Pics are a bit crap, but here's my new pride and joy.

Big thanks to the chaps at Samways Cycles who hat to put up with my constant change of spec and sorted out a mistake with the tyres.

Still a few things to sort.. pedals, cutting down steerer.

First rides were a bit humbling after riding a long travel full sus for many years. Anyone else got similar experience who want to share any top tips ??

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Very nice. Well I would say that, it looks like mine Only real tip is to ride it and get more used to it, your legs need to work a bit smarter on a hardtail, since they're your suspension but I don't know of any clever tips for that. i've been riding the big bike a lot lately so I've been putting time in on the soul to get back used to it and it does take a bit to get the smoothness back…

Looks like mine 🙂 Lovely.
Just ride it lots. I'm disappointed I have to ride my full suss tmrw cos the Soul's forks are away for repair, it's so involving you'll love it once you get in tune with it

Better as 100mm or 120mm? Thinking of putting soul at the heart of my inbred but undecided about fork length. Currently on 100mm reba never run out of travel for what I need to get down at the speed I do it. Much of a difference going up hill?

Looks niiice

What size did you go for, I'm thinking about getting one of these at the moment (when they get back in stock) But at 5'10 I always seem to be on the edge of 2 sizes.

I was planning on putting 130's on mine, will that be too much?

Mines the 16", I'm 5'8 and feels good.

It's got Fox Float 140mm. I couldn't make my mind up on the fork length so went for these and currently running them at 120mm with the internal spacers.

I'm still playing with different sag & rebound settings, but it's good to know I can up the travel if needed. I suspect it would be good at 130 but trying to get used to 120 first.

Cheers all for the advice, it's a great new challenge.

120mm is a good length for the Soul. So is 130 and 100 😉 Adjustable forks really compliment it well. 120mm probably is the best option if you can only have one though.

Ride loads 🙂

Its a great bike frame and I'm sure will do anything you ask of it.

there you go

nice bike, welcome to the club, they are very, very good

I bought my Soul at the beginning of the year. Not as fast or carefree as my FS bikes, but still the one I turn to first, particularly if I'm riding on my tod. Having tried Vanillas 140s and F120s, I've settled on TALASs, mainly run at 120. I've got a large frame and am running a 70mm stem. Great bike on all but the biggest rocky descents, when the laws of physics are always going to make a long travel FS bike better, at least for this technically deficient rider.

Now that is one high saddle.

Jesus! That's like the MTBing equivalent of a wimbledon umpire's chair!!

I'm not unduly tall at 6'2" but have got longish pins. Centre of BB to top of saddle is 32.5" on all my bikes but with the Cotic having a smallish frame it does look a bit scary!

Do you inform air traffic control before you head out? 😯

Do you break many seatposts with that much flex?

Broke a Litespeed SP years ago, but had no touble with Thomsons. That's the point of a 410mm seatpost, isn't it?!

I-P – Cy was on here saying that the frame is designed to have no more than 300mm of seat post out the frame and at least 110mm in it. He was adamant that anything more extreme would cause snappage.

might be worth a measure up?

Thanks for that – I'll go measure…..

……320 out, about 90 in…better be careful then!

I'd be VERY worried about my frame with that big a lever working on it. I honestly think you would need a bigger frame. or at least a taller one.

That surely can't be good for your back though? How much higher is the seat in relation to the bars? I think you need a 29er!

ChunkyMTB, I don't think the Mrs would countenance bike No 8! Having said that, the saddle is higher than the handlebars on all my bikes, even the AM Intense 66 – I thought the reverse was an old wive’s tale! Fortunately no back problems, despite 9 hours a week in the saddle. And Cotic don’t make a bigger frame. However, given the advice from wwaswas I’ve lowered the saddle an inch. I’ll see if my knees start hurting!

My alpine looks a bit like that,ie long seat post with low looking bars, but I find it comfortable. I think it is the combination of long legs and presumably matching long arms.

My commuter has a larger frame at 20" (I'm only 5'11"), but it still has a long seatpost.

Just goes to show that hight is no measure of how long your seatpost should be. I'm a couple of inches taller but only have 28cm of post sticking out of my large soda. Maybe I've got freakishly short legs?

Blimey you have long legs there! I'm 6ft 3in and I run my saddle 81.5cm from the BB centre (36.5" inseam), and there's enough seatpost in my frame. Might be worth looking at a deeper rail saddle to get that extra few mm of insertion. The seatpost needs to be 10mm below the bottom of the top tube (which is around 100-110mm depending on the frame size). However, in terms of the length of lever, assuming you've got that minimum insertion you'll not have a problem as the only frame I've ever broke due to seatpost leverage was a 953 sample which was way too thin at the top of the seat tube, but was the thickest tube Reynolds did. Never, ever done a Soul, and one part of the CEN regs covers this with a 50,000 cycle fatigue test.

Onto other stuff – nice bike Deano. Glad Samways saw you right.

The guy looking to replace his Inbred – 100mm works great, particularly for singletrack and more rolling terrain. Don't worry about the forks you have; get a Soul and use them. It'll be good.

Sizing Advice – The guy's who's 5ft 10in? You need a medium. No doubt. Our medium/large crossover happens around the 6ft mark.

I had an older one. Perfect at 120mm, but IMO a bit twitchy at 100mm. Probably because I've grown used to slightly slacker steering these days. Lovely bikes though, & worth considering if your getting bored of FS. (Like me) 🙂

Great bike.

Well chuffed with mine.

I'm 6'3'' or there about and the seatpost in the pic below is just dandy for my riding.

Pic shows tyres that have long gone. Currently set up with 115mm travel and a 100mm stem but will be experimenting with a 130mm fixed travel fork, 80mm stem and layback post.

Am interested now as to how my 2010 Sirius will ride by comparrison.

The bike got it's first proper outing at Cwmcarn yesterday. I was a tad nervous about some of the fast rocky descents and expecting the back to be jumping around like a box of frogs compared to my full sus.

Here's the thing… the backend was properly planted and on the second lap I wasn't breaking any more than I would on the full sus.

These Souls are way WAY more capable on the downs than they should be. I've no idea how it can be so good, who cares ! Top bike, well happy 🙂

Thanks for the feedback Cy. I've got about 40mm below the bottom of the top tube so should be OK. I took your advice and got a LONG seatpost. Great bike, although I still believe it's worth having FS for lumpier rides.

Deano – glad you like it.

I-P – Glad you've got plenty of post in the frame. It'll be fine. Agree on FS; that's why I've got a Hemlock in the garage too 😉