New Bike Day – Is it Better?

by Alan Cole · Sunday, November 9th, 2025

It’s been years since I had a new bike, but having started doing some night rides lately, I thought it was time to rectify that situation.

I’d been joining the night riders on my Whyte 901, which was fine. As a trail-oriented hardtail it was probably the perfect machine for the sort of rides we were doing — but it was a little dated. Then I snapped the chain on it before one of the rides, so it was out of action and needed some TLC. The brakes could do with bleeding, and the headset never seems to tighten up properly. I should get it fixed, but instead I took my Scott Scale instead.

The Scott Scale is a beautiful bike, but it’s quite an aggressive, race-oriented XC machine and not ideal for the trails around here. It’s a rocket up the hills — even with my old decrepit body powering it along — but it did feel a bit twitchy on the descents. The smaller wheels, lack of rear suspension, short-travel forks, absence of a dropper post, and steep, upright geometry all made my lack of descending skills all the more noticeable. Not helped by the fact that the brakes need bleeding on this one too, so I didn’t have 100% confidence in them!

My old Commencal Meta 5.5 full-suspension bike wasn’t working either. Having sat for years, the brakes need attention and the freehub seems to have seized. It’s also showing its age now — those 26” wheels look tiny these days — and it’s quite heavy compared to modern bikes. So, despite all its nice upgrades, it probably wasn’t worth spending money to get it running again.

Cue the need for a seventh bike! As I mentioned recently, I let AI convince me that it was needed as well. It’s now arrived, and I’ve been out on it twice.

The small size seems fine — it’s quite compact, but I like that. It rides well. The lockout makes it climb efficiently, and in full-suspension mode it feels plush and compliant. I’m liking the idea of the wireless shifters, though I haven’t quite got them set up right yet — I keep hitting the wrong lever whichever way I have them positioned! The dropper post is nice to have too. It should make descending easier, but I don’t feel as though I have as much control when the saddle’s out of the way. I think I’ve got so used to not having one that I rely on the saddle for extra stability even when standing. I’ll get used to it though — it’s already proved useful on a few little drops where I can let the bike move around beneath me more freely.

Performance

After an easy night ride on Thursday, I took the new bike to Nant-yr-Arian on Saturday. It was a nice day, so I parked at Pendam and did the same exact route I’ve done twice in recent weeks. Basically it’s the Pendam Trail from the base of Hippity Hop, but I do the top section twice so I can ride both the red and blue trails down High as a Kite and The Italian Job. I finish off with a second loop around Llyn Blaenmelindwr.

Run 1

A few weeks ago, I rode the same route on my Whyte 901 to make sure it was running OK. I took it easy and didn’t put in too much effort — it took me 1 hour 24 minutes, at an average speed of 8.1 mph. Not great, but it felt easy.

Run 2

A couple of weeks later I did it on the Scott Scale — again, just to make sure it was working before a night ride. This time I put in a little more effort. It’s such a fast, racy bike that it encourages you to push. This run came in at 1 hour 14 minutes — ten minutes faster, averaging 9.2 mph.

Run 3

So, with those benchmarks set, I rode the same route on the new Scott Spark. This time I worked much harder, especially on the climbs where the extra weight was noticeable. Conditions were slightly wetter, and I felt quicker on the descents. However, despite the extra effort, I was nowhere near the Scale’s time — 1 hour 17 minutes, three minutes slower.

I expected the extra weight and suspension to slow me slightly on the climbs, but I half-hoped to make that up on the descents. Looking at the segments, there wasn’t a huge difference anywhere. The climbs were indeed slower — about 10–20 seconds down on a 5-minute climb — and the descents were only 3–5 seconds faster on average. By the end, fatigue kicked in and the later descents were actually a touch slower.

I shouldn’t be too disappointed — the Scott Scale was always going to be hard to beat, especially over fairly tame terrain. The new bike does exactly what I hoped it would: it’s more balanced. It slows me down on the climbs, which have always been my strength, and helps me a bit on the descents, which are my weakness. On group rides, it should level things out nicely.

The extra effort needed on the climbs can only be good for fitness too — and the extra 5 kg of bike weight could easily be lost from the rider if I were so inclined! I think it’ll become my everyday mountain bike, which also means that on those days when I fancy some speed, the Scott Scale will feel like a rocket ship — even if it is a slightly twitchy one.