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Can anyone advise? I've got my Cotic Soul and my Vanilla forks which I run soft with quite a bit of sag. I'm 10.5 stone and ride in the South Downs primarily. Fork is complete overkill for what I do but hey ho.
Trouble is I'm skint. Will running this fork kill the Soul?... Or will I get away with it? Baby on the way so could do without splashing the cash on a new pair of forks 🙂
Well it's beyond what they warrant the frame for.....BUT....
Bearing in mind your weight and the inherent excellentness of the frame it'll probably be OK. Depends what you do with it though.
AGAIN BUT.....
You might find the bike slack at 140mm. Think it should be possible for the forks to be spaced down to 120mm which will be kinder on your frame and probably give you nicer steering.
I reckon it sounds fine. Should be a good match for the frame.
I've run an old set of 32mm fox vanilla R's (from when they were 125mm) on a kona explosif for ages and it worked out great.
And as far as I've heard, the soul was originally designed as a "kona explosif" style bike but with added long fork ability. So it sounds ideal.
You might want to alter the travel a bit though. My vanillas were able to be adjusted from the 125mm they were bought as , down to 100mm using an internal spacer thingy. Hopefully you can knock about 20mm off the travel of yours too, I reckon it would suit a little better.
Running 140mm talas on mine - don't run them at 140mm all the time - just on the rough stuff! You're 2 stone lighter than me. I reckon you'll live.
On the geometry front, I love how mine handles at 100mm, but my mate's almost as quick as me through the twisty bits on his Bfe running 160mm Van R's so I guess you get used to it!
A 140mm Fox can not be adjusted. Fox fitted a full length spring and left no space for the spacers, unlike the earlier 125mm. I've heard that fitting shorter springs from a 125 or 130mm fork with the spacers that you need will be bring the travel down.
I used mine briefly with 140mm Revelations. TBH I didn't like it that much, felt it was too compromised as an allrounder. Is it possible to space Vans down? 120mm-ish was the best single length I felt.
im running some old vanillas on a Bfe not sure they'd be good on a soul
Cheers everyone. I might give them a go and see what they are like. I'm pretty light on bikes having never busted a wheel or anything. I'm more about the scenery these days 🙂 my excuse for being massively slow but like to go out for all day many mile sessions.
Original idea behind the vanillas were them being a coil and minimum maintenance over air. The Chameleon they are fitted to at the moment is a big harsh on the old body over a longer distance and I found a full sus irritated me when I'm knackered going up him suffering and looking down at the rear shock watching it bob about all over the place. The Soul looks ideal.
Guess if I break it I will have to go back to the Chameleon...
Appreciate the opinions. Reckon on the face of it its worth a go...
I run 140vanillaRs on my 'espresso' soul.
I got them for exactly the same reasons that you describe and we love going downwards together.
Up is not so great. I'm 12 stone and not particularly fit and I wonder if 120mm would make things easier.
I bring the saddle right up and perch on the front of it to prevent wheelies.
Warranty 4 years later isn't an issue any more.
Tried some U-turn coil Pikes on an old Mk1 I had.
140 wasn't nice, 120 was about as perfect a ride I've ever had on a 26" wheel HT.
Pikes were too stiff though, the frame felt really flexy to me.
puts a lot of strain on the downtube that it wasn't designed for. It can go p'tchang!
been running 140 talas on mine for about 4 years though I do have a tad more sag than usual... I think going by fork travel is possibly not the best measure for a frames "ability"....
some axle to crown measures
Van 140: 510.9mm
06-08 Revelation 130: 508mm
Recon AM 130: 509mm
It's not ideal, but Vanillas are on the shorter side of things. I would agree with what others have said above, if you can get one of the older shorter springs to drop them to 120mm you'll have the best all round solution IMO.
Thanks guys, I spoke to Paul at Cotic about it as well and have decided to go for a new pair of forks which I will pick up tonight.
Got to say. How helpful Paul was. Absolute credit to Cotic!!! What a company! Really appreciate all the help here too!
Does anyone want to buy a mint pair of vanilla 140Rs?