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Santa Cruz Bikes Launches The Solo, A New 27.5 5″ Trail Bike

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Hot on the heels of their four new women’s bikes and first 27.5″ trail bike, Santa Cruz Bikes is launching the all new Solo trail bike. A 125mm tweener wheeled trail slayer guaranteed to put a smile across your face. It’s snappy, it climbs, and it will be available in both carbon and aluminum starting very soon.

Drop past the break for the dirt…Santa Cruz Solo

The Solo shares many features in common with it’s 26″ little brother, the TRc. A low ~13.1″ BB, similar middle of the road chain stay numbers, and interestingly – the same 68 degree headtube angle.
Santa Cruz Solo Stealth Routing

Two water bottle mounts, easily accessible pivots, stealth routing, ISCG05 tabs, and the usual tapered headtube and 142 rear end round out the rest of the build.
Santa Cruz Solo Black

 

Both the carbon and aluminum frames will be available in either Mountain Rescue Orange and Black and will be offered in four different sizes. Santa Cruz Solo GeometryRetail prices for complete aluminum options begin at $3,299 and $4,199 for the carbon model.

Solo Specs

  • 125mm VPP suspension
  • 27.5″ wheels
  • Sizes: S, M, L, XL
  • Frame Weight: 2295g (5.06lbs) for size M, carbon
  • 142mm rear axle spacing
  • 2x bottle cage mounts
  • Forged upper and lower links
  • Double sealed pivots with grease ports for low maintenance
  • Collet axle pivots and angular contact bearings maximize stiffness
  • Standard or Direct mount rear derailleur option
  • ISCG-05 tabs for chainguide compatibility
  • Stealth and external seatpost cable routing
  • 73mm threaded bb: creak-free riding and easy installation
  • Molded rubber frame protection

If anyone was keeping track, that is the 6th new bike Santa Cruz has launched this year!

For more info, visit Santa Cruz Bikes

 

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mtb-blog
10 years ago

Nice bike, but what an awful orange and blue colourscheme..

Solo
Solo
10 years ago

They named it after me, they did they really did!!! 😀

Han
Han
10 years ago

No, they named it after me! Next up from Santa Cruz, the Chewie.

MaLóL
MaLóL
10 years ago

why would i want a 27,5″ if it already has suspension and i´m 1.78m tall and i´m not rich?¿?¿?

but i must admit, it’s an awesome dentist bike.

Gopherhug
Gopherhug
10 years ago

Love the Orange and blue!
I’ve seen alot of these “bike intro” videos and this has got to be one of the best. I’m going to Scotland!

Conner
Conner
10 years ago

Santa Cruz’s new business model, put 650b wheels on all their bikes and call them brand new ground breaking bikes.

filibuster cash
filibuster cash
10 years ago

similar to trek’s long time business model, which is to take someone else’s technology and call it their own. (“E2”, or the same steerer taper that everyone is using, et cetera.) that said, diggin the boise state colours! and wherever that was shot, kudos. gorgeous.

JimmyZ
JimmyZ
10 years ago

I just wish it had a 1.5 headtube so that it could become more slack more easily. I have 68 degree head tube angle on my 100 mm bike. I might feel weird on a bike with both more travel and an effectively steeper head tube angle. I’m sure that lots of thought went into the geometry, though, and most people in the target segment love it from this first glance.

boobie
boobie
10 years ago

I feel like my Blur LT is getting attacked by… Santa Cruz.

Andy
10 years ago

Is this or is this not a Juliana Furtado (as launched last week) in SC paint?

Brian
Brian
10 years ago

This bike looks awesome but the pricing for the carbon version (similar to the Bronson) is our of control! Most of the carbon packages are over $7K! Who can afford to ride bikes like this!?

Jeb
Jeb
10 years ago

@boobie, I know how you feel (LTc owner too) but I like my bike and considering Santa Cruz outright said they felt no advantage of 27.5 over 26 and they are just making them because that’s what people want, I’m fine on my 26″ for the time being.

Fabricio
Fabricio
10 years ago

Liked the video very good quality and scenes… The bike? well just another Blur with big wheels, nothing new in designs, sorry SC. Not impressed by the “news”

pdxley
10 years ago

Usually I’m not so susceptible to advertising, but damn that video made me really want that bike. …until I saw the pricing.

Chsad
Chsad
10 years ago

That’s interesting that SC claims the 650b movement is rider based. Most journalists have written that the movement as a whole has been industry based. The don’t get left behind like we did with 29er thought. That said and I like the video didn’t we see this with Matt Hunter and a dead fish? Also check the price of the Blur TRC and then the price of the Solo C bith in Spx builds. Those 650b wheels must be a lot more expensive then 26 inch wheels. While i admit this sounds critical I bet the bike rips and they will sell a ton of them. But don’t tell me some guy who has never ever ridden a 650b bike is clamping banging on the doors of Bronson like ascend from the Walking Dead. By the ways have ridden a 650b before

Jason
10 years ago

From conversations with a few folks in the know, my take away is that the 650b is indeed industry and marketing based. However, Santa Cruz is a company that needs to sell bikes, and the reality is that on all the demo days, there are huge lines for the 650b bikes (Bronson in this case) and very few signups for 26″, or even 29″. Consumers are eager to try the latest, and bikes like the Blur LT are sitting stagnant on the sales floor of your local IBD.

Like a lot of riders that bought a 29er to try it out, the bike I pick when heading out the door has 26″ wheels, while my 29er sits on it’s hook. A lot of my buddies in the NW that tried 29″ trail bikes have already sold them and are back on 26″. The terrain they ride is a lot more jump filled than the trails in my backyard here in the Bay Area though. That said, many of those same riders (early adopters with disposable income to spare or bike-centric life priorities) are now ordering 650b bikes.

Barry
Barry
10 years ago

The Santa Cruz 650b models come with Stealth Reverb at the SPX level–something the 26/29 bikes don’t include. Looks like Solo might also come with Kashima shock upgrade–also previously an add-on. That would account for the price discrepancy.

Lawman
Lawman
10 years ago

JimmyZ, works components do tapered anglesets that will work with a tapered steerer tube. Got one on my Mojo HD and its an awesome bit of kit and way better than a cane creek, and a third of the price. They do upto 1.5 degrees of offset, the Solo with a 66.5 head angle would be an awesome bike! Can’t decide between this or the bronson for my next bike, tough decision!!

Eric@505
Eric@505
10 years ago

Come now: are you mad at Ford because they make a Shelby GT 500 Mustang (or for the real 1%-ers, M-series BMWs or AMG Mercedes?)

The price-is-no-object models are called “Halo” vehicles. Duh. Real people (re: those of us w/ spouses, mortgages, student loans, credit card debt, etc.) drive the “ordinary versions” (‘merely’ the plain vanilla Mustang GT (or 328i, if you wish)) which translates to our bikes built up with X7/X9 or SLX. And often being ‘merely’ aluminum.

You do not read Car and Driver (or MotorTrend, or ________ (name your magazine here)) to look at Toyota Camrys and Subaru Foresters. Or to see pictures of regular people from the local Applebee’s. Again, duh.

And quit banging on dentists, those poor guys/gals… : )

Rant over, climbing down off my soapbox. Next.

Peace,
E

PS: OTOH, I do love absurdity for absurdity’s sake. BR readers of course have running gags regarding Campy seatposts, fender mounts (or lack thereof), dentists, and anything regarding Specialized and legal matters. Keep it going. Love it! : )

professor
professor
10 years ago

I wonder how much SC spent on making that video. Business must be good.

PDXFixed
PDXFixed
10 years ago

as Andy pointed out, what is different between this and that Juliana Furtado bike recently announced?

Chsad
Chsad
10 years ago

Barry rep points for the spec find. Jason have not been to an SC demo and essentially it is a trend driven sport. Is it the new golf? I read that some place and it made my skin crawl. Golf is fine but I got into mtb to not be part of that “machine”. Eric I hear you on the dentist thing precision work costs but it must be the paying for pain thing that gets people. The real pain is not going. So in the end SC has a new smartly designed bike that is the TRC with a bigger wheel and most of us would gladly ride one. Who ever does their videos does a great job. To make people look at a bike like the Chameleon when it seems to all about going big you have to have some chops. That video is sick.

Matt
Matt
10 years ago

@Chsad – Elitist attitudes suck worse than golfers. But do not despair as the pain of going uphill will always keep in check the number of riders on the really good trails.

Chsad
Chsad
10 years ago

Oh don’t get me wrong. I love nice bikes. But to say
that people have been clamoring for this?
Ask Kirk Pacenti when he started pushing the
wheel size spent his own $$$ on bring tires to
market. However a no major fork maker would
produce a fork and the major players (Haro?) weren’t interested.
People clamor for disc brakes that are quiet and modulate. People clamor
for front derailleurs that work and suspsenion bikes that don’t feel like
a water bed.

kcr
kcr
10 years ago

The aluminum version is more than a half pound lighter than the aluminum Blur TRc, and a pound lighter than most of SC’s aluminum full suspension bikes????

maximumunicorn
maximumunicorn
10 years ago

@kcr – I was surprised about that as well. I’m curious to see that weight confirmed. I’ve got no real reason to doubt it, I’m just surprised (in a good way).

bin judgin
bin judgin
10 years ago

SB66 carbon for me. Corners better than VPP, and its lighter than bigger wheels.

Colin W
10 years ago

Killer intro video!

Derek
Derek
10 years ago

Is there no FD mount?

Derek
Derek
10 years ago

Guess you can put a clamp on it. I thought it looked too flared from the pictures.

Padrote
Padrote
10 years ago

what’s more interesting than mountain bike companies offering bikes with three different wheel sizes is that people get so indignant about it. like the fact that someone would choose to ride a 650b or 29″ wheel offends them personally.

Mindless
Mindless
10 years ago

So bad that all the awesome riding in the Sierra Nevada is illegal because of the retarded wilderness law interpretation.

It is “motorized”, not “mechanized”, you congress idiots.

Lyndo
Lyndo
10 years ago

I want to know who gets credit for the sound track on the Santa Cruz Solo video?
Anybody!!!

Ben
Ben
10 years ago

I would have thought that by now steve pete could afford a nicer place.

Shanghaied
Shanghaied
10 years ago

@Lyndo, it’s Joe Gideon and the Shark, as it says right at the end.

Wayne
Wayne
10 years ago

I’ve been shopping for my first squish bike, after 20 years of MTB riding… (Currently a SS29 only). I want a second bike and a bike with some gears for the big long rides in Sedona and Colorado etc. This would be my first full bounce bike.

I got to demoed the Bronson (Aluminum) the other day… Awesome bike, but honestly too much bike for me. That thing would get me in trouble and fast. And compared to the Tallboy it is too hard to peddle up the hill.

Being 6’2” so I am excited about a larger then 26 wheel, and a 29 full bounce is just too big. I have ridden the Tallboy LT a couple of times, love it, but just a little too big to get your zippy on. I think the 27.5 is win win win for all of us.

As far as price… Ya it Fn’ spendy. But look at anyone who has a boat, motorcycle, quads new cars … any big boy hobby, this is cheaper and better for the old ticker. JUSTIFIED.

Incomes the Solo. I am phcked. Can’t wait to ride it, I hope I like it!!!

julie
julie
10 years ago

I think that the Furtado and the Solo are identical geometry-wise. However, the Furtado only comes with 2 build options, the Carbon is $5,900! I am leaning towards the Solo Carbon with a base build kit to upgrade over time. However after reading that the aluminum is almost as light I am wondering if it would be better to get the alum and a better build kit? I am only 5’5″ and 130lbs so don’t need the strength of carbon really. Thoughts?

Mick
Mick
10 years ago

Been riding 26″ since early 90’s, hard tail and suspension. Currently ride a Niner Jet9, love it awesome bike, so much better than 26″ for me. I have been waiting for the 650b/27.5 to try out. Very interested in testing this bike, hoping it will roll like the 29er but with the control of a 26″.

the dude
the dude
10 years ago

wow, santa cruz bikes look so vanilla now. looks like the same bike no matter what you get. sad, the nomad v.1 and alum v10 and jackals had such contrast to the blur ltc and lt. each bike was unique. Now you have to read the top tube to see what bike it is. lamesauce. sorry scb. I liked you, now not so much.

Chsad
Chsad
10 years ago

I don’t believe wheel size or “wheel wars” is at play here. Choice is great but I do believe people are tired of “new standards” and their 2012 wonder bike looking like a model t I’d 6 months. On the end we all know a good engine trumps all.

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