Hey guys,

I’m after a new hard tail frame. Most of my riding is on the SOuth Downs Way encompassing all day rides. I also ride in Afan every other month and also in the alps.

I was looking at the Cotic Soul. The Transition Trans Am also looks Interesting. Weight is something that concerns me. I don’t want anything weighing a ton. I’m 5,11 and 12 stone if it helps…..

Any suggestions would be brilliant 😉

Thanks for any help!

Soul is a good choice (I have a Cotic BFe), you can look at a Price Albert too. Adjustable forks would give you the most flexibility – I have 120-150 on BFe but something like 110/140 would be perfect for you I suspect.

FYI Nirvana in Westcott had a Transition Frame in stock

Drop me an email (in profile) if you want to have a spin on BFe in Surrey Hills or I might take an excursion down to you.

On One Carbon 456 frame weighs about 3.5lb IIRC.

Works perfect with a 140mm fork.

Carbon 456 from on-one is an obvious choice.

a mate of mine is rather enamoured with his Stanton Slackline – afaik it is built to have 140mm forks as it’s default, which is where my mate has his Fox’s set…
other mates have Souls – both of them have travel adjust forks (FWIW one rockshox, one fox) and, as is common with Souls, they love them…. both ride them at 120mm, winding them out to 140’ish for silly drops..
HTH…

Thanks for the added choices guys 🙂 Albert was somethig I have thought about but looked a bit heavy… Not sure about carbon to be honest. It’s a lovely material and no doubts brilliant for frames but I think I want to go back to steel…. The Stanton looks interesting just wonder if it might be a bit slack for all day cross country epics…

I will have a good old read up on them all. I quite like different stuff where possible 😉

Thanks again!

My fork is a fox vanilla 32 rlc so I guess this could rule out the soul. Anyone ride the ragley bagger… Looks cool but I wonder if I might be over biked on the SDW which is 95% of my riding.

Don’t bother with the Ragley if weight is an issue. Probably the heaviest thing mentioned on this thread.

If you are worried about the strength of carbon, the C456 is built like a battleship!!!

iv a 456 carbon which i use as my xc bike as its built quite light, perfect for it and also good at the rougher stuff.

mate rides one built a bit beefier than mine and uses it for xc/all mountain rides, he even uses it on uplift days on the inners DH tracks and he is far from slow on it!

so dont worry about the strenght of them as mentioned above

Chumba HX1 is worth a look too. Cheap and lovely.

Sorry to sound thick…. Looking at the Chumba. What’s a tapered headset. Will my forks fit? Is it just a different type of headset that would be needed?….

If your forks are either tapered or a standard 1 1/8″ then you can use it. Just need the correct headset (I think progressive cycles sometimes include a headset with the frame). I’ve got a standard fork on mine.

Cool 🙂 thanks for the info.

My medium Dialled Prince Albert (853 Classic) is 2243g, 4.17lbs.

What does a Soul weigh?

I’m going to bang the Orange P7 drum again, because I’ve got one and it’s ace. 🙂

P7s are nice, slightly lardy (but you dont really notice tbf)

It was almost a transition about two hours ago. Found a really good deal but resisted. Want to make sure I get it right this time. Love the chameleon but fancy steel for some weird reason.

Go 29er, go for a quarterhorse

Another +1 for the Carbon 456 here. Tough as nuts. Cheap as chips.

Run mine with a 130 fork and great for XC but also can hit some tough stuff and all the same trails and rough stuff as my big rig, just a bit harder on my knees 😀

The carbon won’t be flexy as steel, but then again your choice of wheels and tyre set up will make a far bigger difference than the frame.

Ti 456 is a lovely frame.

went out on my Scandal 29er today – it’s an aluminium frame but well known for being pretty comfortable for a aluminium frame. (1st series that good good reviews). On the rough sections I REALLY missed my carbon 456 which is in bits waiting for a service as I’ve been using it a lot this summer. The C456 back end really does take the sting out of stuff, and is built like a tank. Both with same tyre pressures, Thomson seat posts (27.2 on the scandal, 31.6 on the C456), same saddle etc.