" The Cotic Soul was born a couple of years ago out of a similar desire to mine to be able to have a frame that's capable of taking a 5" travel fork, but yet isn't massively over built for 99% of your general hacking about. If you're fairly hefty and you've got a habit of breaking things, then maybe something like the Chromag will be more your cup of tea, but for the vast majority of riders the Soul will easily see you through anything you care to chuck at it. The weight may seem low when compared to some others, but the use of Reynolds 853 tubing at the front end means that it's far stronger than you'd first assume. The back end is made from bog standard cromoly, but it's more than up to the job, and the profiles allow as much mud clearance as you're ever likely to need. Cotic do go on a bit about the amount of time and money they've spent getting the doprouts custom made, but from the eyes point of view at least, I'm not so sure it was that well spent. To be fair though, that's my only slight grumble with what I think is otherwise a near perfect hardtail. The only thing to watch out for is the 'ultra compact geometry' which effectively just means that top tubes are relatively long. Throw in a free Salsa seat QR (the best there is in my opinion), and you're laughing. "    Ed Haythornthwaite