Cotic Solaris Max - Kinesis Aithein. Go long - go fast.

I always felt slightly under-biked on my gravel bike. Felt like I could have more fun on the local bridleways and trails on a MTB, and always felt like I was leaving something on the table on road rides. So thought fuggit, and decided to build up a MTB and road bike to round out the collection.

Found a Cotic Solaris Max on eBay to serve the MTB duties. Having to build that up from scratch as I've never actually owned a MTB before, so had no bits lying around.

Then got a Kinesis Aithein, which I'm transplanting all the running kit over from a donor bike.

The Cotic frame and forks are the first of many, many bits to arrive. In the first instance I'm building it up rigid and using it as a gnarly gravel bike type thing. Partly because this is the kind of riding I like doing, partly to save money.

For the kinesis I want to build it up as a bit of an angry little crit bike. My favourite road rides are 30-40 miles, full gas. So building it up accordingly. Annoyingly, the only wheels I have are some heavy, dead alloy wheels. But wanting some deep carbon wheels before long.

This is all I've got so far, but gonna be a busy couple of weeks I reckon!

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Wow, that’s slack. Going 27.5 or 29?

Yeah I was a bit worried about the slackness, and it feeling a bit dead, but it's supposed to be ran with a 30mm stem, which keeps it responsive. And building it as a 29er.

I did a similar thing with an earlier Solaris. 48c gravel kings are still pretty capable off-road as long as it isn’t muddy, and you have at least moderate MTB skillz

It’s not gonna rip the black route at Stainburn, but well at home on Ilkley Moor ;)

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That looks like a right little rocket ship!

Wheels, tyres and rotors on! (and seat clamp). It is bloody slack.

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The Solaris looks great with the carbon fork, looking forward to seeing it built up.

I've had one for 3.5yrs as my main MTB now, easily the best hardtail I've ridden, I really love it. It's done everything from bikepacking trips to a couple of rounds of the local downhill series and everything in-between. The faster you ride it the better it feels, it took me a while to get used to the long, slack front end.

Bad pic of current build:

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Ask you a potentially stupid question? Looking at the bike next to my gravel bike, obviously the wheelbase is much longer, but the reach is much shorter. I'm looking at it wondering if it's going to feel like I'm riding with my hands in my lap?

Yours is a good looking build though!

You'll be more upright than you would be on the gravel bike for sure, I can't imagine it'll feel weird though. Mine is very comfortable set up as above for any length ride.
For reference mine is a Large and I'm 5'11 with a 35mm stem on it.
Thanks! Set up on the most robust side of things at the moment.

what is it calles this days? downgravel?
looking good so far. those newer generation cotic hardtails (longshot) need a bit of personal adjustment.
interessting project so far.

Your bars should be about twice as wide as on the gravel bike, so your arms are shorter/ reach is longer.

BIG UPDATE! Had some trouble with odds and sods not fitting, and needed some small bits. But pretty much everything has arrived and has been fitted. Brakes could do with a bleed, and just waiting on a chain, then I'm rolling. Really happy with how it's turned out, I was worried the rigid forks might look odd on such a slack frame, but I'm really happy with proportions and lines of it. And just swinging a leg over in it's current state I don't feel like a bear riding a tricycle. Excited to get out on it.

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As for the kinesis, that'll be much simpler. The frame is currently in a depot in Rotherham. Soon as it arrives it should be a simple case of lifting everything from an existing bike and shifting it over.

Looks great. Midnight blue is a great colour

Right well, the one that was supposed to be easy obviously went tits up. The previous owner of the frame must have ran it 1x di2, as the cable guides for my 2x mechanical set up don't work. The brake bolts from the old frameset don't fit the new frameset, and when I was putting the bottle cage on righty tighty turned into righty loosey. So need to get that sorted!

But! I really like it, it's got more clearance than the old frame which is great at 28s used to run. I think if I go to wider carbon rims I might struggle with 28s, and have to go down to 25s. The cheapo alloy wheels currently on it don't look as gash as I thought they might. So happy to run them till I've got the funds together for something better. And I think it's just going to be much more suited to the kind of riding I enjoy.

Before and after pics below.

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