Rene Krattinger is the mountain bike product manager for Scott Sports, responsible for guiding the development of the new Scott Spark RC. Piloted by the legendary Nino Schurter and Jenny Rissveds, the new Spark has already been decorated with Olympic gold medals, World Cup gold medals, and even Absa Cape Epic gold since its announcement in time for the Rio Olympics in June 2016. We chatted to him about the design process, and what it takes to develop a bike of this calibre.
Tell us a bit about yourself and your role at Scott?
We have a Design team and an Engineering team, and we all work closely together for the best results.
Before we start any project, we have very clear goals: for example with the new Spark we said that we want to win the Olympic games so we need 1) the lightest bike and 2) the fastest bike. Those were our two main goals.
To go light you are limited in terms of shapes, you can’t go too crazy with your tube shapes: it gets too heavy. A simple round carbon tube is still the lightest. As soon as you start with more designing: with square tubes, with ribs etc. the frame gets heavier.
Of course, it is also important that the bike looks good. Maybe the engineers want to go with a different suspension setup: but then the bike does not look fast, not sexy. Then you have to make a call not to go that way. I’m the guy leading this all and making the call on which direction to go.
The Scott Spark RC that Nino Schurter rode to victory at the 2017 Absa Cape Epic. You can view the full bike check here. Photo credit: Anthony Churchyard
What was behind the decision to change the shock position and mounting on the new Spark suspension?
Then we started investigating different options and decided on the new design, which is maybe not as efficient as the old one, but overall is much better.
The new Spark was launched last year. How long have you been working on that bike?
In that time, we tested a lot of competitors bikes to get a feel for what is on the market and what we can do better.
Is there ever anything that you ride where you think: This is really clever, why didn’t we think of this?
In the build up to the 2016 Rio Olympic games, was it a conscious decision to go 29er?
When you start a project like that you have to think about what will be the best in three years time. When you start development you can’t think what is good now, you have to think about what will be good in the future. What is good on the market now is already history. You have to start thinking about what is going to be better. That is why I pushed to have both wheel sizes.
Having proven the value of the 29er wheel size on the 100mm XC bike, will you keep both wheel sizes going forward?
The Scott Spark RC that Jenny Rissveds rode to victory in the mixed category at the 2017 Absa Cape Epic. You can view the full bike check here. Photo credit: Anthony Churchyard
The advent of one-by drive trains: has this affected frame design?
Working with SRAM on components, at what stage in the design process do you sit down with RockShox to discuss the suspension for the bike?
On the suspension design, is it collaborative?
So this bike started at the London Olympics, are you already looking at Tokyo 2020? What’s next? Will we see more 1x specific bikes?
Where are you looking to improve the current bike?
Frame material and carbon technology: do you still see scope for much improvement there?
Also with the suspension partners, there is always communication backwards and forwards to try and make improvements.
If the designer had to design the perfect bike, how different would it look?
When they come up with a design you have to discuss with them, listen to their ideas, you can’t just say “this will never work” or it will be too heavy.
We us 3D simulation software to simulate the carbon layups on the tubes. There you can calculate the weight quite accurately. The first prototype is a 3D printed frame which can be done fast and cheaply, then we can get an idea of the product in real life, you can’t always see details on the screen. But at the same time the engineer starts the 3D model. We usually go through six or seven prototypes before we get to the final design.