NBD – Scott Scale XC razzer

Following the discussion here, I finished this build last week:

Reckon I hit the brief. First though, I’ve built umpteen bikes with all the modern tricks and features but this one was interesting… brake mounts that don’t accept all brake calipers, and ‘that’ cable routing. You have to prep and think very very carefully before you cut cables and tighten brake olives up. The end result though is very neat.
Adjustable headset cups again are a really nice design but of course they were installed in the slack setting, and that’s where they will stay.
Paint job is beautiful, frame finish is superb, never really been into Scott but I can see the quality is right up there.

Most of the bits are garage spares, my old 11speed XTR bits, slightly weighty but super reliable Mavic XA Elite wheels, and the widest flat carbon bars I could find. Even an 11-42 seems fine and perfectly rangy as unlike my trail bike, this one rewards you standing up and mashing a big gear uphill. Custom Reba/SID cobbled together fork, couldn’t resist the colour on the lowers!

11kg/24lbs as it stands with pedals, cage, dropper, trail wheels and huge dollops of sealant, so it’s equivalent to a 10kg sales brochure weight really. Which is perfect considering I’ve done nothing extreme.

Really enjoying it, my last XC style hardtail was in 2007 with 3×10 and 26” wheels, so it’s great having that urgent accelerative feel but with all the benefits we get with trail bike geometry, dropper, tyres that work etc. Good fun bike, and yes I think it might be the one that makes my gravel bike redundant.

Proper XC bikes – not trendy. But ace.

Nice Job!

I’d be interested in your thoughts on the recons race in the current soft trail conditions. I went out on ForeKaster F&R this weekend and felt a bit slow…

…albeit I am deep in a hole with training fatigue.

Nice that! I miss my 2012 Scale carbon.. good to see they’ve finally updated the geometry to something a bit more contemporary.

That’s pretty good getting 11kg from spares, by comparison Dangerholm is hitting low 9’s with ridiculous (expensive) weight saving.

Like you I’ve been pondering a Scale or Alma for a while but never quite committed.

Combining headset routing with adjustable headset cups just seems like a cruel joke

Nice bike – where did the yellow SIDs come from?

Loving the yellow Sid nod to the retro !

Those forks 👌

11kg/24lbs as it stands with pedals….

Good lad :-)

Looks nice mate and really good your enjoying it, i’ll get pics of mine up in a couple of week, just got a few more components to get :)

That looks lovely – enjoy! It’s weird that both Scott and Cannondale have gone for a very similar paint job – nice flake front end fading to black. I’d normally be slogging through the mud on my steel singlespeed at this time of year, but the trails are so dry I’ve been out on the Scalpel – again, the pic doesn’t really do justice to the paint.

oooosh, very nice!

I will be purchasing an XC whippet in the coming months and the Scott is on the list. The headset cable routing has put me off a little. And what is the issue with the brake mounts? I dont want too many headaches.

Did i read that you can run a 110mm fork in the ‘slack’ setting?

The other on my list is the Cannondale Scalpel HT4 (as if by magic, one appears above, albeit a more jazzy version).

I am very much looking forward to some XC shenanigans!

Very smart, must be a good giggle. Stick some light rims on and it’ll feel like an e-bike.

Like you I’ve been pondering a Scale or Alma for a while but never quite committed.

Check the geo on the Alma – you might be different but I’m all body and short legs, the Alma has very long seat tubes for each frame size, I wouldnt even be able to run a 100mm dropper post on the equivalent medium (I’m 5ft10). Shame as the specs are great.

I’d be interested in your thoughts on the recons race in the current soft trail conditions

It felt fine, I always run a ‘tyre stagger’ with a grippier front. Miles faster than the chonky tyres usually on my trail bike.

Glad you like the forks, they were just on ebay but I’ve re-purposed the lowers. OE fit from a Scott Spark, I think! I couldnt resist the colour.

The Cannondale is lovely, at the Scalpel HT4 is the bike I’d have bought were I going for a complete build.

The headset cable routing has put me off a little. And what is the issue with the brake mounts? I dont want too many headaches.

Its just fiddly – you have to dry assembly anything, fit your stem, spacers, bars, set your levers up, THEN work out all your cable and hose lengths, strip it back, trim, rebuild it all again…

Ref brakes –

M6000 series – note bleed is at opposite end to hose connection. Fouls on frame. Same with MX0000 SLX, XT etc etc…

Compare with M6100 series, bleeder is next to hose connection. Again, same for SLX, XT etc etc… Not mentioned anywhere, but jsut because you have a ‘standard’ brake mount doesnt mean a ‘standard’ brake caliper fits. Other brands may also have issues, who knows, but its all quite a tight fit.

I cross checked against the specs of the full builds before buying a pair of replacement calipers.

thanks for the explanation on the brakes… something to keep an eye on if i do go down the same route.

But as i mentioned before…. bloody lovely!

That does look great!
Similar caliper issue with my spark, wouldn’t fit an FSA caliper as its piston bump out fouled on the seat stay.
Confused by the cable issue though. What’s stopping you assembling things with all the loose cable ends coming out the headset then chopping them once assembled?
Brakes hoses get trimmed from the lever end and no reason you can’t do shifter and dropper from the lever end also. Am I missing something?

No, thats exactly what I meant.

The trickiest one is the dropper – you need an inner fitted to pull tight and ensure the cable remains seated at post end. Then you need to trim your outer, but of course you cant cut through them both as you need the inner to be proud of the outer. However the exposed hose is so short at the top (from headset to lever on bars) that its barely enough room to get the post all the way back out again for cable access. This is also compounded by the fact I run the post almost slammed (again, short-leg-person issue).

Dont let it put you off – its not hard, just fiddly and needs planning. I did have the matching Syncros stem on order, as it comes with a sort of cable tidy shroud, which I thought would be essential. This turned out to be on a massive lead time, however in the end, the frame comes with a neatly designed headset top cap that replicates this ‘shroud’ and thus you can use a regular stem and spacers. None of this is made at all clear anywhere on the Scott or Syncros websites, and you wouldnt know by looking at a full build either.

Check the geo on the Alma – you might be different but I’m all body and short legs, the Alma has very long seat tubes for each frame size, I wouldnt even be able to run a 100mm dropper post on the equivalent medium (I’m 5ft10). Shame as the specs are great.

Ah, I’m 5’9″ and average length legs but good to know, I wouldn’t be spending anything without testing though!

As promised Snotrag my new scale World Cup frame built with Sid ultimate, roval carbon wheels, XX1 AXS, Fraser carbon bars/stem combo, yet to ride it though, so I’ll update that 👍 ps got it to 9kg without pedals 👍

Ah, I’ve been outdone :-D That is really nice. It must be like lightning that thing.

Thought this might be worth a update 18 months in. I’ve been riding this bike a lot, and really do love it.

I’ve recently made some changes though – I finally decided to do the parts shuffle round I’d considered for ages, and thus the build now looks like this. The superb Fox 34 from my trail bike with a new 120mm air shaft has been donated, along with matching 150mm  dropper. It’s now on matching 12 speed XT for ease of parts etc, and it’s got bigger volume more aggressive Forekaster 2.4s on the absolutely insane bargain Zipp Hitop S Carbon wheels I got in the final chiggle sale ( £260…the pair…). I’m also more familiar with the whole Syncros/Acros integration stuff (both my bikes have it, and no, it does not make maintenance impossible) and thus I’ve put a really neat Syncros Stem on which hides the cables better, and cut the steerer down short.

I hasten to say it, but it’s all gone a bit downcountry! 

The fork has made a massive improvement, I can really lean on it, and the cumulative changes have madeit a bike I can really rally on, and for shorter rides it’s hilarious fun. Its not super light, but it’s light where it matters.

I’ve owned loads of them in the past, but you’d have a job on now persuading me that a hardtail needs to be made from steel and super slack to be fun and fast on proper rough terrain now.

Which stem did you go for? My Spark came with an entry level Syncros one and it weighed about as much as a brick so I went the other way and stuck a one piece carbon set up on there that warrants getting hold of the special headset cover (which I’ve not got round to doing yet).

Just the midrange Syncros one, the DC  with zero rise or drop, not the XC one though. It’s not particularly light but much neater. Carbon bars though. I’ve still got Deore brakes and m520 pedals on so if I was bothered to get more weight out I’d be starting there!

The Bold has the full syncros one piece cockpit on it, I did consider swapping but it’s the wrong effective stem length.

To run a ‘regular’ stem there’s a special top headset part (see the pics at the top with the yellow SID). Westtbrook cycles stock all the special syncros bits and have more information than Scott/Syncros do on how it all goes together!