In my quest for a quicker short travel full suss bike for next seasons marathon season, I took a look at a Scott Spark 30 at my LBS. The only grey area for me was the unknown quantity of a dedicated rear shock (i.e the Scott nude shock, made by DT I think).
Can anyone give me advice on it ?, Previously I have always had fox rear shocks and whilst there is certain gripes people have about fox like the service schedule etc, I know I am always going to get a shock that performs well, is relatively reliable, and parts and serviceing are easily available when I buy a bike with a fox on it.
Can anyone testify that the Scott shock is any of those things, as I know nothing about it. i.e its performance, reliability and parts and servicing availability ??
Reliability is fine, part's availability isn't too much of a problem, Scott aren't the quickest.
Performance isn't bad, it's heavily reliant on the TracLoc to make it work to it's full potential. If you don't mind flicking levers constantly then they ride very well. If you're not one for twiddling levers I'd look elsewhere.
The Spark's USP was it's weight, which was rather impressive when it came out about 5 years ago, everyone else has now caught up/surpassed Scott, so there's a lot of other options out there.
it's heavily reliant on the TracLoc to make it work to it's full potential
TracLoc is ????
I assume its the bar mounted levers. I am not much of an in-ride fiddler to be honest.
there's a lot of other options out there
In my budget, was looking at Trek Top Fuel 8 or 9, I know nothing about epics whatsoever but would be intereseted to find out more, however I have heard of some people hating the Brain system, but have no personal experience. Or an Anthem X, but in my research I think the sizing of the Anthem is going to be my biggest problem. I am so between a small and medium its unbeleivable. Small I think will be too short, Medium seems to have a too long headtube. Liked the Scott becasue the sizing seemed spot on. (as is the Trek in a 17.5")
Yes, the TracLoc is the remote lever. IMO they bob horrendously in the fully open position, so you do really need to firm up the back end when you're climbing. I can never be bothered!
I've had several Epics, they're good bikes, particularly the latest ones, well worth trying one.
The Top Fuels are great, I've got one this season and I love it, but I do wonder if there's a bit of a gap between the 9 and the 9.8, it's a shame there's not a cheaper carbon one.
Get some test rides done, you can listen to hundreds of opinions, but you really need to decide yourself!
The nude shock also lacked a nice damped feeling that you get with a change to a fox shock. It felt very springy even in the highest rebound damping setting. Changed my shock to and rp23 and the bike was soooo much better. My riding buddies have also made the same change and felt the benefit.
I guess if you swap it over to a fox unit, you can do away with all the levers and gubbins on the bars as well
Correct, but like I said, there are bikes which pedal better anyway so it begs the question about why buy a Spark at all, no one's going to want the Nude shock, and the Fox is £250+.
If you can swallow that then yep, go for it, but I'd still want a test ride first, on a few other things too. I, for one, would never have a Spark in it's current guise.
I've written about my experiences with a Spark that I had (admittedly not long after they came out) before on here so I'll be lazy and just paste in the summary!
Had one for 5 months riding in the peaks and my local trails. In that time it had 2 sets of bearings and 4, yes 4, rear shocks. The shock eyelet design was lending itself to wearing out repeatedly. Would not touch one with a bargepole. Even when it was working the shock is crappies and relies on continual use of the lockout, bobs badly in all 3 rings when fully open.There are a hell of a lot of better bikes out there IMO
As Nick says, weight is its party trick and now that is not even a particularly impressive one. If you like to just get on with riding your bike then I wouldn't recommend one, you'll be constantly faffing with levers or fixing things if my experience is anything to go by.
I think you can do better for your money.
Good shout, seems little point in taking a chance on an unknown, especially when the treks, epics and anthems are seeming to get rave reviews. The one reason why I first looked at the Scott, was that it was probably the only all carbon bike in my budget. I think you'd be looking at over £3k to get carbon in any other brand, but is that the be all and end all for an amateur marathon racer, maybe not I guess !
you'll be constantly faffing with levers
That definately puts me off as well, I am anything but an on the fly lever twiddler. I dont even use my fork lock outs on my current bikes now, because I cant be bothered with the faff of trying to remember to unlock it, plus my pedalling style doesnt normally induce a lot of bob, so I basically just pump up my shocks and forks and go riding and forget about it, apart from the occassional use of the propedal lever on my fox shock
i've got a spark. had a 20 from a few years ago. and just got a new version to replace. I'd agree with what nick says, it will bob a fair bit when fully open. Other folk i know with scotts tend to leave it in the middle "traction' mode most. Though i don't find it a problem switching modes, pretty much 2nd nature now, and when 'locked' it is much stiffer than pro pedal on for canceling out pedal bob.
send it off to pace they'll do any servicing required, and parts are generally fine to come by from scott, if a little slower than mojo is for fox stuff.
Though if i was looking to replace, i would probably be looking at the new epics. didn't like the old one, but the new one seems really rather good.
That said, i got my spark dirty cheap, so couldn't really argue about it.
I changed the DT shock on my Spark ltd for a Fox rp23 with push conversion ,its been an excellent upgrade
I have been using a Scott Spark 20 (2009) with a Scott Nude rear shock since Aug 2009.
Admittedly this is the first decent MTB bike I have bought and used but it has put the biggest smile on my face of any bike I have ridden. I’m a converted roadie but old habits die hard, I like a bike that feels like a road bike riding position and goes like the clappers, hence an all out XC race bike.
The Scott Nude is a blessing and a curse in one for me.
I love the ability to be able to swap from full float to traction mode to rigid and back with the flick of my thumb without having to fish under the top tube while racing, or descending a fast hill that gets a bit rough.
Now the curse side. I have broken no less than 10 bolts that mount the rear of the shock to the pivot arm.
Call me a fat git if you like, but I’m 6 foot 3 and weigh 91.3Kg (14st5lb) in old money and I ride an XL bike.
Now I don’t know about you but I would have thought that Scott would have spotted this in testing? In fact they appear to have changed the design of the bolt to have a bit more meat on it now.
I have found that in lockout the bolt will break in 2 or 3 weeks…..about 20 to 30 hours use. To get this to last a bit longer I only use traction mode and full bounce. This way I get 40 to 100 hours before SNAP.
I live in the mountainous regions of Cambridge and to be honest you get no more than 250M of climbing in a 4 hour ride.
The biggest drops are the height of a curb.
The shock has a tendency to be a bit bouncy, but I like that. What I don’t like is that on full bounce you can be screaming down a big hill, on full travel, the bike is planted like it’s on rails then, BOING, and the back wheel takes off and you are going sideways at 30+ Mph till the back wheel touches down and drags back in line.
Having said that, I have had some good finish results at Mountain Mayhem and the Whyte Winter series 4Hour races, and no spectacular crashes……yet.
The Shock is now starting to get a bit sticky on moving from traction to full bounce but I guess that is an easy fix by having it serviced. It has lasted 2 full winters of full on mud racing and training and a summer of dust and performed flawlessly till now.
That is my observation for what it’s worth.
It works for me but I wouldn’t try it on anything more challenging than Mayhem as it’s a long walk home.