So thanks for all the replies, to answer a few responses. The Big Dog & Scandal look alright but don’t really float my boat.
slackboy, nothing wrong with them, just don’t want the hardtail to feel to similar to the fs and most of the riding it’ll do woodsy singletrack. Stanton, a bit spendy and the Switch9er is a bit long, the Sherpa really short.
mboy, Sonder Signal Ti looks lovely and the geometry spot on but is £1250 so nearly double a Cotic, which is top end of budget.
chiefgrooveguru, the medium Solaris does look spot on but Cotic suggested it’d feel short in comparison to both current bikes. The Souls top tube is 631 but I use a 50mm stem. Think I need to demo one but that’s a little tricky at the minute.
Gotama, the Chameleon does look good but again a bit on the spendy side.