Die Entscheidung fürs BFe hab ich schon vor ein paar Monaten getroffen.
Das wirst du auch nicht bereuen!! Cy hat sich vor einiger Zeit mal wunderbar darüber aufgeregt, dass man sein Dreambike Soul immer als Crosscountry Feile darstellt. Passt zu dem Gespräch und finde ich einen herrlichen Text:
Super Tough Soul
I've noticed over the last few months a slightly odd trend of the
Soul being kind of side-lined by the
BFe. I find it a little odd, but after a customer email this week it got me thinking some realignment of perceptions might be needed. The email was from someone looking at a BFe because he wanted to use 120mm forks and do 'a few little drops on the trail' and thought the Soul was 'marketed as the XC bike' so wouldn't be suitable. I've also seen a few people looking at trying to decide between the
Solaris and BFe when looking at the two wheel sizes, when the Solaris is very much a big wheeled Soul in terms of intent and execution. Surely it would be a choice between Soul and Solaris?
Anyhow, whilst we need to look again at how we talk about the Soul, I thought I'd start by getting you good people on message, as it were.
First off, the Soul is tough as old boots! The original idea was for something super tough and durable for running long forks and big tyres. The 853 means it can be light and subtle too, but make no mistake, it's tough. Nothing capable of running 140mm forks is going to drop to bits and the first sight of a bump or drop in the trail.
I think the existence of the BFe as the toughnut bike of the range seems to have detracted a little from the Souls' credentials and that's a massive missed opportunity for you guys after a fast, smooth trail bike for up to 140mm forks. The geometry of the Soul and BFe is identical, so the handling is the same, you just save nearly 1 pound in weight with a Soul. And now with Soul3 you can run taper forks and a dropper so it's not even a functionality issue. I've ridden my Soul down some ridiculous stuff in Luchon over the years, pounded it all over the Peak District back in the day and hooned it around BMX tracks. Coming bang up to date my mate Tom rode his Soul to a top 30 Masters placing at the Innerleithen round of the UK Gravity Enduro this year. Not bad for an 'XC bike'.
The BFe is an ace bike, and a great trail bike option if you can't stretch to the price of a Soul or you want to run 150 or 160mm forks, or indeed do big jumps and massive drops. However, if you're looking at up to 140mm forks for your trail hardtail, where the overlap occurs between the Soul and the BFe, the Soul is our ultimate expression of a 26" wheel steel hardtail for that purpose. I've never had a BFe as my personal bike beyond testing the prototypes, but I've always owned a Soul. If you're looking at choosing between the wheel sizes we offer, you're choosing between a Soul and a Solaris in my opinion.
The Soul was my dream bike and it founded the company. If you're looking at our 26" hardtails, it's probably your dream bike too.