SCOTT Contessa Spark 920 Bike

With the new Spark, you can adjust the head angle by .6 degrees slacker or steeper. This can be done without cutting cables or bleeding brakes. All you must do is disassemble the bar, rotate the headset cups 180 degrees, and reassemble. 

An integrated shock platform allows us to refine suspension characteristics without sacrificing weight. Often, when working with bikes at this level, the concept of marginal gains becomes an ever important one.

For the optimal performance of a suspension shock, power transfer must be the most direct possible. What we want to avoid are any inefficient directional movements, in other words, lateral movements (sideways to the direction of travel) as the shock goes through its compression. 

Having an integrated shock allows us to improve this in several ways. Firstly, the frame construction around the shock and with the trunnion mount can be designed to be much more rigid, reducing movement and fostering more efficient power transfer. We can also add much larger bearings to the seat tube pivot, further reinforcing this area and reducing any unnecessary motion. Our integrated Suspension technology also helps us to engineer frames with a lower shock placement which lowers center of gravity. As a result, the bike benefits from better handling, and a more stable, confidence inspiring ride for the end user. 

While these may seem like minor improvements individually, the sum of their parts results in more efficient shock performance. Additionally, the shock is fully protected from any foreign elements. Rainy race? No problem, your shock will continue to perform at its best regardless. 

A full suspension bike will never have success without, well, good suspension design. From the first time we rode the Spark’s single pivot layout we fell in love. Years later, we still believe that for technical cross-country racing and fast, punchy singletrack it is the best approach. The Spark’s suspension layout has a very specific and proven kinematic and less unsprung mass. Using a flex pivot in the seat stay is an ideal solution for bikes in this travel range. This allows us to keep a very lightweight system while still ensuring optimal suspension performance.

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.

Our rear axle tool has been a staple on our bikes for years, it is now better than ever. It features a T25, T30 and a 6 allen key all in one. With these three options you can adjust all pivot hardware and nearly everything else there is to adjust on the bicycle. 

Accessing the shock via the bottom bracket area is facilitated through a hatch. This makes it easy to adjust rebound, compression, shock pressure, and for installing or replacing the cable for our TwinLoc Suspension System.