Scott Addict and Solace launched at Eurobike

Scott reintroduced the updated Addict at Eurobike last week, and showed the brand new Solace, a new model designed for the growing endurance segment of the road bike market.

Addict

The new Addict is light: a 995g frame and fork weight (for a size 54cm) is lighter than some frames. Scott has always been a manufacturer driven by weight and pushing at the limits of carbon frame design. The new Addict hasn’t been the best kept secret this year, we spotted it at Paris-Roubaix where it was getting some final race testing, before being properly unveiled at the Tour de France. This was our first chance to look at it all wrapped up in proper decals.

They’ve achieved the weight savings over the old Addict by using what they like to call HMX Net SL carbon fibre. In reality that means they’ve upped the amount of Toray T1000G carbon fibre, a light and strong fibre but with a high price tag, allowing Scott to reduce the weight of the frame while still maintaining the desired level of stiffness. The resin holding the fibres together is reinforced with carbon nanotubes, a further step in reducing weight.

Scott have worked at improving the comfort offered by the new Addict. The old model was incredibly stiff, almost too much for many peopel, and the Foil also offered an uncompromisingly stiff ride. With a narrow 27.2mm seatpost and chainstays and seatstays designed to provide a degree of deflection, Scott claim a 39% increase in flex under seatpost load.

The Addict laos borrows some of the Foil’s aerodynamic tube shaping, with similarly truncated airfoil main tubes that, claim Scott, reduces drag at 45kph by 13.2% compared to the old bike. We’re seeing the lines between regular road bikes and aero road bikes blurring, with bikes like the Trek Madone 7 showing it’s possible to offer increased aerodynamics while still retaining the classic road bikes lines.

The Addict will be available in seven builds, starting with a Shimano Ultegra option and rising to this pimped SRAM Red 22 build with Ritchey WCS Carbon stem, handlebars and seatpost and Syncros RL1.0 Carbon wheels.

Solace

The endurance sector is rapidly filling with offerings from most manufacturers, and the Solace is the latest to join the fray. Essentially, they’re regular road bikes with geometry modified - usually with taller head tubes and shorter top tubes - for longer distance riding, Gran Fondos and sportives, but still with the weight and ride performance of a race bike. Fast and comfortbale, what's not to like?

To achieve the desired level of comfort without compromising stiffness too much, Scott have split the frame into the Power Zone - head tube, down tube and chainstays - and the Comfort Zone - seat stays, seat tube and top tube. The fork is similarly split, the bottom half providing comfort and the top half stiffness. It’s a similar approach seen on other bikes, the Argon Gallium Pro for example, essentially the top half of the frame is skinny and designed to absorb vibrations, while the bottom half is beefed up enough for excellent power transfer and handling stiffness.

Every tube in the Power Zone is enlarged to provide stiffness, with the oversized press-fit bottom bracket shell, asymmetrical chainstays, huge downtube and tapered head tube. The top half of the frame is designed to allow deflection, and to allow the seat stays to do this well they've removed the brake caliper and placed it down below the chainstays. With the brake bridge now gone the seat stays should be able to provide increased comfort. Scott say that attaching the seat stays to the sides of the top tube instead of the seat tube further increases the frames ability to reduce vibrations reaching the rider.

Scott have clearly worked their carbon knowhow with the Solace, as the frame weighs a claimed 890g for a size 54cm. That’s pretty light, even by top-end race bike standards, let alone one designed to be comfortable. With a 330g fork the combined frameset weight is 1,220g. Like the Addict, the Solace has internally routed cables and is Di2 compatible, a tapered head tube and press-fit bottom bracket.

In the comfort stakes, Scott claim the new Solace provides 42% more of it than the CR1, but just how they arrived at this figure isn’t clear. Other claims they offered at Eurobike include a17% bottom bracket stiffness increase over the CR1. If these numbers stack up, and we can't wait to ride the bike to find out, it should be a really interesting contender in the endurance bike stakes, up against the likes of the Trek Domane, Bianchi Infinito CV, Specialized Roubaix and Cannondale Synapse, to name a few examples.  The Solace will be offered in 12 sizes, with size-specific geometry and carbon layup.

Scott will offer the Solace in ten builds, from a Shimano 105 spec right up to this top of the line model with Shimano Dura-Ace Di2 (with internal battery), Syncros carbon finishing kit and Syncros RL1.1 carbon wheels.

We'll confirm UK prices when we get them... More details at www.scott-sports.com