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Bike Perfect

Lifestyle

Paul Brett

Scott and Dangerholm create the lightest e-MTB on the planet

Paul Brett Eurobike (Event)

Dangerholm posing with the his latest lightweight creation at Eurobike

The buzz around the massive Scott stand at Eurobike has been crazy, with Nino Schurter’s World Cup-winning XC mountain bike and former World Champion Kate Courtney’s Contessa being some of the highlights that drew the crowds. However, the bike causing the most stir, not just on the Scott stand but around the entire Eurobike show, is the incredibly lightweight Scott Lumen e-MTB, created by the master of lightweight bikes and super short shorts, Gustav Gullholm – AKA Dangerholm.

But don’t let the shorts distract you, Dangerholm is the perfectionist of custom-built lightweight bikes. On his lightweight CV he's already created the world’s lightest full-suspension XC bike, the world’s lightest 29er, and the world’s lightest downhill bike. He is also a massive fan of bikes in general and while I spoke to him he noticed the Orange Bikes T-shirt I was wearing, telling me the Orange Phase was one of his first-ever bikes and with his latest creation getting so much attention, he hadn't even had time to check out the Orange stand at the show. The attention for the Dangerholm Lumen is justified, weighing in at a staggering 12.9kg. I had the opportunity to look over the bike with the man himself giving me the lowdown on his latest featherweight build.

Dangerholm shaves the bike's paintwork with a bushcraft knife (Image credit: Paul Brett)

The Scott Lumen already has an established pedigree as one of the lightest downcountry e-MTBs around with its lightest production build coming in at around 16kg. The first step involved in a Dangerholm customization is his trusty Mora bushcraft knife, used to shave the paint, which to most people seeing a razor-sharp knife going close to a brand new carbon frame would cause serious palpitations, but he tells me...

"It's not as crazy as it may seem, it's actually a very effective method for paint removal. Bike brands race to develop the lightest frames, just to spray paint them and add roughly 80-150 grams of paint. Stripping it back to the raw carbon can take up to 20-25 hours, but essential to get the lightest bike I can make."

The carbon wrap battery saves 200g (Image credit: Paul Brett)

The Danger Lumen has a TQ-HPR50 drive unit and TQ 360Wh battery – the same as the production models but with a special custom carbon wrap on the battery, which saves almost 200g.

"I could have added just a range extender battery to go lighter but to keep it authentic is important, so I looked at reducing the weight of the battery and as you can feel it's quite a difference. I have also saved 40g on the drive unit with special CeramicSpeed bearings."

Not only does it feel light, but as e-MTB batteries go it looks extremely cool with its carbon wrap.

"I see e-MTBs much like mobile phones, they came out heavy and big, then went super small, and now it's all balanced out for size and weight, I can see e-MTBs going the same, in a few years this will be the norm, superlight electric mountain bikes."

The bike is specced with a host of superlight kit (Image credit: Paul Brett)

He then tells me that one of the most interesting parts of the build was around the rear derailleur.

"What you see is probably the world's only 11-speed wide range system, with a road derailleur matched with a 12-speed XPLR system which of course helps with the weight and is more than enough for an e-MTB in my opinion with the assistance."

With Dangerholm in high demand with the audience, he posed for some images and I thanked him for his very insightful time and input. It's clearly a labor of love with him estimating over 200 hours in total on the full build. The Dangerholm Lumen will be displayed for the rest of Eurobike and the spec for the bike can be found below.