SCOTT Contessa Scale 920 Bike

Racers will attest that ride comfort is an essential element of performance. During the development of a hardtail frame, it is essential to distinguish the areas of the frame optimized for comfort from the ones more related to the stiffness.

Many brands in the market offer different solutions to improve those aspects but most of them are limited only to a component or a specific area of the frame. With SCOTT SDS2 technology we go beyond this approach, reinventing the concept of comfort on hardtail frames without adding additional parts or sacrificing pedaling stiffness.To reach our goal, we ran analysis and testing to optimize different shapes of the tubes on the whole frame along with accurate alignment of the carbon fibers. The result on the new Scale frame is specific, controlled flex in areas that increase rider comfort and guarantee optimal absorption of vibrations not only on the saddle but also when the riders standing up on the pedals.

This approach to comfort must not only accommodate the lightest weight attainable, but also maintain stiffness for the sake of pedal efficiency. Further, superior rigidity of the frame ensures accurate handling in the steeper sections. In the new Scale we’ve considered all these aspects to avoid any undesired flexion that would affect performances either climbing or descending .

With the proper selection of materials, eighty percent of the work to create a frame is done. But the remaining twenty percent requires most of our efforts. For this reason, our choice of the most advanced carbon fibers in the market is followed by intensive use of specific tools, like FEA (finite element analysis) software, to map out the carbon lay-up.

With FEA software, we can simulate different forces on a virtual model of the frame and adjust the frame construction accordingly. FEA software enables us to create complete virtual prototypes incorporating all the physical phenomena that exist in real-world environments.

With our Evo-Lap technology we model the frame to optimize the surface area, simulate tube structures with different ply orientations, observe the results of using different configurations, and test the stress distribution in different areas of the frame. Thanks to this extensive computer modeling, we’ve optimized the carbon layers in all the parts of our frame. When the parts were bonded together in the first prototypes, the result was a super light and compact frame without sacrificing the stiffness, comfort or impact resistance. The entire range benefitted from our Evo-Lap technology.