Thanks for posting- your situation sounds like what I'm trying to save for quite soon. I've ridden a Cotic BFe (160/120 talas fork and a ready for anything build) for about 2 years and only recently started to get the dual suspension urge again just for some fun rides or NZ trips where the downs are super long and fatiguing. The Cotic is such a versatile bike, I really don't want to just fall into the 160mm travel category if it's going to be too much bike! I'd love to hear your thoughts on how you got to this bike and other bikes you were looking at etc. cheers!
I had a very similar thought process. When I bought my Soul frame it was intended to be a stop gap in between bikes that I would build with spare bits whilst I saved for a "160mm Enduro" bike. But after I got it finished I fell in love with what it was capable of. Super quick in the XC stuff around home and still super capable when I took it up to the bigger stuff like Buller. I ended up upgrading nearly everything on it to new gear and ran it at 100mm, 120mm and 140mm of travel.
The only time I really felt the need for rear suspension was doing shuttle runs at Buller, after 3 days of previous riding including the Epic so I was already pretty fatigued. But after that weekend I thought "I need rear suspension and 160mm would be overkill for me".
I actually started looking at the Knolly Endorphin but there was no frames left in my size and the Warden looked a little overkill for me. The other bike I looked at was the Norco sight but I just didn't "love" the bike. I actually ended up buying a small Endorphin for the wife which is built with a Pike and carbon hoops but that's for another build thread
For some reason I started looking at 29ers. I have a friend who rides a Rocky Mountain Instinct BC 29er and it was following him down runs that opened my eyes to them. I was having to pedal just to keep up with him freewheeling and anytime we hit a rock garden my bike would almost slow to a stop while his bike would just float over them. I know riding a hardtail has probably more to do with the rock garden problem than the wheel size but it was a stark contrast on the trail either way.
The other bikes on my short list where the Banshee Prime and Phantom, RM Instinct, Ibis Ripley and towards the end the newly announced Canfield Riot.
In the end I just couldn't shake the Evil after I kept reading ride reports and seeing new builds. I'm sure any of those bikes would be a great ride though. Interestingly Ibis just released details on a longer Ripley that looks pretty nice and brings the geometry into the current and there's rumors of Knolly thinking of a short travel 29er (hype!) So you never know, I'm a bit of a bike whore and might get tempted to swap around haha.