finally got hold of my Scandal Pro XT after what seemed like an age. Swapped a few things out to my preference and took it out this morning.
First impressions:
I'd forgotten how punishing hard tails were around the peak district! It's been a good 15 years since I've properly ridden one. Boy this thing's stiff – found it quite hard on loose rocky climbs as I'm used to the rear end tracking the contours rather than bouncing, might try slightly less pressures next time once I've converted to tubeless. Really stable and fast though and completely different to my trek which is what I was after. Only thing I think is poor is the clearance between the wheel and front mech – it'll be a mud magnet in the winter. Other thing I noticed was how stif the monkeylite CNT low risers are for a carbon bar – no give at all!
This ride confirmed that it's far too harsh for me to run the carbon forks so they're staying in the box and are for sale in the classifieds still!