting being around 100mm i find the bike really compliant.

The frame was 275 new off an ebay shop…bargain!

Fair enough, I've been running 120-110 on a superlight for years if it gets a bit chunky underfoot, and thats certainly aimed at 80-100. Interesting to know it'll handle that though I'd probably be building it rigid (on 100mm ish equivalent forks).