Review: NS Soda Air

Some bikes I ride are good, some aren’t quite so and then there’s bikes like the NS Soda Air. They fit into a very exclusive group of bikes that are just plain fun. They are by no means perfect but they will leave a grin from ear to ear that you will struggle to shift.

What you see is what you get from the very first pedal stroke and they will leave you simply craving more.

NS Soda Air
How long tested for:	6 weeks
Tested By:	Angus McIntosh
RRP:	£2599.99

First Impressions

The NS Soda Air arrived with us and straight away from the unboxing it looked like it was the real deal. A slack head angle, short rear end, wide bars, some pretty choice kit and super chunky tubes made for a bombproof short travel bike.

The colour scheme was certainly pretty loud and I’m not sure if I was too keen on the fluorescent yellow Trailmaster 2 rims with the green accents on the frame but after a few hours staring at it in the corner of the office needless to say I’d started to fall in love with it.

I got out for a ride on a sunny evening the day after the bike arrived to a local downhill/freeride spot. I was starting to feel like my riding had slipped into a rut. I used to love nothing more than hitting big gaps and jumps but after a few big crashes my brain wasn’t so keen on the idea. First ride out I hit a gap bigger than I had for a very long time. It takes a pretty special bike for me to feel I could push it that far first time out...

Tech Specs.

The NS Soda Air comes with a very desirable spec straight from the factory. It’s based entirely on the competition proven Soda frame but was put through a bit of a diet and given a slightly longer seat tube to make it more friendly for longer stints in the saddle.

The Soda Air features Rockshox Lyrik R solo air forks paired with the Monarch Plus R air shock to shed further pounds over its freeriding brother. Both these products form a very capable pair when it comes to dealing with even the gnarliest of terrain.

Truvativ Descendant Cranks combined with an E thirteen LS1+ chain device get the power down through to a 1x10 Sram X5/X7 drivetrain with 180mm rotor’d Avid Elixir 5 Brakes ensure stopping is always cool, calm and collected.

A full NS cockpit with the short and snappy Quark stem paired with the top of the line Evidence bar and the incredibly comfortable Octane One bolt on grips kept things under control up front with a KS Dropzone Remote dropper post and Ti railed Octane One Rocker Pro Saddle taking care of the seating arrangements.

The Soda Air features a wheelset compromising of NS Rotary sealed bearing hubs and the bright yellow Trailmaster 2 rims. I was slightly confused by the choice of tyres supplied with the bike. The super lightweight single ply folding Maxxis Ardent felt like a last ditch attempt to shed some weight at the expense of some rubber that would of really began to shine under the type of riding the Soda Air was aimed at.

NS Soda Air
Frame:	Soda FR w/152-177mm (6-7") adjustable rear wheel travel, A6061-T6 custom formed and butted tubes
Fork:	Rock Shox Lyrik R Solo Air, 170 adjustable travel, 20mm axle
Shock:	Rock Shox Monarch Plus R
Wheels:	NS Trailmaster Rims on NS Rotary Hubs
Tires:	Maxxis Ardent
Brakes:	Avid Elixir 5
Cranks:	Truvativ Descendant, alloy 36t chainring, 170mm
Rear Derailleur:	SRAM X7 medium cage rear, 10spd
Chain guide:	E13 LS1 (no bashguard)
Shift Levers:	SRAM SX5 10spd
Seatpost:	Kind Shock Dropzone 425mm, 125mm travel
Handlebar:	NS Evidence
Stem:	NS Quark Pro 31.8

The Frame

When NS put together the Soda Air they certainly knew it wasn’t the lightest available in its class so they embraced that fact and made sure it was one of the most fun. If you make a bike as stiff and burly as the Soda you inevitably get the added bonus of being able to get away with absolute murder in the rough stuff and come out with a smile on your face…

It tracks the ground much like bikes with a far more downhill orientated pedigree and if it decides you’ve bitten off more than it can chew it won’t bite your face off and spit you over the bars it’ll take to the air in a controllable and predictable “buck” for want of a better word before landing and composing itself again.

It took me a while to actually get my head around the handling characteristics of the Soda as to put it plainly it defied belief of what I thought a bike like this was capable of.

The frame is also pretty tunable with an adjustable wheelbase and shock mount that reduces the 7” of plush travel to a more pedal friendly 6” but then you will lose out on some of the glorious square edge handling ability…

The Soda Air features an adjustable chainstay length via a flipchip on the rear dropouts that swap the bike between the “long”430mm chainstay position that by most manufacture’s books would be considered pretty short and the damn right insane “short” 417mm mode.

Both settings give characteristics that translate on the trail into snappy handling and the ability to pop manuals like they are going out of fashion.

When running the “short” chainstay length I discovered that the already manual happy Soda Air will attempt to become a unicycle at any available opportunity. I simply couldn’t keep the front wheel on the ground as soon as I stood off the back.

It wasn’t something I was used to ever experiencing on a trail bike and after some experimenting I returned back to the “long” setting and that’s where it stayed before I could cause myself a mischief.

The Ride.

It’s not very often that I’ve ridden a bike that’s had quite as much attention as the Soda Air and I’m going to put that down almost entirely to the colour scheme. Unless your blind you are going to struggle to miss those bright yellow wheels and green rear triangle flying at you. On more than one occasion in trail centre car parks I’ve spent time talking to other riders who those yellow wheels have caught there eye. The Soda Air turns heads whether you want it or not.

When riding the Soda Air on the flat I always found that the bike pedaled very well for a bike that actually featured 177mm rear travel. Even more impressively the shock always felt alive and didn’t need a curb sized boulder to get it moving but when pedaling you didn’t ever find yourself pushing through 4 inches of sag before you got the power down. There was always a good platform to lay down some pedal strokes and mantain your speed.

The bike picks up speed well and with the Ardent tires rolled very, very fast over hard ground and fire roads.

In the turns the ridiculously short back end came into its own ripping through turn after turn. 9 times out of 10 the bike would pop out with that “is that all you’ve got” feeling that money just can’t buy.

With NS’s jump bike background I’m not going to act like I’m surprised that the bike felt quite so chuckable and stable in the air. It was always encouraging you to ride faster into that take off and go bigger and higher than before with that kind of predictability that you don’t see very often from a “trail bike”.

The NS loved the rough stuff. Sprint into a rocky section make sure you kept the front end loaded and watch the super chunky Rockshox Lyrik gobble up everything in front of them.

The 1x10 drivetrain ran sweetly throughout the entire test period and only once did I mysteriously drop a chain even with the E thirteen LG1 which is a first for me. The bike felt like it climbed pretty well the dropper post up with very little pedal bob from the frame but my legs always felt like they were losing the battle with the 36tooth front chain ring. I would personally opt for a 34tooth to make the steep stuff a little more bearable but if you had a stronger pair of legs you’d be away!

It wasn’t perfect by any stretch of the imagination however…

I had some troubles with keeping tension in the spokes in both the front and rear wheels. I’m not the type of rider that’s heavy on wheels by any stretch of the imagination but neither do I pussyfoot around the rough stuff.  On more than one occasion when being followed on the trail I was informed that the rear wheel was looking like it was looking a bit flexy. I wasn’t aware of this when riding and it didn’t really translate back through into the handlebars or handling characteristics of the bike but it did play on my mind somewhat!

It was quite disappointing performance from what is NS’s flagship bulletproof wheelset especially when I don’t personally feel like I pushed the bike to anywhere near wheel breaking territory!

At £2699.99 I would of hoped for a little more than a Sram X5 shifter. It performed amicably during my time on the bike but I guarantee shifting won’t stay that crispy forever. As described earlier the tyres seemed a very strange choice for a bike with such gravity heavy ambitions. After 2 pinch punctures and a few front wheel slide outs even in the dry I decided enough was enough and put on something with a bit more clout and the problem was solved.

I also repeatedly bashed the inside of my thighs on the pivot where it met the top tube. I would wake up the next morning after a ride with big bruises even when wearing knee pads or One Industries excellent EXO padded shorts with chamois.

Conclusion.

If your looking for a versatile, bombproof trail bike that’s bound to turn heads the NS Soda could be what you’ve been waiting for.

Its not the lightest by any stretch of the imagination but it could just be one of the most fun I’ve had the privilege of riding. If you’re the kind of rider who is looking to spend more time flying above the trail gapping from rocks the soda is the one for you.

It’s planted at high speeds with that very capable suspension set up which is fantastic to see on a bike that comes in comfortably under £3000

It's not the complete perfect package but if you embrace its flaws your in for one hell of a ride!

A big thanks to Chris at Hotlines UK for organising the loan of the bike for review. It's been a pleasure!

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