Good afternoon chaps and chapesses,
here’s my dilemma for you, since building up a 2nd hand soul frame (06 version) with pikes and a pretty reasonable build kit my five hasn’t left the shed, i have the five built up with the option of rp23 or coil van rc on the rear and some 36 vans up front for trail use and occassional downhill action.
I’m having so much fun on the Soul i’m thinking the likelihood of the five getting used is getting less and less. I’d still like a bike that can take occassional downhill abuse but am addicted to the grin factor and feedback that rattling down on a hardtail is giving me so i’m considering swapping the five frame out for a BFe leaving me with 2 hardtails,one built for abuse and one as purely a trail bike.
I’ve tried convincing myself that keeping the five is the sensible option but the more i ride the soul the more i want the BFe to keep it company!
What i’m really after is the opinions of people who’ve made a similar move and also any BFe owners views on the matter.

Cheers in advance,
Steve

Get a downhill bike, cant see the point in having two very similar hardtails

sold my meta5 bought a 456 (actually sold the meta after as i knew i’d never ride the meta again)

but i’m not sure i’d be buying 2 bikes so similar.

are you racing downhill in the shortest time possible, or just having as much fun as you can before running out of gravity-acceleration? if it is the latter, here is your answer:

“I’ve tried convincing myself that keeping the five is the sensible option but the more i ride the soul the more i want the BFe to keep it company!”

🙂

Its new bike syndrome. If you get rid of the 5 in a couple of months you will want another fs bike for the comfort factor. Keep the 5 and maybe run it with as a 1×9 with an LG1+ to keep it that bit more different to the soul.

After a recent spell with only a HT I couldn’t be without a FS now. I just prefer the way they ride. HTs are fun but FSs are better.

Flog the 5 and get something a bit more meaty that you can use for downhill.

Sell the 5 and Soul and get a BFe to replace both?

No i’m not racing downhill just ride downhill tracks from time to time jumps, drops etc Think i could get away with doing everything i already do on a long forked hardtail but don’t want to subject the soul to prolonged abuse as being the older version its only warrantied for 130mm forks so don’t run the forks at full travel.
Another option would be to sell both my frames and my 36’s and get a new stronger soul and stick with the pikes. Apparently the newer souls are stronger than the old ones.