Scale LTD Wins Best Of High Class Hardtails
Mountain Biking UK recently voted the SCOTT Scale Limited the "BEST OF THE HIGH CLASS HARDTAILS” over five other top bikes! Here’s what Mountain Biking UK had to say about the SCALE LTD.
SCOTT SCALE LIMITED
A cross country weight watcher’s wet dream
Scott has been making top carbon mountain bikes for years now, but the Scale is an extraordinary achievement.
COOL CARBON
With its naked carbon finish, there’s no doubting what material makes up the Scale. Oversized tubes and smooth angles maximize fiber strength and stiffness around the seriously sloped top tube, tall to flat down tube, and oversized seat post. Alloy dropouts are glued onto the elbows of the looped rear stays with replaceable hanger survivability traded for ultimate shifting accuracy. Riveted disc mounts and glued hose guides are also ready and waiting. Twin bottle cages are conventionally placed and there’s plenty of mud clearance too. The under-top-tube cable guides are theoretically uncomfortable for carrying but with the whole bike weighing under 20 lbs, there are few hills that’ll reduce you to walking. If you like extra stretch in the top tube, you’ll need to size up. While it’s long for Scott, it’s shorter that the other medium-sized bikes here.
The carbon FSA crankset tends to slightly dull the initial acceleration kick, but at the point you’d normally be running out of go, the Scale kicks in. It just surges on, pilling gear on top of gear to peg a cruising speed way higher than you’re used to. It doesn’t care whether you’re hammering the flat or turning tempo up a climb, it just takes whatever you’ve got and runs away with it. Nice.
CORNERS and CLIMBS
The Scale will clatter and thwack off square-edge impacts or ditch drops but it sticks traction through corners or cobbled and loose climbs with dependable tenacity. It certainly wasn’t any more nervous on descents or technical sections than the other SID-equipped bikes here. The handling of the 120 mm stem and flat bar was exactly what we’d expect too—naturally steady, but turning sharp enough if you really pushed the issue; in short, ideal behavior for the big ring speed range this bike inhabits most of the time.
FEELING SHARP
Interestingly, our medium size sample bike felt a lot sharper than Brit XC ace Oli Beckingsale’s large bike that we tested a few issues back. It felt sharper even when we swapped to tubeless wheels, leaving only a potentially more forgiving bar, seatpost and saddle set up as the answer. Either that or smaller frames are noticeably stiffer. But enough about the frame and onto the components.
Carbon topped SID World Cup forks are gram-free and as bling as you like. DT Swiss wheels just took our designer wheel test favorites, the Ringle Ti skewers are actually rebadged Tune ones, the Selle Italia saddle has carbon rails and shell, and on it goes in a list of greatness. The savage grab of the Avid Ultimate Vs on DT ceramic rims takes some getting used to, and we’d maybe swap the FSA crankset for a stiffer XTR unit, but otherwise it’s all premium gear. Scott even supplies Crank Brothers Triple Ti Eggbeater pedals as standard issue, which makes the full bike price a remarkably good value.
SPEED OF LIGHT
More than just insanely light, the Scott Scale LTD is a guaranteed speed raising, time-slicing race machine that currently has no off-the-rack equal. Our medium sample is definitely on the sharp side, but you can still really stick it to the trail when you need to. Add a genuine wish list kit selection and even the astronomical price tag looks like a good value.
