[Closed] Cotic Soul - which forks??

Hi,

So I built one recently. Everywhere you look everyone says 120mm - I put on my old 120mm Fox forks and it rides great.

When it comes to replace forks I'll get 120mm again since seems to work for me.

Regards brand of fork - personally I'll be getting ones I can service thoroughly myself easily. My current Fox ones have definitely not been the simplest to service at home (they are a couple of years old though and things have obviously progressed over time).

Cracking bike to ride....

120 rebas

Yep 120 is the magic number. 140 gets all wandery on the ups...

120 rebas for me too.

Cheers guys, 120mm it is then.

I love shopping for new bike bits.

I'm running 120/140 revs. It's better up @ 120 but it's by no means bad @ 140. They pretty much stay @ 140 unless it's a very steep climb.

I built mine new 2 yrs ago and initially had 120 xfusions. They got replaced under warranty and I sold them, replacing with a 120 Reba solo air, which feels plusher.

Had 3 souls, always found 120-125mm is the sweet spot, had some air pikes (u turn) which allowed the best of both worlds.

Now running Revs spaced down to 130mm.

130mm gets my vote too. It's perfect.

Sorry to hijack! but how is the soul on a 100mm fork?

I love mine on 140 Fox Floats, don't find it wanders at all on the climbs, I don't even bother with lock out. I have got the stem 'slammed' though which might help a bit.

Hi Jekkyl,

For my future reference, why are you suggesting Reba's?

Cheers

I've got 120mm reba rl's on mine.

Always liked reba's, I don't know what it is but they always feel smoother than fox forks.

I got my 2014 soul about 2 months ago. It come with 150 revs on it. As I do like it like that I think I should drop them to 130 as that sounds much better for climbing.

I built mine initially with 140 fox vanillas from my old C456 build. I bought some 120mm Rebas in On-ones sale. Works fine with both, but 120 seems a good balance. The wife also has 120mm Reba on her Soul too.

Rebas are considered the more XC forks whereas revs are considered better for bigger badder trails/jumps etc.

Depends on what type of riding you do/like to do?

Most Soul's builds I done have 120mm forks fitted, as gives a good all round balance.

BUT I ride my soul (past ones as well) at 140mm (more hard hitting set up)as the frame can take it and I like the downs, Also I don't find the front wonders that much on climbs, even more so with good Technic.

I have used, fox forks, X fusion forks DLA, 140/110 & currently Pike at 140.
All fine, so use what you think is best/like.

So my questions are,
What kit you fitting? are you going light build or robust build? (pick a fork to go with the build)
What type of terrain do you normally ride? rocky, drops jumps etc
What type of rider are you? smooth/light or a bit point shot and hang on.
What type of riding you mainly do? XC, trail or more "enduro" (likes down more than up)
what are you good at? climbing or descending (a build to help you weakness might be better)

120mm setup is best of both worlds more XC/fast/light build go 100mm more hard hitting trail bike go 140mm.

hope that helps!

Cheers guys, some food for thought.

Interesting to hear that many people are running forks that are >120mm with no real drama so that opens up a couple more options - I'm now thinking Rev's at 130mm which should give me a decent balance of 'dicking around in the woods' and 'big XC days out'.

In answer to your questions Rob, a few of them are a bit subjective and my idea of being a smooth/light rider may differ from others but I know where you're coming from (as it happens I think I am a reasonably smooth rider but hey, what do I know!)

To give you an idea of the bike its replacing, the old Cannondale has Flows, Lyriks (at 130mm), 745 bars/55mm stem and dropper post. I know I could put the Lyriks on the Soul and wind them down but it's like dragging a ground anchor round with you on some of the climbs.

I started on mine with 140mm Revs, didn't really get on with that so spaced them down to 120 which was better. Recently I had a problem with the Revs so put on some ancient 120 Rebas I had left over from a snapped bike so I could keep riding. For some reason they felt instantly better than the Revs and I haven't even bothered to dismantle the Revs to see whats wrong as I am more than happy with the Rebas.
I presume this is to do with some slight difference in set-up between the forks even though I thought they were set up pretty much the same. I have some 120 single air Rebas on my 29er which are excellent so I might look for some single air for the Soul.

I think it depends on personal taste, setup, and where you ride.

My mk 2 ran on float 32 150s heavily sagged and eventually spaced down at 130/140 and was nice.

I'm now running a 275 on 130 Revs (current) and it's as close to perfect for me as makes no odds.

Shorter is obviously going to steepen the head angle. Too long may over slacken by kicking the front too high. My thought with older forks where it's a simple spacer stack to adjust height is to start longer if unsure then you can shorten off you don't like it without buying new forks.

Loved my original QR rebas, but pushed hard on swoopy stuff they always felt a bit noodly. Then swapped them for 20mm tapered. Wow. Big difference in bermy fast and occasionally rocky stuff. Then mended an old Thor 140 and tried them out, just to see. First impressions are very good, especially with the on the fly travel adjust, it climbs well at 100 but very poised at 140, and very confidence inspiring. Going out for a more committed play on them this afternoon, on some good mixed local stuff.

120 rebas for cycling up to the top
140 vanillas for phat air
That's my tuppence worth