SCOUTING for parts

WILL GOES BACK TO BASICS, BUILDING UP A NUKEPROOF SCOUT HARDTAIL FROM A BARE FRAME AND THEN HITTING THE TRAILS, HARD!

- Will Soffe

SPEC

Frame Nukeproof Scout 29, large

Fork Manitou Mezzer Pro, reduced to 140mm travel

Drivetrain SRAM X01 Eagle with Truvativ Descendant carbon cranks and Nukeproof Horizon chain guide (1x12)

Wheelset Nukeproof Horizon 29 wheels, Michelin Wild Enduro Magi-X 29x2.4in tyres

Brakes Hayes Dominion A4

Bar/stem Nukeproof Sam Hill Series, 780mm/ Nukeproof Horizon, 50mm

Seatpost/saddle Brand-X Ascend dropper/Nukeproof Horizon

Making the mistake of trying to follow the pair of Nukeproof pros, I nearly clean-out our longsuffering guide, Gareth, as he desperately waves at us to slow down. Our brains quickly switch from, "Pfft, slow down? As if!" to "Oh, Crickhowell! He's thoughtfully trying to save us from face-planting off that massive, blind, sheer drop into a rock garden!" Thankfully, we're all able to wrestle our shiny new Nukeproof Scout hardtails into order, with varying degrees of steeze (them, lots; me, not so much). Adam Brayton takes to calling me 'Wild Will' for the rest of the day. Can't think why; perhaps it's a northern thing!

SCOUTIN' ABOUT

Here at MBUK Towers we get lots of emails telling us new bikes or kit are dropping and asking if we'd like to try them - we're lucky like that! However, one stood out in my inbox. It was from Rob Sherratt, Nukeproof's global marketing manager, and said they were launching a new Scout hardtail and would love us journos to come and get our grubby mitts on it. But there was a catch: "You MUST BRING fork, drivetrain, brakes and brake rotors."