could any of you lot give me the benefit or your experience? untill recently ive been riding full suspension bikes for the last 10 years but have decided there’s something sexy about hardtails.

i had a cove handjob which i loved but it did feel i wanted something a little bit more, especially with shortish (120mm) forks on and i did’nt wana stick 140’s on it, so i bought a prince albert and did’nt get on with it, it flet cumbersome and heavy and the bottom bracket felt too high.

so basicly i’m after something that performs like a handjob i.e. light whippy and fast but can take a longer 140mm fork

Why not go for the Cove Stiffee – 140mm Fork and really hardcore. I took it to Afan and it was really great fun. Classed as a Freeride frame – but I use it as my winter bike – XC, Dirt Track, Epics, it does it all. If you like the Handjob – then the Stiffee would be the logical choice!

Cotic Soul?

BB is quite high on a Stiffee.

BB is quite high on a Stiffee.

And this would be a problem because…..?

BB is quite high on a Stiffee.
And this would be a problem because…..?

Because it was on the Prince Albert? (and the stiffee is about the same)

BB is quite high on a Stiffee.
And this would be a problem because…..?
Because it was on the Prince Albert? (and the stiffee is higher)

Oh – OK. Doesn’t pose a problem for me though but if it is for you then maybe the Stiffee is not the best option….

List as follows cotic Bfe,soul, evil soverign, ragley piglet, one one 456 to name but a few.
Me ive had and evil liked it but very weighty, now on a Bfe love it one frame i would keep above em all. Got friends who have 456’s like em can’t complain at those prices either all depends on what you want to do and how you ride. Only thing i would stick with is steel for me reason for me is just can’t take the beetings alloy give’s but then i’ve not had one since my santa cruz chameleon and that thing beat the crap out of me lol.. looking at what you discribe I recon a Cotic Soul is well worth a look. Good luck buddy.

Carl.

cheers fellas, i forgot to say i wanted to keep to steel as i love the ride of it compared to aluminium

i also hate bikes with a high bottom bracket as you seem to sit ontop of the bike and not in it 🙄

i thought about the cotic but always thought it was very much the same as prince albert

ive had a latest model soul for a couple of months now, i had a blue pig before and a stiffee before that. the soul really is everything you could want in a steel hardtail imho

Same here, two months into a new Soul and it’s a cracking ride. Before this it was all early 90’s retro stuff so my comparison is pretty extreme nevertheless it is frickin amazing, I can’t stay off it, haven’t had so much fun in years.

I don’t know if there’s much variation in how the geometry is specified, but superficially the Prince Albert’s BB height looks to be about 0.5″ higher than the Soul’s. The Soul makes a great trail bike with a long fork, big tyre build.

I had a Chromag Samurai, it was a beautiful ride and made you feel a bit special as quite rare to see one unlike Cotics etc. Not that they are bad just for me not so individual.

Cotic Soul has a lowish BB

i thought about the cotic but always thought it was very much the same as prince albert

Yes its a hardtail, but if you look at the geometry, its completely different.

Chromags also look like they have very low BB heights.