Tell me all about Cotic Soul please

Thank you!

Depends what you want it for I guess but I’ve had one for 5 years and love riding it. Great on singletrack, I’ve ridden Peaks and Surrey Hills and it’s fine with both, and trail centres too. If I was riding in the Lakes or somewhere really rocky I’d expect to find a hardtail maybe a little too much like hard work.
It handles well but you need to have control of it IMO, not necessarily a beginners bike. It comes into it’s own when you’re riding fast.
I’d get a test ride and compare it, see what you think but IMO it’s not overhyped.
And Cotic’s service is excellent. They’ll advise you on setup e.g stem length and seatpost etc if you tell them what you’re after…

On my 2nd, love them, seem to be the right balance between pure XC and a little agro if you know what I mean.

Use mine in the lakes and around Rivvy, Penmachno etc and love it. seems the be the right bike most of the time.

Just changed my U-Turn Revs for some Dual air ones set at 140mm, tried them for the first time today, jury is still out ❓ . I reckon the magic number is 125mm – 130mm for the Soul. 140mm don’t half help on rocky descents though 😆

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P1030648[/url] by eastham_david[/url], on Flickr

Agree with vortexracing – also on my 2nd with my mate still riding my first, i just fancied a new cen certified one that was warrantied for 140mm. I also agree that 125-130mm is the sweet spot but 140mm is nice once in a while so a set of u turns suit perfectly, i have a tough build of Pikes, wide bars, short stem, double and bash etc but it could easily be built up for xc duties too, can’t recommend enough.

I’ve been thinking about one of these too for local xc and just getting out in the countryside. Had an eye on a ragley but picked up one of those CRC cane creek headsets for £30 so want something with a 1 1/8th headtube! The Soul seems like a good idea to me right now. 130 RS revelations, light superstar wheelset. Sounds like this could be good.

130 RS revelations, light superstar wheelset.

sounds perfect to me 😆

Building a bike around a headset, brilliant 😀 Thought i was bad putting a decent set of forks to good use that i had lying around by building my original Soul up!

i love my soul 8)

I missed mine at the weekend… I moved it on as I wanted a more focused descender (replaced with an Mmmbop) but at Kirroughtree the Soul absolutely ruled the roost. As an allrounder I’ve never come across anything better. I just found it a wee bit sphincter-tightening sometimes on downhill trails etc but then, that’s not really what it’s for!

They are superb, and massively versatile. Get an adjustable fork, it’s probably at its best at about 120mm but it can put its hand to anything.

Ha ha ha well I’ve got a spare pair of 2007 130mm revs lying in the shed and the soul works best with 125-130 forks apparently, so they’ll do. My other bike will be the big hitter so I want light wheels on this but I’m not worried about best quality so superstar will be fine. and I wanted a hardtail and bought a nice headset so might as well get a frame that has a 1 1/8th headtube i’m not exactly limiting my choice with the headset thing!

They have something alright. Hard to define, but so lively to ride. I swapped the same kit onto an Inbred & enjoyed it as much.

they’re getting a bit common now 😉
but that’s because they’re the best hardtails on the planet!

This is mine, this morning. After being a serial bike swapper the Soul is now in it’s third years service, and it still makes me smile. Mine sees most of time in the Peak and Derwent Valley, but travels around a bit and has a yearly trip to a couple of trail centers. I’m sure other bikes do certain things better, but as it’s my only mtb, I’m after a good all rounder. Probably won’t be for everyone, but at present it’s the one for me.

It’s a very versatile and well sorted frame set. A lot depends on the set up; at one extreme you see people with super light builds, a 100mm fork, 90mm stem, 685mm bars 2” tyres and then at the other end of the aggro spectrum you have 140mm forks, 50mm stem, 750mm bars and 2.35” tyres. Then of course there is everything in between.
The versatility comes from the fact that geometry works with forks anywhere between 100mm and 140mm, with the effect that most people are likely to want more XC Race like handling with a 100mm fork and a more relaxed head angle for more aggressive riding at 140mm.
In either guise (that is, relative to the set up) the handling is very neutral, poised and finely balanced. To illustrate what I mean, the Ragley (when compared to a Soul with a 140mm fork set up) needs a much more aggressive, ‘attacking’ approach, you need to over the front wheel, manhandling the thing to really get the most out of it.
In contrast, the Soul will be more responsive from less rider input; it will turn in quicker and require less weight over the front to do this. The result is that it suits either less experienced riders or riders with a more ‘finesse’ style. The downside to this is that ultimately the Soul can’t quite handle the same extremes of terrain that say the Ragley can. For instance, it won’t be quite as composed on steep, rocky/rooty descents and it’s going to feel a little less confidence inspiring when tipping into turns at high speed (where you’d want to be weighting the front wheel). The BFe, which is identical to the Soul in terms of geometry, gets around this by being more solid in construction and allowing you to run a longer fork, thereby slackening the bike out a bit more.
All of these comments are by way of comparison and not by way of highlighting limitations because really a good rider could likely pilot the Soul just as fast as any other hardtail; they would just be doing things a little different. The steel construction is lovely and you get bags of trail feedback and information coming up through the tyres and tubes (perhaps something that the heavier Ragley Blue Pig can’t offer?) It’s a quintessential steel ride and while it’s not terribly stiff under pedalling compared to the BFe or other heavier built steel frames, it’s more than stiff enough.
It’s not cheap mind but then it is a quality product and well worth the money. Oh and the Orange paint of the latest batch is really nice.

Great feedback, many thanks for taking the time to comment.

Really like mine too. I picked it up as a frame on the Classifieds for a good price but didn’t have the cash to build it well; recently refurb’d some of the more knackered components and it has transformed it (not that it was bad before). Owing to the failure of other bike just before we left, I took it to Morocco and the Atlas mountains a couple of weeks ago and realised just how good it is – it did everything with no fuss an a lot of fun. Ran U-turn Revs between 100m and 130mm – superb.

I love my slightly schizophrenic build, though sometimes it really shows up my limitations, in that on fast trail centre style descents I get scared witless way before I get to the limits of what the bike wants to do.

Having said that, although that steel feel is very evident, it isn’t a replacement for an FS if you frequently do rockier stuff (that might be down to my limitations again though).

Can’t imagine that there is a better hardtail out there (for me!)

PS – OK, mine could be improved. If it was in orange!

Here’s mine:

I’ve had it for years now, during which it’s been through alls sorts of different builds – from fairly lightweight to pretty heavy. Currently it’s built about as heavy as it’s ever been at about 30lbs.

It’s got Coil Pikes on, usually just left at 120mm but occasionally extended for longer descents. With some 2.3″ Eskars on and an odd Deore/LX/SLX/XT drivetrain/brakes mix it was really just thrown together from whatever I had lying around (after donating all it’s previous bits to my Enduro) but works well anyway.

I think it works best with forks around 120-125mm. So far mine has had:
105mm MX Comp’s: Worked pretty well
100mm Floats: Quite fun with fast handling
85-125mm Talas: Suited the bike well and were on it for years
125mm Vanillas: Again suited the bike pretty well
RC31’s: During a brief period as a rigid singlespeed!
145mm Nixons: Only on briefly and too long
140mm Vanillas: Worked fairly well but a bit too long so wandered on climbs
120mm Floats: Worked very well as part of a lightish (25lb) build before being moved to another bike
95-140mm Pikes: Work well although usually just left at 120mm.

I’m still trying to decide how exactly to build it up for the longer term as there is a fair bit of overlap between it and my BFe at the moment (it weighs the same as the Soul due to lighter forks and wheels). Possibly I might go back to the 120mm Floats and an SLX drivetrain.

My advice to anyone would be to get one.
You will like it, and probably end up loving it. It’s 8 -9 years old now and basically hasn’t changed. Just a few tweeks.
I’ve lent mine to mates and its had a big impact, quite interesting to watch:-)

After being a serial bike swapper the Soul is now in it’s third years service, and it still makes me smile.

Me too, except I’ve only had mine for a couple of months, which is quite ridiculous as I’ve been searching for years for a frame that feels like this 😀

Without going all fanbuoy I can’t speak highly enough of the ride quality and how the bike performs. Nearest equivalent I have owned/ridden is a Dekerf and IMO the Soul is better due to how easily it can be tweaked with a change of forks/wheels/tyres to do whatever I want it to do.

SO, just to stoke it up a bit, how does the Soda compare? Just the same but a bit lighter and shinier?

Been forced into riding my full rigid for a few weeks and am now thinking a nice hardtail might be all I need…

If you’re going to run 130 forks, make sure you can wind them in because the front will be hard to keep down and control on steep techy climbs.

Other than that, haven’t got a bad word to say about my Soul.

Soda isn’t warrantied for longer forks, never ridden one, just thought i’d point that out.

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cotic[/url] by ronnie101[/url], on Flickr

My wife’s build, assembled from my spares bin so it’s pretty heavy. Ignoring the fact that I had to buy myself a new wheelset so that she could have mine, it cost her ~£200 (frame, forks, saddle, tyres, front mech and pedals). She loves it.

Soda isn’t warrantied for longer forks, never ridden one, just thought i’d point that out.

I didn’t know that, ta!

If you’re going to run 130 forks, make sure you can wind them in because the front will be hard to keep down and control on steep techy climbs.

I run 140s and a 70mm stem and find it perfectly manageable
I would highly recommend remote lockout though, it’s like having a turbo boost when climbing

it cannot be overstated how ORANGE they are.

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so very very orange.

(unless you get a black one)

Rich

Love mine – agree with folks about the happiness at speed too – it loves to go fast. I normally ride bridelways and rooty singletrack on the south downs and it’s perfect for that with forks at 120 ish, but i dialled up to 140 and dropped my tyre pressure a bit for Afan and the Gap in the Brecons the other week and it was happy with that too.

The better I get – faster, less scared of jumps – the more I like it.

Love mine to bits… was running Recon U-turn 85-130 and the front end’s definately light on tech climbs at 130…

Now running 120mm SIDs and 1×9, goes up, goes down, goes everywhere, love it!

Stop all this talk of Cotic please! I wish I never sold my General Lee, it was perfect, Rockshox revs, hope hoops with silver hubs, silver hope headset and bb, sram x0 mech in tango orange, 1×9 setup, slx brakes and thomson finishing kit…oh and easton carbon bars…26lbs I think it was.

I think I my have to build another..;-)

The soda is shinier and less orange. I’m on my second. My first was rated to 130mm, but after a few experiments I stuck it at 120. The new one is only rated to 120, but I’m happy with that. Riden it in the lakes at 120 with no trouble. Lots of fun and very fast. Whether I would have upgraded from a Soul had I owned one first is another question. I’d certainly recommend it if you are only allowed one mountain bike (as I am) and can spare the cash.

You may have seen another thread of mine asking about a new bike and the Soul has come up as an option.
I currently have a 1997 Orange P7 that I’ve had from new and never ridden any other mountain bike since.
How would a Soul compare with that in rough terms as they’re both steel and from what I can see sort of very similar geometries.

They’re both orange too!

If only small Sodas were available…

Scotty – the soul will be a lot lighter, take longer forks and probably a fair bit livelier.

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Got mine last year having moved over from an inbred, liked the inbred but love the soul. 120mm forks and a reasonable 27lb riding around build.

Having just purchased a Soul after reading so much about them I can happily confirm they are as good if not better than people say.

I have a full-susser but in terms of grins per mile the Soul wins hands down. The ride is very lively but give it a bit of control and jobs a good one. If you go with the Orange one which i did beware……….it’s very orange!!!!

I have it set up with 140’s and it seems fine on both singletrack stuff and more rocky downhill stuff.

comcon23, do you run it fixed at 140mm?

Ive had one for two years now. At first I couldn’t see what people were raving about, but I soon realised that it just did everything absolutely and undramatically perfect. I ride a medium with revs set to 130mm. I found the fork would dive too much when braking down steep stuff, but his was solved by winding the compression damping up a little. Haven’t had any drama keeping the front down on climbs. They seem to have hit all the sweet spots with the soul. This makes it feel absolutely correct. There simply isn’t anything wrong with them, and this is why they seem so popular with their owners.

**Imminent Soul for sale**

I have a frame arriving in the post very soon from the forum, but had a change of heart as I quite like riding the burly stuff. I’ve got a Dialled PA on the way too which will be the keeper as it’s pretty tough.

It’s a newer (wrap around graphics) medium in that orange, VGC. It’ll be on the forum for sale pretty soon if you’re interested?