Yaaaaaaaayyyyy! After a REALLY tiring day yesterday, driving the 5 hour round trip to Jagodina, and spending a few hours with a great, long-time biker called Slavisa, and his wife Milja, my wife and I finally arrived home with the New Bike in my clutches! Slavisa had put me onto the guy selling it, and it was worth a long drive (they do actually sell bikes in Novi Sad too!) to buy from someone who at least had a recommendation.
And here is the new arrival itself! It’s a Scott Tampico (photographed from an awkward angle in the hallway!), and right off the bat, let me say if anyone knows a bit more about this model, I would be keen to learn something about it, because you can’t find much about it on the net.
It’s basically all Scott-branded and Shimano Deore gear, which is enough really to convince me this is more than enough bike for me for the next year or so, at least. Remember, whatever you think about the specs and what-not, this bike is WAAAYYYY better than anything I have ridden to date - so far I have been beetling around on the famous Cr…, sorry… Capriolo (see earlier posts in the The Bike! category). So this is history in the making!
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I can’t even work out what year it is, but judging by the very good condition of the frame, i.e. few scratches, still very shiny, it can’t be more than a couple of years old. On the other hand, the rear sprocket teeth are looking a bit worn, and the rear and front derailleurs seem to have taken some knocks and scrapes.
My guess is that either:
1) someone (not the guy I bought it off, he just imports the things) has replaced the original gear with some they wanted to get rid of, and put them on the newer frame - I can’t know for sure, because I can’t find the exact model on the net to see what the original gear was. But the bike has had Rock Shox J2 front forks put on too, which look pretty new too and are probably above spec for this bike, so why would someone put those on there if they were trying to get rid of some older parts?
2) more likely, I reckon - someone has done some fairly intensive riding/racing for one season, and has sold the bike on in order to get something better. So it has seen some intensive wear and tear, but mostly of the gears - there wasn’t time for it to get scratched up.
Additional detective work welcome from the MTB sleuths out there. Maybe you are the original owner! I just hope it didn’t get nicked from you..!
Other interesting features: the two bottle holders (slightly different), suggesting more serious use - well, a kid riding it to school probably wouldn’t bother..!
And, probably the thing that sold it to me, this rather nifty-looking football-themed bell!
It’s got a lovely chime, that you can see/hear if you click here!
Perfect for shifting those kamikaze Novi Sad pedestrians off the cycle track, and it’s got style too! Must mean the bike had some town use too, though maybe not, perhaps the guy/girl like to PING his fellow riders in serious MTB trials and confuse them into defeat.
As far as the ride is concerned, well, I took it for a spin today around town, decided it definitely needed a service, with gear changes all over the place. Also looks like it had been blasted free of all traces of grease, but not oiled afterwards, hence a lot of squeaking. Felt great for about half an hour (remember, this is the best bike I have ever ridden!), and then promptly got a puncture! Not only that, but I had forgotten my pump (not patches etc. though, duh…), I was the other side of town, and the only bike shop in the area had closed down. So basically I have spent considerably more time so far pushing my new pride and joy around than riding it.
Next step - try to learn/remember how some of the setup goes for the gears and stuff. Maybe I will post some of my bumbling attempts here, shortly before I wheel it off to the bike shop, head hanging… And then, time for a serious ride!
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Posted on January 31st, 2007 by markowe
Filed under: MTB Serbia (All), The Bike!
Hello there
I’ve just done pretty much what you did and bought a Scott Tampico - got mine at a car boot for £35. I have discovered they retail at about £500 in the UK and the general consensus seems to be that they are a decent choice but with a few reservations… I think the main deal is that most people think that if you have £500 to spend on a mountain bike you’re better off going with a Rock Hopper. Since my budget was 40 quid then, clearly, I’m happy!
I wanted to find out what people thought so I googled Scott Tampico and reviews. I found a couple of forums and weight, handling and gears are the things that get a good press. Most of people writing about the bike thought the font suspension was a bit soft - and Scott seem to have listened and upgraded to the Rock Shox for the 2005 model - so yours may well be standard.
I reckon mine is older than yours - abotu 2003/4 maybe - it’s blue and red and comes with a different set of front forks, the original I reckon, since the trim flashes match the rest of the frame. Nothing much to go on, it just says RST and GAPA TL I think - it’s scratched whoever owned it before me clearly wiped out as I have a new front wheel, too. I think yours, you lucky, lucky, son of a gun, looks like the 2005 model which you can find here http://www.bikemagic.com/review/reviewproduct/mps/RPN/41991/RER/7/v/2
I have the same Deore gears as you and mine, like yours, are a bit shuggly, ‘have to be careful how I shift or I chuck the chain right off, that said that may be “finger trouble” I’m new to this (knee injury, couldn’t stand up any more so had to find some exercise I could do sitting down) I’ve been using some very do-it-yourself huet gears on my old bike - a “tourer” which I have had since I was 10. The Deore’s are very responsive, I’ve got them down as the bike equivilent of close ratio. Actually I’ve got the whole bike down as the equivilent of something like a Lotus Elise, not too expensive in the general scheme of things and all about the best weight and handling possible for the price. I’m kind of hoping my new bike’s all round performance will whup the pants off the more expensive bikes in its class the same way the Lotus does! Hey, I’m an optimimst, I can dream.
As far as I understand it, the Shimano, Deore gears came as standard - also a Shimano crankset - mine don’t quite look like they fit but they do, clearly! I also have a disk brake on the front (Tektro something… 10? Possibly.) which was offered as an upgrade, I believe. It looks buckled, (eek!) but it appears to run true and stops me well enough - although this is the fens, lots of banks, lots of lovely mud and dirt, not much in the way of really big hills. That said many users didn’t like it - it’s made by a bunch called Tektro.
I ended up walking mine a lot of my first trip, too. Took the wrong track (some bastard had turned the sign round - and ended up stuck in the middle of nowhere. I could see where I was supposed to be so rather than retrace my path I decided to walk it round the side of a wheat field and climb over a stile the far side! As you can imagine, it got plus points for lightness there! Riding down a very bumpy muddy track it seemed fine and I’d go with the comments about the handling - not that I know jack! Once I get some new handlebar grips I’m looking forward to giving it a bit more of a beasting although I think a gel saddle cover or a ladies saddle might be in order if I want to walk normally afterwards!
Finally… you’ve probably found all of this but just in case… Scott originally made winter sports gear, the guy who founded the company came up with the first aluminium ski pole in about 1958 and they started making mountain bikes in the early 90s. They seem to have a bit of a name for making light bikes, making the lightest bike with front suspension somewhere in the late 90s, I think and then the lightest full suspension bike in the world about 04 and 06 I think… recently anyway. I think we’ve probably done quite well, the over all concensus definitely seems to be that it’s a great all round bike - I found a bit more information here: http://www.mtbr.com/reviews/Bike_rigid/product_76988.shtml you can also find a bit more about their current bikes on their website: http://www.scottusa.com/global/bike/
Phew! Bit of a long one and you wrote this in January so you may well have found this out for yourself by now! Never mind, I hope the info’s useful. I’m writing a post about it to stick on my own blog although it’ll probably take a day or two and since I’ve put this here, it won’t tell you anything you don’t already know… except that there will be a lovely picture!
Cheers
BC
Man, that is an awesome amount of information about the Scott! Thanks for that link, that must be the one, looks a lot like it, first time I have actually seen another one like mine, no amount of Googling threw this one up!
No, I hadn’t found out any of this before, and judging by the amount of people who come to this page looking for info, there seems to be a dearth of info about this model, can’t quite figure out why. So thanks again for the info!
Anyway, all the best with this beast, I mean for that price you couldn’t go too far wrong! It’s a good, entry-level “serious” bike, and is more than enough for my requirements for the time being. Keep me posted and let me know how you get on with it. Shall we see who can break theirs first..?