2021 Cotic SolarisMAX Review
Pros and Cons
Pros:
Cons:
- Extremely supple frame
- Very stable in technical terrain
- Can shred WAY harder than you'd think
Cons:
- Low stack
- Longer chainstays
- Sizing runs big
Who it's for:
- Fans of Cotic
- UK riders
- Shredders
- People who want a smooth riding bike
- People who want a modern geometry
- Those who like long chainstays
Who it's NOT for
- People looking for a playful riding bike
- Smaller riders (sizing runs BIG)
- Riders looking for a zippy lightweight xc/trail bike
My full thoughts on the 2021 Cotic SolarisMAX
this is the review you've all been waiting for today we review the codic solaris max
today i'm reviewing the codex solaris max frame i'm very excited to bring this to you sorry it took so long this bike has taken a long time to get used to it doesn't feel like any other hard tail and i haven't been able to just hop on it and in a ride or two know what it's about it's really taken me a while to get used to it and now that i'm used to it i'd like to share my thoughts on it with you
a lot of people are wondering how this compares to the cottage beefy max
it climbs just like it and that's a good thing these are both fantastic climbers whether it's technical or slow and spinny the geometry isn't radically different between them i'm running a 120 mil fork on here 66 degree head angle they both have 444 chainstays which is a lot longer than what i'm used to
but man they tracked her up stuff that's for sure here we are on hard climb number one this is really hard it's way steeper than it looks and all these are momentum stoppers so you can get going and then it wants to stop you and you gotta push through it i can usually get this with a couple tries let's see how the solaris max does on this
it's interesting i'm used to leaning forward on short wheelbases and still having traction in the back with the long wheelbase you lean too far forward it spins because there's no weight on it back there so i've had to adapt my riding style to stay back more on steep climbs and that's hard for me
that was a tricky climb and i'm still getting used to this bike part of this long wheelbase part of it's just kind of how it handles and steers i'll talk a little bit more about that later let's continue on kodak markets this as their do everything r tail from marathon xc races to bike packing to enduro and crazy stuff
and that's a big claim to make
if i have picked up this bike and nobody told me its intended purpose
i think it's a low travel enduro bike it definitely rides like one i've got it set up pretty heavy with some strong aggressive parts on it so it rides like a sturdy aggressive bike right now because the parts on it you could definitely make this lightweight let's talk ride quality this bike feels surprisingly different than the beefy max just a sec
this frame is noticeably more supple and comfortable than the beefy max the beefy max has a little more zing to it accelerates with a little more energy
yeah you can't get too far over the front or the back wheel spins
but when you're seated that means you've always got traction back there in the front it doesn't want to lift a whole lot
it takes a little bit of adjusting your technique it's a great climber though does great on all these two foot step ups
you just wheelie up it and keep your momentum and get right up it
this is the waterfall below chicken point and white line i've never made it up this but i've never tried it with clipless pedals either so today we're clipless hard to tell on the gopro but this is a good 18 inch lip and then up to there is waist
i height get up to here but then you're kind of in a hole and it's really hard to get up that step so if you can get over here i've seen guys make it that way but when you're there your back wheel's kinda in this loose stuff down here and it's really hard to gain traction
so
no
it gets so stupid i wasn't ready for that we gave it a good go well that just goes to show no matter how good the geometry on the bike you still need a fair amount of skill to climb obstacles like this and i don't have it yet it's a good goal i'm gonna come back and get it i gotta clean this before i go try bottoms out anymore one thing about this bike same with the beefy max the stack is quite low especially on a 120 mil bike if you had a 140 fork your stack would be 20 mil higher and you'd notice that
honestly i think the bike does fine with the 120 fork though it's pretty fun having you know using every millimeter of that fork on every ride and the helm is a great match for this bike they've done an interesting thing
with their long shot geometry they call it their goal is to have the bars behind the fork crown and it's an odd feeling and it takes some getting used to that's the real reason it's taking me five rides to get used to this bike it steers pretty different if this for my bike i'd run a 40 or 50 mil riser bar
and possibly a little bit longer stem so one difference between this and the beefy max that i reviewed this is a size medium
and the beefy max was a small
and this is a long medium at 460 mil reach
so i'm pretty stretched out but i feel it's a good size for the chainstays i never like it when my reach is shorter than my chainstays just feels unbalanced
so despite this being feels like it's a mile longer and it is longer i do like the proportion and how your weight distribution is
that's why i think taller riders should ride longer chainsaws than shorter riders this bike though because it's so long it's super stable
i never feel like i'm going over the
got a bars wheelbase slack head angle and that short stem the shorter stems make bikes a little bit twitchier to steer
it also pulls your weight back more
so on a shorter stem you don't have quite as much weight on the front
that's why i consider stem length more than just bike fitment but body position on the bike and how it weights the bike a longer stem will transfer more of your weight forward onto the front wheel
and with bikes getting longer and longer
we got to get over the front more if you haven't seen my video on how we should change our technique to match modern geometry check that out
so this bike from my size is not playful
that super long rear end makes it hard for me to wheely and bunny hop and manual and stuff taller people are fine i've had taller buddies on it and making manual and really just fine but it's hard for me being a shorter guy
oh man look at this place so the big question everyone's wondering is how does this ride compare to the beefy max they're both made by cottag well this has a front triangle that's reynolds 853 the beefy max just had an 853 down tube i don't know if that's the main difference but this bike is noticeably more supple the beefy max was sharper to accelerate a little bit um stiffer in a good way this isn't noodly but it lacks the burst of speed that you get on the beefy max but this is more comfortable so for long days in the saddle if you want more comfort i recommend the solaris max if you want a stiffer more precise ride the beefy max is stiffer and more precise and also this is a size medium that was a size small they're not apples to apples comparison they feel very similar the bottom bracket feels the same between the two this has a low bottom bracket which i love but if you're sloppy with your pedals and you don't know how to time them well you're going to have a lot of pedal strikes but i haven't had a single pedal strike with this yet because i'm used to timing them out here with all our rocks the head angle feels even slacker than it is if i were blindfolded and somebody told me this was a 64 degree head angle i'd believe it part of it's that long shot geometry part of it's that super short stem it just steers different and this bike wants to steer with the bar straight where you steer with your feet you don't steer by turning the bars like an xc bike you turn like you're skiing and you carve corners with your feet if you don't know how to do that yet you might struggle to get on with this bike because you're going to be steering from the top with the bars and it doesn't want to do that it wants to steer and corner like a downhill bike and it will really reward people who have great technique the long chain stay coupled with the long front end makes for a very balanced bike but i don't think i'd recommend this or the beefy max in a size small the front end is just a little too short compared to the back end but this bike is very futuristic in my video where i talk about the future of hardtails i say i think hardtails are going to get slacker with less travel and that's exactly what this is 120 mil travel 66 head angle that feels like 64. this happens to have a long chain stay which like i said will be great for tall riders i wouldn't recommend it for people under five seven unless you're wanting to stay glued to the ground if i were racing enduro this would be my number one choice it just wants to stay on the ground and track it plows extremely well i think with a 140 fork you'd be able to get even a little bit rowdier but to be honest i think the sweet spot for hardtails even aggressive hard deals like this is 130 travel and maybe 120 how i've got it set up here yes i use all the travel but with less travel your geometry isn't changing so much remember that every time you hit a bump the whole bike pivots on the rear axle and everything gets lower on the front so your head angle is changing as you hit bumps and the less that moves the fewer the changes are so if that was a 160 fork you go from 160 to bottom out that's gonna get eight degrees steeper you do a 120 it's only gonna get six degrees steeper i mean yeah it's only two degrees different but you feel it because this stays in its main travel range it stays in the same place more whereas a 160 fork is moving around quite a bit and it is changing the geometry and you can feel that i love the big triangle i love being able to fit two water bottles inside the cage that's super cool i like that you can slam the seat all the way i like that they kept the seat post short i have really short legs but i can run a 150 and they're slammed all the way i think the long chain stay is what makes this bike really want to rip on the downhills it's so planted and it's so stable i can't imagine going over the bars on this bike when it gets steep i just lean on the front and just just lean on the front and on the nose and it just plows down stuff it does super well and what's surprising is it's not just a plow bike it's not poppy and playful for me because of the size of the chain stay longer chain stays longer wheelbase makes it ride more like a hill climber motorcycle where that wheel's way back there it doesn't want to wheelie out as much um it kind of feels like i'm towing a trailer a little bit i mean it's only a centimeter and a half longer than most bikes but you do feel that when you're short especially so i think tall people are going to love this bike it's going to feel a lot better proportioned for a lot of them so this bike will still jump well on manicured jumps but when you're trying to pop off a little rock i find the longer chain stays the timing's a little different and it's not quite as happy to get airborne as some other bikes like the sage flow motion or chameleon or my rsd middle child i don't find myself trying to hop into manuals everywhere i can manual across cracks no problem and hop over logs but my bunny hops are limited my playfulness i i get fun out of this on charging stuff not on popping around and playing around everything and my attitude i'm more of a goof around pop around stuff hop up stuff see if i can get up that so this bike isn't the best for that but it's great for plowing down super super hard stuff i would take this on any trail i've taken any other hardtail it's extremely planted very modern very aggressive for me i don't think it would be the perfect marathon long xc bike packing bike for me because of the size i would need a small size if i was spending all day in the saddle just because i'm a little bit stretched out stretched out is great on the steep downhills and even the steep climbs but on flat stuff i don't like being that stretched out over time so i would size down but then the back end would feel a little longer than i'd want it definitely feels like this was designed by somebody super tall or for somebody super tall and that's great because a lot of tall guys complain that no bikes fit them these days i encourage you to give one of these a try i'll bet it will fit you all right let's get some more ride impressions of this i'll talk more about it as we're riding all right now we're gonna ride down the broken arrow trail we've got some steep sections and that'll be nothing for this bike with that long end as long as we're
ready
this bike wants to charge big time
see if we can find some space to open her up and let her
there's a big move
super smooth and planted down that
this bike to me feels like an enduro race machine wolf in sheep's clothing don't let the 120 mil travel fool you this thing flies and it's so composed
on fast downhills
there that's soft frame makes it ride a lot better more in control less harsh doesn't beat you up as much the longer wheelbase and longer chain stay is the most noticeable thing about this along with the way it steers
it corners extremely well on long sweepers on tight stuff feels a little longer than i'm used to
but you can kind of scandy flick it around a little better because it's easier to unweight because it's so far back to the linking corners this thing is fun
so it can still get on the back wheel it's just not as easy to do as a short wheelbase bike and if you got long legs that doesn't matter because you can get behind it oh this is fun though
pretty chunky here
yeah this bike wants to race down stuff it's really fun
all right let's get some speed super planted and you'll notice i keep the bars straight when i corner i don't turn the bars
it's a nice quiet frame i love the external cable routing really nicely built frame this is what they mean when they say steel is real this ram feels great i'm riding faster on this bike than no than my other short wheelbase bikes because i'm not looking for stuff to pop off of i'm just kind of straight line and everything that's not to say this spike doesn't handle well it does i just can't make it dance like my other one so i've stopped looking for all the fun little stuff to pop off of i do like this bike better than the beefy max i think because i think 120 130 travels just about right for a hard tail like this
and i don't think i'd ever run this plus i love plus bikes hang on i need to stop talking i need concentration here
i love plus bikes but it doesn't suit the attitude of this bike this bike wants to go fast and 29ers are faster than plus doesn't want to goof around and it's not the head angle it's a chain stay in the stack
sedona doesn't have a whole bunch of super fast downhills most of our stuff's rolling with chunk and exposure so you never get going quite super fast so this wouldn't be my first choice for sedona it's doing fine
but i feel like it just wants to be opened up and i'm never able to fully open it up i do love how modern this bike is though with that long reach and slack head angle
all right i've never tried to go up this it's a little bit okay it's a lot sketchy there's a big side hill to the right i'll make sure to fall left if i fall
yeah cool i've never done that before this bike does give me a lot of confidence to try stuff
so planted it's the opposite of twitchy if the chainstay were shorter i'd want a shorter reach but for this long chain stay this reach feels great
now we're in the slow tech the slow punchy moves of the hogs
and you'd think a long slack bike
wouldn't balance very well on this stuff it balances great but you'll notice this whole video my bars are almost always totally straight unless i'm at a super sharp switchback this bike steers by leaning more than turning at the bars you don't want to turn like this on
you don't turn like this clean the bike and that's a skill you kind of have to get used to on these modern bikes not everyone is used to that so they ride them and think oh just felt like dead steering
doesn't feel dead to me
you just steer with your feet instead of your hands i'm gonna do a video on that soon on how to steer with your feet because a lot of people still don't know what i'm talking about time to rate this bike climbing i'm gonna give it a 10 out of 10. it doesn't climb for that big waterfall i was trying sometimes the longer wheelbase is better sometimes the shorter is better i think a shorter wheelbase is gonna help me on that but who knows it's more brighter lack of skill than the bike problem and i didn't get up that
it's got a nice steep seat angle that's one of the latest updates to this model i don't feel like i'm over the back i feel like this bike was really built with tall people in mind it's deeper seat angle longer reaches longer chainstay you tall guys are going to love this a nice modern hardtail is it a marathon bike
sure you could do marathon rides on it
but something like a carbon epic is gonna weigh three pounds less just in the frame
that's not to say this is a heavy bike but it's built to take abuse
this would be my first choice for a hardtail at whistler i think it's just so planted and that more compliant frame
ride quality this is more compliant than my banshee paradox more compliant than the aluminum chameleon more compliant than my thai middle child
more compliant than
the kona hanzo by far
it's not as noodly as the marin pine mountain tube not quite as soft as that bike it's more compliant than the beefy max
there's really only one or two bikes ever and they're more compliant than this this is got a really nice ride
just takes the sting out of stuff
it's a little bit less precise on the rear end and the beefy max that bike's got a really cool sprightly stiff zippy feel this one's a little more muted those two have more in common with each other than different they're very similar bikes
but this one i like a little more
and for people my height if you live in steep terrain with steep drops and stuff like this
guide size to the medium if you're more comfortable on the small i'd probably get something with the shorter chainstay the companies from the uk i've noticed when they make a 29er they make the chainstays pretty long where a lot of other companies
try to tuck those 29ers chainstays as much as possible
that 444 and the short stem are very noticeable and will take considerable getting used to do not judge this bike on its first ride learn how to steer with the feet and it will reward you
and i already steered with my feet but still took a long time to get used to when i let my buddies ride it they're in the same boat so playfulness i'm going to give this bike a 4 out of 10 for my size i refer to playfulnesses how well the bike bunny hops jumps goofs around makes you want to jib off of everything it actually feels like this bike's kind of resisting it if you're tall you can make it dance a lot more but when you have short legs you can't get that you can't get your hips far enough behind the rear axle to hold a manual very well even wheelies i have to lift that front end so high i can't hold them very long on this bike
and that low stack that low front end
it kind of feels xc racy with the low front end and it's planted but it makes it harder to pop onto that back wheel which i mean let's face it that's the reason xc bikes have a low front end is to keep the front end down and not to keep it up
so if you're on a large or extra large i think you'll still find this quite playful
if the stack's tall enough i'll have to look at the charts to see how big the stack is i definitely run riser bars on this bike to make it more playful downhill i'm going to give this a 10 out of 10. this is very
very stable downhill and it just begs to be pushed downhill more and more and more downhill this thing begs to be pushed but it requires a modern bike position you've got to get over the front especially with that short stem look at how i'm steering with the bars totally straight
you lean the bike a lot but you don't twist the bars but that just shows how stable this thing is downhill this bike with a 140 fork would be my enduro race bike of choice for sure
or i'm trying to stay on the ground just crush out the speed
it's still surprisingly willing to get up steppy stuff so even though i say it's not playful i can still get small wheelies and manuals in to get old up and over features so yeah cornering i'm going to give it a 10 out of 10 too corners like it's on rails if you're over the front if you're scared and you lock your arms and get away from the front you're gonna hate it
yeah cornering feels great you do feel the long wheelbase on really tight switchbacks but you adjust to it
but a long wheelbase makes a bike track extremely well it makes sweeping corners feel like berms you just kind of lock into the corner it has good balance between the front and rear if you ever come to sedona be very careful of your speeds with all the hikers here it'd be easy to hit a family
yeah this is one of the most supple bikes i've ridden it's not noodly it feels great
and coupled with these zip 3-0 moto wheels man what a match
bravo kotik you've done a great job on this bike
a lot of people think all hardtails ride the same or even all hardtails with similar geocharts to ride the same this bike grew totally different than what i expected looking at the geochart feels more planted feels slacker it feels like more of a race charger than i thought it would
car tails feel so different from bike to bike and this one is noticeably different from almost every other bike i ride so i hope this helps you decide if this bike is for you that's why i do these reviews so who's this bike for this bike's for anyone who wants to know what a good steel frame feels like only about 10 of the steel frames that ride feel like this the rest are too stiff this bike's for someone who wants to stay connected to the ground and go fast or who's tall this would be a fantastic all-arounder trail bike for someone over 510. i think this bike rewards a steeper more difficult place to ride if you're in northern california sure it'll still be fun but you'll never even come close to reaching the potential of this bike because there's nothing there hard enough to really push this i feel like the 120 fork was a good match if you're smooth and if you have a good fork like this helm you can dial this helmet to feel exactly how you want it to feel i think most people would prefer a 130 fork on this i don't feel like 140 would be better unless you were racing enduro on it but for all rounder man i'd probably keep 120 on this just throw some tall bars on so is this bike for you it can be if you're short like me i think the wheelbase is a little too long the chain stays a little too long the reach is a little too long unless you're tackling really steep technical stuff it's fun i wouldn't want it as my only bike here because the trails just aren't steep enough and fast enough to really maximize that long chain state and i like something more playful if you're tall i think it could be a great option if you i don't know if it's the right marathon bike mainly because i've got mine built up so heavy if you built this up light and you like the lower front end you might really like this bike but it does feel more like an enduro bike than an xc marathon bike it's a great all-rounder trail bike this is what the future of hardtails are going to be like i think hopefully some with shorter chainstays because i think shorter chainstays would make this pretty much the perfect trail bike for me because i'm so short if you're wondering how this bike compares to some other bikes or if you need help deciding if it's for you i offer a bike consulting service through patreon it's one on one you fill out a questionnaire we work back and forth to help you find the perfect bike if you know what you want and what you need and you can read the geo tables and these reviews give you what you need no need for that service but if you have other questions like how does this compare to the johnny rotten or how does this compare to the middle child i save all of that for my paying patrons i get a lot of bike requests every day and i can't handle those just doing them for free so i have to charge for them on patreon if that's something you're interested in head over to patreon.com hardtailparty and check it out i want to give a huge shout out to my patrons for making this channel possible it's the reason i'm able to make these videos as often as i do this is a fantastic bike if you want a long chain stay and a planted bike it's probably my favorite long chain stay bike i've ever ridden it is my favorite and this would be my first choice for an enduro race bike or a bike where i wanted to go as fast as i possibly could hope you enjoyed that review thanks for watching there's a party in the mountains and you're invited
today i'm reviewing the codex solaris max frame i'm very excited to bring this to you sorry it took so long this bike has taken a long time to get used to it doesn't feel like any other hard tail and i haven't been able to just hop on it and in a ride or two know what it's about it's really taken me a while to get used to it and now that i'm used to it i'd like to share my thoughts on it with you
a lot of people are wondering how this compares to the cottage beefy max
it climbs just like it and that's a good thing these are both fantastic climbers whether it's technical or slow and spinny the geometry isn't radically different between them i'm running a 120 mil fork on here 66 degree head angle they both have 444 chainstays which is a lot longer than what i'm used to
but man they tracked her up stuff that's for sure here we are on hard climb number one this is really hard it's way steeper than it looks and all these are momentum stoppers so you can get going and then it wants to stop you and you gotta push through it i can usually get this with a couple tries let's see how the solaris max does on this
it's interesting i'm used to leaning forward on short wheelbases and still having traction in the back with the long wheelbase you lean too far forward it spins because there's no weight on it back there so i've had to adapt my riding style to stay back more on steep climbs and that's hard for me
that was a tricky climb and i'm still getting used to this bike part of this long wheelbase part of it's just kind of how it handles and steers i'll talk a little bit more about that later let's continue on kodak markets this as their do everything r tail from marathon xc races to bike packing to enduro and crazy stuff
and that's a big claim to make
if i have picked up this bike and nobody told me its intended purpose
i think it's a low travel enduro bike it definitely rides like one i've got it set up pretty heavy with some strong aggressive parts on it so it rides like a sturdy aggressive bike right now because the parts on it you could definitely make this lightweight let's talk ride quality this bike feels surprisingly different than the beefy max just a sec
this frame is noticeably more supple and comfortable than the beefy max the beefy max has a little more zing to it accelerates with a little more energy
yeah you can't get too far over the front or the back wheel spins
but when you're seated that means you've always got traction back there in the front it doesn't want to lift a whole lot
it takes a little bit of adjusting your technique it's a great climber though does great on all these two foot step ups
you just wheelie up it and keep your momentum and get right up it
this is the waterfall below chicken point and white line i've never made it up this but i've never tried it with clipless pedals either so today we're clipless hard to tell on the gopro but this is a good 18 inch lip and then up to there is waist
i height get up to here but then you're kind of in a hole and it's really hard to get up that step so if you can get over here i've seen guys make it that way but when you're there your back wheel's kinda in this loose stuff down here and it's really hard to gain traction
so
no
it gets so stupid i wasn't ready for that we gave it a good go well that just goes to show no matter how good the geometry on the bike you still need a fair amount of skill to climb obstacles like this and i don't have it yet it's a good goal i'm gonna come back and get it i gotta clean this before i go try bottoms out anymore one thing about this bike same with the beefy max the stack is quite low especially on a 120 mil bike if you had a 140 fork your stack would be 20 mil higher and you'd notice that
honestly i think the bike does fine with the 120 fork though it's pretty fun having you know using every millimeter of that fork on every ride and the helm is a great match for this bike they've done an interesting thing
with their long shot geometry they call it their goal is to have the bars behind the fork crown and it's an odd feeling and it takes some getting used to that's the real reason it's taking me five rides to get used to this bike it steers pretty different if this for my bike i'd run a 40 or 50 mil riser bar
and possibly a little bit longer stem so one difference between this and the beefy max that i reviewed this is a size medium
and the beefy max was a small
and this is a long medium at 460 mil reach
so i'm pretty stretched out but i feel it's a good size for the chainstays i never like it when my reach is shorter than my chainstays just feels unbalanced
so despite this being feels like it's a mile longer and it is longer i do like the proportion and how your weight distribution is
that's why i think taller riders should ride longer chainsaws than shorter riders this bike though because it's so long it's super stable
i never feel like i'm going over the
got a bars wheelbase slack head angle and that short stem the shorter stems make bikes a little bit twitchier to steer
it also pulls your weight back more
so on a shorter stem you don't have quite as much weight on the front
that's why i consider stem length more than just bike fitment but body position on the bike and how it weights the bike a longer stem will transfer more of your weight forward onto the front wheel
and with bikes getting longer and longer
we got to get over the front more if you haven't seen my video on how we should change our technique to match modern geometry check that out
so this bike from my size is not playful
that super long rear end makes it hard for me to wheely and bunny hop and manual and stuff taller people are fine i've had taller buddies on it and making manual and really just fine but it's hard for me being a shorter guy
oh man look at this place so the big question everyone's wondering is how does this ride compare to the beefy max they're both made by cottag well this has a front triangle that's reynolds 853 the beefy max just had an 853 down tube i don't know if that's the main difference but this bike is noticeably more supple the beefy max was sharper to accelerate a little bit um stiffer in a good way this isn't noodly but it lacks the burst of speed that you get on the beefy max but this is more comfortable so for long days in the saddle if you want more comfort i recommend the solaris max if you want a stiffer more precise ride the beefy max is stiffer and more precise and also this is a size medium that was a size small they're not apples to apples comparison they feel very similar the bottom bracket feels the same between the two this has a low bottom bracket which i love but if you're sloppy with your pedals and you don't know how to time them well you're going to have a lot of pedal strikes but i haven't had a single pedal strike with this yet because i'm used to timing them out here with all our rocks the head angle feels even slacker than it is if i were blindfolded and somebody told me this was a 64 degree head angle i'd believe it part of it's that long shot geometry part of it's that super short stem it just steers different and this bike wants to steer with the bar straight where you steer with your feet you don't steer by turning the bars like an xc bike you turn like you're skiing and you carve corners with your feet if you don't know how to do that yet you might struggle to get on with this bike because you're going to be steering from the top with the bars and it doesn't want to do that it wants to steer and corner like a downhill bike and it will really reward people who have great technique the long chain stay coupled with the long front end makes for a very balanced bike but i don't think i'd recommend this or the beefy max in a size small the front end is just a little too short compared to the back end but this bike is very futuristic in my video where i talk about the future of hardtails i say i think hardtails are going to get slacker with less travel and that's exactly what this is 120 mil travel 66 head angle that feels like 64. this happens to have a long chain stay which like i said will be great for tall riders i wouldn't recommend it for people under five seven unless you're wanting to stay glued to the ground if i were racing enduro this would be my number one choice it just wants to stay on the ground and track it plows extremely well i think with a 140 fork you'd be able to get even a little bit rowdier but to be honest i think the sweet spot for hardtails even aggressive hard deals like this is 130 travel and maybe 120 how i've got it set up here yes i use all the travel but with less travel your geometry isn't changing so much remember that every time you hit a bump the whole bike pivots on the rear axle and everything gets lower on the front so your head angle is changing as you hit bumps and the less that moves the fewer the changes are so if that was a 160 fork you go from 160 to bottom out that's gonna get eight degrees steeper you do a 120 it's only gonna get six degrees steeper i mean yeah it's only two degrees different but you feel it because this stays in its main travel range it stays in the same place more whereas a 160 fork is moving around quite a bit and it is changing the geometry and you can feel that i love the big triangle i love being able to fit two water bottles inside the cage that's super cool i like that you can slam the seat all the way i like that they kept the seat post short i have really short legs but i can run a 150 and they're slammed all the way i think the long chain stay is what makes this bike really want to rip on the downhills it's so planted and it's so stable i can't imagine going over the bars on this bike when it gets steep i just lean on the front and just just lean on the front and on the nose and it just plows down stuff it does super well and what's surprising is it's not just a plow bike it's not poppy and playful for me because of the size of the chain stay longer chain stays longer wheelbase makes it ride more like a hill climber motorcycle where that wheel's way back there it doesn't want to wheelie out as much um it kind of feels like i'm towing a trailer a little bit i mean it's only a centimeter and a half longer than most bikes but you do feel that when you're short especially so i think tall people are going to love this bike it's going to feel a lot better proportioned for a lot of them so this bike will still jump well on manicured jumps but when you're trying to pop off a little rock i find the longer chain stays the timing's a little different and it's not quite as happy to get airborne as some other bikes like the sage flow motion or chameleon or my rsd middle child i don't find myself trying to hop into manuals everywhere i can manual across cracks no problem and hop over logs but my bunny hops are limited my playfulness i i get fun out of this on charging stuff not on popping around and playing around everything and my attitude i'm more of a goof around pop around stuff hop up stuff see if i can get up that so this bike isn't the best for that but it's great for plowing down super super hard stuff i would take this on any trail i've taken any other hardtail it's extremely planted very modern very aggressive for me i don't think it would be the perfect marathon long xc bike packing bike for me because of the size i would need a small size if i was spending all day in the saddle just because i'm a little bit stretched out stretched out is great on the steep downhills and even the steep climbs but on flat stuff i don't like being that stretched out over time so i would size down but then the back end would feel a little longer than i'd want it definitely feels like this was designed by somebody super tall or for somebody super tall and that's great because a lot of tall guys complain that no bikes fit them these days i encourage you to give one of these a try i'll bet it will fit you all right let's get some more ride impressions of this i'll talk more about it as we're riding all right now we're gonna ride down the broken arrow trail we've got some steep sections and that'll be nothing for this bike with that long end as long as we're
ready
this bike wants to charge big time
see if we can find some space to open her up and let her
there's a big move
super smooth and planted down that
this bike to me feels like an enduro race machine wolf in sheep's clothing don't let the 120 mil travel fool you this thing flies and it's so composed
on fast downhills
there that's soft frame makes it ride a lot better more in control less harsh doesn't beat you up as much the longer wheelbase and longer chain stay is the most noticeable thing about this along with the way it steers
it corners extremely well on long sweepers on tight stuff feels a little longer than i'm used to
but you can kind of scandy flick it around a little better because it's easier to unweight because it's so far back to the linking corners this thing is fun
so it can still get on the back wheel it's just not as easy to do as a short wheelbase bike and if you got long legs that doesn't matter because you can get behind it oh this is fun though
pretty chunky here
yeah this bike wants to race down stuff it's really fun
all right let's get some speed super planted and you'll notice i keep the bars straight when i corner i don't turn the bars
it's a nice quiet frame i love the external cable routing really nicely built frame this is what they mean when they say steel is real this ram feels great i'm riding faster on this bike than no than my other short wheelbase bikes because i'm not looking for stuff to pop off of i'm just kind of straight line and everything that's not to say this spike doesn't handle well it does i just can't make it dance like my other one so i've stopped looking for all the fun little stuff to pop off of i do like this bike better than the beefy max i think because i think 120 130 travels just about right for a hard tail like this
and i don't think i'd ever run this plus i love plus bikes hang on i need to stop talking i need concentration here
i love plus bikes but it doesn't suit the attitude of this bike this bike wants to go fast and 29ers are faster than plus doesn't want to goof around and it's not the head angle it's a chain stay in the stack
sedona doesn't have a whole bunch of super fast downhills most of our stuff's rolling with chunk and exposure so you never get going quite super fast so this wouldn't be my first choice for sedona it's doing fine
but i feel like it just wants to be opened up and i'm never able to fully open it up i do love how modern this bike is though with that long reach and slack head angle
all right i've never tried to go up this it's a little bit okay it's a lot sketchy there's a big side hill to the right i'll make sure to fall left if i fall
yeah cool i've never done that before this bike does give me a lot of confidence to try stuff
so planted it's the opposite of twitchy if the chainstay were shorter i'd want a shorter reach but for this long chain stay this reach feels great
now we're in the slow tech the slow punchy moves of the hogs
and you'd think a long slack bike
wouldn't balance very well on this stuff it balances great but you'll notice this whole video my bars are almost always totally straight unless i'm at a super sharp switchback this bike steers by leaning more than turning at the bars you don't want to turn like this on
you don't turn like this clean the bike and that's a skill you kind of have to get used to on these modern bikes not everyone is used to that so they ride them and think oh just felt like dead steering
doesn't feel dead to me
you just steer with your feet instead of your hands i'm gonna do a video on that soon on how to steer with your feet because a lot of people still don't know what i'm talking about time to rate this bike climbing i'm gonna give it a 10 out of 10. it doesn't climb for that big waterfall i was trying sometimes the longer wheelbase is better sometimes the shorter is better i think a shorter wheelbase is gonna help me on that but who knows it's more brighter lack of skill than the bike problem and i didn't get up that
it's got a nice steep seat angle that's one of the latest updates to this model i don't feel like i'm over the back i feel like this bike was really built with tall people in mind it's deeper seat angle longer reaches longer chainstay you tall guys are going to love this a nice modern hardtail is it a marathon bike
sure you could do marathon rides on it
but something like a carbon epic is gonna weigh three pounds less just in the frame
that's not to say this is a heavy bike but it's built to take abuse
this would be my first choice for a hardtail at whistler i think it's just so planted and that more compliant frame
ride quality this is more compliant than my banshee paradox more compliant than the aluminum chameleon more compliant than my thai middle child
more compliant than
the kona hanzo by far
it's not as noodly as the marin pine mountain tube not quite as soft as that bike it's more compliant than the beefy max
there's really only one or two bikes ever and they're more compliant than this this is got a really nice ride
just takes the sting out of stuff
it's a little bit less precise on the rear end and the beefy max that bike's got a really cool sprightly stiff zippy feel this one's a little more muted those two have more in common with each other than different they're very similar bikes
but this one i like a little more
and for people my height if you live in steep terrain with steep drops and stuff like this
guide size to the medium if you're more comfortable on the small i'd probably get something with the shorter chainstay the companies from the uk i've noticed when they make a 29er they make the chainstays pretty long where a lot of other companies
try to tuck those 29ers chainstays as much as possible
that 444 and the short stem are very noticeable and will take considerable getting used to do not judge this bike on its first ride learn how to steer with the feet and it will reward you
and i already steered with my feet but still took a long time to get used to when i let my buddies ride it they're in the same boat so playfulness i'm going to give this bike a 4 out of 10 for my size i refer to playfulnesses how well the bike bunny hops jumps goofs around makes you want to jib off of everything it actually feels like this bike's kind of resisting it if you're tall you can make it dance a lot more but when you have short legs you can't get that you can't get your hips far enough behind the rear axle to hold a manual very well even wheelies i have to lift that front end so high i can't hold them very long on this bike
and that low stack that low front end
it kind of feels xc racy with the low front end and it's planted but it makes it harder to pop onto that back wheel which i mean let's face it that's the reason xc bikes have a low front end is to keep the front end down and not to keep it up
so if you're on a large or extra large i think you'll still find this quite playful
if the stack's tall enough i'll have to look at the charts to see how big the stack is i definitely run riser bars on this bike to make it more playful downhill i'm going to give this a 10 out of 10. this is very
very stable downhill and it just begs to be pushed downhill more and more and more downhill this thing begs to be pushed but it requires a modern bike position you've got to get over the front especially with that short stem look at how i'm steering with the bars totally straight
you lean the bike a lot but you don't twist the bars but that just shows how stable this thing is downhill this bike with a 140 fork would be my enduro race bike of choice for sure
or i'm trying to stay on the ground just crush out the speed
it's still surprisingly willing to get up steppy stuff so even though i say it's not playful i can still get small wheelies and manuals in to get old up and over features so yeah cornering i'm going to give it a 10 out of 10 too corners like it's on rails if you're over the front if you're scared and you lock your arms and get away from the front you're gonna hate it
yeah cornering feels great you do feel the long wheelbase on really tight switchbacks but you adjust to it
but a long wheelbase makes a bike track extremely well it makes sweeping corners feel like berms you just kind of lock into the corner it has good balance between the front and rear if you ever come to sedona be very careful of your speeds with all the hikers here it'd be easy to hit a family
yeah this is one of the most supple bikes i've ridden it's not noodly it feels great
and coupled with these zip 3-0 moto wheels man what a match
bravo kotik you've done a great job on this bike
a lot of people think all hardtails ride the same or even all hardtails with similar geocharts to ride the same this bike grew totally different than what i expected looking at the geochart feels more planted feels slacker it feels like more of a race charger than i thought it would
car tails feel so different from bike to bike and this one is noticeably different from almost every other bike i ride so i hope this helps you decide if this bike is for you that's why i do these reviews so who's this bike for this bike's for anyone who wants to know what a good steel frame feels like only about 10 of the steel frames that ride feel like this the rest are too stiff this bike's for someone who wants to stay connected to the ground and go fast or who's tall this would be a fantastic all-arounder trail bike for someone over 510. i think this bike rewards a steeper more difficult place to ride if you're in northern california sure it'll still be fun but you'll never even come close to reaching the potential of this bike because there's nothing there hard enough to really push this i feel like the 120 fork was a good match if you're smooth and if you have a good fork like this helm you can dial this helmet to feel exactly how you want it to feel i think most people would prefer a 130 fork on this i don't feel like 140 would be better unless you were racing enduro on it but for all rounder man i'd probably keep 120 on this just throw some tall bars on so is this bike for you it can be if you're short like me i think the wheelbase is a little too long the chain stays a little too long the reach is a little too long unless you're tackling really steep technical stuff it's fun i wouldn't want it as my only bike here because the trails just aren't steep enough and fast enough to really maximize that long chain state and i like something more playful if you're tall i think it could be a great option if you i don't know if it's the right marathon bike mainly because i've got mine built up so heavy if you built this up light and you like the lower front end you might really like this bike but it does feel more like an enduro bike than an xc marathon bike it's a great all-rounder trail bike this is what the future of hardtails are going to be like i think hopefully some with shorter chainstays because i think shorter chainstays would make this pretty much the perfect trail bike for me because i'm so short if you're wondering how this bike compares to some other bikes or if you need help deciding if it's for you i offer a bike consulting service through patreon it's one on one you fill out a questionnaire we work back and forth to help you find the perfect bike if you know what you want and what you need and you can read the geo tables and these reviews give you what you need no need for that service but if you have other questions like how does this compare to the johnny rotten or how does this compare to the middle child i save all of that for my paying patrons i get a lot of bike requests every day and i can't handle those just doing them for free so i have to charge for them on patreon if that's something you're interested in head over to patreon.com hardtailparty and check it out i want to give a huge shout out to my patrons for making this channel possible it's the reason i'm able to make these videos as often as i do this is a fantastic bike if you want a long chain stay and a planted bike it's probably my favorite long chain stay bike i've ever ridden it is my favorite and this would be my first choice for an enduro race bike or a bike where i wanted to go as fast as i possibly could hope you enjoyed that review thanks for watching there's a party in the mountains and you're invited