You don't need to be an 'investor' to invest in Singletrack: 6 days left: 95% of target - Find out more
During a recent garage sort out (somehow I managed to find the time). I came across lots of parts from my old 26" Gen 2 Cotic Soul which is these days looking sad, stripped to the bare minimum of parts and relegated to the turbo trainer.
I decided to build it up pretty much as it was when it was last built up as a mountian bike about 4 years ago with: gravity dropper seatpost, 120mm Reba with 15mm bolt-through axle fork, Hope pro-2 on Stans Crest rim wheels, 2.3" tyres, XT disc brakes and a mish-mash of Shimano 1x10 speed transmission.
The only real change to the old build was to add a set of 800mm WIDE! Stooge bars.
I really enjoyed building it up and it brought back lots of memories of rides of - when it was my only mountain bike - with pals (one who now lives in Australia) around Glentress, bivvy rides up the Pentlands, in the Tweed valley and up around Perthshire. Various other epic (to me anyway) rides around Scotland and many, many rides around my local trails.
After lots of sorting through boxes of "parts" or "scrap" as the wife calls them I found almost everything I needed minus a missing 15mm hub spacer for my Hope front hub, brake pads and inner tubes (normally run tubeless but couldn't get my old Specialized Purgatory tyres to seat despite using gorilla tape).
New Hope spacers bought (they still make these! For a wheelset that is like 10 years old!). Found some old inner tubes with holes in them (what type of hoarder keeps old 26" inner tubes with holes in them? Thankfully this one).
Despite not yet having my Hope spacers and disc pads yet I set about for the next few hours cleaning up the frame and parts and assembling them into - it would now appear - a tiny wheeled mountain bike. I was happy with the result apart from the badly out of true back wheel which took another hour or so - and a couple of cups of tea with Biscoff biscuits on the side - to get it into a reasonably round shape.
A couple of days later my Hope spacers and disc pads arrived (thanks CR), and after I popped them in, said goodbye to the boss providing my destination location - running out of the house before my fun could be curtailed - and took it for a spin around my local trails. It was a lot faster (up, down and along) than I remember but also a lot more twitchy.
It was lots and lots and lots of fun!
Wth no mechanical issues apart from the hardest gear not always being available, blame the mechanic, ahem.
When I got home I got thinking about maybe getting an angle changer headset and some bigger tyres (say 2.4"?) to make it a bit more modern and less skittish, does anyone have any experience of doing something similar with an old 26" bike? Or would somebody have an angle changer headset or some 2.4" 26" tyres they would like to sell to me?
For note the Gen 2 Soul still has a 1 1/8" headtube.
Anyone else built up an old bike during lockdown and want to share their experience?
just out of interest, is the mk 2 soul 'pre CEN'?
i always keep a lazy eye out for skinny steel hardtails with a bit of twang from before the rules spoilt them all 🙂
i know the mk1 is, but dont know about mk2.
cheers
The Gen 2 is post CEN but Cy (of Cotic) states that in order to pass the test he only needed to add some some gussets and ovalise the top tube. Seems to have plenty of twang to me but I don't have a pre CEN framed bike to compare it to.
I’ve dug my Gen 1 Soul frame out from the back of the shed and have started to get a parts bin Singlespeed build together. I think big tyres will be a must. I’m not sure if the the pre CEN twang will be a blessing or a curse on a singlespeed ... definitely used to make it sprightly though. My only real concern is how much rust is too much rust
i always keep a lazy eye out for skinny steel hardtails with a bit of twang from before the rules spoilt them all
I think the move from 27.2mm I’d to 31.6mm seat tube has the effect you describe. I certainly noticed a huge difference in back end stiffness (oo-er missus) when I got a Lynskey fabbed Soda in comparison to my ‘07 Soul. No idea what ‘gen’ that was (except earlyish)
My Gen 3? (Tapered head tube, 31.6 seat tube) Soul has become my go-to lockdown gravel special. Some carbon forks, 700c wheels and take the dropper off and it is a brilliant quiet road/easy track explorer.
Cost- zero , everything came from the box of bits I couldn't bring myself to throw out.
The only parts less than 10 years old are the tyres which I bought a few years ago.
Nice idea FOG, I was thinking doing something similar and use it for cross races but then the cross races were cancelled. I've got all the bits but the only tyres I have only go up 32mm so could do with some 40's I think. What tyres are you using?
Also the Gen 2 Soul still has a 27.2mm seatpost.
didn'thurt - can't remember what tyres exactly but they were some cheap wire bead 32mm Schwalbes . These are the weak link, fine on the road but sketchy on the slightest loose off-road. Go for some bigger and knobblier tyres!
Come to think of it my father in law gave me a pair of part worn Halo twin rail in 38mm width. Might try them.
My Gen 1 pre CEN Soul is on it's 3rd build and remains my one and only mountain bike
Needs a respray really....
Nice project, I did almost the same- I sold mine a long time ago but they're so cheap now so I got a rather lovely one from the classifieds here, and then kind of replaced everything. I still had some nice light wheels, it gained more modern tyres (dhr2 and rock razor) and the 120mm KS dropper post which was pretty much the longest 27.2 there was. Weighed nowt, and also was a blast with a set of 2.3 slicks I found, but I have to admit the short dropper annoyed me constantly.
It got nicked 🙁 Though sacrificially protected my Bigwig, whose seatpost was worth almost as much as I spent on the whole Soul so it gains extra points for that. (and then weirdly the police recovered the back wheel so it's in the garage looking sad) Won't do it again, scratched the itch but really was worth doing. There's still so many great 26er bikes out there...