MSC Koncept Carbon RR - SHINING A LIGHT ON AN ELITE RACER'S BIKE

Name: Tom Bell

Age: 22

Discipline: XC

Category: Elite 

Bike: MSC Koncept Carbon RR

Training spots: Pennines, Peak District

Website: www.tombellxc.co.uk

MSC Bikes are a Barcelona-based outfit best known for their rather specific place within the industry as a company specializing in bikes made purely for racing. The Koncept Carbon RR represents their flagship bike for Cross Country racing. Its centrepiece is a full-suspension frame that features a monocoque construction of two bonded carbon halves and uses internally routed cables with a single pivot design. From the frame hangs SRAM's flagship XX groupset, which includes Rockshox's Sid XX forks and their one-piece X-Dome cassette. DT Swiss' XR Carbon shock handles the bike's rear end and Magura's premium MT8 brake set looks after stopping duties. This stock RR model is priced at £6,000 RRP. 

-The racers' stock wheelset of Stans NoTubes Podium MMX/American Classic Hubs 

-XCRacer sponsors' MT Zoom finishing kit including bars, bar-ends, skewers and bottle cage.

-My old faithful Specialized Toupe saddle.

-Look pedals 

The bike blends a plush ride with the feeling of stiffness and power transfer that we're more accustomed to finding on hardtail designs. It's achieved mainly by a design that rids the swing arm of any pivot points (similar to the Cannondale Scalpel) and instead uses the natural flex of the carbon material to exploit the shock's full range of travel. The result stamps out most of the bike's lateral flex and wastes little of a rider's energy when they're stomping on the pedals. The frameset's main pivots use Titanium and each is fully sealed.

The bike has proven quick both ascending and descending out in the rocky Peak District trails. Like many XC race bikes the lockable fork and rear shock help to optimise the bike for both fire road portions and the increasingly technical sections of World Cup XC circuits too. The rear tracks well under acceleration, using DT Swiss' expertise to keep the rear end planted to the ground. Towards the front there's an oversized headset area that helps to minimise flex and instability, keeping the Koncept Carbon acceptably surefooted over rocks and roots. 

The XX groupset gives the same smooth and accurate shifting performance I've come to love from SRAM, with the refreshingly audible gear change that has become one of their trademarks. Pleasingly, I've found the sprockets of the X-Dome cassette flex much less when shifting than the traditional designs I have ridden in the past. Working in harmony with the XX shifters, crankset and front derailleur the whole package gives a pretty reliable performance and SRAM's choice of ratios makes for 20 very useable gears. 

The highlight of the XX group lies with the SID forks though. Proven in competition by most UCI teams, the performance is expectedly smooth throughout the fork's rather short 100mm travel. The forks are lockable with Rockshox's much-improved Xloc remote that now uses hydraulics rather than the fiddly cable system of the past. 

In light of the increasingly technical nature of XC, I've opted to switch between using a flat bar with bar ends and a riser bar this season. I've found that riser bars open up the chest more to help with breathing and the wider width helps on chutes and drops. I still love the use of bar ends for climbing so I will be switching accordingly. With Mt Zoom's kit, there doesn't appear to be any weight penalty from either choice. Elsewhere in the cockpit, I use a short stem to keep handling tight and controlled.

I'm using Maxxis tyres for this season, where my stock set-up will be the Aspen tyres in a size 2.1 and for the muddier races, I'll switch to Medusas which are 1.8. I tend to run low relative pressures in the tyres (around 2 bar) and keep the forks and shock fairly high for my weight. I find that I get enough small bump sensitivity from the suspension and the higher relative pressure means the forks don't unexpectedly dive under braking.

Written and ridden by Tom Bell

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