SCOTT took full-suspension design to another level in 2021 when it launched its new Spark with internal rear suspension as well as other integrated technology to deliver a bike that can take two bottle cages inside the frame and eliminate the cockpit cable chaos that was a feature of its predecessor. We spent a few weeks testing the RC Team AXS. Here’s what we think.
THE BIKE
The general consensus in full suspension for mountain bikes is that a vertically orientated rear shock is more efficient at rear suspension than a horizontally orientated one. And this was what SCOTT built it’s Spark model around from 2016. Boost-width technology, which had just come into the market, allowed SCOTT to design a wider bottom bracket, which made it possible to change its shock orientation from beneath the top tube to in front of the base of the seattube in a Trunnion mount.
While it turned out to be a hugely successful design change (Nino Schurter’s most successful seasons were on this design), it meant that you could only carry one bottle on the Spark. It was also during this phase that SCOTT SRAM Racing took the Cape Epic on seriously, winning the overall men’s title twice from three attempts (2017 and 2019).
While you only need one bottle in an XCO race, marathons and stage races require more on-the-bike liquid carrying capacity. And this is what ultimately led to SCOTT finding a way to have both the highly efficient vertically orientated rear shock AND a second bottle cage inside the frame.
In 2019, SCOTT bought boutique bike brand, Bold, which was already making integrated rear suspension frames. This led to some speculation that SCOTT’s engineers would be making the most of this acquisition. They did; and boy oh boy, the result is quite impressive. Not only does the new Spark include an internally housed rear shock, with 120mm of travel, it also features a redesigned cockpit that cleans up a traditionally busy web of cables due to its proprietary – and also redesigned – TwinLoc remote suspension adjustment system.
FRAME
Through a combination of scientific and real-world testing, SCOTT’s engineers have established which areas of a bicycle frame require strength and stiffness and which can be super light. This led to the new Spark having two distinct carbon zones – The Lightweight Zone and the Stiffness Zone. The Stiffness Zone is low down and forward and incorporates the headtube, downtube and chainstays. The Lightweight Zone is higher up and incorporates the toptube, upper seattube and seatstays. The seamless combination of these two zones delivers a frame which SCOTT claims is the ideal combination of characteristics for optimal control, comfort and performance. Not only is this carbon crafting functional, it also looks beautiful.
While most big brands are focussing on 100mm travel for their marathon/XCO full-sus bikes, SCOTT took a step forward and specced 120mm of rear travel as standard. This additional suspension travel would normally be considered unnecessary for marathon/XCO bikes because it would add weight. But SCOTT’s engineers were able keep the weight to under 2000 grams for the two premium carbon layups (HMX-SL at 1870g and HMX at 1999g); and 2150g from the third layup – HMF. Adding to the increased travel is the custom tuning of the shock to give the rider smooth small-bump sensitivity and plenty of mid-travel support. It’s designed to be highly effective rear suspension system that delivers consistent premium performance and not just rear-end ‘give’. We didn’t have any real difficulty setting the rear suspension sag and adjusting pressure when necessary. Once you remove the plastic cover (make sure you tighten it correctly so you don’t lose it!) you have sufficient space to access what you need to.
Simply by switching the orientation of the headset cups, new Spark owners can adjust the bike’s geometry by 0.6 degrees. There’s no cable-cutting or brake-bleeding required – simply remove the bar/stem turn the top and bottom headset cup 180 degrees and replace the handlebar. This this allows you to change the default headtube angle from 67.2 degrees to 66.6 degrees on the Spark RC and from 65.8 degrees to 64.6 degrees on the Spark 900. This pushes the front wheel slightly further forward which offers increased control and confidence on steep descents.
Integrated cockpit
Gone are the days of external cables on a full-suspension mountain bike. Well for owners of the new SCOTT Spark high-end models anyway. The rear-brake hose, derailleur cable, dropper seatpost hose and rear shock cable are all channelled through the downtube from the handlebars. The one-piece handlebar/stem presents the new Fraser iC design from Syncros, which channels the cables and hoses under the bar and into the headtube. Not only does it look clean, it offers better cable ‘flow’ which eliminates unnecessary bends and kinks. Launched in 2010, TwinLoc is SCOTT’s proprietary remote suspension adjustment system that works by connecting the shock, fork, and ultimately the frame via a handlebar remote. With the remote, the rider has the ability to choose from three ride modes, Descend (120mm), Traction Control (80mm) and Lockout, effectively changing the bikes geometry, suspension damping and spring curve simultaneously.
SPEC SUMMARY
The SCOTT Spark RC Team AXS 2022 comes with a Rock Shox SID Select RL3 suspension fork with 120mm of travel, a Rock Shox RS Nude 5 RL3 shock with 120mm of travel, TwinLoc suspension adjustment, SRAM GX Eagle 1×12 AXS drivetrain, Shimano XT Brakes with a 180mm rotor on the front and a 160mm rotor on the rear. There’s a Syncros Silverton wheelset with 30mm wide alloy rims and Syncros Fraser integration bar/stem combo. Full spec list is here.
THE RIDE
We certainly had plenty of time to put the new Spark through a range of conditions, surfaces and trails. We rode it in Gauteng and Mpumalanga during late winter and also did a few races on it because, well, that’s where the pressure comes from and where rider mistakes can be highlighted or forgiven. It’s also where you get to really understand how a high-performance bike performs.
Climbing 10/10
You expect a high-end carbon race bike to climb well and most of them do. The new frame design with the integrated rear shock gives the Spark a higher level of rigidity, which should transfer into forward movement when climbing. We didn’t have any specific climbs to measure this on, but we did feel that when standing to climb, the bike felt planted, yet nimble on even-surfaced climbs. We also climbed some rough, long ascents in the Van Gaalen and Buffelsdrift networks. The fact that you can adjust the suspension with the TwinLoc system to be either firm, intermediate or fully open allowed us to switch between Lockout and Traction Control on ascents. On a rough climb, Traction Control is the ideal setting as it offers a good combination of comfort and traction. This bike climbs superbly.
Descending 9/10
We did two Enduro events on this test bike while we had it – one at MTO Lowveld, Mpumalanga on relatively smooth trails and one at Buffelsdrift, Gauteng on rocky and loose trails. We wanted to get a feel for the way the Spark handled technical descents under pressure. It was most certainly a very capable descender and we undoubtedly asked a lot more from the suspension than an average marathon/stage racer would. While we steered clear of obvious large hits, we found the Spark to be most capable on pretty much anything else (note: we dropped the seat as low as it could go for the race runs). Although the O-ring positions indicated we used ALL 120mm of travel, we never felt any kind of ‘bottoming out’. We would not have considered using this bike at a Buffelsdrift Enduro had it not had 120mm of rear suspension. It’s not an Enduro bike, but the way it performed there does confirm it has enough versatility for a skilled rider to really get a lot from it.
Cornering 8/10
Cornering is a tricky one. Tyres, tyre pressure, trail surface and suspension pressure all factor into cornering. So we don’t judge a test bike on its cornering until we are very in tune with it and have what we feel are the right pressures/settings for that test rider. Our test bike came with Maxxis Rekon Race tyres. They’re light and surprisingly grippy on dry, loose over hardpack, which is what a lot of the Gauteng trail conditions are. But they’re not the best tyres we’ve tested for cornering on those surfaces, so we did feel a little inadequate on some fast loose turns. A slightly more squared-edged front tyre would make a difference for sure.
Handling 9/10
Those moments that don’t make a highlights reel but which make all the difference as you take a bike through various trails at speed. Where you brake just a bit, or don’t brake at all because you feel the bike is able to handle the surface, obstacle or gradient that’s approaching in fractions of a second. This is where the Spark is just superb! You feel completely in sync with the bike because it does exactly what you want and expect it to do. Our testers would have preferred a dropper seatpost though. And most Spark RC models do come with a dropper post. This particular model doesn’t. Handling would surely be a 10/10 though if it did.
Comfort 8/10
Long rides are an integral part of marathon training and stage racing. Comfort isn’t always a priority for top-end bikes because they expect the type of rider on these bikes to be in superb physical condition. We weren’t in peak physical condition when we test rode the Spark, but we did do a few 4-hour rides and found the comfort to be good. We did experience a bit of hand numbness late in the rides, which is likely due to the set-up, which we were only able to adjust by moving the saddle forward or backwards. While the Syncros integrated system is aesthetically very pleasing, it comes with a stem that’s not currently replaceable for a different length. This is changing though, with various length stem/bar combos arriving in September 2022. With each stem length comes a slightly different angle to ensure that no matter which stem length you fit, the stack height is always the same.
Most riders that would buy this bike would be completing marathons in around 3 hours, so there’s likely sufficient comfort for most.
LOOKS 10/10
We test rode one of the first 2022 SCOTT Sparks in the country. It was incredible how many mountain bikers wanted to have a look at the bike and feel the rear shock working. It was as if they didn’t quite believe and wanted to see/feel in person that a rear shock is indeed inside the frame. The way that SCOTT has designed a full-suspension bike that looks like a hardtail is really quite impressive, even if you aren’t a SCOTT fan. The paint job on the RC TEAM AXS we tested is rather striking itself. The rear triangle and rear part of the main triangle is a matt black, which is very practical. The front of the main triangle is simply stunning! Look at the bike from certain angles and it seems to be a deep metallic purple. Then look at the bike from the other angles and it seems to be a deep metallic emerald green, with a wet-fish-scales-like shimmer. The bright yellow decals on the belly of the downtube, beneath the toptube and on the inside of the seatstays add an element of boldness.
The super thin toptube and chunky bottom-bracket are somewhat contrasting, but just work to create an optical balance that gives you a sense that many, many hours of design time went into this new frame design.
SCOTT SPARK RC TEAM AXS 2022
| Climbing | 10 |
| Descending | 9 |
| Cornering | 8 |
| Handling | 9 |
| Comfort | 8 |
| Looks | 10 |
| TOTAL | 54/60 |
SUMMARY
While the lack of a dropper seatpost bothered us a bit initially, we got used to the rigid post. We also accepted that the tyres weren’t the best for the conditions but still went on to set a new fastest time (and segment KOMs) on two of our regular marathon bike test segments, one slightly descending and twisty (2:22 in duration) and one with some mild ups and downs and a number of turns (2:41 in duration). By our TREAD Test Team’s standards, this is the fastest XCO/Marathon bike we have ridden.
SCOTT has essentially revolutionised mainstream full-suspension performance mountain bikes with the new Spark – impressive suspension performance with a second bottle cage inside the frame (on all sizes except the Small).
Most performance bikes fitted with SRAM AXS are at least R25k more than this bike. The AXS is just superb and never once misshifted or failed and truly does add value to the bike. You can go a bit lighter with models up that have lighter wheelsets and carbon cockpits and lighter carbon frames (HMX SL and HMX – our test bike had HMF carbon); and you can also get a model just above with a dropper seatpost. But then you’ll pay a bit more. For those who worry about weight, we weighed it at 10.24kg with sealant, bottle cage and without pedals. We had enough time to put this bike thoroughly through its paces in a wide range of circumstances and conditions. The Spark RC Team AXS really did impress us with its efficiency, speed, handling, looks and price.
PRICE: R103 000
WEIGHT: 10.24kg
MORE INFO: Click here.
