Cotic Soul275.

https://vimeo.com/102520013

Cotic’s Soul was one of the original ‘new breed steel hardtails’ to appear on our trails. It’s instantly recognisable as a British classic and there was no way we were going to run this test without it.

First up, let’s talk about the important bit: the frame. Outwardly it’s similar to the Soul26, with the same tapered headtube, dropper post-compatible 31.6mm seat tube and ovalised top tube. It’s even the ‘right colour’ too (though it also comes in bright blue or gritstone grey if you don’t – for some unknown reason – like orange).

However, without altering the riding position, Cotic has tweaked the geometry here to accommodate what it thinks most riders will prefer to ride on the Soul275. It’s designed around a 120mm fork and inline seatpost, which covers most dropper posts; the Soul26 is still designed around use of a layback post and 100-120mm fork.

The green and yellow badge of truth puts in an appearance, thanks to a Reynolds 853 downtube. S-bend 4130 seatstays are joined by a tidy wishbone, neat cowled dropouts and bridgeless chainstays for maximum mud clearance, big tyres, or a combination of the two.

Cotic sells the Soul as both frame only and a full build with several drivetrain options; this is what our test bike was based on, though it had a few tweaks from the standard spec. Drivetrain is a de rigueur mix of Shimano XT rear mech, shifter and chainset, with 32T Hope thick/thin chainring. The 10-speed 11-36T cassette is bob-on for shorter blasts, but we’d be fitting an über-cog to the existing cassette for bigger rides in hillier places – or even slapping on a double to ease the pain… (heathens!).

More XT kit does braking duties while wheels are Arch EX rims, Pro 2 Evo hubs and Bontrager’s fat XR4 27.5 x 2.35in tyres. Travel comes from X-Fusion’s 120mm Sweep fork, complete with lockout, 15mm thru-axle and tapered steerer. Finishing kit is a mix of Cotic’s own stem with Race Face’s Respond 780mm low riser ‘enormobar!’, and a Reverb seatpost (replacing the stock build’s 400mm Cotic seatpost).

In short, it’s pretty much exactly as we’d build the Soul up for ourselves were it staying (OK, we might trim the bars down just a little bit…). This either shows that the folk behind Cotic know the way to win a test rider over, or that they like to ride (and build) bikes that are fun to ride – just like us…

Trail Notes.

I’ve logged a lot of miles on several of Cotic’s other bikes, including the original Soul and 29in Solaris, so was looking forward to the opportunity to compare the ride quality of all three. I was pleasantly surprised by how similar the Soul275 feels to the ‘old’ Soul; the bigger wheels mean there’s a hint of the Solaris’ extra stability there but otherwise, the ride quality is all Soul.

It’s just as flickable as you’d expect the compact, low-slung frame to be, with loads of room for leaning the bike over and muscling it through rocky sections.

On drops and rough pedally sections, as well as short, squirty climbs, the tucked-in rear end means that control is direct and sharp – it’s the epitome of ‘point and shoot’, if I’m still allowed to use that phrase.

This immediacy is exactly why there will always be room for hardtails in my life; no suspension bike can match it, especially when it’s this good at scything through the multi-linkage, perpetual-pivot marketing bullshit to get to the sheer joy of the trail underneath.

Quibbles? Very few. The fork felt a little unsophisticated in comparison to the rest of the bike’s finesse and I like Bontrager’s XR4 tyres for rougher trails, but for buff, mid-summer singletrack I’d probably choose faster-rolling rubber like the Maxxis Ikon/Ardent combo that Cotic specs on its production builds; these might be more flattering to the bike’s lightness of touch and speed, though this is almost definitely something which won’t trouble a heavier/more aggressive rider.

And buff, mid-summer singletrack is what this bike was made for: complete with the bramble scratches, nettle stings, dog shit and all the other ‘ordinary’ things that actually add up to make something very special and irreplaceable. Everything that’s great and good about ragging round the woods on a sticky August evening is summed up in the Soul’s ride; it’s at its best when it’s carving through those little pools of dust that start to appear on the outside of corners when all the local riders are out, every night, because it doesn’t get much better than this but it might rain tomorrow.

It is virtually impossible to ride the Soul and be unhappy; no matter how crap the working day has been or what you’ve got on your mind when you leave the house, by the time you’re half an hour in you will be smiling – and that’s what a good hardtail is all about.

Overall:

Cotic’s Soul275 is a great addition to the Sheffield brand’s range. The bigger wheels do give it that ‘something extra’ that sets it apart from its smaller-wheeled stablemate; there’s a hint of that earth-smoothing, monster-truck feel you get with a good 29in bike, but the heart of the Soul hasn’t been lost in the jump up the wheel size ladder. It’s still nimble, rapid and above all it is simply pant-wettingly good fun to ride, on all sorts of trails. Cotic’s off-the-peg build is only £600 more than the Genesis, too, and though two grand is not an insignificant amount of money to spend on a bike (especially if you’re looking to your hardtail to fill the ‘second bike’ gap), for a ride of this calibre it’s a total bargain.

• Frame – Cotic Soul 27.5, Reynolds 853/Ovalform/4130 steel
• Fork – X-Fusion Sweep
• Hubs – Hope Pro 2 Evo
• Rims – Stan’s Arch EX 650b
• Tyres – Maxxis Highroller 2 2.3in front, Ikon 2.2in rear.
• Chainset – Shimano XT w/Hope 32t
• Front Mech – None
• Rear Mech – Shimano XT Shadow Plus
• Shifters – Shimano XT 10-spd
• Brakes – Shimano XT
• Stem – Cotic 60mm
• Bars – Race Face Respond 785mm low-rise
• Grips – Velo lock-on
• Seatpost – Cotic 400mm
• Saddle – Cotic
• Size Tested – Medium
• Sizes Available – S, M, L
• Weight – 26.0lb without pedals, as tested.

Review Info