Scott Speedster S10 frame,
800 mile review

Not your usual bike review, instead of the customary take it out of the box and go for a quick 50 mile spin type of review I’ve decided to give the S10 a good 800 mile battering and let the ‘newness’ wear off. So was it worth the £420 for the frame alone or am I regretting buying it, well read on and find out. 

For those of you who don’t know me I’m 6ft 5in and 15st, snapping and breaking things on my bikes has become part and parcel of owning a bike for me, which is how I came to find the Scott Speedster S10 after snapping my old faithful Coppi after 6-7 years. The thing that really sold it for me apart from the looks was the review of a 300lb man in a forum who said it was coping with his weight just fine …….. wow! That was it, I’m sold, credit card in hand I promptly ordered my new frame.

Building up the Scott Speedster

The new frame had arrived and like most cyclists there’s a short while when you inspect the frame, ping the tubes and just generally admire what you’ve just spent your hard earned cash on. Then there’s the realisation of the job you’ve got in front of you, not quite as simple as I first thought.You do get a small box with an assortment of parts and some very basic instructions but the first thing I wish I knew before buying the S10 was about the front-mec. I could see it only took a band-on front-mec which was a problem for me as I only had a braze-on, and I nearly went out and bought a new one until I found there’s a converter in the box that comes with the frame, which is basically the band-on part of the front-mec but it has the fitting for the braze-on attached, so there was no need to buy a new front-mec in the end.

The headset also took a moment to fathom out, as it was an assortment of metal and nylon washers with no instructions, and not a traditional style bearing in sight. Then I realised I had to bang on the part of the headset that fits onto the crown of the forks, easier said than done when you’re not in a bike shop. You really will need some metal piping for this or in my case I cannibalised the head tube of my old and very dead Coppi and used that, for anyone who’s even remotely unsure I’d strongly advise getting your local bike shop to do the job for you.

Then, with the bike almost finished came one of the worst but most seemingly simple issues to resolve. The brakes, or to be more precise the brake bolt nut which was now too short to reach my brake bolt because of the wide crown on the Scott Addict forks. I phoned god knows how many bike shops locally, some of which didn’t have a clue what I was on about, before the helpful guys at Apollo Cycle Sport let me have one off one of their new bikes. This really should of come included with the frame but instead I had to make a 25 mile round trip for a tiny little brake nut which then enabled me to finish the job of building the frame up.

Taking the Scott Speedster S10 through its paces

Like I mentioned before, the frame has now done in excess of 800 miles, so I thought it’d be interesting to see how it fares after that sort of distance. First impressions I was quite impressed with the stiffness of the frame and the way it sounds. I know saying that sounds a little weird to some people but I think because of the size of the tubes you get a really nice hollow sound as you ride along, it’s usually only noticeable in a tailwind but it really sounds great, especially when you’re changing gear the sounds echo through the frame.

The Speedster is great for climbing too, with the slightly longer top tube I was able to lean over the bars more out of the saddle without banging my knees on the handlebars. Along with the frame stiffness my climbing has improved, not by a huge amount but it’s definitely noticeable.

The biggest difference is descending on the S10, I’m not the greatest bike handler but boy, in the dry with a pair of GP4000s tyres it was almost like the bike was daring me to go faster. On a straight-line descent I’ve currently had 47mph and I’m sure it’d handle 50mph + without any scary stuff going on, even winding descents it instils some extra confidence, so much so I’m seriously considering upgrading my brakes, something I’ve never ever had to think about in 20 years of riding.

Although saying that I’m reserving judgement, I did try a big descent in the wet and I’m thinking it was probably where it hadn’t rained for a long while that the roads were extra greasy but it felt very twitchy on the way down, hopefully I’ll get chance to do another decent sized descent during or after a huge downpour (winters on the way so I may just get my wish).
 

Overall what’s the verdict on the Speedster S10.

Very pleased, there’s no way I’m sending it back, and I’d imagine the off the peg Scott Speedster S10 is quite a nice ride too seeing as I built my frame up with a mish-mash of parts from my old bike. Although just as a final note, I want to take issue with the welding around the rear stays at the top, I’m not too sure if Scott hire a team of specialist welding chimps to do that bit, it seems a shame since the front end looks immaculate but the rear end, well it leaves a bit to be desired, especially after having a aluminium Coppi with welding in that area that looked like it was done by a welding pro. That said, it wasn’t enough to put me off the S10 and for the price you won’t be dissappointed …… unless you’re fanatical about welding.