This year, we’ve seen a good few super light cross-country bikes hit the market, like Specialized’s most recent Epic and Canyon’s new Lux, showing that sub-10-kilo XC bikes are becoming the new norm. But in true Dangerholm style, the man himself has taken Scott’s Spark RC and given it his own custom flair, and it’s one serious bit of kit!
This is a Dangerholm build, so there’s nothing particularly normal about his Scott Spark RC. But the most recognisable is that Spark RC frame. In itself, it’s pretty interesting as it features a slightly different take on Scott’s internal shock style, where it’s laid horizontally in the frame, rather than vertically. This is to help lower the bike’s centre of gravity while boosting stiffness where it’s needed. This is a cross-country bike, after all, so stiffness around the bottom bracket means serious power transfer.
The main theme behind his build was to capitalise on the Spark RC’s looks, performance and user-friendliness, but there are areas in which he could shed weight. Although he’s such a fan of the bike, he has recognised areas in which he could shed weight. So he decided to run the bike without the Octopus Cable routing tech and the integrated frame storage kit. Dangerholm also scraped away the Spark’s old paint down to the carbon and sanded the raw carbon down to a gloss finish, which I expect would literally shave off the odd gram.
Things get extra interesting when we take a look at the suspension. The shock is the standard RockShox SIDLuxe, but Dangerholm has taken Intend’s 120mm Samurai XC fork and retrofitted RockShox’s Flight Attendant tech to provide automatic lockout of both the fork and shock.
As you might expect from a Dangerholm build, the bike is littered with CeramicSpeed bearings, but here he’s chosen the SLT bearings, which use a fancy self-lubricating polymer, rather than grease. This means that they should last an incredibly long time before wearing out.
In the hunt for further weight savings, Darimo’s IX2AL stem features on the bike, and the computer mount is held in place just by a sliver of 3M tape. Darimo has also supplied a flat handlebar, and the grips are Extralite’s HyperGrips, weighing 9.1g with the HyperPlugs. So it’s safe to say that they live up to their name.
For the drivetrain, there’s a right mix of kit here. There’s WERT’s StW-M titanium crankset that weighs a claimed 321.6 grams, and making the most of the Flight Attendant system, there’s a SRAM XX SL power meter.
The cassette also comes from SRAM in the form of the special edition 1987 cassette, which is apparently even lighter than the XX SL version. The derailleur then started life as a SRAM GX T-Type mech, but after Dangerholm has worked his magic, there’s not actually much of it left. That’s because it’s received a full HOPP Carbon Parts upgrade, which reduces the weight to 357.7g, with the battery.
As for the wheels, they’re Duke Lucky Jack 31 SLS5 285 rims. Yep, those are textile spokes built of a special Vectran fibre. Dangerholm says that these have a higher tensile strength of most steel spokes on the market, while being lighter. Then, the tyres come from Tufo. They’re the XC11 TR SG at the rear and XC14 TR SG at the front, both of which weigh around 625 and 650g.
But while this is a very, very lightweight cross-country bike, weighing a total of 8.99 kilos, it’s not quite as light as the production Specialized Epic 9 in its poshest build, weighing a claimed 8.5kg. In our opinion, this bike is a lot cooler though.
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