The current crop of superbikes are swimming in the latest technology; every inch of them has been pored over to minimise weight, provide ideal power transfer and create quite simply the ultimate riding experience.
Unfortunately that can lead to a lack of passion and artistry in the finished product – highly engineered bikes with a highly engineered look. The Hysak bites back against this trend with its superb finish and beautiful attention to detail. We’ve rarely seen a bike that has been put together, painted and styled to as high a standard as this.
That’s not to say it’s all fluff and finish, though, because out on the road, where the Hysak needs to deliver, it does. And it does it very, very well.
Despite having one of the heaviest chassis here (1250g for the frame, although that includes the seat mast and clamp), it just doesn’t feel like it. It climbs superbly and the solid front end makes descending and high speed corners on the limit true highlights. It’s surefooted and stable and the Fulcrum tubular deep section wheels gain speed quickly, don’t suffer from flex and hold their speed remarkably well.
All these plus points aren’t at the expense of comfort either; the Scapin hits the perfect balance of torsional rigidity and superb stiffness when cranking hard, but it has a fine ability to take the edge off rough surfaces that might otherwise set your hands tingling.
What makes the Hysak special?
Seatpost
Scapin’s CNC machined and anodised ‘S-way’ seat mount eschews any trend for light weight in favour of ornate design. Mimicking the ‘S’ logo, it finishes the seat mast in a pure style- over-substance touch.
Press-fit bottom bracket
Scapin’s press-fit design combined with the Ultra Torque bearing option and custom-bearing covers creates one of the cleanest interfaces we’ve seen on any bike.
Frameset
Uses Toray carbon with an intricate 1k weave. The finish is painted to a fabulous standard (10 days per frame). It’s not all surface jewellery though: the fluid mould manufacturing, using liquid-filled rather than the usual air-filled bags, gives greater control over the structure, reducing the amount of resin to fibres.
Internal cable routing
The problem with internally-routed bikes is that all the good work keeping the cables out of the way of dirt and grime is undone at the BB. Where most exit the frame at this tricky junction, Scapin keeps things internal with the ‘Inside-w’ cover to keep out dirt.