I run 110-130 Revelations. The sweet spot seems to be about 120mm.

My son's running some 130mm RC41's on his - they feel nice 🙂

I'd probably go for 120mm Marz 44 Micro Ti's if I built one up - lovely fork.

Reba 120's here, perfect.

I've got u-turn Revs on mine set at about 120mm. Really want to swap them for some Fox F120s but need to do some serious saving before then!!

Mine had u-turn Revs, 100-130mm (though, with a new Soul I'd go 110-140mm). The Soul really works well with the variable length fork, just complements it perfectly... Revelations seem like a match made in heaven to me.

vanillas 125 😀

Thanks chaps plenty food for thought

Something around 80-100mm. Anything more then it becomes a bit of a barge on anything other than big, fast descents.

I would disagree with that. I run Revelations dropped to 120mm and they seem excellent. Great for hacking through the woods on tight singletrack.

Pikes

I've gone from uturn coil pikes (descended like a steamroller) to some 2010 120mm reba black box (excellent - but being fixed travel I think limited the Souls ability) and now running some Talas 140 RLC FIT.

I agree that the soul needs adjustable travel, feels pretty dead to ride everywhere at 140mm but great when on really steep stuff... 120mm is the sweetspot.

120mm Reba's with Black Box damping and a 20mm axle.

It's the law! 😉

Fox F120's on mine 🙂

got some Revelation RL ti's on mine set at 130mm fixed

Rebas or Revs... hmm... any benefit to the Rebas? They weigh about the same, cost about the same, and you can spacer the Revs down to 120. I'm tempted to go Revs for mine when I finally get around to ordering it.

Edit: I guess you can reduce the Reba's to 100 or 80 but don't think I'd want to go that low.

I'm a bit torn myself, I think Reba Teams go 90mm-120mm, Revs go 120mm-150mm, my feeling is I want the lower end of the travel more than the higher end.

Don't really care for adjustable travel much, find I never actually use it when riding (the only time I've used it on my lyriks is to get the bike to fit into a bike bag!) I'm tempted to go with the dual air Revs (not dual position) and run them at 120 or 130 by adding the spacers.

In my head, being able to wind the travel down on my forks helps going up steep bits.

I have had Pikes and Reba 120mm. I had exactly the same dilema as you thats why I went for Revs and spaced them down, same weight, same cost and same BB damping.

The other option would be 120mm/15mm SIDs I think they are slightly lighter.

Probably does but I've never bothered. Tend to just shift weight forward and get low over the front. If it's that steep that I can't get up it without lowering the forks 30mm then my legs would probably have already given up!

mrblobby - Member

Don't really care for adjustable travel much, find I never actually use it when riding

See, you might find different with the Soul. Most frames, when you shorten the fork it's just to put it into "climbing mode" but the Soul (and some others) has a very different character with a short fork than a long one, and it works really well in either. So it's more like unlocking a different side of the bike.

Here are older threads on the same topic:

http://www.singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/forks-for-a-soul
http://www.singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/cotic-soul-fork-advice
http://www.singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/cotic-soul-build-what-forks-etc

The general consensus seems to be 120mm is the sweet spot (except for the frame designer himself who likes 100mm).

If you're looking at the current range of RockShox your choice seems to be the Reba which tops out at 120mm but can be wound down, or Revelation which starts at 120mm and can be wound up.

There must be many other options, I'm no expert on the fork market, but these are the names that keep coming up again and again.

Something around 80-100mm. Anything more then it becomes a bit of a barge on anything other than big, fast descents.

Nonsense. It rides ok at 80-100mm but, as others have said, 120mm is the best option for a fixed length fork. Mine has Coil Pikes currently but will probably be going back to a lighter build with 120mm Floats.

My frame is pretty old, but if I had a new one, and I was looking for a fork, I'd go for the Revelation at 120mm - I'd rather go up than down, especially as the new frames are tested to 140mm (IIRC).

By way of experiment, mine is about to be fitted with a pair of rigid (85 mm corrected) Salsa Cromoto forks.... I will report back.

@wallop yes 140mm

Fox "32 TALAS   140 FIT RLC" do 110mm - 140mm it seems. I don't see much mention of Fox on the older threads, dno why.

TALAS isn't such a good match as u-turn IMO, it's really a long fork with a kneecapped short setting, rather than a fork that works properly at all different lengths. IMO of course 😉 TALAS is better if you want quick adjustment for climbing etc but if you actually want to use the fork at reduced lengths uturn is better

It's absolutely glorious with a fairly stiff 140mm fork, short stem, straight seatpost (dropper ideally!) and saddle forward, as long as you ride it with sufficient grrr. But I find going uphill boring and love corners, drops, jumps and gnarly-ish descents. For long days, big distance and general XC you don't need to cart more than 100mm around with you though.

Another vote for U-turn or similar - I have 110-140mm Revs and they keep the handling sharp in forest singletrack but still allow me to indulge my hooligan tendancies (i.e. get me out of trouble when I bite off more than I can chew) when it gets steep and rocky. If I was buying now I'd probably go for Rebas as I think the newer Revs are a bit too long (120-150 IIRC?). I'd stick with a Maxle version if possible though, the difference in stiffness is genuinely noticeable.

140 pikes on mine, set to 140, run a bit soft, stem as low as I can go, low rise haven bars, absolutely loving it.

Magura 130mm light & stiff with German quality.

+1 for the 110-140 Revs. Maxle is good for the tech stuff
110 for climbing
120 for singletrack and most kind of riding.
140 is ace for the steep and rocky stuff however

If you go for non-adjustable, something with 120mm and a maxle would be my recommendation
Enjoy yr Soul - it really is as good as people say 🙂