Shoot them from the side as well as the arty 3/4 shots please 🙂

The Soul page on the Cotic website in Dec 2002:

https://web.archive.org/web/20021218084407/http://www.cotic.co.uk:80/

I like how the words to describe the bike have barely changed:

Hello everyone!

As has been alluded to above, the Soul has always been about progressive handling, especially when it first arrived. It’s just the rest of the world caught up over time. I used a 90mm stem on the first prototype with 680mm bars, and ended up with an 80mm stem and 710mm bars by the time I switched off 26″ wheels, this on a large. Paul rides a small and had a 65mm stem on his even in 2003, and we have never advocated stems longer than 90mm, ever. Moving to a sizing that allows the use of super short stem even for tall chaps like me is why there’s been such a big change. And it needed bigger jumps between the length of the sizes so people had less need to adjust sizing with stem length. We are trying to keep stems for handling, not bike fit.

And the change in the other parts of the layout are all because it needs to work as a system. 35mm stems fell amazing when you have the length in the bike, but also because they make the steering so responsive you need to slacken the head angle to counter this slightly, so the rate of steering response is intuitive. We tried the length and 35mm stem with the previous generation geometry and it just didn’t work. We kept adjusting it until we found what we consider to be the sweet spot.

Seriously, riding it believing on these things, and luckily we have a demo tour for that. Soul will be on demo from a couple of weeks’ time.

Drop me an email any time if you have specific questions.

Cheers

Cy

kelvin – Member
Small and Medium bikes are built ready to shoot

Sideviews of build up bikes in S and M would be really helpful. Please! 🙂

A few more photos now here … http://www.cotic.co.uk/product/soul#gallery

More next week… everyone busy today… have a good weekend peeps.

Love that orange one ! Nice !

I said Friday was Cotic day didn’t I 😉

Phwoar! That (XS?) chromey one’s geet lush as owt.

I think that chrome one is a small, not an XS. The new Souls have properly short seat tubes – as they should for looooong dropper posts.

The orange one must be a medium because the seat tube looks as long as the chainstays.

I’m going to have to test ride some of these. Wondering if a small might work for me as a play bike in the woods…

While the Cotic peeps are looking at this, can anyone tell me if the latest Bfe 26 is a 135mm qr rear?

kelvin – Member

A few more photos now here … http://www.cotic.co.uk/product/soul#gallery

More next week… everyone busy today… have a good weekend peeps.

Many thanks! <3

Dammit and there was me thinking I wanted a new BFe. I think it’s finally time to scratch my Soul itch since seeing them first in What Mountain Bike hardtail frame shootout years ago.

Stunning pictures by the way! 🙂

https://www.flickr.com/photos/coticltd/with/37863997465/

I’ve got a hankering for a hardtail again and that chrome one is screaming at me

Demo needs to be arranged…

Sorry, me again. This is an M frame, I guess. What fork length is it please? 120mmm Pike? thx!

I am a fanboi, Solaris, BFe, RoadRat and Soul. Though I did give my stepson the soul …
Dunno why but that leave me cold … 🙁

The rear stay bridge on the BFe now shouts Emmelle … ab the shiny soul with stick on graphics is a little Tescos at best …

Sorry, me again. This is an M frame, I guess. What fork length is it please? 120mmm Pike? thx!

130mm Pike I expect. It’s one of the custom options. Play with the Soul bike order page and you’ll see all the fork options…

So being a jammy sod and having mates in high places, I managed to steal that orange bike^^^ for a couple of hours this morning.

Due to some technical issues with the forks I ended up with a pair of 140mm X-Fusion Sweeps rather than the Pikes.

Looks surprisingly normal, ey?

I had the medium BFe on demo a couple of weeks back, so the idea was to ride the same trails and see how different it was. Sadly I’m a bit broken at the moment, so I wasn’t able to give it full beans, but there was still stuff to learn.

It climbs very competently – even with the longer than “optimum” forks, I didn’t get to try steep AND technical, but it winched up steep and managed a slimy bouldery muddy climb twice without putting a foot wrong, despite an optimistic rear tyre for the time of year (WTB Trailboss). Despite pretty similar builds the Soul is appreciably lighter too.

Compared to the BFe it was very obvious how much more comfortable it was. There’s not the same sense of invincibility, but neither do you need to walk back up a rocky DH to go find your eyeballs again. As a relative lightweight (65kg), even though I’d love to “need” a BFe, actually the Soul is far more useful as a general purpose bike for me. It’s not as outright whippy as my Soda, nor as snappy handling – no bad thing as I struggle with the transition to riding that after time on my Rocket, but as a general jack-of-all-trades, it scores pretty much spot on

I didn’t get to to push either my or the bike’s limits DH thanks to last weekends little lie down which has left me with a left leg that is a little unreliable, but at a comfortable 75% pace descending, the bike felt entirely natural – the lesson learnt from the BFe experiment about weighting the front had stuck and it was all very much just like “riding a bike”

To the big question – orange or mercury/pink?

I really like the look of the newer Soul.

Here is the interview with Cy about the new Soul:

[video]http://youtu.be/jaU50YRU7NU[/video]

JonEdwards – Member
So being a jammy sod (…)

Ha! It says ‘Advertisement’ above your post which I don’t quite get as it certainly isn’t ‘booked’ as an advert but no matter what: thanks for the insight and the “real world” pictures which – indeed – do not make it look that otherworldly ehich is good in my book. 😉

Normal Man – Member
Here is the interview with Cy about the new Soul:

Love the video incl. the openess about the On One/Brant Richards connection at the very beginning of it all: On could think though that Guy Kesteven is better at writing than interviewing live but hey: still enthusing and very informative! 🙂

Nice video, but Cy got one thing wrong – a mate of mine has/had a Soul in “British racing pink” as he put it, so that frame Cy was handling wasn’t the only one that stayed that colour!

Ha! It says ‘Advertisement’ above your post which I don’t quite get as it certainly isn’t ‘booked’ as an advert but no matter what: thanks for the insight and the “real world” pictures which – indeed – do not make it look that otherworldly ehich is good in my book.

Can’t see the advertisement bit, but Jon is simply being quite careful/honest about it. That is a demo bike, and is going into the demo fleet. He calls himself a ‘jammy sod’ which in reality means that he’s a mate and lives over the hill, so getting first go on the demo bike was easy to arrange 😉 He is planning to hand over actual money for a bike if he decides on having one. Thanks for posting Jon.

Love the video incl. the openess about the On One/Brant Richards connection at the very beginning of it all:

Glad you enjoyed it. There will be some more vids about the new bike soon from both us and Guy Kes. I’ve never been shy about the Brant connection. Wouldn’t be doing this now if it wasn’t for him and Dave helping out.

[advertisement/PSA] All the new Souls are now in the demo fleet, so if you fancy a spin out on a Soul then get involved with the demo tour. Sam’s still out and about [/advertisement/PSA]

Great and interesting video. Really struck home when the interviewer said that the Soul is laugh inducing when rolling down a descent. I have that same reaction. I thought it was just me being over exuberant. 🙂

Will the solarisMAX be getting similar treatment as well as being optimised for 29er wheels rather than chubby 27?

Really struck home when the interviewer said that the Soul is laugh inducing when rolling down a descent.

I can still remember my first Soul ride pointed downwards on a known trail, I was definitely laughing out loud as I went. I was still giggling at the bottom…
Oh, as to colour? Orange, definitely orange. 😀

Will the solarisMAX be getting similar treatment as well as being optimised for 29er wheels rather than chubby 27?

Is that how the current one feels?

I have the mk2 and it’s not perfect in either configuration (2.8in chubby), I’d put the BB height in the middle of the two if it was possible.

Love the video incl. the openess about the On One/Brant Richards connection…….

😥 I was very seriously considering buying one the new Soul full bikes as I want to change from 26″ soon and I always had a hankering for a Cotic. But that has put me right off. I made a promise to myself never again to buy any product with a connection to Brant after being sold poorly designed and tested crap from him multiple times. I saw the light eventually after being disappointed too often.

So sorry Cy but I’m going to go elsewhere, and I probably won’t be the only one that’ll be put off by that.

EDIT I can’t watch the video, what is the actual connection? Please set my mind at rest.

What does the video say about the connection? I can’t watch it as am at work

@newrobdob , feel exactly the same way as you about that numpty, however, Cy and his crew are a totally different bunch.

Way more professional and actually know what they are doing.

I have two of Cy’s products and will be buying a third as soon as it becomes available

Both bikes are fantastic and have not even the faintest whiff of Brant Richards about them.

If it turns out he is making money off me buying a Cotic my opinion may change.

I was very seriously considering buying one the new Soul full bikes as I want to change from 26″ soon and I always had a hankering for a Cotic. But that has put me right off. I made a promise to myself never again to buy any product with a connection to Brant after being sold poorly designed and tested crap from him multiple times. I saw the light eventually after being disappointed too often.

So sorry Cy but I’m going to go elsewhere, and I probably won’t be the only one that’ll be put off by that.

Erm, I think he got some advice and support from Brant in the early days of Cotic, around 15 years ago.

I almost admire you for sticking to such a zero tolerance stance though!

It says Brant helped Cy out with getting 100 intial frames made up in Taiwan as he had the connections already established. He had no hand in the design so I think Newrob’s being a bit silly and depriving himself of a fantastic new bike.

For the very first batch of Souls, nearly 15 years ago, Brant&Dave arranged the factory production of Cy’s frames. Watch the vid to find out how that resulted in the frames arriving in pink (apart from a few super keen riders, people received their frames from that first batch powder coated in the UK, which was always the plan for the orange coloured frames anyway).

Erm, I think he got some advice and support from Brant in the early days of Cotic, around 15 years ago.

I almost admire you for sticking to such a zero tolerance stance though!

That might be ok if its just that, lets just say my experience of Brant products and his attitude towards such problems has scarred me for life, I read “there is a connection” and I immediately felt very very deflated.

@newrobdob , feel exactly the same way as you about that numpty, howver, Cy and hi screw are a totally different bunch.
..snip..
If it turns out he is making money off me buying a Cotic my opinion may change.

I knew I wasn’t alone!

I rode a first batch pink Soul for a while… it got powdercoated Olive… it now lives with a friend in Sweden, and is still being ridden… hard.

Brant deserves praise for helping someone else get started.

I think Newrob’s being a bit silly and depriving himself of a fantastic new bike.

When purchasing even an On-One frame involves a few months of saving up you choose carefully. When you do that then you are saddled with a faulty piece of crap (which the designer knew and admitted was crap and was pumping them out without fixing known issues) which I had to sell on at a loss it tends to make you very very sensitive about it in the future.

Cy’s a proper engineer with a proper industrial engineering career behind him.

The Brant connection basically just caused Cy to take out a big loan and get a whole container of bikes produced fifteen years ago, and not just the one custom frame he’d designed for himself.

I can understand an OO boycott as I’ve felt that way myself at times, but this isn’t an OO/PX bike at all, by any stretch.

The Brant connection basically just caused Cy to take out a big loan and get a whole container of bikes produced fifteen years ago, and not just the one custom frame he’d designed for himself.

Which all turned up the wrong colour due to poor QC.