Thinking of selling my Santa Cruz Butcher Frame forks and wheels and building a 29er Hardtail , want it to have a Reverb and a 120mm fork,
I have a Salsa Spearfish 1 full sus thought I’d take the Reba of it and let out to 120mm again and buy another fork for the Spearfish.
Has anyone had a ride on either or both of the hardtails, any feedback would be welcome, my riding is mainly natural trails and trail centres, Llandegla, Marin , Coed y Brenin , Penmachno etc
Butcher was originally bought a few months ago to do DH Enduro but its not happening for many reasons so may as well build a bike more suitable for my riding.
Any other recomendations welcome, even thought about fully rigid but not sure certainly has to have gears. 😀

I have ridden a Solaris a few times and it very good indeed- very comfortable for longer rides but also very manoeuvrable and ‘chuckable’ with excellent traction and with the right gearing an excellent climber as well. I have not ridden any other 29er hardtails but they would have to be amazing to be much better. I am 6′ 2″ and ridden on natural single track with some more technical sections but not ridden the Solaris at a trail centre, but it is at least as confidence inspiring on the rougher stuff as my Ragley Ti even though the 29er has 100mm forks and the Ragley 140mm

I use my Solaris for riding at trail centres and most natural rides (bar bigger mountains where I use my susser). This frame was purchased to replace a Yelli Screamy and Lynskey Ridgeline as I wanted an all rounder and I have not been disappointed; the geometry is spot on for its purpose. As said before, it is comfy on longer rides yet sharp enough to have fun on twisty trails.

Almost same dilema as mine, narrowed it down to 3:

Niner EMD 9

Santa Cruz Highball

Cotic Solaris

Opted for the Solaris in the end and should get my green one in 2 – 3 weeks 🙂

A few things swung it for me:

1) Steel frames and meant to ride nice

2) My mate has a Soul (26″ Solaris really) and loves it!

3) Lastly the clincher – That green is wicked! 🙂

Bigbudsaws… are those forks 120 and did you ride it at 100 before going longer. Am contemplating the same choice as the OP, but am also unsure whether to go 100 or 120 ( on either frame)

Highball here – yeah, it is pretty nice and works well or me. The thing that swung it was it singlespeedability should I wish to, and my general liking for all things Santa Cruz.

Handling is pretty nimble and nicer than my Lynskey Ridgeline, weight is 25lbs and all seems pretty solid to me.

Currently running 100mm travel, not sure about the need for 120mm but most trails locally are smooth ish! 100mm has got me round Scotland and down Snowdon without issue.

The wife WILL murderfy you Mr M.

Sheck they are 120mm (Rev 140s reduced). I had a Sid RCT3 originally but felt it needed a beefier and slightly longer fork to make it the bike I wanted.

sheck – Im temporarily going to run Exotic carbon rigid forks, but they will soon be replaced with 2013 RockShox Revelation 120mm 29″

I know the frame is designed for 100mm, but spoke to Cotic and a recent mag review suggests 120mm is fine.

Bigbudsaws – What forks are they then?

2013 Revelation 120mm tapered?

2012 Rev tapered

Yes wife will not appreciate the finer points of which bikes best
Thanks for your feedback SantaCruz have always been a favourite of mine
I seem to fit them ok, Cotic also looks ok fit wise
Mmm just need to find a local dealer.

Jeffus, I built up a Solaris a couple of months ago, it’s my first 29er.

After riding demos on Tallboy, Camber, Gyro (all FS) I went on a Rocket demo day and had a ride on a Solaris too; it felt right from the first turn of the cranks. I came away with a frame, bought some Marz 44 Micro Ti (120mm) and Arch Ex in white & haven’t looked back or ridden another bike since!

It’s very comfortable (I’m 6’2″ on a large), feels very supple and just seems to be very good at everything that I ride over in the Peak district.

It definitely has the ‘X’ factor. Buy one, you will not regret it.

feels very supple

See that’s what put me off, with the extra size of the wheels I think the rear triangle needs a bit extra stiffness.

I am probably going to go for the highball, but am also considering the canyon, which is extremely similar geometry but comes with the 12mm bolt through rear, unfortunately also comes as a complete bike with a 100mm fork, and I was also wanting 120mm.

I had pretty much decided on a green Solaris but my only doubt is just the one bottle cage when two is handy for much of my riding. Being an old git try to keep weight off my back. Still unsure whether it is an issue or not.

SC Highball alloy or a Carbon on-one are other options, but the o-o has one bottle cage as well when I checked.

100mm has got me round Scotland and down Snowdon without issue.

Are we sure Mr Shortcut? I’m sure we were waiting a while for you to pick yourself up of the gravel coming down Snowdon!!!? 😆

Quite sure thanks. Slowed down to laugh at DC on the floor and decided to join him!

The bottle cage problem is ok for me , I’ve never used them , fan of my camelback 😀
Seems Orange have things in the pipeline so maybe worth waiting to see what comes..

Doubt it, more than likely more expensive than either of your first two options.

What about the Chumba HX2?

I spoke to the Orange guy at a demo day recently & he said the Orange 29er HT is going to be a ‘clockwork’ branded bike, which left me wondering if as above its ali, or will it be steel, gave up tweeting orange! ha!

I thought about a steel 29er, but after owning an on-one inbred (26er) I decided I’d had enough of my hardtail weighing more than my full-suss. The magical steel ‘give’ was unnoticable to me, but the sheer weight was certainly noticeable. Though I’m sure a more refined steel frame like the Solaris is probably lighter.

So I bought a Santa Cruz Highball Al 29er. Not ridden it properly yet though. It looks nice though!

For a Santa Cruz, that frame looks like a real bargain

Untitled by oxym0r0n, on Flickr

Another very happy Solaris owner here! Chuckable, fast, planted. Rode down all the rock steps on Exmoor at the weekend quite as happily as friends on full-sussers, climbed like a mountain goat and bombed along the smoother sections. What’s not to like?
[Edit – it doesn’t feel heavier than the 26″ Yeti ASRsl that I sold to build it]

I wonder whether preference to steel relates to frame size? I’m an XL/21″ sized guy, so that amount of heavy pipework really does add up. Particularly if it’s your basic 4130 CrMo stuff.

25lb build easily achievable with Solaris without going silly with spec. Not light compared to some but certainly less than my Trek EX9

I’m 5’9″ so a medium frame, and I would swop parts of my Butcher, XT running 1 x 10 with an E-13 , Haven stem and bars, Hope Tech 4 brakes,
probaly would buy 29er Hope Hoops , Reba 120 to go on to which ever frame, so I’m guessing around 27lb with pedals, tyres I’d go with 2.25 Ardent front n rear tubless with Stans, and a reverb seat post 😀

I think Rochshox have ditched 120mm Reba’s from the line up – It’s now Revelation that are 120 / 130 / 140 in 29″

You would need to get 2nd hand Reba’s for 120mm – 2010 i think.

I have a Reba 120 on my full sus set to 100 so I could swop it over and fit a Reba 100 on the sus bike. I’m going to see. How much I can get the SantaCruz for Local bike shop sells SC then try and. Find a Cotic dealer.

Cycleworld in Arbroath in Scotland is a Cotic dealer.

That’s where im getting mine, can’t fault them – highly recomended.

Im sure they would prep and post a part / full build.

You NEED one of these in your life Mr M…..

You NEED one of these in your life Mr M…..

Yelli Screamy..?

Crests on a YS 😯

Aye,Yelli.Despite having the frame since crimbo it only got built this week.Funny as flip to ride…..its like an F1 Jcb 😀
Arch on front…need to swap rear rims with my ss wheel when I can be arsed.

Realise I’m waaaayy behind here but have been looking at a Highball. Even tho the frame seems a decent buy at £500 the builds you can buy seem really pricey – £1500 for wall to wall Deore and a Recon. You have to go over £2k to get some XT and a Reverb. Putting me off at the mo.

I would need to buy frame forks and wheels I have the rest, just need to sell my other bike, frame wheels and fork 😀 The Yelli is really nice,
😀 and is great fun MrK 😀

I’m waiting to try s Singular Buzzard before buying any LT29gnar

I’m waiting to try s Singular Buzzard before buying any LT29gnar

Make sure and also have a go of a YS before you buy, its the daddy of gnar and unlike any of the other 29ers I have ridden and owned.

Mine.

Liking the Blue Shortcut 😀