$1,037.77

Scott deploys their HMF carbon-fiber wisely in the Scott Spark 900/700 HMF carbon. It used to be their top-of-the-line stuff, and it was generally lighter than anything else you could find. But they’ve moved on to lighter, stiffer carbon lay-ups. This means they’ve dropped the price on the HMF builds, making you smarter for getting all of the design advantages of the top of the line bikes, still super-light, lighter than most of the competition, and now at a better price.

When you look at the HMF frame, it’s hard to tell the difference between it and the HMX frame. The reason is simple. They come out of the same molds. So the same geometry, the same tube-shaping, the same features.

The stiffness is enhanced by smart shaping, a tapered 1 1/8” to 1 1/2” steerer, a wide and strong BB92 bottom bracket, and smart pivot placement. It climbs like a hardtail thanks to the short chain stays and rolls over rough stuff like a bike with more suspension. Realizing that different wheels result in a different ride, the 27.5” bikes come with 120mm of front and rear squish, while the 29er sticks with 100mm. Thanks to this, the bike will not only rock cross-country, but offer enough comfort and stability for a marathon.

Scott has been tinkering with the design to make it more versatile, as that should be the calling card of any cross-country bike. They’ve improved the rear shock thanks to an ongoing collaboration with Fox. The Nude shock with DPS damping is not only easy to fine-tune when you’re off the bike, but thanks to the TwinLoc lever mounted on the underside of the left grip, you can shift through three suspension settings while  you ride, open, traction control, and lockout. You can also raise or lower the bottom bracket height by 7mm (and adjust the head tube angle by .5 degrees) by flipping a chip at the top of the rear suspension linkage. Stick with the lower position for better stability unless you have a particularly rocky but rideable route. Finally, they’ve lowered the lower part of the downtube for a practical reason: more room for a downtube-mounted water bottle.

With versatility in mind, the rear dropouts utilize Scott’s IDS SL dropouts. When you go with the frame, you get all the choices, a 135x5mm quick release version, a 135x12mm thru-axle, and 142x12mm thru axle. Complete bikes come set up, but can be swapped.

The brake mounts are designed for posts and can work with 180 or 160mm rotors giving you plenty of power. The complete bikes come with 180mm fronts and 160mm rears.

For the headset, Scott specifies their own Syncros model, which means the design meshes perfectly with the fork and frame. As per their want, it’s light and durable.

In fact, that’s the beauty of Scott specifying a healthy dose of Syncros componentry on the Spark. They design carefully, build light, and cut out the intermediate steps in the supply chain to keep costs down. And the parts are finished to complement the color scheme.

The Scott Spark 900/700 HMF Carbon bikes make every cross-country trail a smooth road.