I’ve become a bit of a winch and plummet kinda rider over the last couple of years and been using a big travel bike as happy to pootle up the climbs to blast the descents (well I try anyway). To help my mate who is the injured rider in the sticky thread above, I’m doing the SDW in a day in June to raise some money for him. The YT Capra (much like it’s owner) is just a bit too big and lardy for that sort of ride, so I’ve been out and bought myself an XC full sus bike for it. Had one ride on it so far and it’s actually a pretty decent trail bike. Really like the twinloc thing. I reckon it’s going to get plenty of use. I think it looks great too.

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New bike day! Was after a short travel 29er for our #SDWinaday attempt in June and the @bikeonscott #scottspark fits the bill #MTB #outsideisfree #noexcuses

A post shared by muggomagic (@muggomagic) on Apr 26, 2019 at 6:52am PDT

Muggomagic,

Had mine since Nov last year and love it. Good luck on the SDW, just the bike for it.

Dogsby

Fantastic bikes, I have a 910 and had it since Feb, great all round bike and very capable on the downs 120mm travel 29er is the ideal bike to me

I had a shortlist of this, GT Sensor and Trek Fuel EX5.
I really liked the look of the sensor but with its slack angles and 130mm travel it seemed more towards the enduro end of the trail bike spectrum and I needed something with a more xc bias. The trek really didn’t do it for me at all.
First proper ride on it today. Brighton to Eastbourne loop

Great looking bike, be interested to hear how it rides.

Nice one 🙂

I have the 900RC Team and it look me a little bit to gel with it. I eventually did though and it’s very capapble for a 100mm travel race bike (and easy to go fast on!).

Lovely that. I was tempted by a new bike yesterday but resisted.

I have the 900RC Team

+1

I love mine, currently trying to justify the purchase of a Fraser Bar 😀

35 miles on the new bike today over the South Downs. Well pleased with the way it rides and how comfortable it feels straight away. Climbs really well and descends way better than I expected.

@Kryton57

I have the 760mm/50mm stem Hixon on mine 🙂

Someone was selling cheap, but I’ve been pondering swapping it for a Fraiser (740mm/60mm)…

@muggomagic

AS I said earlier, it took a little bit for me to click with mine, but I’m really glad I stuck with it because it’s a joy to ride now over distances. Looks ace in Orange too 🙂

Looks ace in Orange too

Yeah I love the colour.

For £2k I think it’s a lot better value compared to the other options I was looking at even though they were a little bit cheaper.

Interested to ride it in the woods and see how it goes on singletrack.

I have the 760mm/50mm stem Hixon on mine 🙂

Someone was selling cheap, but I’ve been pondering swapping it for a Fraiser (740mm/60mm)…

Keep me posted if you choose to sell the Hixon.
I think from the 50 or so miles I’ve done on it the only thing I might need to change are the bars. I did notice that at times yesterday my hands were right on the ends of the bars, but that could be because the brake levers are not in the right place. I’m going to try shifting them inboard a bit and see how that goes before I start shopping for wider bars.

I have the 760mm/50mm stem Hixon on mine

Can you confirm or deny an appropriate Garmin Mount comes in the box – the STW pics would appear to suggest so.  Currently mine is strapped to my stem so I’d wondered when to put it…

As much as I love my Spark I’m still struggling to get full travel out of open mode at the back. Any less pressure and the middle mode might feel it bit soft.  I always seem to have 5mm of the shaft unused and have kind of accepted that has a result of its progressive nature – accepting that I don’t ride it off six foot drop offs…

Love those bikes, really lovely trail bikes, like a really quick race bike but it is run too!

As much as I love my Spark I’m still struggling to get full travel out of open mode at the back. Any less pressure and the middle mode might feel it bit soft.

Can you add/remove spacers to the nude shocks? On a normal rear shock if at correct sag you don’t achieve full travel then you remove or fit a smaller volume spacer.

Yeah no worries, I’ll let you know if I let it go.

@Kryton57
From what I’ve seen, the Garmin mount looks like it comes in the new retail boxed ones. Mine was bought from someone who took it off a new bike, so I had to buy the Garmin mount myself.

I was going to treat myself to the fraiser bar stem combo, but what happens when i need to fit my exposure light bracket on the bar? no one seems to have thought of that ????

The £50 Halfords light that a lot of people bought fits these bars quite well. The mount on it is half rigid, half rubber strap so it works really well.

I’ve never had an Exposure, but there must be a solution to get it to work?

With regards to mounting an exposure light. Would their aero mount work?

https://exposurelights.com/products/bike/brackets-and-mounts/aero-bar-silicone-light-mount

Scott Laughland did a nice Scott Spark video (bit of DJ and trail), shows what a handy rider can do on a Spark;

It was actually that video of Scotty’s that made me consider the Spark. Until then I was looking at trail bikes like the GT and the Trek fuel. I always assumed the Spark was a full on XC race bike.

Mungomagic, thanks for the link, but that strap is not compatable with my Maxx d

Just thought I’d post a little update about the bike now I’ve had it for a couple of weeks and done a total of 260 miles.

I’ve found that I’m really settled in with the bike now. Finding it very comfortable on long rides. Did over 60 miles on it yesterday and didn’t get have any issues with back, neck or shoulder pain that I often on long rides on other bikes. Despite the weight it feels quite nimble and poppy on singletrack and jumps. It’s a fun bike to ride in the woods. I like how the bike holds it’s line on a descent.

The RS Judy forks now are working pretty well now after initially feeling a bit crap.
Only things I’d like to change soon are the wheels. They are quite heavy and this bike would fly with some lighter wheels but they will do for now. I will also look at upgrading the forks but there’s no rush.

So far so good and although I bought it for long xc rides I think it’s much more capable than that. I will be taking it to Afan and Cwmcarn in a couple of weeks so keen to see how it gets on there.

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So lovely out on the #southdowns last night. #outsideisfree #scottspark #mtb #mtblife

A post shared by muggomagic (@muggomagic) on May 7, 2019 at 10:52pm PDT

Yep, it’s surprising just how capable they are as an allround bike. Looks like you’re enjoying it though!

@jonny_rocky_mountain
GoPro adapter and a GoPro top cap.
I have a GoPro mount for my night light on my Hixon.

Light

Yep, it’s surprising just how capable they are as an allround bike. Looks like you’re enjoying it though!

Very much so. I had a list of things I thought I’d swap out straight away to try and make it more of a trail bike. Usual stuff like, shorter stem, wider bars, bigger grips and bigger tyres.
Having ridden it a bit now the only thing I’ve changed are the tyres and that was mostly due to setting up tubeless (Nice touch at this price point that they come with tubeless ready rim strips installed so only needed a pair of valves). I like the shape of the bars and the 740mm width works really well in the tight wooded singletrack we have round here.

Thread resurrection.

I weighed my Spark 960 the other week and was shocked at just how heavy it was. It came in at a rather porky 16.4kg!
I was aware it was heavy as it’s pretty clear when I load it onto my bike rack but I had a no idea it was that heavy. It’s pretty much stock, the only things I’d changed are some wider 780mm bars and I’d fitted hillbilly and butcher grid tyres but had set them up tubeless. In its defence it’s not too noticeable when riding and I’ve done over 1200km on it since May which includes a few 100+km rides.
Anyway, I’ve put it on a bit of a diet and shaved 2kg off of it so far. I bought some Fox 34 forks from here and some rather brilliant hunt wheels. These account for most of the weight saving as the Judy forks and the old wheelset were really heavy.
First ride with the upgrades this morning and it feels like a different bike. The forks make a massive difference to how the bike feels and thanks to the wheels it feels loads quicker.

https://www.instagram.com/p/B28xgiFnpUs/

It came in at a rather porky 16.4kg!

Making a Spark weigh that much breaks the laws of physics, doesn’t it?

It’s like the calorific content of malt loaf, seemingly impossible.

Yeah I agree. The wheels were 2.5kg and the forks were around the same.
Can’t complain too much though as even at its porkiest it is a great bike.

Ouch, 2.5kg for the wheels, not including brake rotors or cassette? :0

You’ll notice a massive change with the lighter wheels.

Yeah that was heavy! My RC Team (without dropper) came in at 11.4kg on an XL frame. I’ve sold the frame on now and started something else.

Wow, I’d have never thought it weighed that.

Yep 2.5kg with nothing but rim tape and valves!

When I got the hunt wheels I had a GX Eagle cassette in the garage which is much lighter than the NX one that comes with as standard.
The new wheels feel great and that freehub sounds soo good 😀
I’ve got a spreadsheet of all the weights. A lot of it I’ve weighed but some are manufacturers weights or estimates based on similar level kit.
When the tyres need replacing I’ll get a Magic Mary and Nobby Nic combo which should save another 400g. Cranks, dropper, saddle, stem and bars could save another 1kg but that’d be quite pricey.

Wow, I’d have never thought it weighed that.

That makes 2 of us 😀

The next step is to lose a similar amount of weight from the rider in the next few weeks.

16.4 kg! It was listed at 14.6 kg (presumably medium without pedals). Surprisingly heavy either way. I expect the high end carbon builds must be a lot lighter than this. I think the 910 is listed at 12.8 kg, which is still not super light.

I had some old luggage scales that said it was around the 15kg mark but tbh it didn’t really add up as only being 400g heavier. So bought some new digi scales and checked them against some proper scales so confident the 16.4 was correct, much to my disappointment.