I am looking at purchasing one (700 or 900) of these for the missus, although I do intend to use it myself on certain events. Having never ridden a carbon hardtail, I was curious as to what the ride is actually like. I currently ride a 150mm carbon FSR, so it’s pretty smooth on the rough stuff.
As for the Spark, it looks a little too good to be true. Great spec, great ride and could be less than 10kg!
Thanks in advance
You know when you’re riding along sitting and cranking or standing and mashing up a kicker and you get into this oscillation in the rear that throws your weighting all off or bounces you right as you’re about to lean into a turn? Yea, that doesn’t happen on a hardtail. A hard tail is just pure power to the rear tire. Conversely, the rear suspension is your legs which slowly tire on long rides.
I’ve had a 150mm FS bike and currently have a 100mm carbon hardtail; a CX bike in between. Never would go back to the 150mm bike (that I had) and give up my hardtail. Sure it’s a little tricky on super steep and loose terrain and I’ve got the scars to document the sketchy riding. If I had to give up the hardtail, I’d pick up another CX bike (they’re seriously awesome on singletrack)
After a couple years riding the hardtail, I’ll occasionally trade a friend during a ride for their FS bike and they ride my hard tail. They run a seat to bar rise and feel like I’m racing a sofa. Naturally, coming from my 4" seat to bar drop it’s a completely different experience and I’ve never been one to feel like I’m lounging while pushing a bike.
At the end of the day, both bikes have their merits and completely depend on the type of riding you want and like to do. Running tubeless with a low pressure helps to damp out the bumps and increase traction.
I have a 29er replica and it’s a brilliant bike used for the right thing.
Only two minor gripes for me.
1 Head angle too steep for the terain I ride
2 despite this steep ha the steering is not very quick in switch backs
How much mountain biking has ‘the missus’ done? What sort of trails do you ride? If she is not proficient then both the Spark and Scale have reasonably racing geometry with more weight placed over the front wheel, making ‘over the bars’ on drops more likely. Don’t get me wrong, I love both (and currently frequently ride a Spark, alongside my trail Genius), but for the missus we went with a 29" trail bike with more relaxed geometry and it has been fabulous for her confidence. All depends on your missus though - she may be more proficient than mine was. If we’d put her on either a Scale particularly her riding wouldn’t have progressed, and it would have progressed far less rapidly on the Spark than it has done on her trail bike (Specialized Rumour).
How much mountain biking has ‘the missus’ done? What sort of trails do you ride? If she is not proficient then both the Spark and Scale have reasonably racing geometry with more weight placed over the front wheel, making ‘over the bars’ on drops more likely. Don’t get me wrong, I love both (and currently frequently ride a Spark, alongside my trail Genius), but for the missus we went with a 29" trail bike with more relaxed geometry and it has been fabulous for her confidence. All depends on your missus though - she may be more proficient than mine was. If we’d put her on either a Scale particularly her riding wouldn’t have progressed, and it would have progressed far less rapidly on the Spark than it has done on her trail bike (Specialized Rumour).
This is a good point and something I had not really thought off. I was looking at the Spark/Scale as the weight is amazing and she is not the strongest, nor does she use the gears as well as she could (pedal masher). However, your point about geometry might be something I need to think about. My intention was to use it at various longer distance events and team relays where the terrain is probably not particularly challenging, but we do both go (not very frequently mind) to places that my FSR is more suited. The majority of time, it will be used by her for flatter tow path like rides just to get out and about.
Thanks
I own both of these bikes:
Scale 920 (carbon) and Spark 950 (alloy). Both 29ers. Like them both but both pretty different bikes.
Will always race on the hardtail - have even done a 24 hour race on it - and the sore arse and hands doesnt really come in to the equation for me. Get a dropper post and you can nail pretty much any technical stuff. Will make you a better rider all round as you learn to unweight, etc better.
Dualie - more fun, more casual and more suited to people who arent racing. I’ll use it on rest days when Im just messing around, or hitting some bigger downhill trails where the different geometry and extra travel is welcome.
If i had to choose one - Scale.
Just tacking onto this post:
Does anyone have a 700 series women’s contessa scale? I’m looking at their geometry and it says the stack is much lower than the 500mm I would expect to see on those bikes.
It says 411, 426, 448, 482 for the XS, S, M, L models and just about anyone of those bikes would work really well for me but I would most likely be looking at the small or medium.
I have a dealer near me but they don’t have those bikes in stock.
jaretj
Have the Scale 40 (now known as 640)… wish it was the 29er but they only sold the 29er in the top tier that year… the following year it trickled down to the full line.