Scott’s Gambler Tuned DH bike has been fully redesigned with four major factors in mind, including its construction, adjustability, integration, and geometry. Different versions of this bike have been flying between the tape for several years now, and the engineering team at Scott felt it was time to make their great frame even better.
On the construction front, the new Gambler Tuned frame has a carbon fiber front and rear triangle, allowing the designers to cut weight and add stiffness where it counts. Scott says “we even developed a new method to manufacture an ultra-light and strong linkage that we can tune for stiffness to a level not achievable with alloy. It only weighs 160g.” The company also claims that mounting the shock at the BB leaves the toptube and downtube free to fine tune the frame’s overall stiffness and ride feel.
On to adjustability, this bike has a wide range of frame variables that can be shifted around to suit different tracks, suspension settings, and rider preferences. The Gambler’s 4-way flip chip allows riders to choose between two different levels of suspension progressivity, and to raise or lower the BB to Goldilocks the ride, or when swapping between 27.5″ and 29″ wheels. A set of angled headset cups further allows riders to tune the bike to their liking, and all of these moveable measurements mean that you can even run the Gambler with the 27.5″/29″ mullet hoop configuration if you like.
Two distinct rear axle positions make changing wheel sizes a snap, and allow riders to lengthen the rear end for flatter tracks or tuck it in on tighter and steeper descent adventures.
Rather than designing around the confines of a traditional chainring bash guard, Scott’s engineers decided to create a proprietary banger that fits perfectly with the bike’s chainline and skips over the design compromises of some standard guards.
Along with the new Gambler Tuned, Syncros now has a DH-ready version of the Hixon integrated handlebar to fit nicely with the overall package. “Why build a one piece [bar and stem]? A traditional bar and stem must be reinforced at the clamping point, particularly when using carbon. By molding the two of these together we no longer need to reinforce this point and can concentrate on finding the perfect stiffness values for the bar. Furthermore, we can build a super strong layup which can withstand 260kg on each side in a downward force (over half a ton in total) and return to its original shape without any deformation, well above our own rigorous in-house standards for a DH bar.”
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In addition to the proprietary bash guard and integrated handlebar, the Gambler Tuned is said to have ample chainstay and downtube protection and comes with a set of bolt-on fenders for the sloppy and slidy rides.
Lastly, the reimagined Gambler Tuned comes in four sizes, allowing riders of all heights to select the bike that works best for their body and riding style. Scott says, “we steepened the seat tube angle on the small and medium sized frames, which allows smaller riders to keep their saddle low and to avoid the dreaded tire buzz. For larger riders, we made sure to keep the saddle out of the leg area leaving riders free to move around in the air, in corners, etc.”
Check out this informative tech video on the new Gambler Tuned.
