Gustav Gullholm, aka Dangerholm, builds some of the most incredible custom bikes and this is his latest – a 2027 Scott Spark RC with a few tweaks, that he’s aiming to get under 9kg while still being shred-ready.
To do so, he’s stripped a top-end Spark HMX SL carbon frame of all its paint and then polished it to a glossy finish, bringing the weight down to 1,450g.
The process took him five days of sanding, finishing up with 4,000 grit sandpaper – if it were alloy, it’d have a mirror finish!
Keeping it suspended
The Spark RC offers up 120mm of travel at each end, with a completely new linkage for Scott, where the shock is held horizontally inside the frame, hidden by a magnetic cover for access.
Even this hasn’t dodged Dangerholm’s attention because he’s removed some of the rubber baffles to save even more weight.
At the front of the bike, the shiny fork is from German brand Intend. Its upside-down Samurai XC fork offers plenty of fore-aft stiffness, but has a bit more lateral flex – this provides a little more compliance according to Dangerholm.
Not one to rest on his modifying laurels, though, he’s somehow managed to integrate a RockShox Flight Attendant damper in there, via judicious use of a Dremel.
In conjunction with a power meter in the cranks and the rear RockShox SIDLuxe shock, this automatically controls the fork’s low-speed compression damping on climbs, traverses and descents.
All in, the 120mm fork weighs 1,610g – not bad, even if power tools were required.
No stone left unturned
There’s plenty to see down in the drivetrain, too.
At the centre are some titanium cranks from Dutch brand Wert, which come in at 320g – that’s road bike weights in a set of cranks proven for use in enduro.
Bolted to the cranks is the SRAM XX SL spider-based power meter, onto which a Polish chainring from Garbaruk is attached. Dangerholm is running a massive 38t chainring on there.
Pulling the wheel round is the limited-edition SRAM Eagle Transmission 1987 silver cassette and chain for added bling.
These are routed through a ridiculous GX Eagle Transmission derailleur with almost every part replaced by carbon. German brand HOPP Carbon Parts offers a multitude of very light (and rather expensive) replacement parts to help shed a little bit of weight.
Even the shifters have had some attention.
Rather than the SRAM pods, Swiss brand Zirbel provides a collar shifter system that can be flicked with the thumb, while there’s a third Flight Attendant override button located on the right side of the bar.
This enables Dangerholm to run a left-hand dropper remote for his super-lightweight dropper post.
It's comfier than it looks (apparently)
The controls all sit on a one-piece carbon bar from GrigioCarbonio – measuring 740mm wide, it's incredibly light at 137g.
Dangerholm has a 120mm dropper post on there, from a brand called Vertical. He has customised this post a little in order to make it match other areas of the bike aesthetically, but at around 350g it’s got to be one of the lightest dropper posts around.
On top of it sits a rather slender-looking carbon saddle.
There’s absolutely no padding on the saddle, but Dangerholm swears it’s comfortable. He says his shorts slide over the smooth carbon, which reduces friction, while there’s great support for his sit bones and soft tissue. There’s also a bit of flex on offer, which helps ensure day-long comfort.
We’ll take his word for it.
Would you trust these?
At around 340g, the Trickstuff Piccola brakes are claimed to be the lightest on the market, but what sets these stoppers apart is the Carbon Ti brake rotors bolted to the wheels. These use a carbon carrier and a steel braking surface.
This maintains performance while dropping loads of weight – relatively speaking. The benefit of this system over other lightweight brake rotors is the mass of the braking surface is maintained, boosting heat dissipation and feel.
Dangerholm’s wheels weigh 949g – not for one wheel, but for the pair.
Dangerholm has sourced some of the lightest carbon rims, hubs and fibre-based spokes around in order to build them, but he says his wheelset is ready for some proper abuse, including sending some jumps and not shying away on technical tracks.
He could go lighter, but ultimately this is a bike to be ridden.
The rims come from French brand Duke, the eMTB-rated hubs from German company NonPlus and the spokes are from Pyro – they offer light weight and a little extra compliance over steel spokes.
Dangerholm has full confidence
So, how does it ride? We’ll let Dangerholm describe it.
“This is what makes the whole bike so interesting to ride because with the new Spark, one of the benefits with it is that the weight distribution is super-low," he says.
"I mean, you have the shock, the linkage, everything is at the bottom. And then when you combine this with a super-light seatpost combo, a super-light handlebar, super-light brake levers, foam grips, all of it, it really puts the centre of gravity extremely low.
"It makes for a very like agile ride feeling when you're out of the saddle and sprinting. It feels incredible. So, super-happy with how it turned out. It's got the moves!"
