The product page is now up…

http://www.cotic.co.uk/product/solaris

Woohoo – just heard. The Solaris will be available in green in the next batch (due July).

The order has been placed at the factory.

Mines top of the list 😀

i’m not listening.

It would look half decent, were it not for the shopper sized wheels.

That green one was nice. Is there any pics of it built up anywhere ?

Only thing that struck me as slightly odd with the Solaris (& new Simple), is the 31.6 seat post. Wouldnt have thought its the sort of bike you’d want a dropper post on. Having never tried one I cant really comment though.

I was really set on a Solaris but wanted to run SS & geared, without a tensioner. Was a toss up between the Swift, Pace RC129 & the Niner SIR.9.
The Niner won out in the end. Still up for trying a Solaris out though.

It would look half decent, were it not for the shopper sized wheels.

Wait, 29ers are too small and you want bikes with bigger wheels?

Green only?
I want black. And the moon on a stick. But will settle for EN471 Orange

Only thing that struck me as slightly odd with the Solaris (& new Simple), is the 31.6 seat post. Wouldnt have thought its the sort of bike you’d want a dropper post on. Having never tried one I cant really comment though.

a dropper-post makes even more sense on a hardtail in my experience.

ride a bouncy bike through a bumpy bit with the saddle at full height, and you’ll be fine.

ride a hardtail through a bumpy bit with the saddle at full height and the saddle will knock you all over the place.

(obviously, you’ll still be fine, but i hope you understand what i’m getting at)

dropping the saddle a bit makes a big difference, and it’s really nice being able to do this without stopping, after a while it becomes about as much bother as changing gear.

Green or blue. We’re dropping the orange for the next batch because the green’s proved so popular since Jenn showed her’s off in Fresh Goods a while back.

Dropper’s are coming in a big way, hence the 31.6mm post. Don’t want to get left behind, just like with the taper steerer compatible head tube. Plus, the lightweight version of the 34.9mm seat tube we’ve used on the BFe for years makes the bikes feel nice. Adds a bit of precision. It’s nice.

Also found that a really good 31.6mm seatpost rides just as nice as a 27.2mm in our experience. It’s only cheap OS seatposts that feel stiff and uncomfortable.

Loving my orange one. I’ve spent about 5 hours on it so far. The most notable thing is how remarkably like a soul it is.

Glad you like it Bol. I was never going to stray far from what I like, was I?

Hmm, say how much do you think a 5 month old medium Solaris in orange would be worth?

Hypothetically speaking I might add… 🙄

No longer hypothetical

Joe, if you are reading this YGM!

Finally got the bloody thing finished and riden shock! Horror!

Did the same loop as I did last week on the soda.

The climbing was tough. I’m running 22×32 on the 29er (as opposed to 24×36 on the 26er) and not got enough strength or miles in the legs this last year. When I could actually turn the cranks I found it reminiscent of the road bike and found I was changing gears more to match. My position and set up seems pretty much spot on. The 65mm stem means I’m a little further forward saddle wise which all helps the front end stay down. It felt more like 100 on the soda than the mid position on the Solaris (also 100mm). The sun line 762’s are great on the downs but feel a little twitchy on the climbs. This will take some more riding to see if I need to chop em. That said the Firmounth is a tough climb at the best of times and I’ve never ever managed it (or anybody else I’ve ridden with so hey ho)

On the flat, single track, I kinda felt that the soda was better. This might be down to having messed up the fork set up. Dropping the positive by 15 psi did help. But I guess I should really read the manual and see what it says… 😳

On the downs though was the biggest surprise for me. It seems that the hype is at least justified to some extent. The bigger wheels do roll better and seem to smooth the trail out. Over certain bits I was significantly faster and, importantly, happy enough doing it!

The real test was through the singletrack part of the The Fungle (for those of you familiar with it). I wasn’t sure how the 29er would handle through it. But it was great, I was rolling stuff that the previous week I was skitterish over (although I was significantly less tired by this point this week). I was actually seeking out some of the drops just to see how it felt. I still baulked at the water barrs and the largest drop but as I rolled the drop I thought that at some point it was rideable. Honest. It takes a little more body ‘english’ than he 26er and I found I was over cooking it a couple of times. Might have been tiredness setting in, having started the idave diet I was rolling on black coffee and a couple of boiled eggs for a 4 hour ride. Also ran out of water and my tongue was sticking to the top of my mouth. Did I mention it was absolutely gorgeous out today? Sunny and it was 20 degrees back in the glen.

Oh and for the record I was 25 minutes faster this week, not that I was racing/trying too hard.

All in all: I like it. Makes me want to go out and ride it again. So it can’t be all that bad…

I’ve been riding mine for a couple of weeks now.

I’ve not owned a soul or other cotic before, but so far, its just been a competent steel hardtail nothing special. The big wheels give it loads of grip and its great at keeping speed up, and it does seem to make the bumps smaller, but its not getting me fired up at the moment.

That said, I’m still tweaking and I’ve been running it long – in fact its the longest bike I’ve ever had. I’ve just rolled the saddle back and put a shorter stem on it, so we’ll see how it behaves over the next couple of weeks.

I’m still enjoying mine. I have caught myself out in the really switchbacky singletrack a few times – not being able to carry as much speed (well, any speed) round the bend – but I’m inclined to think that is as much about me as the bike. I’m still learning that you can tip it over further than seems natural and as long as you keep pedalling it will pull through. Otherwise I haven’t noticed much difference from my Soda other than a bit more speed on open trails and the general smoothness.

Hmm, maybe its because I’m coming from a 17.5″ frame? I find the 26ers are quite ‘twitchy’ or responsive if you like. Definitely a marked difference in climbing which I was assuming coming from the longer wheel base? I guess that I’m right on the limit for being able to ride the medium (a fraction under 6′) and loved the manoeuvrability of the smaller frame (I used to ride 19″ frames previously).

cy – Member

Green or blue. We’re dropping the orange for the next batch because the green’s proved so popular since Jenn showed her’s off in Fresh Goods a while back.

Any colour change for the Simple planned, Cy?

Thanks for the write up. I think you’ll probably find the wagging on climbs calms down when either get used to the bars or chop them down a bit. That wide with that short stem is a very responsive set up, so tiny shifts in effort on the ends of the bars will move the front wheel around.

Honourablegeorge – No change planned.

Cy – yes probably. I’m used to 711 (on a 70 stem) so a reasonable step up. Haven’t got the hacksaw looked for that one just yet 😉

The climbing was from the off, about 2 hours of it! I’m going to give a couple more rides before I make my mind up.

Not riding a Solaris, (Niner SIR.9), but what Cy said about the steering is spot on. I found 50mm/762mm was way OTT. Now settled on 50mm/685mm low-rise, & its spot on for me.

Some gratuitous photos:

GT Solaris 2508 by Metalheart-UK, on Flickr

GT Solaris 2514 by Metalheart-UK, on Flickr

Singletrack Fungle by Metalheart-UK, on Flickr

If you look really closely you will see the bike is sprinkled with a very rare substance: scotish dust!

I like that, very nice. Looking forward to riding one in a couple of weeks.

I really likey mine too, if it had better tyre clearance it would be near perfect.

Metalheart, where abouts is that second photo, it looks familiar (in a kind of generic Scottish way)? Cairn Daimh by any chance?

Mrgreedy: it’s at the high point on the Firmounth, looking back towards Glen Tannar at the big (deer?) boundary gate.

Bdb: yeah, even moreso with a ’10 XT mech! RR’s are pretty tight too, ardent 2.25 fractionally less so.

Anybody thinking of getting one, ’12 SRAM front mechs I believe are the best for clearance.

anybody actually got a picture of the rear tyre clearance? with a proper tyre on it (not a 2.1)

i tend to ride with 2.25 RRs or NNs on flow rims minimum and i’d like to find a 29er frame that has clearance for a 2.25/2.4 rear tyre

I have been looking at the Solaris for a while now. But personally I can’t manage the price to buy a new one. So if any of you out there who feel they may want to sell theirs already. I would be interested. I’m looking for a large.

Also if anyone has one near the Portsmouth area which I could see in real life would be a bonus. Its so hard trying to decide what you want when you can’t physically see it. I know that Cotic do demo days and I was tempted but Wales is a bit far for me.

Schwalbe Racing Ralph 2.4 on Stans EX (60.5mm) gives appoox 3mm clearance either side.

Schwalbe Nobby Nic 2.25 on Stans Flow (57.5mm) gives approx 5mm clearance either side.

As I’ve said before fantastic frame but if you want to run big treads forget it. 😥

Yes, it isn’t just the front mech clearance that is the issue. Incidentally, I reckon a high-clamp X0 or XX is the best bet there.

That’s with a Specialized Ground Control 2.1. Room for a 2.25 or 2.3 but much more than that is going to be problematic.

Well….. This has just sealed my next frame purchase I think!
I currently ride a Soul and love it, best bike I have ever ridden, I ride it quicker than I have ridden anything I have owned. Such a capable frame and built with my choice of kit I really can’t see me selling it.

Anyway, I was thinking of a new frame and was considering all sorts from a Yeti Asr 5 to a Carbon hard tail but after seeing the pics etc I’m sold on the Solaris.

I still think it will look a bit weird in the small size I require but I can live with that.
Any pics of the small built up going? I’d be running it as a 1 x 9 like the soul which has a 32 tooth front chainring, I’m wondering if this would work with the bigger wheels?

Mine has to be Orange tho so time to contact Cotic to see if they have any!

I notice on the Cotix website they suggest a rider height from 5ft 9 for the 17.5″. At a mere 5ft 6 I feel I may be a bit on the short side..

Anybody have any views on this?

Many thanks.

Talk to Cy tomorrow, he’s very sensible + won’t try + sell you something thats wrong.
BikeBrechfa are having a demo in April if you are anywhere near?
http://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/welsh-cotic-demo-weekend

Thanks mate. I’m up in Scotland tho so Wales is a fair trek for me.

I’ll speak to Cy tomorrow.

I think the smallest they do is the equivalent of a medium Soul. Cy didn’t feel they could get the bars low enough on a small.

I rode a 19″ Soda and went up a size for the Solaris, which feels fine. Although the Soda was only just bid enough. Anyway, as above, talk to Cotic for proper advice. .

Bol is correct. Medium 17.5″ is the smallest they do. At ~ 6′ it’s the perfect size for me (a slightly better fit than the 26er sizing) so at 5’6″ I’d say it would a little on the large side. Where abouts in Scotland are you?

Call Cotic re sizing though, they really couldn’t be more helpful. Paul is short himself so he’ll keep you right I’d imagine…

Anyone running a rigid fork on their Solaris? And has anyone found a pic of the green one built up?

my on one scandal takes a 2.4 RR no prob 🙂