Tapered Headtube

The new Soul uses a tapered head tube rather than the big 44mm item which features on all our other updated mountain bike frames.

We wanted to bring the new Soul bang up to date and allow the use of taper steerer forks in future, but even though the 44mm standard head tube allows steel frames compatibilty with these forks in a sensible size, it's still pretty big. It works great on the Rocket, Solaris, Simple and BFe because those frames have our big 40mm wide top tube so the head tube junction is nicely proportioned with good weld area. The Soul doesn't use this size; it has our smaller 34mm wide tube for the subtle ride and slim look the Soul is reknowned for. We have seen plenty of frames with the 44mm head tube and the smaller top tube and frankly, they look ridiculous. In addition to this, the smaller tube doesn't wrap around the 44mm head tube at all which means the tube junction isn't as efficient as it might be. To keep the tube joints working nicely and to keep the look of the frame just so, the new Soul carries a tapered head tube which uses a traditional 1 1/8" (EC34) top cup, and the new EC44 bottom cup. As an added bonus, the taper head tube is around 60grms lighter than the 44mm head tube we use in the other frames, again keeping to the Soul philosophy of light, lively and tough.

In Hope speak, it's a 1H headset you need for the Soul. If you're a direct sale customer, we can supply this headset for £75 (£85 with the 1 1/8" adaptor) or if you're happy to keep your existing headset top cup, we can put just the bottom cup in for £35.