Scott enters the electric gravel bike world with new Solace

The electric gravel bike has 50mm tyre clearance and TQ's HPR50 motor and battery

This competition is now closed

By Oscar Huckle

Published: December 22, 2022 at 3:00 pm

The Scott Solace is a new drop-bar electric bike range that is based around TQ's HPR550 motor system.

The Solace is available in electric gravel bike and electric road bike options, with both sharing the same frameset. The Solace Gravel is Scott's first electric gravel bike.

The Addict eRide will remain in the brand's line-up.

TQ's HPR50 electric bike motor and battery is claimed to be one of the quietest and most compact systems on the market.

Pricing starts from £5,499 / $6,099.99 / €5,999 / AU$11,499.99 for the Solace Gravel eRide 30, rising to £10,999 / $11,999 / €11,999 / AU$21,999.99 for the Solace eRide 10.

There will be a single Contessa model for women – the Contessa Solace Gravel eRide 15, which will retail for £5,499 / $6,099.99 / €5,999.

The bikes are available now.

Want to know how the Solace Gravel and Solace eRide handle? Check out our first ride review of the Scott Solace Gravel eRide 10 and our first ride review of the Scott Solace eRide 10.

Scott says it has aimed the Solace line-up at both new and experienced road and gravel cyclists.

Jonathan Fazan, product manager for the Solace series, explains there were four targets at the start of the project – the bike needed to be lightweight, silent, compact and comfortable.

The lightweight aspect is not just for performance benefits. Fazan says it's for user-friendliness too, for example when loading the bike into a car.

Scott says the starting point in the Solace's development was to decide on which motor and battery to use. The brand says it wanted the lightest, most compact and silent option on the market and once it decided on the TQ system, it could then work out how to design the frame around it.

The Solace has a larger-than-usual down tube to house the battery, so Scott decided to beef up the fork to match its profile.

Like the majority of its other drop-bar bikes, the head tube, down tube, bottom bracket area and chainstays are said to be designed for stiffness and rigidity. In contrast, the other tubes are designed with comfort in mind.

Early in the bike's development, Scott says the head tube was too stiff.

Scott manufactures the Solace using its top-spec HMX carbon fibre and claims a frame weighs 1.2kg for a size medium.

Victor Valls, head of ebike engineering at Scott, explains that, compared to the Addict Gravel, the "wall thicknesses are slightly reinforced to hold the battery, mostly in the down tube in the battery clamping area".

Compared to the Addict Gravel, Scott claims "very similar stiffness values".

Scott says the developments result in a "bike that corners like a regular gravel ride", as well as feeling agile when pedalling.

The Solace uses 700c wheels and has clearance for 50mm tyres, or 45mm with mudguards. The bike uses SRAM's universal derailleur hanger (UDH) standard.

Like the Lumen, Scott has specced all of the bikes with regular road and gravel bike components.

The hydraulic hoses and gear cables run through the upper headset bearing.

There's some particularly neat detailing at the non-driveside thru-axle dropout. It uses a rubber grommet on the outside that is removable, with a metal spacer inside, for the thru-axle to insert through.

This saves the need for an alloy or foam insert on the inside of the dropout and Valls says a shorter axle can be used, both of which save weight. He also claims the design enables a "direct transfer of loads from the axle into the internal face of the dropout" for a better ride feel.

Unlike the Lumen, where the magnet is integrated into the driveside chainstay, the magnet on the Solace can be found on the inside of the non-driveside dropout.

The speed sensor sits on the non-driveside dropout. The wire to this routes through a pocket in the carbon and routes internally to the side of the brake caliper mounting bolts.

In a nod to versatility, Scott has added kickstand mounting points on the underside face of the non-driveside chainstay.

The geometry is similar to the non-assisted Scott Addict Gravel.

The 71-degree head tube angle, 73.5-degree seat tube angle and 387mm reach on a size medium are all identical.

The stack is 1mm taller at 566mm and the chainstay length has grown by 10mm to 435mm.

Valls says the 1mm increase in stack is due to the battery in the down tube adding additional height.

Scott says the longer chainstays help to balance the weight distribution of the battery and motor by moving the centre of gravity towards the middle of the bike.

The brand says this translates to increased stability at higher speeds, as well as achieving the 50mm tyre clearance.

Although the Solace was designed primarily as an electric gravel bike, Scott says it wanted the platform to also work as a road bike at the start of the project.

The Solace eRide is specced with Schwalbe Pro One 38mm tyres, which it developed in collaboration with Schwalbe. The tyres are tubeless-ready and will be available after-market.

Both Solace eRide models receive Shimano groupsets with 2x cranksets. The Solace eRide is specced with a Syncros Creston IC SL bar-stem over the Creston IC SL X found on the Gravel models. This features less flare and some added texturing to the tops of the hoods for grip.

Aside from these differences and a change in saddle, both the road and gravel platforms share identical components.

The bike is built around TQ's HPR50 motor and battery system.

Scott says it wanted to use a bottom-bracket based motor to balance the rider's centre of gravity.

The system provides 50Nm of torque and is said to be one of the lightest, quietest and most compact systems on the market. An increasing number of bike manufacturers are partnering with the motor brand, such as Trek, BMC and Simplon.

The HPR50 was recently featured on Scott's Lumen electric mountain bike, as well as the Trek Fuel EXe, Trek Domane+ and the BMC Fourstroke AMP.

The lower torque offers assistance that is claimed to feel more natural than more powerful motors.

Scott says there is "no hitting-the-wall feeling when exceeding 25kmph" (the point at which the motor cuts out to comply with electric bike laws).

There are Eco, Mid and High modes, with the High mode delivering 300W of assistance.

Modes are selected via the button on the integrated top tube display, rather than a handlebar or shifter remote.

The display provides information including remaining battery life, range and power output.

The display uses BLE and ANT+, so you can connect the system to your bike computer or to the brand's phone app. It also uses Smartbox third-party integration for items such as lights or SRAM AXS batteries.

Scott claims the 360Wh battery charges in two and a half hours, or up to 80 per cent in 90 minutes.

If you want to head on longer escapades, TQ provides a 950g range extender. The brand claims it to be the "smallest on the market" both in size and energy density.

The 160Wh range extender adds 50 per cent to range capacity.

The range extender can be positioned on the seat tube bottle cage and connects to the charge port at the top of the bottom-bracket junction.

Like the Lumen, the system recognises when there are two batteries and will prioritise the main unit.

Both the Solace eRide 10 and Solace Gravel eRide 10 are supplied with a range extender in the box and it's available after-market for all other models.

Technical writer

Oscar Huckle is a technical writer at BikeRadar. He has been an avid cyclist since his teenage years, initially catching the road cycling bug and riding for a local club. He's since been indoctrinated into gravel riding and more recently has taken to the dark art of mountain biking. His favourite rides are epic road or gravel routes, and he has also caught the bikepacking bug hard after completing the King Alfred's Way and West Kernow Way. Oscar has a BA degree in English Literature and Film Studies and has close to a decade of cycling industry experience, initially working in a variety of roles at Evans Cycles before joining Carbon Bike Repair. He is particularly fond of workshop tool exotica and is a proponent of Campagnolo groupsets. Oscar prefers lightweight road and gravel frames with simple tube shapes, rather than the latest trend for aerodynamics and full integration. He is obsessed with keeping up to date with all the latest tech, is fixated with the smallest details and is known for his unique opinions.

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