[Closed] Cotic Soul or Stanton Slackline??

Will the Slackline be a great climber? It's heavy-ish and slack. But perhaps with some DPA forks you could get it to work better?

Oh, and Slackline all the way for me.

I'll most likely be sticking with the 120mm Reba forks as they're light and will save on the expenses plus they're almost as new...

I am thinking that I can almost get a Slackline and Reverb for the price of the Soul, however I am slightly concerned that the Slackline will only climb incrementally better than my Blender in which case there would be no point BUT it might climb a who lot better and of course it gives me the option of the Reverb!!

120mm forks, xc, good at climbing....sounds like exactly what the Soul was designed for....

The Slackline climbs fine and the 120mm will make it a tad steeper.

[url= http://singletrackmag.com/forum/topic/slackline-or-soul ]http://singletrackmag.com/forum/topic/slackline-or-soul[/url]

I've got both and they're both great. The Soul is definitely the more 'XC' of the two.

If you're still planning on riding 4X I'd say either Slackline or the BFe. Otherwise I'd choose the Soul. BFe has same angles as the Soul but built stronger to take more abuse.

You still have your Five for when you want to ride some technical stuff and the Soul will complement that by giving you something a bit more XC friendly. Its not a racers machine so will still be fun to ride and is a truly great all round bike able to do a bit of everything.

If I remember correctly. the Slackline isn't actually much slacker than the Soul, they may even have the same HA

I've ridden both, both good bikes but preferred the slackline. A 120mm fork will make the bb quite low mind.

Soul is 68° with a 140 fork, Slackline is the same

TT length on Large in both is 24", the large Soul has a 19" ST, the Slackline is 18"

71° seat angle on the Soul, 72° on the Slackline.

Wanna buy my 18 inch, blue slackline, with a reverb and Pikes and Answer Carbon bars? I've ridden it 3 times around the flats of South Manchester. Its too short for me 🙁 Mint condition. email in profile.

^ And i've also put on it Geax Goma tyres. The best tyres in the world and fitted to my other mtb. These are currently unridden.

edward2000 I will drop you a mail but pretty sure I would need to go for 16.5 (I'm 5'9").

As for the 4X/BMX/pumptrack type stuff it's very rare I get to ride it I suppose it's a 'nice to have' more than essential.

In an ideal world I'd keep the Five, build a Soul and rebuild the Blender but n+1 causes storage issues.

I guess what I'm really thinking is I'd like a Soul but don't want to lose the Blender, a Slackline would do both but would that be a big compromise for the XC side of things?

If you're still planning on riding 4X I'd say either Slackline or the BFe.

Will the Slackline be a great climber? It's heavy-ish and slack

If you have been slogging round on a 5 with 160's on any hardtail will feel way more efficient.

The 36's are at 140 and it has a CCDB...it easily out climbs the Blender hence the longing for something even better than for the local XC rides over summer to build my fitness.

The slackline is a way better climber than the blender, I loved my old blender but it was just a playbike, was awful at climbing (as expected given the geo). I've had a 2 bfe's, 2 souls and a blender, currently have a ti slackline and its better than the lot. Even climbs perfectly fine with 160mm devilles.

Nice to hear such a good report, how does the steel one compare though!?

I've got a few mates on the steel frames, bit heavier, a bit less bling and a lot cheaper, they all love them.

I wouldn't limit bikes like that to just 4X, they will suit lot's of different types of riding depending on what kit you put on them.

My comment was based purely on frame strength. Not saying the Soul is flimsy, its not. But I'm not sure I'd want to regular 4X on it. I guess thats why Cotic make the BFe.

I've not ridden the Slackline before but from the info I've read and videos etc it seems like its built to take a bit of abuse.

As for the 4X/BMX/pumptrack type stuff it's very rare I get to ride it I suppose it's a 'nice to have' more than essential.

Uh you just made the decision harder 😉 The Soul will probably be fine with the occasional bit of that. So I guess both bikes are still in the running.

errr ... dunno from the sounds of it both bikes sound like they'd work fine for your needs. I think personally the Soul would be my choice as there would be less overlap with the Five.

Have you tried to see if you can get hold of a demo ride?

Not looked for a Demo yet, I'll probably be on the look out for 2nd hand if I can get the frame for £250-£300 (which I've seen them go for).

My thinking is if it's a one HT compromise it'll be Slackline if it's n+1 and I can have the two it'll be a Soul and Blender best of all worlds!?

Ran my slackline with 120s and it was good...but it was begging for some longer forks.

A bit like Steve I now run my ti with 160 but dp version pikes. It really is brilliant downhills front and rear...and pretty nimble up hill in the 130 setting.

If you want something different from the 5 I'd go Soul. I swapped my mk3 Soul for the slackline purely because I wanted a ti frame that was a bit 'do it all'.

@matther01 do you run the Stanton with the DPAs in the 130mm position riding downhill as well? I am thinking about doing it, but was under the impression the lower travel setting was for climbing only?

I had a slackline and loved it, I own soul now and love that too. The geometry is very similar, but I ran my Slackline with 140mm forks, but the soul with 120. Slackline actually climbed pretty well, I would suggest that running a slightly longer stem (not too long, but perhaps 60-70mm rather than 50mm) helps. The only reason Imoved from a slackline was that my version was pre- dropper post compatible.

I went with a Soul over Bfe as I'm quite light and don't really do lots of big jumps. I found the Soul to offer slightly better climbing ability with similar confidence on descent (bearing in mind the shorter forks). Overall I prefer the Soul, mainly due to the lighter weight. Having said this, if my slackline had been able to run a dropper i would happily have kept this. You will not be disappointed either way.

@ curious - I generally do all the flatish bits and uphills running 130 and its fine. I've forgotten a few times going downhill to set at 160 and its been OK...but then when you remember to switch it...it becomes incredibly composed and super plush and I end up berating myself for forgetting to do it on the previous downhills. I got mine from alltricks for about £400.

I don't have any experience with either frames, however the guys at Montanus use the Slcakline for their riding in Italy, they seemed to be able to climb well.

My thinking is if it's a one HT compromise it'll be Slackline if it's n+1 and I can have the two it'll be a Soul and Blender best of all worlds!?

I think the BFe works well as 4x / playbike, I've certainly seen a few BFes used as a 4X bike. It has the same angles as Soul just built a bit tougher. So I think for the occasional 4X session the Soul won't be that much of a compromise.

I don't know if this is useful, but my first bike was a Soul. I got rid eventually because it was too long. Now I have a Five which is perfect. So without teaching granny to suck eggs make sure you're happy with the geometry before you buy!

Wallop what height are you what size soul/five do you ride? Also are you comparing TT length of wheelbase?

I'm 5 foot 8, had a medium soul and have a 17" Five. I guess I'm comparing effective TT but only by feel - tbh I haven't checked the numbers - but the soul felt much longer in terms of reach, even with 50mm stem.

What size Five do you have? I'm guessing I'd you've a 19" or above then it might compare with a medium soul. Having said that, I had a mk 1 soul - might be slightly different again, if Cy has changed the geo!

I could be talking bollocks though.

I run a 17" Five with 50mm stem, I've always run my bikes slightly on the smaller size, the Fives great kinda can't get enough but wanted HT through the winter for local XC using the Five for where the terrain is a little more fun. Been thinking medium but might need to consider a small, however I wanna run a reverb that can be pretty much slammed...might not happen with a small!?

If I go slackiline I'll defiantly go 16.5"...

The medium Soul ETT is 593 and the 17 inch 5 is 600 😆

I only checked cos I used to have a 5 and when speccing my medium Soul which replaced it I remember the Soul being a little shorter !

It doesn't make sense to me!

Going a bit OT, but can a bike with a shorter ETT feel "roomier" than one with a longer ETT? I have a slack head angle (65 degrees) and 160mm travel bike that feels roomier than a 69 degree HA bike with 120mm travel. 1st is an HT other is an FS if that makes any difference?

Top tube length only tells you how long the bike feels when sitting. The important measurement on a bike if you care about descending is reach - horizontal distance from BB to centre of the top of head tube. A few degrees increase of seat tube angle makes reach much longer for a given ETT.