[Press Release] – The all-new SCOTT Gambler Tuned is the result of several years of R&D, working with some of the world’s best athletes both on and off the race track in order the one of the lightest, most adjustable downhill bikes on the World Cup Circuit. Progression adjust, wheel size adjust, and a frame weight of just 2650g including hardware combine to create a pure race machine.
So, how did we get there? Considering the bike as a complete system we broke things down into four main factors: construction, adjustability, geometry and integration.
COSTRUTION
We wanted the bike to be light, stiff and strong. If you look at our racing pedigree across other disciplines, we aim to always give our athletes as many competitive advantages over other brands as possible. With the weight advantage, we’ve become experts over the years, and can finally apply this expertise to a downhill race rig. The Gambler Tuned’s carbon frame with hardware comes in at 2650g.
However, carbon design and engineering go beyond just weight, as when we set a weight target, we set up a stiffness target as well. We worked closely with our athletes to determine a good blend of stiffness and flex, aiming to give them a tool that would be proficient on all world cup tracks and in all conditions. Working with various materials and layup techniques we were able to achieve a torsionally stiff frame for responsive behavior but with the right level of lateral flex to provide compliance and comfort on difficult sections of track.
Even though we were able to get to our low weight target, we didn’t compromise on our strength target. This is a downhill bike after all, and it needs to be able to roll with the punches. We test all our bikes to our own very high standard, which sits well above industry norms, and with the Gambler we wanted to make sure that the bike could withstand the forces a professional athlete can exert during a world cup season. There is no point in making a lightweight, fast bike if it isn’t a strong bike.
ADJUSTABILITY
Our downhill bikes have always pushed the boundaries of adjustability. Both a rider and a bike need to be able to adapt to tracks, weather conditions and choice of shock (air or coil.) The new Gambler allows you to switch between wheelsizes without changing any other components on the bike. Chain stay length can also be adjusted, independent of wheelsize choice. Short with 29”, sure thing. Long with 27.5? Yep, that too. The Gambler also comes with spare angled headset cups, so that you can adjust head angle relative to wheelsize, fork choice etc.
We also have a 4-way chip to allow not only bottom bracket height adjustment relative to wheelsize, but more importantly for geometry/kinematic tweaks depending on tracks, shocks or rider preference. We want the bike to be optimizable for each shock and rider given the track.
GEOMETRY
INTEGRATION
Integration is becoming a more important topic at SCOTT as time goes by. We spent a lot of time here looking at previous concepts and asking ourselves if we really wanted to grandfather into the new bike performance compromises due to old standards – we didn’t. Enter our proprietary chain guide / bash guard solution.
It seems like it shouldn’t make a huge difference on the bike, but it turns out it does. We even joke saying that it dictated the design of the entire bike. Why make this a proprietary piece? Chain devices are normally made to work with many different bikes and are therefore compromised. We only need to make it work for this one frame and a specific range of chainring sizes, so it can be easier to setup, better performing, lighter and allows us to gain some advantages on the frame construction, further reducing weight and increasing reliability/durability.
SYNCROS HIXON iC DH
Integration is nowhere stronger than in the cockpit. The new Hixon iC DH for Syncros builds on their recent developments with one-piece cockpits to build the lightest DH cockpit on the market. Why build a one piece? A traditional bar and stem must be reinforced at the clamping point, particularly when using carbon. By molding the two of these together we no longer need to reinforce this point and can concentrate on finding the perfect stiffness values for the bar. Furthermore, we can build a super strong layup which can withstand 260kg on each side in a downward force (over half a ton in total) and return to its original shape without any deformation- well above our own rigorous in-house standards for a DH bar.
More questions about the bike? Listen to Tim Stevens, the lead engineer behind the Gambler, tell you everything you might ever want to know with regards to the technological features and concepts behind the all-new SCOTT Gambler. This educational video comes with subtitles in various languages.
The new SCOTT Gambler 900 Tuned will be available in stores by December of 2019 at a provisional price point of 7999€. Stay “tuned” for further information.
