ANDY MCCANDLISH’S 2013 SANTA CRUZ 5010/SOLO C

£2,599 (frame) Photographer Andy liked this one so much, he still has it

Is it a Solo? Or a 5010? Yes… and yes, in this case. The front end is branded 5010c, the rear triangle is pure Solo. In 2013 Santa Cruz got a rap on the knuckles for using the Solo name for their first 650b-wheeled trail bike so it was quietly changed to 5010, but not before Ric McLaughlin (see left) bought this one. It wasn’t long before he managed to crash and write o the front end. This was quickly replaced, but the new front triangle bore the updated 5010c moniker. I bought the frame, Fox 34 Factory fork and Float CTD shock from Ric in 2015, and that discrepancy is just one of the things I love about it.

It’s the extra-large, sized to give me the reach I wanted; at 5ft 11in (180cm) I’d never needed an XL before, but one leg over made me realise it was the right size. I’m not a man easily parted from his cash, so I built it back up with solid but decentvalue components, including a Shimano SLX/XT drivetrain, SLX brakes (now replaced with Hope’s excellent Tech 3 E4 combo) and a set of Stan’s NoTubes/ Hope Pro 2 wheels that I wrestled o Ric in a last-ditch bargain as I left his garage. Everything else was either trousered when his back was turned (sorry Ric!) or salvaged from parts in my own garage.

Ric had bolted in some Burgtec o set shock hardware to slacken the head angle by 1.5 degrees and lower the bottom bracket. Realising that I was grinding roots and rocks a little too often with the cranks (the 5010 already has a low BB) and that the seat angle was a little slack for extended climbing, I took both bushings out, before replacing just one, which felt perfect, leaving the head angle at just over 67 degrees.

Having ridden a 5010 previously and had a glowing review from our Ric, I knew it was exactly what I wanted – a mountain climbing, technical-trail munching delight. It was the first really e cient trail bike I’d ridden for any length of time, and it just floated up hill and down dale. I was smitten – and still am. Its first outing in anger was a bikepacking trip into the Cairngorms with a great friend, Andy McKenna. Abandoning our overnight gear at a perfect riverside location, we delved deeper into the Lairig Ghru, tackling the rocky singletrack at full speed. The 5010 just floated through sections, but with a tight playfulness that made me want to go faster. It ate everything up and responded to aggressive pedalling instantly, surging forward. I still haven’t jumped on a bike like it, so it retains pride of place in my garage. I love it.

Seduced by the 2012 Zesty’s curvaceous chassis and reports of its sublime ride, I just had to have one, and its performance put even my beloved Cotic Soul hardtail in the shade. The spec on this entry-level carbon model was nothing special, but it was the best I could a ord. As on any bike at that time, my first moves were to fit a wider bar and shorter stem, and then to convert it to 1x10. Working at BikeRadar, I was soon able to upgrade it with some fancier kit in need of long-term testing, including lightweight DT Swiss Tricon wheels (thanks Rob!) and a KS LEV dropper.

Let the good times roll

I had some great times on this bike, riding everything from the then-new Cafall trail at Cwmcarn (still one of my favourites) to some of the Tweed Valley’s best bits. It was surprisingly good on the climbs, where the ProPedal lever on the Fox RP2 shock rarely got a look-in, and a ton of fun on the downhills too, despite being a little short and upright by today’s standards, with a 625mm e ective top tube length on my XL (reach measurements weren’t commonly stated back then) and a 67-degree head angle. At just over 12kg straight from the shop, it was pretty light too – that kind of weight is unheard of for a 140mm-travel bike these days, due to the adoption of bigger, wider wheels and tyres, more stretched-out frame geometry and dropper posts.

In fact, I liked it so much that it was only when I moved on to MBUK that I reluctantly decided to sell it (when you can get your hands on a state-of-the-art long-termer every year, there’s less time to ride your own bikes and they start to look less appealing). However, there were a few bad times on this bike too. Cracking the carbon rocker link on one of my first rides with the MBUK crew wasn’t ideal. I also had one of my worst ever crashes on the Zesty, as documented in the pages of this very magazine. Game over We were up on the Mendip Hills shooting a feature for the mag and all was going well – the sun was shining, the birds were singing, Chew Valley Lake was shimmering in the distance, and the trails were dry and dusty. Too dusty, in fact. We’d got some great photos in the bag up on Black Down and were heading back down when Seb Rogers, our snapper for the day, asked me to tail Jimmer down a particularly loose section so he could get some two-up descending shots. The two of us were so close that all I could do was focus on not hitting Jimmer and hope that the Zesty would roll over whatever was beneath its wheels. It didn’t.

Next thing I knew, I was lying on the ground, winded, in a big pile of body and bike, and with a sizeable patch of blood forming on my pristine white Fox jersey. With help from Seb and Jimmer – both looking really worried – I got down the hill and Seb then drove me to A&E in Bristol, where it turned out I hadn’t done anything more serious than putting a couple of decent holes in my chin and arm. My wife wasn’t too impressed though, with a three-monthold baby to look after, a husband with his arm in a sling and the family car abandoned somewhere on the Mendips. I never felt quite as confident on the Zesty again – and have been wary of photographers’ requests to “get a bit closer” ever since. But I still have a lot of a ection for my last 26in-wheeled bike.