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Collected it yesterday, built up (transferred bits over from mk1 Solaris) and rode this morning.
Best hardtail I’ve ridden (started riding in the late 80s)
Believe the hype!!
Happy days, mine dispatched tomorrow according to email!
Likewise got a mk1 to transfer things over from. Think this weekend will be a chance to see the old one out in style.
Where are the pictures?
I built mine up on Friday night. 50 something miles on the old one Friday as a send off- all around the north downs and Surrey hills.
Didn’t get as much of a test ride on Saturday as I’d have liked, just before the fun bits we happened on a guy who’d come off and used his face on the road as a brake so played ambulance relay instead.
It’s definitely fast downhill, it’s still surprisingly nimble nipping through the trees but it definitely needs some effort to lift the front wheel compared to anything else.
Wheelbase is 80mm longer than the old one with a 2deg slackset, of which about 45 is in the frame and about 35 from the head angle. (I wasn’t measuring with enough care to be confident beyond +-5mm). I almost needed a new rear brake hose.
Oh, and the colour is so, so much nicer in the flesh!
Watching that video (hardtail party) has kinda made me realize that I didn't give my SolarisMax time. I tried a bunch of different stems/bars to make it more familiar to how I've always ridden instead of adapting my riding style (not that I have much) to get the best out of the bike - as the vid suggests.
The Hardtail Party video has put me back on the fence over the Solaris Max, given I'm not that tall it sounds like I might struggle with it, at least with no bikes until December I can ponder some more.
matt303uk
The Hardtail Party video has put me back on the fence over the Solaris Max, given I’m not that tall it sounds like I might struggle with it,
Same guy absolutely loved the BFeMax in size S, but sized up for the Solaris to try a longer bike, would bear that in mind.
And Cotic did have a small BFeMax available the other day that they were selling off to raise money for a good cause.
Yeah, that BFeMax sold really quickly and the BFeMax looks more compact, I'm also looking at the Stanton Sherpa, whatever I go for is going to be a big change from the C456 I'm still riding.
The Hardtail Party video has put me back on the fence over the Solaris Max, given I’m not that tall it sounds like I might struggle with it, at least with no bikes until December I can ponder some more.
Steve rode the small BFeMAX and the medium SolarisMAX. Reading between the lines of what he was saying, my view is that the medium is a little too big for him at 5ft 7in, which is exactly what I would say to any customer. He also has a particularly long body for his height, which seems to put him a little bit in the middle of our sizes. We're planning to send him another bike later in the year in small, with a couple of stem options. For the kind of riding he wants to do on the SolarisMAX I suspect a small with a 45mm stem would be where he needs to be. If you're under 5ft 8in, the small SolarisMAX will defintely work for you. Sam and Paul and Hannah all ride small Cotics so we do have plenty of experience getting that size working.
cy
We’re planning to send him another bike later in the year in small, with a couple of stem options
*scratches chin*
Another Solaris, or another hardtail entirely? Something new?
Thanks for the reply cy
I'll have to throw a leg over one and get some advice on sizing, I'll be in contact.
Update on my build- I forgot to mention I weighed it first. 2.5kg, medium frame, no rear axle, seat clamp or anything other than the mech hanger. That's on digital kitchen scales, so make of the accuracy what you will. Bit heavier than the quoted 4.9lbs for a large.
Have you had any more rides?
I was a mk1 owner for over 5 years till the thieves struck!
However I’d always loved the cosmic black (first gen Longshot geo) colour so was able to get one of the last ones.
Despite owning very XC 29ers in the past (even my km1 was built up light) and a few slack 26ers, well for the time, I wondered how I’d get on with the LS geometry.
I’ve been impressed by how intuitive it has felt. No nasty surprises just all very natural.
I guess I am slightly OT due to this being the latest version but had to share how impressed I’ve been after a few decent length rides now.
Mine has now arrived too. I've only had a very short ride so far but first impressions are great. It's my first hardtail in 10 years and my first 29er ever so I'm not best placed to give a review but one thing is for sure - it's certainly a big bike, makes everything else in my garage look tiny! 2.6in tyres help with that I suppose, plus me being more used to 27.5.
One thing worth pointing out that I haven't seen mentioned, since it caused a lot of debate earlier in the thread. Mine (midnight blue) arrived with black dome headed bolts in all the bottle bosses, so nothing like the original photos and they're barely noticeable. Even less so with a couple of bottle cages fitted. Nice touch of Cotic to do that as from what I saw it was the only complaint that a few people had about the original announcement.
Cy has ordered more of the black dome headed bolts today.
Any photos of your bike?
@Normal Man- very brief ride taking 5yo niece out mtbing. Spent more time playing in a fort and eating ice cream than riding, but it's good at that too!
As you say, I think it just feels nice. Haven't really pushed it much yet!
Mine was silver bolts. They mostly get hidden once you've got two cages on.
Any photos of your bike?
Yes, although it almost looks black in the pictures rather than the lovely dark blue that it is in reality! Maybe it'll show up better when the sun comes out.
Managed another short ride today and loving it so far, hoping to get out for a longer one at the weekend.
Looks lovely, that. Gives me slight BFE buyer's remorse, although I'm pretty sure I made the right decision
Picking mine up tomorrow. Probably won't sleep much tonight! Photos to follow as and when...
*scratches chin*
Another Solaris, or another hardtail entirely? Something new?
Another Solaris, when we have free stock. There's nothing new on the horizon.
Cy - Can you confirm the wieght of the Large frame, is it really 4.9lb (2.22kg) as per the website ?
Got it! Love it!
Supernova Orange looks amazing in the metal. Just set it up now, out for a ride first thing when it's not a billion percent humidity.
Can't upload the photo from my phone though...
… Large frame, is it really 4.9lb (2.22kg) as per the website ?
That sounds wrong. 5.3lbs I think. I can check Monday.
Nice in Orange
My large frame 2018 model, including rear axle and hanger weighs in at 2.65kg
if anyone is considering selling a large solaris max due to buying a new one, i would be very interested. Thanks all!
I’ve put a few more miles on mine, so a bit of an update (warning, it ended up longer than expected). They haven’t been the most ‘testing’ of miles, so keep that in mind, but this bike was always supposed to be a bike for riding anywhere so it’s part of the spec. (For reference- a ‘big day out’ ride round the purbecks last weekend, some sightseeing on the old drovers roads around Salisbury, some muddy ‘just off the north downs’ riding yesterday and a local loop on my ‘home’ woodsy trails this afternoon). Done about 150miles on it total now.
It’s a good place to spin out the miles over most terrain. So far not noticeably comfy, not noticeably uncomfy either. Ask me again after my first 50miler.
Going downhill, I think calm is the best way to describe it. Just seems to give you a little bit more breathing space. Nips around tight woodsy stuff well. I did fail to ride one steepish little bit today, but it’s a personal bugbear of mine and very much a ‘head thing’, so not a black mark on the bike.
Uphill is mixed. On steep, cranky stuff it climbs really well. You’ve room to stand up and turn a big gear if needed and it seems to hang on to traction really well, even in damp woods with an aspen as a rear tyre. Sitting and spinning gently up is a perfectly pleasant place to be.
Where it’s not good is the in between- rises in singletrack where you want to keep speed, accelerating up a climb, that sort of thing. Neither this or the mk1 was ever going to be the sort of Xc race bike that just screams at you to pedal harder, but the mk1 did feel like it came was up for it. The new one feels more like it’s saying ‘steady on there’ and seems to lack some pep.
Initially I put it down to heat or tiredness on the rides I’ve done but I think I’ve got enough variety to point at the bike now. Given that the only components that have changed between it and the mk1 are the frame, headset and stem, I figure it might be the weight. I was pretty disappointed by the 2.5kg when the site quoted 2.22 for the next size up so I could be expecting it to be heavy I guess. I’ll have to ride the FS as a comparison.
What the weight does bring me to though, is why the hell would I buy this and not a bfeMax? Unless the Bfe is similarly over specced weight, I could save over a hundred quid, take a 100-150g weight penalty and spend the difference on a light rear hub. Or the similarly purposed Alu hardtails like the chameleon. Weight isn’t everything, but on a trail hardtail it’s still fairly important.
I need to take it somewhere with a few more faster, rougher, steeper trails to see what that weight is buying me.
Well, a little over 100 miles this weekend on it, including my it’s first 50+miler and some more challenging trails, and yes, happily, I’ve remembered why I bought the thing.
What I’ve said above about the climbing still stands, it’s got this weirdly sluggish thing going on when you’re trying to hurry it up a hill. Trying to build speed and momentum on singletrack that contours up and down feels like really hard work.
But.
Good grief it’s fast when you put some beans into it and there’s a hint of steady gradient in your favour. More to the point, I think I’m going to get faster as I get a feel for it, it seems to buy you a wee bit more time than it should to figure out what you’re doing when things are going a bit squiffy.
It largely does that without being a monster truck too. Not a big trail flattener doing it for you, just giving you a little more space to do it yourself. I haven’t relearnt the timing of a front wheel pop on the trail quite yet, but other than that it’s just a nice bike to be on. It sort of feels as if the ‘sweet spot’ for your body on most bikes is more of a sweet zone where you have room to adjust. Seems to help at low speeds too.
So, much happier with it now. Still annoyed by the weight and quite why it feels so sluggish to accelerate but do you know what, it’s so much fun that I’ll start doing squats to get some acceleration back.
From my experience of about 3000km on mine I have continued to grow into it. I can definitely put the hammer down faster now, picking up PRs on tighter twistier xc tracks and sprinting up pinches where it felt laboured. I'd love to try a smaller fork with a lockout and some lighter wheels one day.
“So, much happier with it now. Still annoyed by the weight and quite why it feels so sluggish to accelerate”
Do you honestly think you can feel the difference between having an empty water bottle and a less than half-full bottle when accelerating?
I know what he means. I don't think it's just weight though. The geometry impacts too.
“I know what he means. I don’t think it’s just weight though. The geometry impacts too.”
I think it may feel slower but isn’t actually slower. The longer wheelbase smooths out the bumps, the slacker head angle calms the steering. The more wandering front end when going slow also feels more sluggish.
Depends what you're comparing against and how you're doing it. My Strava data says I was slower everywhere except downhill on my SMax compared to my Highball. But almost one year later the gaps are getting tighter (except for downhill).
Do you honestly think you can feel the difference between having an empty water bottle and a less than half-full bottle when accelerating?
I wouldn’t have expected to and as you say, the weight difference compared to the old one is less than swapping water bottles. At first I couldn’t think it was anything else when seated in a straight line. Standing up and sprinting, sure, geometry would change the feel.
My roadie has a 70deg head angle, my fs has chain stays ~455, I’m fully bought into the idea that ‘less twitchy =/= slower’, this just feels like the brakes are on. To the extent that I had it apart to check!
Reeksy, glad to hear your experience and that I’m not going mad.
Reeksy / Swanny, Are you running the Hunt wheels by any chance?
I had exactly the same feeling when I first built up my Soul, it just didn't feel as fast as it should. Eventually traced the drag back to the rear hub, which is very well sealed but also very draggy. Despite changing bearings and greasing the seals it never felt much better, until I swapped the wheel for a Hope / DT481 build and it felt like someone had taken the brakes off!
Interesting someone mentioned hubs. I’ve had massive issues with my Superstar hubs and also feel the only downside of the LS geo* has been a slightly sluggish acceleration.
I’m getting some Hope wheels which I’m hoping will improve matters.
*Mine is the last of the LS bikes in cosmic black for reference.
@davewalsh I'm running Hope Fortus 30 with Pro 4 hubs. Definitely heavy, but I wanted something that will take a pounding.