Archive: Solaris Gen1
Discontinued, superseded by Gen2. This page is kept as an archive record for owners and for anyone researching an older Cotic Solaris.
Years of production: 2012-2015
The Solaris is our original 29er hardtail. It was designed to bring all of the amazing qualities of the Soul to 29" wheels: grace, durability, clean lines, fun, an interactive feel and attention to detail. The Solaris has amazing adaptability, from suspension forked, big-barred trail warrior to rigid forked map-crossing smoothie. See the Solaris and SolarisMAX archive for the later generations.
It shares a lot of great features with the evolved Gen2 Solaris, including the Reynolds 853 front triangle, up to 120mm fork compatibility, and clearance for 27.5 x 2.8" Plus tyres.
Finishes: Bright Green and Duckegg (including a matte Duckegg option).
Sizes: 16" (new for 2013), 17.5" and 19".
Video
What was new
The latest iteration of the Solaris was designed to take the best of our legendary Soul trail hardtail and bring all of it to the 29" wheel format. We evolved a new geometry and tubeset for the 29er, starting with the Soul but developed to make the most of the big wheels. The head angle gives similar mechanical trail to the Soul when using 44-46mm offset 29er forks, combined with a reach 10mm longer than the 26" wheel bikes for a good long front centre. A shorter stem keeps your position and works well with wide, flat bars to keep the handling sweet. The chainstays were tucked in as far as possible without resorting to kinked or offset seat tubes, so you can still get proper seat drop and good sizing.
The tubeset was unique to the Solaris and the Simple. It used a new lightweight version of the BFe 34.9mm seat tube for better pedalling stiffness and frame precision, along with a dropper seatpost compatible 31.6mm seatpost size. The Ovalform top tube is larger than the Soul's, to tie down the higher head tube properly and account for the longer frame. It interfaces with the new 44mm standard head tube, which has a zero stack top cup for minimised bar height and an external bottom cup for full taper steerer compatibility.
From 2013 the Solaris used a Reynolds 853 DZB (Dual Zone Butt) down tube, which adds an extra thick section just before the head tube end. That allowed us to eliminate the gussets from the front end of the frame without sacrificing durability, and brought back the original, signature, clean lined Cotic look.
All this combines to give the Solaris an agile and interactive ride, with a compliance and speed across the ground that has to be experienced.
Frame details
- Large diameter, thinwall, air hardening Reynolds 853 steel front triangle with signature Ovalform top tube and gussetless DZB down tube
- 44mm standard head tube designed with an external bottom cup for taper steerer compatibility and a zero stack top cup for minimal stack height
- Oversized 35mm seat tube gives great precision to the ride
- 31.6mm seatpost size is dropper seatpost compatible, and the frame has hose clips for the remote under the top tube
- Signature Cotic 4130 cromo wishbone stay rear end, with bridge-less S-bend chainstays and Cotic Hexten gussets for improved fatigue life
- Clearance for big tyres: 2.4" Maxxis Ardents fit fine
- Geometry with commitment: minimum 80mm travel forks or 470mm rigids. It handles great with 100mm suspension forks and is strong enough for up to 120mm travel
- Cotic 29er geometry uses a long top tube (reach 10mm longer than the 26" bikes) and a short stem set-up (60-90mm stems recommended) to maintain good weight distribution and handling
- Sizes: 16" (new for 2013), 17.5" and 19". The frames are designed to be compact and chuckable
- Weight: 4.9 lbs for the 19"
Geometry
The chart is a guide to frame size. Ultra Compact Geometry means that the frames are small and long. You can take this two ways: a regular position coupled with a small and chuckable frame, or go for the next size up and go long and racey without feeling like you're riding a gate.
| Frame Size | Small | Medium | Large |
|---|---|---|---|
| Seat Tube (centre-top) | 16" | 17.5" | 19" |
| Top Tube Length (effective) | 22.8" | 23.8" | 24.6" |
| Head Angle | 69° | 70° | 70° |
| Seat Angle | 72.5° | 72.5° | 72.5° |
| Chainstay Length (centre to centre) | 440mm | 440mm | 440mm |
| Chainstay Length (horizontal) | 435mm | 435mm | 435mm |
| BB Drop | 55mm | 55mm | 55mm |
| Head Tube Length | 95mm | 100mm | 110mm |
| Reach | 405.5mm | 429.3mm | 446.5mm |
| Usual Height Range | 5'5" - 5'9" | 5'9" - 6'0" | 6'0" - 6'4" |
| Stem Length | 40-70mm | 60-90mm | 60-100mm |
All measurements are based on a 490mm axle-to-crown rigid fork or a 100mm travel suspension fork at ride height. An 80mm suspension or 470mm rigid fork, or a 120mm suspension fork, will steepen or slacken the angles by 1 degree respectively.
Component sizes
- Seatpost diameter: 31.6mm (wise to get a decent length one)
- Front mech: 34.9mm (top pull)
- Bottom bracket width: 73mm
- Headset: 44mm cup (for example a Hope 2H)
History: the development story
Mid 2010. The time had come to get some 29er experience. The forks and tyres available were now at a point where I felt I could design a frame without any compromise for components, so the Solaris project was born.
The first element to sort out was the head angle. With 44-46mm offset 29er forks, the head angle still needed to be steepened by 1 degree compared to the Soul to get a similar mechanical trail, so the front centre was getting shorter. With the chainstays tucked in as far as possible without resorting to offset or curved seat tubes, they were still 15mm (horizontal) longer than the Soul's. That meant the rider's weight was moving a long way forward in the wheelbase compared to the 26" wheel bikes. I attempted to counter this in two ways. Firstly, by increasing the top tube length by 10mm and expecting to use a 10mm shorter stem to maintain my position. Secondly, I postulated that the longer chainstay would stand a slacker seat angle without ruining the weight distribution, which would shorten the wheelbase a touch and potentially make it more comfortable for taller riders with long femurs. The final piece of the jigsaw was a taper steerer compatible head tube. The head tube height was coming out some 45mm higher than a Soul's, so I reduced the length by 10mm and decided to try the tapered head tube design I had, which used a traditional 1 1/8" top cup and 44mm bottom cup. The tubeset was based around the Soul, but with a lightweight version of a BFe seat tube to try out, partly for stiffness, partly for dropper seatpost compatibility. The drawings were created and prototypes ordered.
April 2011. The first prototypes arrived and I built my large up with 100mm travel Reba Maxles, a 70mm stem (I usually use 80mm on my Soul) and Sunline 762 flat bars cut down to my usual 710mm width. The Bontrager 29-4 tyres originally ordered for the bike turned out to be hugely tall (nearly 30" wheels!) and hit the front mech on the seat tube clamp, so they were soon replaced with some lovely 2.2 Maxxis IKON 3Cs, which were superb and fitted with plenty of space to spare.
Late May 2011. It took some doing to get comfortable on the bike, as I like low-ish bars, but the Sunline 762s were spot on, especially once chopped down to my usual 710mm width. Even though the Solaris has short head tubes as 29ers go, the 29er layout does make it hard to get bars low if you like that, so we'll be recommending flat bars mostly and sizing you guys up carefully to make sure it's spot on for you. It's also hardened my resolve not to do a small size. If I'm 6ft 3in and I found the bike felt too high with anything other than flat bars on it, then there's no way small size people are going to get anything out of a 29er in my opinion, or certainly nothing apart from something that rolls quick but has your bars higher than your ears so you can't throw it around, and where's the fun in that? A bike you can't chuck around certainly is not a very Cotic bike. We'll be doing medium for people down to around 5ft 9in, and there will be an XL size inserted above our usual large for guys up to around 6ft 7in or so.
I've been really pleased with how the bike handles and I've been doing a lot of direct back-to-back loops with the Soul to get a really firm idea where we're at with this bike. Climbing is pretty similar between the two, with the Soul making easier weight shifts and trialsy moves versus the Solaris running over larger bumps more easily. Contouring and on swooping singletrack the Solaris just flies. It carries speed so nicely. Really impressive. On bumpy downhills (Devil's Elbow and Piper Lane in Blacka Moor, for the Sheffield locals) the most marked difference was observed. It's a fast downhill with fist to babyhead sized rocks, and a lot of possibilities for straight lining bumpy sections, as the DH boys have carved in their own lines. The Soul is just a massive amount of fun down here, boosting off rocks, over sections, whipping between lines. The Solaris, on this particular size of bumps, is completely ballistic. Proper full suspension bike speed. Not as easy to pop or move line, but I didn't need to, it was so insanely fast. I was laughing like an idiot at the bottom of the hill! Just to see how far I could push it I took it up somewhere seriously bumpy where 150mm travel bikes usually fly, and definitely found the limit of the 29er's bump smoothing. Rode fast, but was really quite scared and took a while for the vision blur to stop at the bottom. It was really interesting defining the differences between the bikes. I can't see us ever replacing 26" wheel hardtails with 29" wheel, but they both have their pros and cons, so both have their place in the range. For smooth speed the 29er is incredibly fast.
There were some things not quite right though, the main one being seat angle. As explained above, I went a little slacker on the Solaris because I reasoned that the longer back end would mean the weight distribution didn't end up getting mucked up, and taller riders have longer legs which suit slacker seat angles. Unfortunately it hasn't worked, and the front end is a little too wandery on climbs for my liking, which has been confirmed by feedback from some other guys who've ridden the bike. I also planned on making the front end longer than the equivalent 26" bike to compensate for the shorter front centre brought on by steepening the head angle relative to the Soul. This would allow a 10mm shorter stem as well, to keep the steering sharp. I managed to miscalculate this due to the increased height of the head tube compared to the Soul, and the prototype has ended up effectively a couple of millimetres shorter than a Soul, size for size. As the bar height has been an issue I'll move to the 44mm zero stack head tube as well, to bring the bars down further without shortening the already short head tube. So another prototype was required: the seat angle needed bringing back to Soul equivalence, and I needed to do my sums right on the top tube length!
August 2011. Lots of feedback about mech preferences when discussing the tight clearances on the seat tube of the Solaris prototype. Most people sided with us on the use of a standard clamp mech, and having thought about it some more, that's what we're sticking with. Clearance on production frames will be better than on the prototypes, as the seat angle will be 1 degree steeper than the blue prototype. So you can use a regular clamp mech and get OK clearance, or chop the bottom pull arm off and get good clearance. We've also since found that the 2012 SRAM high band front mech uses a very slim steel band and, having tried them, they offer more clearance than anything else we've seen.
We also went for a very big long ride in the Lakes, the first ride of 29er Prototype 2, which we had built up in double quick time by 18 Bikes. As mentioned above, Prototype 1's slack seat angle and too short top tube weren't right. It rode well, but wasn't really long enough, and on steep climbs the front end popped up much too easily. Stiffness wasn't ideal either (high head tubes on 29ers seem to need more top tube stiffness than on 26" bikes). So Prototype 2 was commissioned with fixes: top tube sums done right, so 10mm longer than the equivalent Soul to keep the front centre nice and long; a 10mm shorter head tube; a seat angle 1 degree steeper than Prototype 1; and the next size up top tube. The result? Amazing! We were really quite surprised by how immediately right the bike felt. Sometimes it's hard to spot changes to frame layout, but the combination of the above turned the 29er into a brilliant bike. So we'd found our final frame spec, and drawings and factory orders were placed.
February 2012. First production frames arrive.
November 2012. Solaris placed in What Mountain Bike's Top 10 Bikes of the Year.
February 2013. The latest iteration of the production frames arrives, now using a full Reynolds 853 front triangle. The switch resulted from Reynolds DZB (Dual Zone Butt) tubing becoming available in lengths suitable for 29er use. This down tube allows us to eliminate the gussets while still meeting the regulations and getting the durability we require. Back to the super clean Cotic lines!
Photo gallery
