[Closed] Evil Sovereign - what's it like?

Rode one two weeks ago that belongs to a mate at work,i was so impressed i went out and bought a frame last week and have just finished building it up.i have to admit it is a very expensive frame and not very light(but neither am i!)but the ride is amazing,i have been riding a fs for the last couple of years and this bike has reminded me whet fun hardtails are,and i can ride anything on my evil that i did on my prophet.i built it up with 150mm rev race forks and its not a problem at all on climbs and fantastic fun coming back down.ive owned coves,kleins,marins,dales,konas,on-one and a mix of hardtail and fs and this is the most fun bike ive ever ridden,and worth every penny.Rob

frogfarmer has it right - the bike is simply awesome. It's difficult to pin it down to anything specific, but this is the most flickable, slidable, manual-able, jumpable, hooligan bike I've ridden, and can still be ridden for XC rides. I have mine with Pikes that are always set at 140mm and never feel the need to wind down.
The only downside (apart from price) is the weight. I'm looking at how to get one built in Ti with the guys from Kingdom.

I've had once since april and have only rode my Cotic soul once since i finished building the sov up,

many will say that it's not the best bike you can buy as it's quite heavy and the frame is pricey etc, but I don't know what it is about it, somethings different in a big way, because despite the fact it feels twice as light as my soul i can't stop riding the bloody thing, makes you smile and just motors down hills and never feels like you are going to bin it, was very supprised the first time i got it airborne it feels so right and i have a 36 van up front which should make it a bit unweildy !!

climbs fine too?

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just buy one, if you don't like it sell it, someone will bite your hand off for it,

great bike, best hardtail i ever owned. i ran mine with 160mm forks and a 34t front ring and it climbed around the peaks fine so 140mm and proper gears would no doubt be even better. i think its a bike that you hammer ot get the best out of it, not so suited to the gentle touch imo

Had mine for several months now. Its really heavy - so I do like riding a light bike once in a while esp at events. That said it has been the bike that I've chosen to ride all summer. Very dependable for epic days out or trail riding. Geometry feels spot on for me. Climbs well. It replaced an Orange Five - never missed the Orange for a second.

Should have said ride it with float 140s; no adjust and just fine.

Pike 140s here. Seems the perfect number, having run mine at 100, 140 and 160.

You should get one. Seriously. It'll make you better at everything. It's the best bike I've ever ridden (I must have ridden over a hundred by now) by some margin- it gets me excited about bikes every time I use it.

Similar scenario to frogfarmer- I had one, lent it to a mate for a few rides. He now owns one.

So the answer seems to be a resounding 'buy one!'

Good stuff, will get saving 🙂

Got one a few months ago, running with 150 Revs. Like it a lot. It is heavy compared to other steel frames, but thats not an issue for me. It climbs exceptionally well for a LT hardtail, drop the forks to 120-130 and its very responsive all round. Should be a keeper!

[url= http://www.imbikemag.com/issue5/?page=97 ]BTW there's a review here in IMB[/url]

I had one of the original ones for a year, did plenty of miles on it, lots of munros etc and to be honest it was ok nothing more....not that great when things got technical...so ended up selling it. Thought I would build another hardtail again this winter and bought a Cotic bfe....which I prefer as it's far superior all round and a DH it's amazing.

Optical is right about it getting out of it's depth on steep stuff, and I'm not surprised something like a BFe is better for that, but elsewhere the Sov rules!

I think that the original had a steeper head angle than the present model.
Mine (new model) is quite slack and fine down steep stuff.

I love pretty much everything about my Sovereign - as others have said, it is an incredible bike - massively capable and really versatile. I have used mine for 10 hour XC races as well as the Megavalanche without changing anything but tyres. The only problem I have with mine is that on *really* steep *really* tech stuff it can get a bit swamped - riding Nan Bield the other day I was really aware of the steep head angle. Having said that, that is the one and only time I have felt like I needed more bike, but then I was swapping between my Evil and an Orange Alpine 160, so the comparison may be a bit unfair.
Otherwise, get one.