Scott Contessa Solace 15 review

A women's specific bike that aims to balance power and comfort

Cycling Weekly Verdict

Slender tube profiles reminiscent of a traditional steel frameset and a contemporary design means the bike scores highly when it comes to aesthetics. The ride strikes a near perfect balance between comfort and performance, and while some may find the front end a little high, long distance comfort is superb. With so few rival women’s specific bikes that can compete in terms of performance, spec and looks, the Contessa Solace 15 truly is a standout machine

Reasons to buy
  • +

    Shimano Ultegra throughout

  • +

    Performance

  • +

    Good looks

  • +

    Women’s specific

Reasons to avoid
  • -

    Rear brake position requires expert set-up

You can trust Cycling Weekly. Our team of experts put in hard miles testing cycling tech and will always share honest, unbiased advice to help you choose. Find out more about how we test.

The Contessa Solace is the women’s specific version of Scott’s latest endurance bike. The Solace 15 sits at the top of Scott’s women’s Contessa range that features seven bikes including the entry-level aluminium Speedster.

Perhaps a little unfairly for women looking for an out-and-out racer, the range-topping Foil aero bike and the lightweight Addict range are currently only available as men’s bikes.

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Hannah Bussey

Hannah is Cycling Weekly’s longest-serving tech writer, having started with the magazine back in 2011. She has covered all things technical for both print and digital over multiple seasons representing CW at spring Classics, and Grand Tours and all races in between.

Hannah was a successful road and track racer herself, competing in UCI races all over Europe as well as in China, Pakistan and New Zealand.

For fun, she's ridden LEJOG unaided, a lap of Majorca in a day, won a 24-hour mountain bike race and tackled famous mountain passes in the French Alps, Pyrenees, Dolomites and Himalayas. 

She lives just outside the Peak District National Park near Manchester UK with her partner, daughter and a small but beautifully formed bike collection.