Dangerholm’s mellow yellow Scott Scale project bike blurs lines between Gravel & MTB

This Scott Scale Gravel mashup is what happens when weight weenie, mountain biker, and unrepentant ultra-custom project bike builder Dangerholm decides that he needs a gravel bike. Convinced that a lightweight, rigid carbon cross country bike was going to be as fast and probably more capable than a regular gravel bike, he set off to do his magic… stripping back to the bare carbon, hiding shifter guts & brake lines completely internally, eliminating all non-essentials, and then topping it off with an eye-popping, over-the-top paint job…

Dangerholm mellow yellow Scott Scale Gravel project bike

Gustav Gullholm, aka Dangerholm, made some ‘creative’ design decisions on this latest project gravel bike, taking inspiration from the fact that bike manufacturers can’t even really agree on what a gravel bike is. Is gravel a rigid steel dropbar mountain bike with massive 2.6″ tires for adventure bikepacking, or maybe a light carbon aero road bike with 35mm tires crammed in for mixed-surface racing.

He figured all the drop bar bikes were a road biker’s vision of gravel, so why not build a mountain biker’s version of gravel with flat bars. Because what mountain biker hasn’t already ridden tons of gravel roads on hardtail mountain bike, so maybe just start from there? In the end, he admits it’s probably more a gravel-oriented mountain bike than a true gravel bike.

Maybe a new Scott Addict Gravel could be his next project from the other perspective…

Gustav says the ‘gravel’ bike actually started with the SRAM XX1 crankset & Garbaruk chainring leftover from a previous project. That project was the ludicrous DangerPubes pre-April Fools bike, which ended up donating its Scott Scale 910 frame and Trek 1120 fork with its direct-mount fork rack.

From there it went down the super-integrated Dangerholm rabbit hole.

Without the need for a front derailleur (or direct-mount Clif bar), or any cable routing ports, Gustav set about sanding back to bare carbon and closing up any extra holes.

The one-piece Syncros Fraser iC SL bar & stem also got some new holes & reinforcement (warranty voided once again) to get those brake & shift lines inside, plus a customized AXS control box. And it gets a customized steerer tube and custom-machined steerer stop so the wires & hoses inside stay safe.

The Piccola Carbon brakes feature adjustable banjo couplings that he worked on with Trickstuff to angle the brake lines directly into the bar.

Shifters are the tiny, customizable Zirbel Twister WE01 controller rings, with the right controlling the derailleur and left controlling the AXS dropper. Gustav says strong magnets that resist the twist & return the shifter give a “very tactile feel, and they’re honestly the best and most ergonomic shifter solution I’ve ever tried for flatbars”.

All the wireless AXS communication happens with a customized circuit board inside each bar end, with extra large batteries for estimated 5-8 year runtime before they need to be accessed again.

Since the Reverb AXS dropper topped by a Berk saddle is wireless, he’s also painted up a superlight Schmolke Carbon TLO seat post and matching Tune Speedneedle Twenty20 saddle to shed grams when gravel manuals aren’t in the ride plan.

Drivetrain is a ‘simple’ Garbaruk 40T chainring on an XX1 crankset with Kogel ceramic BB & Kogel alloy preload adjuster, paired to a Garbaruk 10-48T cassette via an XX1 chain, and shifted by an XX1 AXS derailleur with Kogel Kolossos oversized ceramic pulleys. Simple stuff.

Interestingly, much of the secret fully internal routing tricks here were refined on Gustav’s previous 10kg Hyper Spark build. But while all his bikes are meant to be ridden, that fully integrated full-suspension XC bike is back in the workshop getting an upgraded suspension lockout and lower cockpit setup, and Dangerholm sounds anxious to get it back on the trail “seeing summer pass by and a bike I’ve spent well over two years building is just sitting unrideable in a corner, haha!”

Gustav says he got excited for paint by the rigid fork & frame combo transition that provided a “very clean canvas compared to stanchions and stuff when running a suspension fork”.

And then he took it a little over the top by painting the superlight 6-spoke carbon Bike Ahead Biturbo RS wheels to match – likely the only person who ever thought of adding thick, heavy white & yellow paint to cover up the raw carbon of these 1250g German XC wheels.

Built also as a winter training bike where visibility is key (Dangerholm is from Sweden), he figured a bright sunny paint job should help get him through the darker half of the year.

Transitioning from Mellow Yellow Metallic upfront to Signal White outback is what seemed like a simple striped fade that “wasn’t a lot of fun to mask”!

The last thing on top is Continental SpeedKing RS semi-slick tires that don’t do tubeless very well, so they get  Tubolito tubes inside. Gustav calls them fast, but “not exactly confidence-inspiring under hard cornering or braking”. Why are they blacked out with no logos? Maybe some prototypes? No, just those orange Conti logos didn’t look very nice with the white & yellow color scheme.

And of course, it’s light. Dangerholm says it’s 7.50kg complete with pedals (16.53lb), likely without the rack, though.

Complete Dangerholm Gravel 7.5kg spec list:

Frame: customized carbon Scott Scale 910, size Medium
Fork: carbon Trek 1120 with optional front rack (max 7kg load)
Headset: semi-custom First/Syncros
Handlebar: custom routing/reinforcement Syncros Fraser iC SL 90x720mm
Grips: Syncros Foam
Brakes: custom banjo Trickstuff Piccola Carbon
Rotors: Trickstuff Dächle UL 160mm/180mm,  Bike Ahead Composites THE FIXER centerlock adapters
Seatpost & saddle: Schmolke Carbon TLO 400mm & Tune Speedneedle Twenty20
Dropper post & saddle: RockShox Reverb AXS 125mm & Berk Composites
Seatpost clamp: BikeYoke Squeezy
Cranks: SRAM XX1 Eagle DUB
Bottom bracket: Kogel Ceramic, with machined alloy pre-loader
Chainring: Garbaruk 40T
Chain: SRAM XX1 Eagle
Cassette: Garbaruk 12-speed 10-48T
Shifters: custom Zirbel Twister WE01 with custom internal AXS controllers
Rear derailleur: SRAM XX1 AXS with Kogel Kolossos oversized ceramic pulley system
Pedals: Xpedo M-Force 8Ti
Wheels: Bike Ahead Composites Biturbo RS
Thru-axles: Syncros rear, Extralite front
Tires: Continental SpeedKing RS 29×2.2″
Tubes: Tubolito
Other: a Scott Ransom ribbed chainstay guard cut to fit, plus painted-to match Scott Cadence helmet and Sport Shield sunglasses