It only took 2 years (and some months).
Our bike shop has been in love with titanium bicycles from the day we opened our doors ten years ago. We have seen how well titanium performs and how they last for a lifetime. We know titanium bicycles provide outstanding value for years of riding adventures - even when the road gets rough.
It became a pattern: A rider hears about how great titanium road bikes ride; takes a titanium road bike out for a test ride; rider loves the bike and decides to make the switch to titanium; rider learns the price. . . and decides Ti is just out of reach.
We wanted to provide an incredible titanium bicycle - and sell it at a price that wouldn't cause a visit from divorce lawyers. How hard could it be?
With great enthusiasm we charged head first into the world of bike design and manufacturing. We sure knew what we wanted: Road Bike, titanium, electronic shifting, hydraulic brakes, 34cm clearance, hidden cables, thru axles, carbon fork, almost unlimited upgrade path. So we drew up some plans and had frames built in China and shipped to our shop for testing.
Our first prototypes were pretty good. We put a lot of miles on the bikes and felt like they were a good first attempt.
Then we met Brad Accettella. Brad has been building bikes and flying back and forth to China and Taiwan for many years. Brad also knows almost everyone who works in the bike business in Asia. Brad was interested in our plan and agreed to help us find the right people to make our bike something special.
We had been hearing about a frame builder in Taiwan called Ora Engineering. With Brad's help we started a dialogue with Ora and agreed to work on a couple of prototype road bike frames that we would test both in Saint Petersburg and Taiwan.
September 2024 we made our way to Taiwan to meet with Jim Hsu and the staff of Ora Engineering and check out the factory in person.
Jim and his team have been building bicycle frames for over 30 years and Ora has been a pioneer in titanium alloy for bicycles as long as anyone in the business. The factory is impressive. From design to fabrication and testing it was obvious that Jim has built an operation dedicated to innovation and quality.
The Ora Engineering team was all in on helping us to build the best titanium road bike possible. We left Taiwan knowing we had found a fantastic partner in putting the new bike on the road.
We also managed to find the time to sample the street food in Taiwan. Stinky Tofu anyone?
We received the prototype frames from Ora in January 2025 and started right away putting the new bikes under as many riders as we could. Of the three prototypes there was a clear favorite.
We loved this bike. It was fast and beautiful with a springy ride that soaked up rough roads and had zero flex under hard acceleration. Everyone who put miles on this bike fell in love. We knew this bike was a winner and we were sure our customers would want to take one home. The new bike was named "SOLUS" and we were ready to build.
The frame order was placed and the team at Ora went to work. Every detail was carefully scrutinized for quality and value. Shimano Di2 was the first choice for drive train and the new 105 Di2 was a perfect choice for quality and affordability. It can be a fairly easy task to build a great $10,000 bike. Building a great $5,000 bike requires more care and choices can be pretty narrow. Building a great titanium bike for less than $5,000 is not an easy objective but we really think we have achieved our goal.
The Solus is now available for test rides at our shop in Saint Petersburg, Florida and for sale direct right here at Kitebicycles.US
