KTM has reshaped their carbon 29er Scarp cross-country race bike for 2020, getting out slightly more rear wheel travel and slackened geometry for more technical XC racing. But just as importantly, they add a longer travel Scarp MT marathon version as well, on the same lightweight full carbon frame platform.
2020 KTM Scarp carbon short-travel XC marathon race bike
The new top-tier Scarp Sonic is an update to KTM’s World Cup XC race-ready full-suspension bike launched three years ago. The overall frame layout of the new bike seems almost unchanged at first glance, with the same Straight-Line-Link, rocker-driven single pivot suspension design.
But extensive reshaping was done to make the new longer travel, slack frame stronger without adding weight. The new Scarp frames keep a boxy tapered headtube with better internal cable routing. But now the tope tube thins up a bit and the downtube gets larger, dropped down at the bottom bracket to fit more bottles & tools for longer distance races.
The rear end of the new bike gets thinned out a bit as well, smaller & more sculpted at the full carbon Boost rear axle.
The new chainstays are slightly larger, and now follow a more direct path to the revised main pivot, now with wider spaced bearings and placed further forward at the base of the now bent seattube.
Scarp XC 95mm travel
The updated XC race iterations now get 95mm of rear wheel travel (up from 90mm before) paired to 100mm travel Step Cast forks, and now feature a more slack 68.5° head angle.
This 7400€ complete Scarp Sonic gets full XTR 1×12, Fox Factory SC suspension & DT Swiss XRC 1200 carbon wheels, with 5500€ & 4000€ versions that share the same full carbon frame and a new smaller SX size option.
A new more affordable alloy-framed Scarp 294 will bring the price down to a 2000€ entry point.
Scarp MT 115mm travel
The biggest news her though is that the same full carbon frame is also shared with the new longer travel Scarp MT marathon bike. By simply swapping in a slightly different rocker link and a longer travel shock, the Scarp MT gets 115mm of travel out of the same light frameset, and is paired with 120mm travel forks.
Of course, all the new features & details of the XC frame carry over, now with an even slacker 67.5° front end for longer marathon adventure racing and all around trail riding. Of course the MT bikes get a slightly more burly spec to handle more technical trail riding, and all include more aggressive wheel/tire combos and dropper seatposts.
The top-spec marathon bike will be this 6900€ Scarp MT Prestige with a SRAM XX1 AXS group, SID Select RL fork & wireless dropper. A 5900€ XTR/Fox Performance & 4700€ XT/ Fox Performance build will also share the same full carbon frameset. And a 3000€ version will pair a carbon front triangle to alloy rear end to lower the cost of entry.
While KTM says riders will choose whichever travel fits their style of racing, it will be possible to convert the new Scarps from XC to MT travel in the future with the appropriate suspension components.
We expect to see the full range, including the alloy bikes later this summer at Eurobike. Consumer availability for the Asian-made carbon frames, painted & assembled in Austria is slated for late autumn 2019. As KTM said, “never underestimate the impact of more travel on a race fully.”
