Hi everyone, it's your thigh-optimized Swede here!
Since I actually used to hang out a lot on various forums in the past, and since there's a lot of discussion about this latest bike, I figured I'd for once leave Instagram and jump in here. That way I can perhaps help straighten out some question marks, even though of course I don't expect that to make everyone like the bike (or me haha).
First of all, thanks for the kind words about the bike!
As I don't speak German, apologies in advance if there are some misunderstandings because of language, but I will try to explain the concept a bit and also get back to some of the criticism/questions.
Even if I give a lot of information when a bike is released, not all details end up in all feature articles - so let's look into that and a little background.
- "Super Gravel"
This is in no way at all me trying to create a new category of bikes, but just a fun wordplay. If you're familiar with the rest of Scott's bikes, then you might know that the beefed up versions of the Spark and Genius are called Super Trail. I had to name this bike something, and since it is essentially a beefed up gravel bike Super Gravel felt like a fun and suitable name.
So it's not meant as a category, just a name for one bike.
- Yes, it's "just" a mountain bike.
We can go back a 100 years and people were riding the current bikes on gravel. Then people used cross bikes, hybrids, road bikes and like myself - hardtails or rigid MTB's - before gravel bikes became it's own bike category. But that is also a major point with this bike and concept, to raise some discussion about what is a gravel bike? Why can't there be "officially" MTB-based gravel bikes?
It's a little bit funny to see people say that I shouldn't call this a gravel bike, that it's just me trying to create marketing hype. But haven't you fallen for the marketing yourself, since you now have such a fixed view that a gravel bike must look a certain way? Where is the curiosity and encouragement that we should be open minded and try to ride whatever style of bike that is best for us?
But either way - discussion is good! I'm not saying I'm right or that everyone must think the same. It's simply that my personal view, since I love riding gravel on mountain bikes, is that it should once again become common and be an accepted part of gravel cycling. (Accepted as in by media, bike brands and cyclists in general, we who already love them will of course ride them no matter what :thumb: )
- It's just marketing.
Sure, it's a form of marketing since I'm showing cool bike products. But it's not like Scott is a big evil corporation and we sit in suits smoking cigars at meetings to come up with ways to suck every penny from cyclists. It's quite the opposite, as I'm just a passionate bike builder who is lucky enough to have support from a big brand where a lot of cool people are working. I mean, at least to me it's pretty cool that a big brand actually supports someone stripping paint and doing modifications?
Every Dangerholm project is my idea and my idea alone. Scott never says do this or you must market that, it's just me coming up with ideas where I say "hey I want to do this" and then I do my thing. I'm super grateful for this freedom, but at the same time it is also the only acceptable way for me to do this.
- I'm rich or r2 just showers me in bike parts.
I started working extra in the local small town bike shop when I was 14 years old, and earned a little bit of money. Every long winter I sold the old bike and built a new better bike, working my way up to nicer and nicer bikes. This continued for many years and many builds. For example when I built the "World's Lightest 29ers" in 2017 it was 100% out of my own pocket on my bike shop salary. It's just that bikes were always my biggest passion, so as long as I had a decent home and a decent car I put my money in my bikes.
A little over a year ago I quit my job at the bike shop and these days I of course have many great partners. I'm super grateful, but it was an expensive journey to get here.
As for r2... Where do you think I used to buy all the parts for my bikes? Where did I pay 1000€ per rim when trying to build the world's lightest bike? Where did I buy the Sram stuff? Correct, at r2. So for many years it was always my go-to webshop, and when I finally found myself in a position to get partners - I simply reached out and suggested that perhaps we could start working together since you're my favorite shop anyway.
And that's how the r2-bike partnership started. Still, it's not like I have unlimited access to their warehouse even if it might seem so. I mostly work directly with brands for my projects, and then we just try to make sure that the parts are available in the shop if someone wants the product or something similar for their own bike. Like with Scott there is zero pressure or demands, I just use what I think is best for each project.
- What happens to the bikes?
I'm in a very lucky position as all the bikes simply become my bikes to ride. Unfortunately the last two years have been way too much work and way too little riding, so now with genuine sadness I sometimes feel a bit like a poser haha. Since I'm of the opinion that every bike should be ridden a lot. But hopefully I can get back to ride many hours a week and spend a good amount of time on them!
The general idea is to keep the most special or unique bikes forever, and for the rest sell them after 2-3 years.
I should mention that all bikes are built to be ridden and be used, they're not just show bikes. But many years ago, when I could only afford to own 1-2 dream bikes at the same time, I started to always have a more basic bike for winter training and the worst weather. So even if I ride a bike a lot they still stay pretty nice, also with the help of paint protection film.
- The "Super Gravel" bike is not lightweight.
Correct! Actually, nowhere I claim myself that this was a lichtbau project. Of course it's pretty light, but the focus was on performance and nice harmonious looks. A rigid MTB like this could "easily" be built sub 6kg if that was the focus.
- The front light solution.
I've been using Moonlight for 6-7 years now I think, they're really reliable with continuous output that doesn't fade from overheating. The reason for such a powerful lamp is that autumn or winter riding where I live means distance rides on empty gravel or ice roads. Sometimes I don't see a car during a 4h ride, sometimes just one or two and I turn the light off (I usually have an extra mini light to stay visible or if I have to ride a little on roads with cars) while letting them pass. But I understand that the situation is different depending on your countries rules and where you ride.
There is zero cable rub damage with this setup. The frontlight can also be mounted upside down, closer to the handlebar, with less visible cable. By the bottle, the cable sits perfectly still against the frame and the reason for this position is that it lets me disconnect the cable without removing the battery from the bottle. So it's very practical, and didn't require and additional drilling on the frame.
- Paint, color etc
The paint is not perfect, no. Partially because I'm not a professional painter (BIG respect for great painters), I still struggle to learn as it's pretty damn difficult to get 100% perfect results. It was also a rush to finish this bike in time for Eurobike, so I simply couldn't spend many extra hours on for example filling minor imperfections in the spokes. Actually the bike was finished at 05.00 in the morning, four hours before being picked up and shipped to Germany.
There is always a balance walk when it comes to different color tones from different materials and coatings, like the screws in the derailleur. They match perfectly with the bottle cage screws, so should we see that or simply remove both? On some bikes I'm very strict and try to have things matching as perfectly as possible, on other bikes I allow myself to be a little bit relaxed and just think that it's good enough. Also, most people simply like colorful details and don't care that it's not a perfect color or texture match, so I sometimes remind myself of that too.
But to me a bike is almost never fully finished. So I often do small changes with time. For example I've already ridden this bike also with black/raw carbon wheels and it looks super cool without the gold wheels too.
- Uniqueness, modifications etc
Of course many people could build bikes similar to mine. I'm not a carbon manufacturing expert, I'm not a frame builder and so on. In fact I encourage and wish for people to build their crazy dream builds, as a bike nerd I love seeing cool bikes.
On this particular bike it was indeed not much crazy custom work. Just some minor modifications like covering the chainguide mount on the frame, the brake hose guide on the fork and some work on the handlebar. The light setup was pretty simple thanks to the new Scale frame, but I still think it's a great little mod.
The funny thing is that I can't "win" when it comes to that stuff. If I don't do modifications, it's bad because it's "just nice parts put together". If I do modifications they're "not done right". And so on haha.
In the end, I can only build bikes that I want to see and want to ride. As should everyone else. If there is one "goal" with the Dangerholm bikes in general except for me enjoying to ride them, it is to try and inspire and show people that they should get and build the bikes they want. If you weigh 55kg and build a superlight bike, it doesn't matter if someone else says they can break it jumping off a curb. If you love orange and build an orange bike, it doesn't matter if black is the trend and people say it's ugly.
I do realize it sounds super cliché and cheesy, but bikes are great in so many ways and I love when people (myself included) can be curious, positive, encouraging, passionate and innovative about them. That's something that makes them great training/adrenaline tools while at the same time being such a great hobby.
That's the end of this wall of text, apologies for that haha, but if you have any questions I'm happy to try and answer.
Greetings from Sweden.
