06/07/2015 - New Solaris and 275plus

In a second extract from his newsletter email from last week, Cy writes....

So the geometry of the new frame was set, but there was one last spanner to get (potentially) thrown in the works: Plus sized wheels. We had looked into 29+ when that came about, but it involved some bespoke parts and compromises we weren't comfortable with. It also become clear that no suspension fork manufacturers (at the time) were going to support it, and that was a no-go for us. We like our suspension forks, and not having them would have made the Solaris into something quite different. However, 27.5+ started to gain some popularity and once the lovely chaps at WTB had sent us the specs we knew it would fit in the Solaris so we had to test it.

If you've been a subscriber to these emails for a while, you'll know we got the wheels earlier in 2015 and were immediately impressed with them. The weight was good, the rolling resistance surprisingly low, and the performance and grip both over the rocks and also in fast singletrack was impressive. That they proved faster than Ardent 29er wheels over our woodsy singletrack loop was something we just weren't expecting. If you missed those emails, then click the links below to have a read:

www.cotic.co.uk/news/2015/chubby

www.cotic.co.uk/news/2015/chubbyupdate2

Given that we had tweaked the new Solaris to have slightly more clearance out back, it was a no brainer to offer 275Plus as an option on the bike. The main conclusion from our testing (apart from how much we liked them) was that a lighter narrower rear rim was definitely preferable to the much heavier wider option, but on the front we much preferred the support of the wider rim to prevent deformation when loading the front of the bike in corners. We compared a WTB KOM i25 (25mm internal) at 445grms to a WTB Scraper i45 (45mm internal) at 695grms as the extremes. For production we're going with WTB's Asym i29 rear at 510grms and the Asym i35 front at 560gms. This will give us the support we like on the front with the snappy feel at the bike with the support for the tyre we like. They are available as a chassis pack option or as an upgrade on the complete bike from August 2015.