cotic BFe or Boardman FS Pro 650b

Hi all,

want to tap the minds of all the lovely STW members!

I need to run just one bike as I am trying to shrink my fleet!

Therefore that bike has to be a do it all for trail centre riding (S Wales) and stuff round the Mendips/Bristol/Dorset.

So do I build up a Cotic BFe (cant afford a soul as my curent forks are 150mm) or do I sell the lot and go FS and get an affordable full bounce like the Boardman FS Pro (sh!t name) which seems to get good reviews. Im willing to ignore the mixed service from Halfords as all work will be done myslef; so just looking at performance…

If I had one bike I would be very happy with it being a cotic,

A boardman however…..

Cotic.

/end of thread

Umm a bike designed by a cool ex railway engineer with an excellent pedigree in engineering and a great handle on what we want as riders in real world biking , or bike designed by some taiwanese bloke to be as similar to everything else on the market as possible, with the name of on utter **** on it..

^ that’s what I meant ^

I love my BFe, I have a FS which is setup as my Alps holiday bike (my point being that I don’t need it otherwise) The BFe can do everything I’m capable of and more. I am very much of the view that a well built HT beats a cheaper FS.

I also picked the BFe partly on price vs Soul, I don’t think you’d be disappointed with the BFe it’s very capable I’ve ridden mine all day on xc rides without any issues.

Also consider the stanton range too as a couple of mate rave about theirs they got both versions I might add are pleased with both types.
Bats

Umm a bike designed by a cool ex railway engineer with an excellent pedigree in engineering and a great handle on what we want as riders in real world biking , or bike designed by some taiwanese bloke to be as similar to everything else on the market as possible, with the name of on utter **** on it..

How on earth do you know the Taiwanese guy isn’t an ex railway or an actual rocket engineer,one area the Taiwanese spank the absolute arse off the world is machinery, apart from the fact it does indeed have “the name of an utter **** on it” its a bit of flawed logic on your part or at the very least another Cotic fanboi doing what they do best. Making a taiwanese product look glorified as opposed to saying its probably from the same place only marketed different .

Jeepers can you swing that handbag any harder? 😀

150mm is absolutely fine on a soul, I run 150 on mine, with a zero stack headset and no spacers below. works out the same front end height as all these folks that’ll tell ye that the souls best fork size is 130, and then they have a bigger headset and a spacer on top.

Jeepers can you swing that handbag any harder?

I’m sensitive today.

150mm is absolutely fine on a soul,

Except if you bust it you will have invalidated your warranty and the way too long forks rip the steerer tube off is a dead giveaway (apparently).. Or so I was told when I wanted to run 140mm Vans on my old Soul.

That said Cotic are selling off the last few orange Souls cheap (£375) at the moment…

Oh, by the way I have a couple of Cotic frame boxes downstairs, they both say made in Taiwan…

Don’t think there’s much wrong with a Boardman but they’re a bit chalk and cheese comp to a Cotic, no?

One bike? Soul, definitely. They’re just so much more compliant / comfortable on longer rides. BFes are stiff which is great for smashing into berms and generally abusing but a bit harsh on more typical XC rides.

Can you reduce the travel on your 150mm forks? If not I’d still rather a Soul and risk it until you can get different forks – the risk is small and most problems could be fixed / rewelded anyway.

This is coming from a BFe owner BTW – which I love and I’d have a million times over compared with a Boardman. But I also have a FS for longer rides so the BFe is just for mucking around on really.

Metalheart, I know that, but have taken the decision based on the facts I said above. My forks have the same leverage on the frame as a shorter fork with higher stack headset and spacers below the stem.

I have faith that the Soul is beefy (ahem!) enough!.

Stanton Slackline 631 is where its at. all day long*

*for a good thrashabout bike, odd spot of DH, 4x and trail riding. If you’re not doing the DH and its trail centre type of stuff the the soul all day long.

Both of those are superb.

I have faith that the Soul is beefy (ahem!) enough!.

Except, seriously, it’s not. That’s why it’s only spec’d for 140mm. Something to do with leverage at full extension or something.

BITD I witnessed the front end come off a steel KHS FS. Rode a downhill (this was when you could ride a full on downhill track on a hT with 80mm pace forks and 130mm stems!) and was stood waiting on the other guys. (I must’ve got a head start that time) and the guy came tooling down and the bike literally fell apart as the came to a halt. He was left holding the bars/forks front wheel and the rest of the bike was laid on the ground… Bizarre.