I’m about to order a Nukeproof Scout comp. It’s seems to do everything I want in terms of spec, geometry, focus. Any thought for or against?

Is there another off the shelf equivalent I should be considering?

Mondraker Vantage RR seemed to be very close to what I was liking for but despite the gushing praise for the Foxy the Vantage didn’t seem to get anywhere or even be stocked by most dealers!?

I’m pretty sure the aesthetics of that Mondraker might have something to do with it. Constantly having to explain that it hasn’t had a frontal impact might get a bit tiresome after a while……… 😉

The only hardtail 650b I’ve seen with similar geo is the Mondraker and it’s butt ugly. The Saracen Zen looks pretty good as well. The Scout in raw is very pretty for a Nukeproof, so I ordered a frame. I’m not sure many people have ridden one yet.

Bare in mind that the large for example, might actually have an 18.5 inch top tube instead of a 17 due to some confusion on nukeproofs website. So for a given length seat tube the Nukeproof might be shorter than the Mondraker. Not that I care as I find Mondrakers to long, the large Nukeproof is about bang on.

1198mm on an 18.5inch hardtail (Mondraker), yay! That’s going to be fun to jump and ride on narrow, shallow single track where hardtails excel.

Been looking at something similar myself. Alternatives that I’ve found, are the Whyte 900-series, Bird Zero and the Orange Crush. And possibly the new Ragley Marley/Mmmbop replacement.

Geometries vary a bit, but they’re all in the 130-150mm fork range, 67.5-66 HA, short chainstays etc.

Personally I’ve got a lot of parts I’d like to reuse, so for me it’s down to the Nukeproof or Bird, sinces they’ve got frame-only options. The Scout is winning with it’s super-low standover height, and the neat raw colour option… But I’m also thinking of throwing a 130mm fork on it instead, 150 is overkill for my riding. Can’t quit tell if that’s doable, but if anyone has an opinion, I’d love to hear 🙂

Get the scout mate and put a travel adjust pike on it, you can get the DPA’s in 150-120 if you ask a suspension tuner and retailer nicely to swap some parts for you before sale.

I just got the scout frame in raw and to say it’s lovely is an understatement. Pics tomorrow.

I would say the BB will be a tad low with a 130mm fork – 140 would be a good compromise if you don’t want to get a dual position fork. You could always get a fork that was internally adjustable so you could take it back up to 150 for weekends away in bigger terrain.

Lofty

I’m about to order a Nukeproof Scout comp. It’s seems to do everything I want in terms of spec, geometry, focus. Any thought for or against?

Well, your needs and wants are obviously your own, and I don’t doubt that you’ve thought about this, but personally I’d say if you needed 150mm of travel, then you need a fs. If you don’t need 150mm of travel, then surely a shorter travel ht will climb better and corner more sharply. For that money you could buy, just for example a Vitus Escarpe VR, or indeed plenty of seriously capable fs bikes.

A few years back I built up a hardtail with a 150mm fork when I became sick of breaking bits on full suss bikes (through ignorance and lack of mechanical sympathy). I thought it was the dogs danglies until I spent a few weekends doing some proper DH on it, which to be fair, it could handle. My body, however, could not. After the first week, I thought I’d wrecked myself in a crash. After the second week, I realised it was just the sheer beating I was taking trying to keep up with guys on dh bikes. I literally couldn’t walk right for a fortnight, my knees, ankles and hips were shot.

Eight or so years on and I’ve not had another ht. Can’t imagine I will unless it’s a CX bike.

A few years back I built up a hardtail with a 150mm fork when I became sick of breaking bits on full suss bikes (through ignorance and lack of mechanical sympathy). I thought it was the dogs danglies until I spent a few weekends doing some proper DH on it, which to be fair, it could handle. My body, however, could not.

Yeah, they aren’t really meant for full on dh tracks. Neither are 150mm trail forks. 😉 😆 To be fair, I did Morzine on a Chameleon once and it was hell. No less fun but more demanding, slower and I had far more offs – mostly caused by losing traction at the back on braking bumbs at high speed.

150 is nice for places like Glentress or Coed-Y-Brenin, moderately techy but not downhill techy.

Basically, black runs at trail centers.

That Vitus is good value for money though.

om_W1987
Yeah, they aren’t really meant for full on dh tracks. Neither are 150mm forks

I disagree Tom. Looking at the geometry of the scout I’m inclined to wonder what the hell else you’d do with a bike with a 66 degree head angle and 420mm chain stays. If you’re not showing some steep, fast technical stuff then it’ll handle like barge, in relative terms.

The fork was an ’05 Marzocchi 66. 150mm travel, 35mm stanchions, 20mm bolt through axle. Pretty much built for dh.

I disagree Tom. Looking at the geometry of the scout I’m inclined to wonder what the hell else you’d do with a bike with a 66 degree head angle and 420mm chain stays. If you’re not showing some steep, fast technical stuff then it’ll handle like barge, in relative terms.

I disagree, I like slack bikes even in shallow terrain as I find myself more confident of my grip in the apex of corners. I don’t care if it’s barge like when turning as I just turn harder 😛 I was faster through shallow trails on my Nukeproof Mega than my old mans steeper bike and actually, so was he.

I wouldn’t want 420mm chainstays for downhilling, 440 more like. Short chainstays are nice for dirt jumping, that scout will be good for doing a little DJing, dual slalom, 20 mile trail rides and the odd black run.

What it won’t be good for is technical steep ascents and all day rides.

Well, shock horror, there’s a disagreement on the internet. Anyway, I used to love the whole super slack thing, I just found that as top tubes got longer and longer it became less of an issue to me.

I don’t get on with super long Mondraker style top tubes, the Nukeproofs are about as long as I can go before I get fatigued and pissed off on long runs.

And I feel more confident with a chest out position as my neutral position as opposed to being right over.

I have just ordered one. I’m pretty new to actual mtb riding but I want to learn lines on a hardtail and I tend to want to explore abit of everything and I think it’s the best bike for me. As I want a full downhill bike but have not got the skills/confidence to feel I’m using one. At the moment it’s exploring the little downhill runs epping has to offer. I have an all mountain 130mm front and 10 mm back/xc bike. But for winter and learning this had to be best for me? Oh and I can’t stand my 30 geared bike slapping the chain all over the place. So I’m excited

I think these look ace.

(long-time hardtail preferist, current bike is a Chromag Samurai65 with Marzocchi 350CRs at 140mm)

NS do a nice looking hardcore HT frame…
CRC aren’t sure if its alu or steel though

It can’t be both can it?

I have just ordered one. I’m pretty new to actual mtb riding but I want to learn lines on a hardtail and I tend to want to explore abit of everything and I think it’s the best bike for me. As I want a full downhill bike but have not got the skills/confidence to feel I’m using one. At the moment it’s exploring the little downhill runs epping has to offer. I have an all mountain 130mm front and 10 mm back/xc bike. But for winter and learning this had to be best for me? Oh and I can’t stand my 30 geared bike slapping the chain all over the place. So I’m excited

Yeah learn to jump, pump and manual on it. Keep the bike then save up for a DH bike, hardtail for trail rides, the DH bike for proper downhill tracks.

That’s exactly what I had in mind. Just waiting for it to arrive. Man I can’t sleep ha ha

Full bike or a frame? What colour? Put up some pics, it’s going to be a fair while before mines built.

The raw is preeeety. It will be a good frame for you to learn on as it’s nice and long, slack and low. So you shouldn’t have too many unexpected offs that might put you off the sport.

I don’t know why they don’t do the top spec Scout in Raw as opposed to black as it’s lovely.

Well ordered the scout comp from bike active. They said they had an order in and one medium spare. So jumped on it. Just waiting for it and I will post up. Hope its right size cos I’m 5ft8?. just a waiting game now

5.8 fine for a 17 (the large) but it’s quite a long frame, so normally it wouldn’t be the frame for you – but what you can do these days is run a 30 or 35 mm stem on in and get a cockpit length around the same as the medium but have a longer and more stable bike. It means you have to load up the front end in corners more though.

The medium will be fine but sizing isn’t a hard and fast rule, at 5.11 I was tempted to go for the XL and cut that god awful ugly long seat tube down a bit but didn’t feel like voiding the warranty.

I can’t really recommend a size as it all depends on how you like a bike to ride. The mediums technically the one for you, the large could be as well with a very short stem on depending on how you like a bike to handle.

Yeah that makes sense. Always had a medium but always rode the bike before buying. This stuff is addictive.

What seat tube length and reach did your last mediums have?

Always happy to help a newer rider.

scout comp

Good, it’s way way prettier than the black race model. You can always tart it up later on down the line with an avalanche cartridge and some light bicycle wheels or flows and a stealth dropper post.

I have no clue at all but it’s a decathlon rockrider 9.2

Take a measuring tape from the top of the seat tube to the center of the bottom bracket.

Can’t really measure the effective top tube length, see if you can find the geo online.

M (1.65-1.75), L (1.75-1.85) and XL (1.85-2.00)

That’s all it says.. and I have no measuring tape.

Well I will soon find out if the nukeproof fits me.

If thats the medium, then it could be a 17 inch seatube.

http://www.btwin.com/notices/fr/files/2013/03/geometrie-9.1-9.2.pdf

It would have a lot shorter top tube that the Nukeproof though, although the medium nukeproof has a 15 inch seat tube.

Im not entirely sure its the same bike though.

Well thanks for the info tom.

Well a month later almost and my bike is finally going to arrive tomorrow! Seriously am excited now but took forever. I got told nukeproof had a shipment of around 200 bikes. Any how I will upload pics. Once it’s here
YAY!

Well finally it’s here and i cannot wait to ride it. So keeping this one for a long!time.

Thinking of sending it back tho. Stem has four screws ones rounded off. Before you ask I noticed it when I was tightening them up with yes.. Fingers but it just kept spinning!

Then the seat

Oh and the chip mark on the frame!

So after my 5 week wait it could be sent back! Ha ha just my luck I’m not a very happy customer let me tell ya’s. The frame is so tiny tho but feels like a big big. Honestly for me there is no better hardcore hardtail trail bike. I love it just abit gutted how it came.

Chunkstar… did you get this resolved?

Nope not really… had the x7 trigger shifter snap too. They sent me a x9 upgrade. I have just had enough and feel I had been robbed. Don’t know wet her to blame the shop got it from or nukeproof them self’s?. Don’t think I have even covered 50 miles of the bike it’s just sat there. Every time, e I use it something goes wrong. Oh the front caliper cam loose on me too which is a joke. I had to check every single bolt and nut was tight after that! I rang the shop and they said it happens from time to time. Just a big joke. Guess the little guy loses but if I was a pro rider I bet things would have been different.

Where did you get it from?

Devils advocate mode….just because it come partially assembled doesn’t mean it’s ready to ride.

Whenever I’ve ordered a bike online I unpack it, straighten the bars, tension down the headset, bolt up the stem etc etc….then check the whole thing from end to end, does the seatpost need tightening on the saddle rails?, are the grips on tight?, are all 6 rotor bolts tightened up correctly, do the wheels spin freely through the brake calipers?, are the calipers secured to the fork legs and frame?, etc etc…if buying from a shop this is done as a PDI (pre delivery inspection) but when buying online costs are cut to make prices attractive, quite often the PDI gets binned first….if you’re not confident doing this then factor in the cost of having the LBS build your bike when it arrives.

I’ve got a medium Nukeproof scout and I’m 5ft 10″ and it’s spot on for me did a 55km challenge and it was awesome I bought the frame and built it up myself put 120mm recon forks on it and it smashed the Kitcheners trail at Sherwood Pines too ,one hell of a bike thoroughly recommended

Just come across this, really fancy a bird zero/nukeproof scout or orange crush. How are people getting on with their scouts? Thinking of a frame only option and slowly building it up.