So I have recently built up a cotic soul after about 7 years on a sc chameleon and after 5 rides of varying distance/ type am struggling to adapt to it.
The problem is that I feel so front wheel heavy and hitting any sort of bumps on a steepish descent feels like I’m going to be pitched over the bars and the rear wheel feels very light. This also has a knock on effect that it takes it out of my wrists and hands seeing as I’m pitched forward and its very hard to get my weight over the back and try and absorb the terrain with my legs. Altogether making for a pretty nervous ride!

I’m 5ft9 (short arse) on a small frame with 120mm forks, a 50mm zero rise stem with 20mm spacers underneath and a low rise Easton ea70 bar.

Could any of these help:

1) man the f up, keep riding it and I’ll just get used to it
2) more air pressure in the fork to try and stop the fork from using as much of it’s travel and pitching my weight forward even more
3) raise my bars (my steerer tube is not long enough for more spaces but I could install a stem with a rise)
4) buy a bar with a larger rise

Lay back seat post ans move the seat back as well as shorter stem with more rise?

‘m 5ft9 (short arse) on a small frame with 120mm forks, a 50mm zero rise stem with 20mm spacers underneath and a low rise Easton ea70 bar.

Since when did 5’9 become short arse?
Try a different stem? Slight rise, and a bit more reach – anything in the spares box?

I’ve just bought a cove hummer frame and felt exactly the same , one ride and my wrists were aching. To help combat it I fitted a high riser bar which has made a world of difference . I’m now weighted to the rear more and popping the front over things is much easier! If I find very steep climbs too difficult I might have to admit its not the right frame for me.

http://www.cotic.co.uk/product/soul
This suggests to me that a medium may be a better fit and that a 50mm stem on a small would be for a 5ft 5in short arse.
Try a longer/riser stem and/or bigger forks
* I have no real world experience of the bike btw*

Since when did 5’9 become short arse?

Just after 5’10” did!

Cheers,
Jamie (5’10 1/4″ 😆 )

Since when did 5’9 become short arse?

5’9 isn’t a short arse but unfortunately I made a typo and I’m actually 5’7!

Looks like a stem and bar swap from my chameleon might be in order to try and work out if its that. cheers guys

if you have it in the box play with it

Did you run the same forks on the Chameleon? Is the head angle different to the chameleon with the frame/fork combo? If your head angle is steeper than before, it may make you feel like the front wants to tuck under.

I had an under damped coil fork on my bike, which would compress too easily when going down, throwing your weight forward and causing OTB’s or near OTB moments on a regular basis. Might be worth pumping up your forks a bit?

Get yer heels down! and maybe look at the positioning of brake levers too to make sure you’re not stretching for them. How slack is it compared to you’re old bike? could take some getting used to.

And at 5’9, don’t write off too smaller frame size either. I’m 5’10 1/2 (yes the half makes all the difference to us that are under 6′) And I ride a medium, and even then I’ve contemplated large frames.

It’s difficult to say too much about the comparison between the Cham and the Soul as they can both be setup within quite a range of fork travel etc. I’ve run a Chameleon with 160mm forks and with 100mm forks – both were good but very different! Cy says you can run the Soul with anything between 100mm and 140mm, but it’s going to handle differently through that range.

But all bikes ride differently and it can take a while to learn their little quirks. What feels “wrong” at the start can become the thing you love about them in the end. I’ve found that adapting to the different front-rear balance of different bikes is the critical thing, and it’s best experimented with in cornering rather than going down (in the first instance anyway). Shifting back and forth in corners give you a more senstive feel as to where your “balanced” centre mark is.

In terms of setup, the tendence to “ride the fork” on hard tails means I’d be looking at that to start with. As cbmotorsport says, if the damping is too light it’s easy to plough through your travel too quickly and steepen everything up more than you want without realising it. Stiffer spring and/or more compression damping can help.