My thoughts on the Scott Scale Pro 29er from an hours demo at Dalby Forest thanks to Purple Mountain.
As soon as I got on the bike the fit felt spot on, first crank of the peddles around the courtyard also showed this bike had plenty of get up and go with no wasted power from the legs. The Scale is nice and light at a claimed 22.5lbs and looks good with internal cable routing to keep the frame tidy.
We set off and took the initial climb from the visitors centre of the Red route and the bike had no problem with this climb and also contrary to what I have read in the press about 29ers suffering problems turning on tight switchbacks this bike had no such problems. Once at the top of the first climb I was impressed that I was not really feeling it, this is nothing to do with the bike being a 29er and more to do with it being a featherweight bike, but the traction had been superb even on the slightly loose switchback climbs..
We cut along the blue route to join up with the latter stages of the red and on the smooth fireroad surface it really excelled covering ground like a road bike. We then cut along a boggy track to join up with the red and the bike dispatched this with ease, plenty of traction. Once on the red we joined a smooth but fast section with bomb holes and the bike appeared to lap this kind of surface up no problem and able to get through it at a fair rate. The following section was rough and rough enough that even on a full suss bike riders comment that this section is bad. The 29er was still fast through this section as it should be for a lightweight hardtail but plenty of vibrations through the bar and pedals again to be expected on a hardtail.
The next few sections had a combination of sandy uphill switchbacks and slippy hardpack singletrack, the bike coped with this effortlessly and more to the surprise was the bike had Rocket Ron tyres which would not be my first choice for the surface conditions, even with these tyres I was able to push on with only the slightest of slip from the front wheel, now this is a real stand out from a 26er. I have since found out that these new Rocket Rons get good reviews and offer plenty of grip so was the grip because the bike is a 29er or because of these new tyres.
Soon we were upon one of Dalbys greatest sections, a slightly rocky drop into large downhill berms, the bike absolutely flew down here and it felt faster than I had been before, even using the front brake causing a slight bit of slip from the front wheel, no way I would have done that on a 26er shod with Rocket Rons.
Overall the bike does give you plenty of confidence, probably more confidence than it has any right to given its weight and tyres specced. You also sit in the bike more than on it with its bottom bracket being quite a lot lower than the wheel centres, aiding to the feeling of stability. I was not so keen on the fork but it probably needed setting up a bit better for me also the tyres perhaps had a couple of psi more than I'm used to. Gears were a joy to use if a little noisy when the chain changes sprocket and with cables all hidden away nice and quiet even on the rough stuff.
So what do I think of the 29er craze? Well to be fair more investigations are needed, the Scott Scale is a success and hugely fast but its also a three grand carbon hardtail. Hopefully get a ride soon on a slightly more average 29er build.