Nukeproof Scout Review (2022 Gen 3 )
Pros and Cons
Pros:
Cons:
- Still a good value
- All parts swap over from previous scout (and other Nukeproof models)
- Excellent cable routing
- Not extremely modern or extremely outdated geometry
- Happy on most trails
- Threaded BB
- External Cable Routing (except for the dropper, of course)
Cons:
- Not as great a value as prior models
- Stiff riding frame
- Vanilla ride
- Could use a longer reach
- Not very playful
Who it's for:
- people looking for an all-rounder that's up for anything
- people who are on a tight budget but still want modern components
- people who want to get the most bang for their buck
- heavier riders who don't want a flexy frame
Who it's NOT for
- xc racers
- enduro shredders
- riders under 160 lbs due to its stiff ride
- people who are looking for a bike with a ride feel that really stands out from the crowd
My full thoughts on the 2022 Nukeproof Scout Hardtail
today we're on trail in sedona arizona reviewing the 2022 nuke proof scout gen 3.
hello everybody i'm steve from hardtail party the largest collection of hardtail video reviews in the world i'm glad you're here if you're new welcome if you've been here a while welcome back today we're riding the brand new 2022 gen 3 nuke proof scout 290. you want to go watch my first look video of this where i talk geometry and features and show some close-ups and all that but today we got it on the trail to see how it rides today we're riding some of my favorite intermediate trails here in sedona i think it'll be a great test for this bike up and down this bike feels light just kind of zips along stack feels real nice got a 140 fork on it the seated position feels a little long because of that slack seat angle i've really grown accustomed to super modern bikes like a 76 77 degree seat angle and i really like that feel but not everybody does so i'm going to slide my seat forward in the rails so that i have the riding position that i like on the uphills so yeah everyone can adjust their effective seat angle and you should always adjust your cockpit and your saddle and all that to the bike you're riding i'm going to slide this forward that'll bring it about a degree steeper some people don't like steep seat angles they prefer to feel like they're behind the bottom bracket on climbs and my theory is the steeper the climb the more your seat is behind the bottom bracket so when the steep stuff you want it forward to not feel like you're looping out and where i live we've got lots of short steep punches that make it feel like you want to loop out all right that'll help have my first pedal strike of the day back there this bike has a low bottom bracket and for that reason i don't think it'd be good as a mullet or a 27.5 plus that's just going to lower the bottom bracket even more and i've been seeing this interesting trend in some companies where rather than make the reach longer they're making the bottom bracket lower so it feels more stable without a longer wheelbase kind of interesting it reminds me a lot of the curved down rock in its field they both have low bottom brackets shortish reaches this bike's not as long as the trend setters we're seeing right now not everyone needs a longer bike especially if you're under 15 miles an hour you probably don't need a long bike i find the more technical the bigger my ledges and drops and the faster i want to go the more i enjoy a long bike
i can feel it's not as stretched out as the yellow screamy or my binary maniac all right let's see if i can get up this
kind of a tricky climb there spike's doing all right the back end doesn't have great traction right now yeah this bike you don't need to get over the front as much as some of those modern bikes so it's actually easier to ride for newer riders you don't really have to do much of anything you can just kind of stay in a neutral position and pedal and it does most of the work not one of those bikes you have to ride super actively now obviously good technique's good technique and you can still ride this actively to get the most out of it but it's not required i think this will be a great first bike for a lot of people sliding my seat for that extra 15 mil made a noticeable difference i don't feel like i need the seat angle much steeper than that so it's within the acceptable range but i would like to have seen a little steeper especially because this is a brand new model and that means we're going to be on this geo for a few years until the next generation and this feels a little bit closer to bikes from three years ago than the modern stuff we're seeing right now head angles plenty slack
do not feel twitchy but it also doesn't feel floppy another pedal strike this bottom bracket is low i don't pedal strike very often i've got 165 cranks on some bikes feel slow and lethargic when you pedal others feel antsy and energetic and just want to sprint everywhere this is more of a sprinter than a slow lethargic bike i'm impressed all right here comes a long technical steppy climb that's really loose right now see if i can charge up it on this
the chainstay does feel a tad long like it's out there behind me a little bit especially compared to the front end but it's clawing its way up this no problem this thing seems to be just as happy whether you're riding it at one tenth or eight tenths doesn't sprint like my spot rocker or that marine team are in but it's not far behind the yelly screaming thank you i'm glad i didn't size up at least for the climbs
it's really too bad this all used to be single track through here now it's about 40 feet wide people are just taking alt lines everywhere and as hikers as much as mountain bikers but it's just sad this is just kind of turning into like an entire trampled zone it doesn't look like single track anymore and i think single tracks beautiful and we got to be careful when we go hit a bonus line and look how wide this trail is that's 30 feet wide right there and then it continues another 10 feet around that tree i mean we get a lot of visitors in sedona who've never ridden this before so they're just kind of blindly trying to follow the trail and i get that but this is just a public service reminder to stay on the trail and keep single track single these trails are way more fun when they're single track rather than 40 feet wide and way more beautiful but every time i come here more trees and vegetation have been run over and there's just 30 lines from here instead of one or two kind of a bummer to be honest and i know this bugs a lot of you that i say that but we need to take care of the trails that we do have it's easy to lose them and it's really hard to get them back once you lose them let's see how she wheelies
not bad
you can feel that lower bottom bracket when you wheelie with the low bottom bracket you have to lift that front wheel higher than other bikes same with manuals that makes it a little harder to initiate but you get used to it after a couple rides
yeah not bad
good little slow tech trousy bike too all right a little out of breath it's a tough one even on fresh legs and fresh lungs
all right here we go
lower the seat a little
oh darn i spun out every bike's a little different about when you can get on the gas a longer chainstay will spin more when you stand up and sprint on moves like these i'm standing up most of the climb so i actually like a shorter chainstay because the tire's more underneath me and it won't spin as easily but if you're super tall those short chainsaws make it want to wheely and lift so there's a real delicate balance based on your riding style and your height i'm going to try that whole climb again i want to link it all together this is a fun challenge i like this one you need a ton of slow speed balance for this just kind of trousy stuff saddle's at 90 height for me right now
man another pedal strike there that's real hard to pretty much track stand there lower my saddle a little more trying to keep the tires rolling so it doesn't spin yeah we got it
that takes a lot of technique you got to read the trail and look where the loose spots are and put down power where there's traction and let up where it's loose a lot going on in your brain on that stuff all right we got another tech climb in here a couple two foot ledges oh there's one
you got to keep your pedals level and hop up at or you'll pedal strike on that that's tricky here's a steep slab you can just stand up and sprint up because you have perfect traction
i feel that shorter front end on the really steep stuff when i get forward like this what a beautiful place man and getting out on a bike is such a great way to see nature and connect this bike sure grabs your attention that yellow really pops it's a brighter yellow than the chameleon it just really draws attention to it sharp looking bike all right let's continue on so i've had three pedal strikes now i usually don't get three pedal strikes in a month so i'm definitely noticing that lower bottom bracket even with these high clearance 165 mil cranks
granted this trail is rockier than most the geo's not quite my ideal geo for my riding style and terrain but it's a good little bike no real complaints you know what i think would be cool is to build a 2705 a 27.5 model with the 120 mil mullet i think that'd be a pretty cool bike so you can mull it any 27.5 bike you just have to run a fork that's 20 to 30 mil shorter axle to crown all right here's another big technical climb that a lot of people can't get it's like a four foot baseball you kind of have to get on and then there's a crack to get across it's about another four foot baseball after it too so it's hard to get on the front and then carry speed across that crack we'll see how we do i can usually get this no problem but we'll see how this geo does on it i think we're good it's going to take a little hop at the beginning
oh that was tough but we got it
that obstacle's gotten bigger
up on the horizon you can see the white line i will never ride that i have the skills to ride it there's just no reason to put my life in danger i love my daughter and i want to be around for her wedding day oh what a beautiful day
spike corners nicely that low bottom bracket is a treat on the corners
nice and controlled even at slow speeds
easy to move around on this bike that shorter reach means i can get back more if i need to
it nose pivots really well like that
it just feels a little bit short on big technical punches like that stiffness it's about like the chameleon
a little bit softer than the yelly screamy but not much not as soft as a big owl it does hammer you a little bit hammers your body
it's pretty happy getting on this back wheel at speed at least for small little lofts off of things little one foot drops
it'll manual but you really got to muscle it to get it to that point with that low bottom bracket
compared to like the chameleon or the binary maniac or like a ragley mbop then those bikes just manual you just think manual and you're there pretty balanced little bike not a long downhill shredder plow bike but it's not trying to be that it's trying to be a jack of all trades man i just had another pedal strike yeah not like an enduro bike per se nor an xc bike it's just like they market it it's just a bike that you go and ride and it's up for anything it reminds me a lot of that 20 22 trek roscoe and just that you're just kind of in a neutral riding position the whole time don't need to do anything crazy with your body position and it's fun
wheelies are fun corners are really fun yeah just a great all-rounder yeah real composed it's not a scary bike at all
the front end's a little bit shorter than bleeding edge super cutting edge bikes you don't have to get over the front as much and that means less front wheel washouts that's nice yeah good balance between stable and playful solid b-plus in both categories there we go
starting to get the feel of this where the balance point is
it's a stiff-ish bike i'm pretty fatigued from all these bumps
in the past four years i've ridden over 75 modern hardtails and i have notes on all of them and i have a bike consultation service where my patrons can pick my brain and ask my opinion about all the different hard deals i've ridden how does a chameleon compare to the yelly screamy how does the ellie scream me compared to the nukeproof scout or i just bought a scout frame and i need help picking parts i do all of that one-on-one consultation through patreon i got a link in the description below so if you want to pick my brain and get my recommendations for you for the best bike for your budget and riding style i'd be happy to help you over there it's a service that i charge for because it takes a lot of my time you pay for a month at a time and when that month's up you can decide if you want to stay subscribed for another month or cancel it when you got the info that you need love helping people avoid making costly mistakes buying the wrong bike for them now i'm used to slack bikes and so bikes rarely feel floppy to me unless we've got like a 150 160 fork on a 63 head angle bike if you're coming off a 90s or early 2000s hardtail any modern bike could possibly feel floppy to you but you'll get used to it in one week i promise it's a very sensible bike it's good at everything i'd give it a solid b at everything if it were a car it'd be a honda civic si six speed very practical very economical very reliable it worked fine as a grocery getter with a little bit of sport it's not a race car but it'll be fun when you take it on drives and that's how this bike is you're lacking a little bit of special sauce it's a little bit vanilla for me
it's just not quite as exciting as some other bikes but then you think about its price point and nuke proof's complete bikes are absolute bargains canyon nuke proof yt who doesn't have any hardtails all these direct to consumer brands they really do get the best components for the price so then the real question is is the frame special this frame's good i wouldn't put it in the special category it's not the hardtail i dream about at night when i think about riding my favorite trails it doesn't really excel at any one thing but it doesn't really get held back on any one thing either it really is a jack of all trades i love how quiet this bike is haven't had a single rattle that foam on the dropper cable on the internal routing is doing its job so if you're a newer rider and you're not quite sure what type of riding you're going to gravitate towards this would be a great way to get into the sport and see what type of riding you gravitate towards whether that's you prefer the pedaling and keeping your feet on the ground or whether you enjoy jumping and getting airborne everywhere or whether you just want to plow in a straight line as fast as possible
this bike will do all of that to some degree but it's not specialized at any one thing and that's what a lot of people want until you've been riding five or six years it's hard to know what specialization you'd like out of your bike but if you've been riding a while you know exactly what style you want i think there are better purpose-built hardtails and full suspensions obviously that really cater to a certain riding style really well so yeah if you're looking for something specific it'd be worth that bike consultation fee to pick my brain on what i recommend for you it's probably not going to be this but if you ride a million different types of trails and you're not sure what you're gonna hit every day this could be a really good option if it's smooth you're not gonna have a problem with the stiffer frame but if it's chunky like this you're gonna feel it your wheels are gonna get hammered a lot more and wheel selection is super important on a stiff hardtail like this you don't want to get really stiff carbon wheels on it or it'll really beat you up this is a cool little bike it does everything quite well i'm really impressed i think the changes that nuke proof made were excellent changes most people are going to be able to run a 170 mil dropper i can't not on a medium the bend starts too early and the seat tube is still a little bit too long to fit a 170 but i have extremely short legs i'm 5'6 with a 27.5 inch in seam so i'm mostly torso so i like longer reach bikes shorter seat tubes shorter rear ends let's talk pros and cons on this bike pros very affordable very accessible these are going to sell out quick as soon as they're announced another pro is that all the parts from your old scout or any other nuke proof model will swap directly over to this they're keeping standards the same which i love to see another pro is the universal derailleur hanger another pro is the huge tire clearance go look at my first look video to see what size tires this will fit another pro is the how easy it is to ride it doesn't take a lot of skill to ride it well but if you do have a lot of skill you can still push it it rides a lot like the trek rosco 9 the 2022 model it rides similar to the ragley big al the big al's got a softer frame the big al has a little bit more serious attitude i feel like the big owl can charge a little bit harder and i actually feel like the big owl's a little more playful it's probably that slightly taller bottom bracket of the big al another pro is this rubberized down tube protector i love seeing that even though it's aluminum bike i love the iscg tabs i don't love how i needed to run all my spacers on the drive side to push the chainring out of the yoke there i love the cable routing with one exception this first loop that's the only thing i'd change but man they've thought of a lot of great things i love the 180 mil post mount break so i don't have to run any adapters graphics look really good just a sleek looking frame i love that it doesn't have a huge gusset here with a long seat tube downsides are the frame stiffness it's not like an anvil like the common saw meta but it's not smooth like the old chameleons or the big al or the banshee paradox another downside it just rides a little bit vanilla it's lacking some of that excitement it's still a great bike and when you factor in the price really hard to beat for the price but it's just missing that special sauce that just makes a hard tail kind of come alive and just make you grin the whole time i still had fun but it just felt a little bit vanilla i don't know how else to describe it just didn't wow me a lot so who's this bike for this bike's for someone on a budget who wants the best spec for the lowest price nuke proof common saw and canyon have that nailed and out of the common saw and the nuke proof i much prefer the nuke proof frame haven't ridden the canyon frame yet so i can't tell you how it compares to that compared to the ragley i prefer the ragley a little bit more it just felt a little more lively it had more of that special sauce that this seems to be lacking a little bit this bike's for people who travel and don't know if they're gonna crush out a 25 mile day or hit a black diamond or take it to the pump track or hit some jumps they want a bike that's versatile that can be a swiss army knife and kind of be up for anything but like a swiss army knife that's pretty good at lots of things it's not the dedicated knife you would get if you wanted a good outdoor knife you wouldn't pick your swiss army knife if you want that dedicated knife for one purpose you'll buy that knife for that purpose this is a jack of all trades and master of none i would say and if i were running this bike i'd run two sixes on it so that i could get a little bit more softness out of it just with how stiff that frame is a 2-6 would take a little bit of that edge off this bike is not for people in my opinion who are shredding enduro courses or who just attack the trail and ride 10 tenths all the time i feel like this bike's happiest between one tenth and eight tenths whereas a bike like the pipe dream serious s5 is happy like seven or eight tenths to ten tenths that bike just wants to be pushed really hard everywhere it goes it's a very purpose-built bike and when you push it like that it really comes to life and it's really exciting yeah this is for people who don't want to pay for my bike consultation service or who don't know what type of riding they're going to gravitate toward so they just want to kind of make a safe bet that'll be up for anything and this bike would be up for anything it can handle it all but if you really know yourself and you know you want a playful bike or something really great at jumping or you just like really slow steep tech shoots or really tech climbs it's worth getting a bike specifically built for that purpose in my opinion because those specialty bikes really just come alive when they align with your writing style i hope you found this interesting and learned something make sure to give it a thumbs up and like it if you like this video and subscribe if you want to see more great hardtail content and if you need help picking my brain and you need my advice on the perfect hardtail for you i've got a link to my bike consultation service in the description below thanks for watching you guys are awesome there's a party in the mountains and you're invited
hello everybody i'm steve from hardtail party the largest collection of hardtail video reviews in the world i'm glad you're here if you're new welcome if you've been here a while welcome back today we're riding the brand new 2022 gen 3 nuke proof scout 290. you want to go watch my first look video of this where i talk geometry and features and show some close-ups and all that but today we got it on the trail to see how it rides today we're riding some of my favorite intermediate trails here in sedona i think it'll be a great test for this bike up and down this bike feels light just kind of zips along stack feels real nice got a 140 fork on it the seated position feels a little long because of that slack seat angle i've really grown accustomed to super modern bikes like a 76 77 degree seat angle and i really like that feel but not everybody does so i'm going to slide my seat forward in the rails so that i have the riding position that i like on the uphills so yeah everyone can adjust their effective seat angle and you should always adjust your cockpit and your saddle and all that to the bike you're riding i'm going to slide this forward that'll bring it about a degree steeper some people don't like steep seat angles they prefer to feel like they're behind the bottom bracket on climbs and my theory is the steeper the climb the more your seat is behind the bottom bracket so when the steep stuff you want it forward to not feel like you're looping out and where i live we've got lots of short steep punches that make it feel like you want to loop out all right that'll help have my first pedal strike of the day back there this bike has a low bottom bracket and for that reason i don't think it'd be good as a mullet or a 27.5 plus that's just going to lower the bottom bracket even more and i've been seeing this interesting trend in some companies where rather than make the reach longer they're making the bottom bracket lower so it feels more stable without a longer wheelbase kind of interesting it reminds me a lot of the curved down rock in its field they both have low bottom brackets shortish reaches this bike's not as long as the trend setters we're seeing right now not everyone needs a longer bike especially if you're under 15 miles an hour you probably don't need a long bike i find the more technical the bigger my ledges and drops and the faster i want to go the more i enjoy a long bike
i can feel it's not as stretched out as the yellow screamy or my binary maniac all right let's see if i can get up this
kind of a tricky climb there spike's doing all right the back end doesn't have great traction right now yeah this bike you don't need to get over the front as much as some of those modern bikes so it's actually easier to ride for newer riders you don't really have to do much of anything you can just kind of stay in a neutral position and pedal and it does most of the work not one of those bikes you have to ride super actively now obviously good technique's good technique and you can still ride this actively to get the most out of it but it's not required i think this will be a great first bike for a lot of people sliding my seat for that extra 15 mil made a noticeable difference i don't feel like i need the seat angle much steeper than that so it's within the acceptable range but i would like to have seen a little steeper especially because this is a brand new model and that means we're going to be on this geo for a few years until the next generation and this feels a little bit closer to bikes from three years ago than the modern stuff we're seeing right now head angles plenty slack
do not feel twitchy but it also doesn't feel floppy another pedal strike this bottom bracket is low i don't pedal strike very often i've got 165 cranks on some bikes feel slow and lethargic when you pedal others feel antsy and energetic and just want to sprint everywhere this is more of a sprinter than a slow lethargic bike i'm impressed all right here comes a long technical steppy climb that's really loose right now see if i can charge up it on this
the chainstay does feel a tad long like it's out there behind me a little bit especially compared to the front end but it's clawing its way up this no problem this thing seems to be just as happy whether you're riding it at one tenth or eight tenths doesn't sprint like my spot rocker or that marine team are in but it's not far behind the yelly screaming thank you i'm glad i didn't size up at least for the climbs
it's really too bad this all used to be single track through here now it's about 40 feet wide people are just taking alt lines everywhere and as hikers as much as mountain bikers but it's just sad this is just kind of turning into like an entire trampled zone it doesn't look like single track anymore and i think single tracks beautiful and we got to be careful when we go hit a bonus line and look how wide this trail is that's 30 feet wide right there and then it continues another 10 feet around that tree i mean we get a lot of visitors in sedona who've never ridden this before so they're just kind of blindly trying to follow the trail and i get that but this is just a public service reminder to stay on the trail and keep single track single these trails are way more fun when they're single track rather than 40 feet wide and way more beautiful but every time i come here more trees and vegetation have been run over and there's just 30 lines from here instead of one or two kind of a bummer to be honest and i know this bugs a lot of you that i say that but we need to take care of the trails that we do have it's easy to lose them and it's really hard to get them back once you lose them let's see how she wheelies
not bad
you can feel that lower bottom bracket when you wheelie with the low bottom bracket you have to lift that front wheel higher than other bikes same with manuals that makes it a little harder to initiate but you get used to it after a couple rides
yeah not bad
good little slow tech trousy bike too all right a little out of breath it's a tough one even on fresh legs and fresh lungs
all right here we go
lower the seat a little
oh darn i spun out every bike's a little different about when you can get on the gas a longer chainstay will spin more when you stand up and sprint on moves like these i'm standing up most of the climb so i actually like a shorter chainstay because the tire's more underneath me and it won't spin as easily but if you're super tall those short chainsaws make it want to wheely and lift so there's a real delicate balance based on your riding style and your height i'm going to try that whole climb again i want to link it all together this is a fun challenge i like this one you need a ton of slow speed balance for this just kind of trousy stuff saddle's at 90 height for me right now
man another pedal strike there that's real hard to pretty much track stand there lower my saddle a little more trying to keep the tires rolling so it doesn't spin yeah we got it
that takes a lot of technique you got to read the trail and look where the loose spots are and put down power where there's traction and let up where it's loose a lot going on in your brain on that stuff all right we got another tech climb in here a couple two foot ledges oh there's one
you got to keep your pedals level and hop up at or you'll pedal strike on that that's tricky here's a steep slab you can just stand up and sprint up because you have perfect traction
i feel that shorter front end on the really steep stuff when i get forward like this what a beautiful place man and getting out on a bike is such a great way to see nature and connect this bike sure grabs your attention that yellow really pops it's a brighter yellow than the chameleon it just really draws attention to it sharp looking bike all right let's continue on so i've had three pedal strikes now i usually don't get three pedal strikes in a month so i'm definitely noticing that lower bottom bracket even with these high clearance 165 mil cranks
granted this trail is rockier than most the geo's not quite my ideal geo for my riding style and terrain but it's a good little bike no real complaints you know what i think would be cool is to build a 2705 a 27.5 model with the 120 mil mullet i think that'd be a pretty cool bike so you can mull it any 27.5 bike you just have to run a fork that's 20 to 30 mil shorter axle to crown all right here's another big technical climb that a lot of people can't get it's like a four foot baseball you kind of have to get on and then there's a crack to get across it's about another four foot baseball after it too so it's hard to get on the front and then carry speed across that crack we'll see how we do i can usually get this no problem but we'll see how this geo does on it i think we're good it's going to take a little hop at the beginning
oh that was tough but we got it
that obstacle's gotten bigger
up on the horizon you can see the white line i will never ride that i have the skills to ride it there's just no reason to put my life in danger i love my daughter and i want to be around for her wedding day oh what a beautiful day
spike corners nicely that low bottom bracket is a treat on the corners
nice and controlled even at slow speeds
easy to move around on this bike that shorter reach means i can get back more if i need to
it nose pivots really well like that
it just feels a little bit short on big technical punches like that stiffness it's about like the chameleon
a little bit softer than the yelly screamy but not much not as soft as a big owl it does hammer you a little bit hammers your body
it's pretty happy getting on this back wheel at speed at least for small little lofts off of things little one foot drops
it'll manual but you really got to muscle it to get it to that point with that low bottom bracket
compared to like the chameleon or the binary maniac or like a ragley mbop then those bikes just manual you just think manual and you're there pretty balanced little bike not a long downhill shredder plow bike but it's not trying to be that it's trying to be a jack of all trades man i just had another pedal strike yeah not like an enduro bike per se nor an xc bike it's just like they market it it's just a bike that you go and ride and it's up for anything it reminds me a lot of that 20 22 trek roscoe and just that you're just kind of in a neutral riding position the whole time don't need to do anything crazy with your body position and it's fun
wheelies are fun corners are really fun yeah just a great all-rounder yeah real composed it's not a scary bike at all
the front end's a little bit shorter than bleeding edge super cutting edge bikes you don't have to get over the front as much and that means less front wheel washouts that's nice yeah good balance between stable and playful solid b-plus in both categories there we go
starting to get the feel of this where the balance point is
it's a stiff-ish bike i'm pretty fatigued from all these bumps
in the past four years i've ridden over 75 modern hardtails and i have notes on all of them and i have a bike consultation service where my patrons can pick my brain and ask my opinion about all the different hard deals i've ridden how does a chameleon compare to the yelly screamy how does the ellie scream me compared to the nukeproof scout or i just bought a scout frame and i need help picking parts i do all of that one-on-one consultation through patreon i got a link in the description below so if you want to pick my brain and get my recommendations for you for the best bike for your budget and riding style i'd be happy to help you over there it's a service that i charge for because it takes a lot of my time you pay for a month at a time and when that month's up you can decide if you want to stay subscribed for another month or cancel it when you got the info that you need love helping people avoid making costly mistakes buying the wrong bike for them now i'm used to slack bikes and so bikes rarely feel floppy to me unless we've got like a 150 160 fork on a 63 head angle bike if you're coming off a 90s or early 2000s hardtail any modern bike could possibly feel floppy to you but you'll get used to it in one week i promise it's a very sensible bike it's good at everything i'd give it a solid b at everything if it were a car it'd be a honda civic si six speed very practical very economical very reliable it worked fine as a grocery getter with a little bit of sport it's not a race car but it'll be fun when you take it on drives and that's how this bike is you're lacking a little bit of special sauce it's a little bit vanilla for me
it's just not quite as exciting as some other bikes but then you think about its price point and nuke proof's complete bikes are absolute bargains canyon nuke proof yt who doesn't have any hardtails all these direct to consumer brands they really do get the best components for the price so then the real question is is the frame special this frame's good i wouldn't put it in the special category it's not the hardtail i dream about at night when i think about riding my favorite trails it doesn't really excel at any one thing but it doesn't really get held back on any one thing either it really is a jack of all trades i love how quiet this bike is haven't had a single rattle that foam on the dropper cable on the internal routing is doing its job so if you're a newer rider and you're not quite sure what type of riding you're going to gravitate towards this would be a great way to get into the sport and see what type of riding you gravitate towards whether that's you prefer the pedaling and keeping your feet on the ground or whether you enjoy jumping and getting airborne everywhere or whether you just want to plow in a straight line as fast as possible
this bike will do all of that to some degree but it's not specialized at any one thing and that's what a lot of people want until you've been riding five or six years it's hard to know what specialization you'd like out of your bike but if you've been riding a while you know exactly what style you want i think there are better purpose-built hardtails and full suspensions obviously that really cater to a certain riding style really well so yeah if you're looking for something specific it'd be worth that bike consultation fee to pick my brain on what i recommend for you it's probably not going to be this but if you ride a million different types of trails and you're not sure what you're gonna hit every day this could be a really good option if it's smooth you're not gonna have a problem with the stiffer frame but if it's chunky like this you're gonna feel it your wheels are gonna get hammered a lot more and wheel selection is super important on a stiff hardtail like this you don't want to get really stiff carbon wheels on it or it'll really beat you up this is a cool little bike it does everything quite well i'm really impressed i think the changes that nuke proof made were excellent changes most people are going to be able to run a 170 mil dropper i can't not on a medium the bend starts too early and the seat tube is still a little bit too long to fit a 170 but i have extremely short legs i'm 5'6 with a 27.5 inch in seam so i'm mostly torso so i like longer reach bikes shorter seat tubes shorter rear ends let's talk pros and cons on this bike pros very affordable very accessible these are going to sell out quick as soon as they're announced another pro is that all the parts from your old scout or any other nuke proof model will swap directly over to this they're keeping standards the same which i love to see another pro is the universal derailleur hanger another pro is the huge tire clearance go look at my first look video to see what size tires this will fit another pro is the how easy it is to ride it doesn't take a lot of skill to ride it well but if you do have a lot of skill you can still push it it rides a lot like the trek rosco 9 the 2022 model it rides similar to the ragley big al the big al's got a softer frame the big al has a little bit more serious attitude i feel like the big owl can charge a little bit harder and i actually feel like the big owl's a little more playful it's probably that slightly taller bottom bracket of the big al another pro is this rubberized down tube protector i love seeing that even though it's aluminum bike i love the iscg tabs i don't love how i needed to run all my spacers on the drive side to push the chainring out of the yoke there i love the cable routing with one exception this first loop that's the only thing i'd change but man they've thought of a lot of great things i love the 180 mil post mount break so i don't have to run any adapters graphics look really good just a sleek looking frame i love that it doesn't have a huge gusset here with a long seat tube downsides are the frame stiffness it's not like an anvil like the common saw meta but it's not smooth like the old chameleons or the big al or the banshee paradox another downside it just rides a little bit vanilla it's lacking some of that excitement it's still a great bike and when you factor in the price really hard to beat for the price but it's just missing that special sauce that just makes a hard tail kind of come alive and just make you grin the whole time i still had fun but it just felt a little bit vanilla i don't know how else to describe it just didn't wow me a lot so who's this bike for this bike's for someone on a budget who wants the best spec for the lowest price nuke proof common saw and canyon have that nailed and out of the common saw and the nuke proof i much prefer the nuke proof frame haven't ridden the canyon frame yet so i can't tell you how it compares to that compared to the ragley i prefer the ragley a little bit more it just felt a little more lively it had more of that special sauce that this seems to be lacking a little bit this bike's for people who travel and don't know if they're gonna crush out a 25 mile day or hit a black diamond or take it to the pump track or hit some jumps they want a bike that's versatile that can be a swiss army knife and kind of be up for anything but like a swiss army knife that's pretty good at lots of things it's not the dedicated knife you would get if you wanted a good outdoor knife you wouldn't pick your swiss army knife if you want that dedicated knife for one purpose you'll buy that knife for that purpose this is a jack of all trades and master of none i would say and if i were running this bike i'd run two sixes on it so that i could get a little bit more softness out of it just with how stiff that frame is a 2-6 would take a little bit of that edge off this bike is not for people in my opinion who are shredding enduro courses or who just attack the trail and ride 10 tenths all the time i feel like this bike's happiest between one tenth and eight tenths whereas a bike like the pipe dream serious s5 is happy like seven or eight tenths to ten tenths that bike just wants to be pushed really hard everywhere it goes it's a very purpose-built bike and when you push it like that it really comes to life and it's really exciting yeah this is for people who don't want to pay for my bike consultation service or who don't know what type of riding they're going to gravitate toward so they just want to kind of make a safe bet that'll be up for anything and this bike would be up for anything it can handle it all but if you really know yourself and you know you want a playful bike or something really great at jumping or you just like really slow steep tech shoots or really tech climbs it's worth getting a bike specifically built for that purpose in my opinion because those specialty bikes really just come alive when they align with your writing style i hope you found this interesting and learned something make sure to give it a thumbs up and like it if you like this video and subscribe if you want to see more great hardtail content and if you need help picking my brain and you need my advice on the perfect hardtail for you i've got a link to my bike consultation service in the description below thanks for watching you guys are awesome there's a party in the mountains and you're invited
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