The Scale 950 uses the now traditional-for-cross-country 29er wheels to excellent effect, with a fast but fun character that's happy racing or railing.
Our test loop starts with some fast flowing
singletrack, straight into a nicely built bermed chicane. On bikes we know it's
possible to pop between the two, and thanks to the Scale's trail friendly yet
racy geometry and weight distribution we're hitting them fast enough and with
confidence straight out of the box.
As the trail develops, the corners get faster, with
bigger berms, and it's here that the 29er finds itself floundering a bit. The
Fox 32 Evolution fork is braced only by a quick release axle at the bottom and
cheekily there's a straight 1 l/8in steerer hidden inside the Scale's bulging
tapered-ready headtube. Damping in the 2015 model year is improved, but it's
still not as slick as the top end models.
Fork flex
Banging into corners
highlights the flex of both the fork and the larger wheels, which contributes
to a slight lack of conidence on high-speed corners. This isn't made any better
by the basic compound Maxxis Ikon tyres. On the back, their small tread means
minimal wattage is lost to friction, but up front there's not enough bite into
the loose, and at times polished rocky trail.
Despite our woes with the tyres and fork, the big
wheels let us ly along the trails. In a straight line the 950 is a
rocketship,onlyslightlyslowed in the corners. That said, once you've learnt its
quirks you very quickly start to compensate for the vague feeling into corners
by weighting the front wheel more than you might usually, and speeds pick up
again. The cockpit's Syncros bar and stem combo, at 700mm wide and 80mm long
gives enough control through the turns, but we'd like to see 740mm bars for
slightly more leverage on the corners.
Weight placement
What goes up must go down, and it's not long before
we're tackling the main climb. It starts steep and twisty so we have to get our
weight right over the front wheel, while balancing carefully on the tip of the
saddle to get the subtle mix of front and rear wheel traction. Those bigger
wheels mean that we've got a higher front end than the 650b Scale, and this
extra height is apparent as we weight the front more than we're used to to keep
the wheel tracking round the corner. A quick fiddle with some Allen keys slams
the stem onto the headset's top cap, but it's always going to lose out to the
650b Scale here.
With the turns out of the way,
the climb straightens, but the ground gets more choppy. Roots and rocks litter
the trail and our riding buddy on the 650b Scale drops back. The larger wheels
don't hook up quite as bad on the trail debris, so the climb feels smoother,
while on the looser surfaces the 29in wheels resist wheelspin a little better.
Dropping easily from the large to small chainring on the 2x10 Shimano SLX/XT
groupset sees us spinning efficiently up the rest of the climb, giving us a
chance to catch our breath while we wait for our mates.
Fast and efficient yet also
fun, the Scale 950 is great for hacking about and starting your XC race career.
FRAME Scale
Alloy 6061
FORK Fox
32 Evolution CTD Air, 100mm
WHEELS Formula
hub (F), Shimano hub (R), Syncros GX19 rims
TYRES Maxxis
Ikon, 29x2.2in
CRANKS Shimano
M625, 38/24
GEARS Shimano
SLX shifters, SLX mech (F), XT Shadow mech (R)
BRAKES Shimano
M447, 180/160mm rotors
HANDLEBAR Syncros 6061 700mm
STEM Syncros 6061
SEATPOST Syncros
SADDLE MTB Race
SIZES S,
M (tested), L, XL, XXL
WEIGHT 12.3kg
(27.1lb)