You may have seen F1 pilot Fernando Alonso sweet-talk about the new Mercedes C class in a TV ad. Factory riders have to love their rides. But often they indeed do. Solid team rider Sasha Merljak reviewed his ‘07 downhill race bike, a Solid Mission-9.
The Brand
SOLID bikes is a rider-owned-operated mountain bike company from Freudenstadt (south-west of Stuttgart), Germany. Every employee at SOLID is a rider whether it’s XC, DH, FR, Dirt, Park or Street. Everyone there rides, from janitor to phone operator to bike mechanic to website designer to shipping department to including the boss himself - Peter Schmid (35), founder of SOLID bikes who started this company in 2000. It’s a smaller company with less than a dozen employees but with big goals and enthusiasm. Smaller companies work twice as hard and twice as much on developing products to compete with the big guns but yet need to keep their product at competitive affordable pricing to fit in with the corporate market and to satisfy customers’ budget.
So far SOLID bikes has distribution in Germany, Slovenia, UK, France, Israel, Italy, Spain, Switzerland and Sweden. SOLID also produces their own components line under the name REVERSE COMPONENTS but we will product test these next month or so.
I am one of their DH factory team riders and have been “test” riding their DH bike since July 2007 so I know every move of this bike and also had an opportunity to get to know my the Peter in person. He is a very laid back and motivated person and will tell you funny stories while drinking beer with you.
The Bike
SOLID Mission-9 has 235 mm of rear travel which is little more than your average DH frame. It uses the patented sturdy motolink for rear linkage, very similar to motocross bikes, and with a 150 mm through 12 mm rear hub/axle you have a recipe for a rigid, fast and agile bike, I could say a “solid” rear end.
They offer 2 sizes: S and M. I’m 180 cm tall and chose size M and it fits me perfect, size S would be too small for me since it’s about 5cm shorter.
First run I took down I didn’t know what to expect but angles and the feeling on the bike was as if I’ve had the bike all season, it felt as if I already knew the bike.
I’m not sure if it’s because of 20 mm more rear travel than my previous bike or because of patented motolink but this bike flies through rock gardens and sometimes it feels like it floats above rocks yet it stays down to the surface letting you control your steering while finding lines through big rocks.
Bike handles excellent on disturbed shaky terrain and it treats massive boulders as launch ramps so you can clear undesired rocks and keeps flowing over rocks with great stability. Very easy to bunny hop with this bike over rocks or logs.
It handles pretty well on off-camber shaky terrain too, you chose a line and you have it. The rear suspension system absorbs bumps and doesn’t drag you down off-camber.
Mission-9 handles very positively in quick explosive corners with help of berms on hard pack terrain, catapult effect which is excellent for accelerating at end of berm. Slow turns however are all in your hands not in the bike so you learn that.
Mission-9 is a very agile bike on assorted terrain and feels better than many other bikes can even compare to and is a very quiet bike-no rattling and clinging noises and when you do get rocks thrown in down tube it’s a quiet muffled sound.
It’s a very well balanced frame on jumps too, have no problems nose diving as I did before on my previous bike.
I really do like the bike and how it handles, I noticed the difference on my very first run, I give it a 9 out of 10 but I think the 2008 model is a 10 and I sincerely tell you it rides better than my previous 2 DH bikes.
Factory team gets the racing green color (candy apple metallic green), the rest is in white and in black.
Cons
Bottom bracket shell is 100mm wide which forces you to install a 148 mm BB which is naturally heavier than your typical shorter BB. 148 mm BB and a 150 mm rear hub means your chain ring is aligned straight with your smallest cassette sprocket instead of somewhere in the middle of the cassette. When you shift to biggest cassette sprocket (1st gear) you can notice the chain is bent-crossed for a whole width of the cassette. If you don’t have a good and tight functional chain guide and you ride in 1st speed over rocks and such bumpy terrain this will cause the chain to be forced off the front chain ring while pedaling and getting jammed in between chain ring and chain guide. I had major problems at first but then installed a better chain guide and chain hasn’t fallen off ever since, it just looks like chain is suffering when it’s bent like that but functions normally. Another minor “con” is that Mission-9 ‘07 frame alone weights in at 5.2kg without the shock which is a little bit heavy due to this beefy construction frame but I got used to it in my first run. My complete Mission-9 bike set up weights 19 kg and my previous bike was a Morewood at 18 kg.
Pros
The only cons I found were already changed on 2008 frame!!!
2008 Mission-9 frame uses a narrower BB shell 83 mm to let you install your lighter 113 mm BB and so your chain aligns on center of cassette. With a razor blade and new tubing design SOLID Peter shaved 800 g off the frame, yes almost 1 kg for the new 2008 Mission-9 frame (pictured)! All geometry and linkage system remains the same and new frame has an ISCG mount for old and new ISCG guides bolt pattern.
Both versions ’07 and ’08 come with optional rear floating disc brake mount.
2008 only comes in racing green for factory team and in white for the rest and will be available for purchase in February 2008, start saving!
Links:
www.solidbikes.de/eng/bikes_mission9.html
www.idsport.si
