MTB Thread: Soul v Inbred
Posted by: Steve G on 28 May 2004
There was a bit of interest in how my Cotic Soul compared to the On-One Inbred it replaced, so after my first proper ride I thought I'd create a new thread for my thoughts.
I only did 11 miles of my local trails but some impressions were already making themselves felt.
1) It's livlier than the Inbred was and feels lighter to ride (even if it's actually only about half a pound or so lighter).
2) It climbs better than the Inbred and is perhaps the most comfortable out of the saddle bike I've ever ridden.
3) The steeper head angle (it's corrected for 100mm-125mm forks instead of the 80-100mm of the Inbred) really makes itself felt with very fast steering with the 105mm Bombers currently fitted. It nearly caught me out a few times and I had several front end slides. It felt nice though but when I go to 125mm forks (a friend is loaning me a set of 125mm Fox Vanillas to try as I'm trying to decide between them and the travel adjustable Talas) I think it should be just about ideal for me.
I really liked my Inbred (which is killer value at £225) but the Soul feels great so far and when tweaked (the saddle angle is way out as I haven't changed it from when it was on the Inbred) and made some spec changes (125mm forks, titanium railed saddle, XT chainset) I think it's going to be spot on.
The Soul is £400 and the Inbred £225 and both represent great value. The Soul has more expensive tubing (Reynolds 853) which means it's lighter but the differences between then will probably narrow slightly as On-One are releasing a version of the Inbred corrected for forks in the 100mm-150mm range (one of my buddies is on the waiting list for one so I'll get a chance to try it).
Anyway I'm going to give the Soul a few weeks in its current spec (e.g. the same spec as the Inbred had) before deciding how I want to spec it long term, but I'm really, really looking forward to throwing it at Glentress and Innerleithen sometime soon!
I only did 11 miles of my local trails but some impressions were already making themselves felt.
1) It's livlier than the Inbred was and feels lighter to ride (even if it's actually only about half a pound or so lighter).
2) It climbs better than the Inbred and is perhaps the most comfortable out of the saddle bike I've ever ridden.
3) The steeper head angle (it's corrected for 100mm-125mm forks instead of the 80-100mm of the Inbred) really makes itself felt with very fast steering with the 105mm Bombers currently fitted. It nearly caught me out a few times and I had several front end slides. It felt nice though but when I go to 125mm forks (a friend is loaning me a set of 125mm Fox Vanillas to try as I'm trying to decide between them and the travel adjustable Talas) I think it should be just about ideal for me.
I really liked my Inbred (which is killer value at £225) but the Soul feels great so far and when tweaked (the saddle angle is way out as I haven't changed it from when it was on the Inbred) and made some spec changes (125mm forks, titanium railed saddle, XT chainset) I think it's going to be spot on.
The Soul is £400 and the Inbred £225 and both represent great value. The Soul has more expensive tubing (Reynolds 853) which means it's lighter but the differences between then will probably narrow slightly as On-One are releasing a version of the Inbred corrected for forks in the 100mm-150mm range (one of my buddies is on the waiting list for one so I'll get a chance to try it).
Anyway I'm going to give the Soul a few weeks in its current spec (e.g. the same spec as the Inbred had) before deciding how I want to spec it long term, but I'm really, really looking forward to throwing it at Glentress and Innerleithen sometime soon!
No new images of the Soul (and I've still not been to Glentress with it) but I did take a spin out on the Epic last night to see what my local reservoirs were like after two days of heavy rain:
A couple of recent pics:
The Fox Vanillas are fantastic - so plush. I've got an XT chainset to fit at some point (if I can be bothered), a couple of stems to try in place of the current 120mm 0 degree one (a rather nice magnesium Easton 120mm 5 degree and a Race Face 100mm 10 degree) plus a carbon post and Ti railed saddle.
I might take the bike for its first Glentress visit tomorrow as well.
The Fox Vanillas are fantastic - so plush. I've got an XT chainset to fit at some point (if I can be bothered), a couple of stems to try in place of the current 120mm 0 degree one (a rather nice magnesium Easton 120mm 5 degree and a Race Face 100mm 10 degree) plus a carbon post and Ti railed saddle.
I might take the bike for its first Glentress visit tomorrow as well.
quote:
Originally posted by Mekon:
Steve
How burly are Souls? Are they reckoned to be able to stand up to much abuse? The length, angles, and I admit, the 853-aspect, make it my choice over the Prince Albert. However, The PA is half the price, looks burlier, and the company owner is a local. I've not seen many pics of Cotics going large, and knowing they could would be reassuring.
It's no jump bike but I've never heard of anyone actually breaking one. What sort of stuff do you do? I'd have said that if a Stiffee would cope then the Cotic should also be ok.
The chap I bought my Inbred frame of replaced it with one of the prototype Prince Alberts and he's been raving about it. The support tube between the top and down tubes near the head-tube might make it a bit stronger than my Cotic but I don't really know for sure. For £200 or so though I doubt you could go wrong with it, especially as it's also a pretty nice looking frame with an excellent range of colour choices.
On-One also have a model coming out corrected for longer forks so that could also be an option and I think it's expected to be the same price (£225) as the standard Inbred.
A couple of the folks I occasionally ride with at Glentress like jumpy/hardcore hardtails and one of them has a Planet-X Compo and the other recently got a Dialed Bikes Kobe Ti (£699 for the frame), which I haven't seen yet but he seems to like a lot. That looks a frame that'd take a bit of breaking although (IMHO) it ain't pretty!
No pics from Glentress at the weekend as it was raining so I didn't ever stop for long enough to get the camera out.