Cross-country racing can be a game of grams, and this is especially true at the highest level of the sport where guys like Nino Schurter battle it out for an hour and a half at speeds and efforts that you and I could barely hold for mere minutes. These racers are always looking for any advantage, of course, but this is especially true given that it's an Olympic year, and it looks like Scott is going to have a new, lighter hardtail frame ready for Nino on the big day in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
Information is slim at this point, but there are a few telling details that are easy to spot by comparing the current Scott Scale frame (shown to the right) to Nino's unnamed prototype. The most obvious difference is at the back of the bike, with Nino's machine sporting ultra-slim seatstays that are barely there, as well as a more traditional and sleeker looking arrangement down at the dropouts.
The chainstays appear to be a bit taller to boot, although it's hard to tell from these photos. The downtube also looks larger in diameter, and the front of the bike clearly has a different shape to the production Scale, including new cable entry ports.
There is no official word when it comes to weight, but the frame is rumored to be around 150 grams lighter than what Nino was on before, a relatively big chunk shaved off for a design that was already extremely light. Scott declined to say whether the weight loss comes from them using a different carbon or from the frame's new design alone, but given that Nino's full-suspension Spark is said to weigh in the low 19lb range, it's not out of line to assume that this prototype hardtail comes in well under that. The bike's featherweight build kit no doubt helps matters, with a set of handmade tubular tires from Andre Dugast glued onto carbon wheels from DT Swiss and an OPM O.D.L 100 Race fork from the same company.
www.cyberdyne.jp/english
I'm just guessing you've probably complained about the cost of mountain bikes before, so why do you want them to do something more expensive that offers pretty much zero benefit, and that same benefit can be achieved with $0.05 of tape?
At least with some brands. And no, hollow encasing is not expensive per se. Shimano is offering them in dirt-cheap products, relative to other brands who charge 2-3 times more on a product with visible pockets.
Why does a RF turbine crankset cost so much compared to an XT?
Really though, just do that fox & RS, no need for more material or weight, easier to clean & would probably look rad, like a suspension bridge on suspension forks. Covered in saline solution it'd be a suspension on a suspension with suspension on...
I'll see myself out.
Last week I built a Trek Emonda with a Sram red build and the f*cker weighed in under 11 pounds!
velonews.competitor.com/2016/04/news/injured-ventoso-blasts-use-of-road-discs_402394
I suppose if you don't race pro, maybe we're not the ones who should be judging how dangerous they are in the pro peloton. I just don't understand why the rotors need to be so sharp? Couldn't they simply round the edges rather than leave them razor sharp?
Exploding tubulars - well, that's another story for another day.
I have one pro roadie and one ex pro in my family. Both rode Giro, I know this sht quite well, how unreasonable bunch they are, how fkd up they are by the volume and precision of training they need to do to perform at highest levels.
Disc brakes stop bikes better and increae level of danger as much as headcams do for downhillers.
I can't believe they actually whined about rotors being dangerous.
You've got a bunch of serrated circular knives directly on the other side of the hub if that's they're concern.
An uber-light strategically placed Shark Fin, or f*ck it, go crazy with a [hugely] vented carbon fiber cover around the whole rotor and problem solved
Yeeeeeshhhh.
I agree though, they are bad ass tires. Tubular on a MTB is an awesome feeling. Had tubulars on my KG461 and was able to check these out a few times at MSA. Just saying if we're talking about style the skinwall looks weird on the bike with camo and bright colors. All subjective for sure.
LMAO at the neg probs. Children get so upset before their can eat their lunchables at recess.
I hear you on the handmade argument, probably a misnomer on my part. Also, this was gold ''Artisan hand sewn tires with hand formed rubber chewed into perfect knob shape by a colony of ants trained at the Parisian school of tire tread shaping.''
Plenty of tubs are machine made (Vittoria, Conti, Tufo, Challenge), but Dugasts (and FMBs) are properly hand made.
And I'd be OK calling the seats in your Bentley example "handmade" (even though I agree that "handsewn" is more accurate), but I wouldn't describe the car as a whole as such.