Scott Spark

Marvinman

HI,

I'm new to MTB coming from a reasonably high road riding standard, with endurance racing and climbing being my type of event. Having been wiped out by a car resulting in various broken bones I am looking at MTB to sit alongside my road riding when I can't be bothered fighting for space with cars or when the weather makes the road less appealing.

As a roadie I am naturally drawn to lighter components, and am of slight build (5ft 8 and 64kg) so I won't get on with a heavy bike. My main riding will be in/around Afan in South Wales. I will focus upon endurance riding with uphill routes thrown in to allow me meet my aim of quality training rides of 2.5 to 3 hours or more. I am not very interested in downhill or hugely technical trails other than as a means to continue my ride.

I think I am right to look at a 29er, unless someone tells me different. I think I have also decided that I should look at full suspension to keep my options open? Given the lightweight requirements I have been looking at the Scott Spark range. However its a bit bewildering in terms of the various options not only within that range but also more generally. Price is not a factor and I have a budget of circa £3,000 for the bike alone.

So my queries, bearing in mind I am a real MTB newbie (be nice!!), are:

- Can I safely choose carbon in the knowledge it will stand up to some reasonable punishment (I think I know the answer to this, but worth checking);

- Should I choose carbon or go for alu;

- If I am looking at full suspension given my riding aims is there anything in particular I should be looking for?

- I have been torn between full suspension or hard tail, because I like riding quickly and am worried about full suspension being restrictive/slower on simple trails. Is this something I should be concerned with;

- Any views on the Scott spark range?

- Any other recommendations outside the Scott range which may suit my parameters?

Thanks in advance.

- Any other general advice?

The Rookie

Carbon is fine, in most circumstances its tougher than aluminium and more likely to survive.

Carbon or ally comes down to choice of other components against your budget.

For an FS bike its key to match YOUR requirements to the right bike, the Spark is a great XC bike and will cope just fine with trail/trail centre riding and is probably a good fit to someone coming from road riding, but its not a big hitting bike (its not designed to be). A good shock is critical to how well the suspension performs, the same frame with a good shock is much nicer to ride than with a bad one, the stock shocks on the Spark are all good enough at their price points.

A modern FS will weigh a little more than a hardtail and the chainstays will allways be a little longer losing a bit of 'pop', but otherwise you'll barely notice a difference, many XC racers swap HT to FS depending on course.

Scott range are all pretty good (once over the circa £800-1k point, cheap ones, as with most big name brands, are horrid value).

Have a look at the Spesh Epic FSR, most brands will have an FS XC race bike in the range, Merida, Trek, Cannondale etc etc.

29er or 27.5 would both work well.

Have a look at the link in my sig to my lightweight Niota, old fashioned 26" wheels but very similar conceptually to the older 26" Sparks.

Marvinman

Great thanks for the tips

b_wilde

Most of the higher end XC bikes that are FS will have some form of lockout (scott use a Twnilock system) so I would not worry about it being restrictive on the tamer trails or the flatter climbs. Can just use the lockout. Modern shock tech has come a long way. Most of them even with the shocks open wont bob around terribly unless you are mashing a big gear.