When 29ers hit the market a few years ago, there might have been questions in some peoples minds about their place on hard hitting trails, but there has been almost universal acceptance of the wagon wheels among the elite XC crowd since.
In 2012, Nino Schurter shook up the status quo with a world cup win on 650B wheels. While we don’t normally cover racing events, that story was significant enough to merit it’s own lengthy post.
So while the world cup athletes were busy racing in South Africa, we took a closer look at the historic bike on display at Scott’s booth at Sea Otter.
While the UCI has weight minimums for road racing, the XC field has no such restrictions. This XC bike was littered with one off carbon and titanium bits to achieve its rumored ~17lb weight.
The blackbox designation across the levers of these Avid XX brakes indicate some fancy magic is hidden behind the shiny brakes exterior.
A DT-Swiss fork with carbon lowers and a remote lockout that is routed through the aluminum steer provides handles suspension duties.
The bike is built around a one-off carbon frame that features touches you would never see on a consumer oriented frame – like this built in seat post binder. While this design is ultra light, it’s also the kind of thing a ham fisted mechanic could easily break.
The other main difference between this frame and the production unit is the head tube length. Schurter prefers a lower front end, so his head tube has been made shorter.
A little bit Swiss and a little bit World Champ, the rainbow stripes and crosses do homage to Schurter’s winning ways and heritage.
Scott integrates a chain guide into several of it’s frames, but the World Cup winning bike’s (pictured top) is shaped differently than the stock unit and placed much closer to the chain ring.
The rear triangle is tastefully plastered with the logo of various sponsors.
Front and back, Nino is sporting custom tubular tires.
How custom? It’s not just the tread. The A.Dugast tires also bear his name and his favorite configuration of colors.
As a SRAM sponsored athlete, Nino has been sporting an XX1 drivetrain since it’s release. He won a silver medal on this groupset at the last Summer Olympics.
