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Reviews

Scott Voltage FR10.

Author: Chris Armstrong | Created: 2010-02-28 06:21:27 | Location: Whistler, BC

One of the perks of living in Whistler is that sooner or later most people that work for bike companies come to ride here, and sooner or later they convince head office to launch their new products in my backyard. Over the last few years it has started to intensify around Crankworx since there is tons of bike crazy people milling about when else would be better to show off the new goods?

Last year during I got a call from the Scott USA marketing department saying that their was a new Scott Voltage FR10 was sitting in Whistler Village for me to try out, and Mike Hopkins was going to come up for a couple runs.

Now the FR line of bikes is being called the affordable freeride/bike park/slopestyle bike in the Scott lineup directly below the Gambler models. With adjustable travel of between 130-180mm, it is more than capable of taking on most of the trails in the bike park, especially jump based trails.

The FR10 shares some similar traits with its other siblings including: adjustable geometry & travel, straight welds and interchangeable dropouts. The dropouts are available in three different lengths from 415mm to 435mm and are available in QR, Maxle or 12mm axle configurations.

Adjustable linkage on the Scott FR10 bike.

Spec for the FR10 goes down as follows: DHX RC4 rear shock with a 1 1/8" steer tube 36 Van R coil fork. Running a 1.5" reducer headset makes it semi-integrated and keeps the front end low and tight. Avid Elixir brakes front & rear, 170mm Truvativ cranks & a 73mm BB shell, Sram X9 drivetrain and DT Swiss rims mated to a Sun Jumping Flea rear hub and a Scott pro front hub. Geometry as tested was 66 degree Head tube with a 1150mm wheelbase.

Geometry specs.

First stop was right to the top of Garbonzo chair for a ride down Freight train, nothing fleshes out a freeride bike better than 3000ft of jumps and berms. The first lap was a little tentative, as I don't really get along with single crown forks in gravity situations but towards the end of that lap it started to feel a bit more natural. With the FR10 setup in long travel mode (180mm) with 425mm dropouts (standard length) it was eating up the bumps and jumps with ease. Despite previous reservations/crashes with single crown forks the Fox 36 Van worked out pretty good. Ideally I would prefer to see a longer travel TALAS version for the bike, so that you could dial down the travel to match any changes that you made for the rear.

With the standard length dropouts mounted to the rear, the bike handled predictably and consistently. My preference would be to run them longer than shorter, but I can see the slopestyle kids putting the short ones on for hucking about. Listed weight is under 37 lbs and that felt dead on as I found it easy to flick around the trail and still keep traction when necessary.

Things I would like to see:

Tapered head tube. Something about running 11/8" stear tube on a gravity bike leaves me wondering if it is going to last.

Different fork options with longer travel. Fox could you please release something between 160mm and 203mm? How's about a 180mm single crown? Until then, I think the Rock Shox Totem is worthy of being a spec option.

Opinion:
Adjustable, plush bike park machine.

Plus:
Easily adjustable, affordable park bike that can handle the nasty stuff.

Minus:
Needs a longer travel fork option.

Price:
$3499 USD

Website:
http://www.scottusa.com/ca_en/product/8285/44806/voltage_fr_10

Rating: 4.5/5