Give the Dialled PA a serious look. I went from an Inbred to one of the the new CEN standard PAs and find it a great balance of zing and strength. Really suits most uk riding apart from the extremes of XC/DH to the point I’ve hardly ridden my Prophet MX this year.
Seems a bit of a nicer/more involving ride than a 456 perhaps and not far off a Soul for general trail riding at considerably less outlay. It’s a bit heavier than a Soul – more like the BFe I suspect.
As others have said though the BFe is going to be hard to beat especially if you are on the larger side. I’ve ridden several Souls, and a P7 (though not a BFe unfortunately) but have been more than happy and without regret since getting the bargain PA.
Biggest differnce I find between these Steel bikes and a few alloy hardtails I’ve had is they aren’t quite as tiring over a long day or days in the saddle than comparable ali frames. I had lots of the same or similar parts on a Mountaincycle Rumble and a Cove Stiffee. The all up weights are not much different so I’m pretty convinced there’s a bit more give but it’s really hard to quantify. You won’t notice it much on short two to three hour blats.
A friend who had an early PA used to find it pretty harsh but I really can’t say that of the latest version at all.
Oh, and I’m running 130mm QR Vanillas on it but it’s begging for something like Pikes to up the game on descending capability.