Scott G-Zero Strike 10

Price: £3499.99

Frame: HMF carbon fibre monocoque

Fork: Rock Shox SID SL

Stop: Avid Ultimate Speed Dial levers, with SD Mag magnesium calipers

Go: XTR rear mech and shifters, XT front mech. Race Face Turbine Lite chainset

Wheels: Mavic X517 rims on Tune hubs, Continetal Twister Pro Super Sonic

Trim: Scott Hot Rod bars, seatpost, stem, dual compound grips. Selle Italia “genuine gel” Flite

Total weight: 22.8lb complete

From: Scott 01670 712129

14 hours on everything from frozen hardpack to wet rooty singletrack, including all the bouldery river beds and technical climbs / descents in between.

The Story

After 11 years of riding Ritchey custom steel hardtails, World Cup legend Thomas Frischneckt will finally be changing bikes to Scott. Obviously not one for half measures, he’s gone right to the other extreme by choosing to ride an as yet unreleased ultralight Scandium hardtail and he’ll also have his very own Strike for rougher courses. While ‘Frischy’ will be riding a Gripshift and Ritchey equipped bike we’ve tested the production one with a Shimano build up, but this is the one you’ll all be pressing your eager little faces against the shop window to dream about anyway.

The Reason

Scott already had a good working single pivot swingarm system with their G-Zero series, but they wanted to lose weight from the aluminium frameset. They’ve been building carbon or thermoplastic bikes for several years now with the semi softail Endorphin (alas no more) and the rather lardy and flexy multi section Ectomorph, So carbon was an obvious choice for a new front end.

The Rig

The front end of the Strike uses HMF (High Modulus Fibre) carbon laid up to maximise the length of the main sections.

For example one base sheet starts at the seat post, wraps fall the way round the front of the headtube and then heads back to the seatpost. On top of this basic skeleton more sheets or patches of carbon are handlaid to tune the structure for maximum strength and stiffness across the load axis, with oversized frame ‘tube’ profiles to increase stiffness even further. Large diameter headtube and bottom bracket sections, and curved frame angles also allow the carbon to flow round the shape without creating potential stress risers. The whole lot is pressed and heated in it’s mould to hard set the resin and then finished in either clear lacquer or team colours. Having played with a front section on it’s own we can report that it is ridiculously light (just over 1kg) and also massively stiff and strong however hard we tried to flex it.

The various plug in components fit into magnesium sleeves bonded into the carbon frame, including the main pivot which sits in the classic ‘level with the middle chainring position’. The multi section aluminium rear end hangs off two easily replaceable clamp in cartridge bearings, and mounts shallow gutter guides for rear disc hose should you need it. The frame also uses neat latch plates on the bottle cage bolts which hold either disc hose or continuous outer cable routing for conventional brakes and gears. Relatively smooth lines and decent tyre clearance also keep the Strike happy in heavy mud, unlike other bikes we’ve tested.

The Ride

The 100mm of rear travel is controlled by a SID rear shock which has an enormous rebound damping range as well as positive and negative air pressure tuning. Which is a good thing as though Scott claim their pivot point has been measured as “98% neutral” by the obligatory ‘German scientist’ this means that it’s really hard to get the shock to keep things calm as soon as the suspension starts to work. We spent several rides trying to balance shock pressures and damping settings before it stopped kicking out when unweighted or squatting stubbornly through successive hits or hard acceleration.

Once you’ve got it fettled though it’s a great ride, with enough sensitivity for cutting chatter and plenty of travel for absorbing big hits or ill advised line choices (once we’d changed the tyres to something more robust). The carbon framset also works noticeably to reduce high speed buzz and skittishness with only a slight drumming through the carbon telling you that the trail beneath isn’t as smooth as it feels through the grips and pedals. The mid pivot set up might be close to neutral but it still extends under power in middle and inner chainrings which combines with the rock steady frameset and feather weight to make the Scott a phenomenal technical climbing machine (though again tyres limit it severely on anything slightly damp).

Typically of recent Scott’s, ride position has been shortened with a short reach stem, which will leave those looking for a racing stretch slightly cramped, but there’s plenty of standover height so just go for the next size up. The short stem also speeds the steering up to an aggressive level that requies a fair amount of attention, but is ideal for stirring the front tyre about in a hunt for traction, making the compact, ultralight bike a joy to chuck through tight singletrack. Again those with a more staid or high speed stable tastes might throw on something a cm or two longer. Although weight is obviously a concern to flatter the frameset, Scott have also been smart enough to leave a decent amount of steerer tube height for adjustment or maybe they just wanted an excuse to use pimpy carbon fibre headset spacers.

A pair of Rock Shox SID SL forks have their tiny crown dwarfed by the bulbous carbon steerer. Though the long travel and multi adjust pressure and damping options match the rear of the bike they feel wayward compared to the massive lateral rigidity of the fat carbon frame and tight swingarm. This tracking imbalance was even more noticeable when we swapped to a stiffer, heavier wheelset to explore the more aggressive side of the Scott, and fork flex in the tips definitely impairs vertical section confidence. Racers will like the lockout lever though, even if you can still rub wheel and brake when sprinting with the fork locked.

The wheelset is based around tiny Tune hubs which are a European lightweight favourite, but together with the (‘Wow do they still make them’) American Classic rod levered QR skewers, and the skimpiest of spokes they do little for front or rear end tracking accuracy. The Continental tyres are also little more than glorified innertubes which might impress the scales but suffer badly through the first thorn patch and refuse to grip on anything but dry rock or hardpack. Very fast rolling and effortless to wind up to speed though, as you’d expect.

The Strike – 10 is built up using an “almost there” mix of top end favourites such as XTR, Avid magnesium brakes and their gorgeous Ultimate levers, combined with own brand plumbing. While the Scott gear is all decent kit and probably within a few grams of more expensive boutique kit, it still creates aslightly ‘compromised’ sensation to the whole package (considering the price), and we can see most owners swapping it out for pimpier gear from the lies of Easton, Pace, USE etc. to really go to town and maximise that ultralight potential.

That said we ‘ve heard from several manufacturers that most really top end bikes like this tend to be bought by people with established personal kit favourites, so whatever you spec. will get swapped – hence put on good value “get it out the door gear” and let them do their own ‘customising’.

Verdict:
Scott have taken a proven suspension set up and swapped out the front end to lose a whole lot of weight. The impressive thing is that not only is it much lighter but it’s as stiff if not stiffer, and the carbon also subtly smooths rough into float when you’re really caning it. The single pivot position takes a while to get the shock set up ‘just so’, but the tinkering time is well worth it as the fettled ride is an excellent traction and control / comfort balance. Tracking stiffness through the frame is also impressive (though forks and wheels let it down slightly) for carving the corners crsiply or delivering that decisive hill climb kick and the minimal weight of the bike will convince you you’ve actually got a “decisive hill climb kick” even if you never had one before.

The wheel and tyre spec might seem a bit “Euro racer” to some, but the Strike’s intended speed freak market would probably have howled equally loudly if some heavy lugged mud rubber had been stuck on there, and if you can run to this price we’re sure a spare set of tyres won’t have you filing for bankruptcy. The good thing is there’s plenty of room to run whatever rubber you fancy.

It’s undoubtedly a huge lot of money and there’s still bits that you’ll probably want to swap round (even if there’s no real need), but it genuinely offers the next level up of race ready full suspension performance. We wouldn’t be suprised to see Mr Frischnechkt and the Scott team piloting their Strike force to podium positions this year – it certainly won’t be the bike holding them back at any rate!

Performance: 4.5/5

Value: 3.5/5

The G-Zero Strike 10 is the top flight model of 3 options. The Strike 20 uses XT and Manitou Mars forks, while the upgrade primer Strike 30 uses a Judy C fork and Deore kit to get you going. The Strike FX takes the frame into whole new territory with long travel Psylo forks, Magura disc brakes and riser bar ride position for featherweight “freeride” fun. The Aluminium G-Zero bikes form the rest of the full suspension range. Carbon weave your way over to the Scott USA website for the full details.