First Look at new 6-Bar Scott Ransom

Seeing stuff like this pushes me closer and closer to buying a rigid Stooge.

Every Scott bike I see is like a checklist of features that I never, ever want to have on a bike.

Just nope.

Surely it needs a ‘NOT AN EBIKE’ sticker on it to explain why you’re getting annihilated by eebs on the climbs? Downtube size and clumpy DT-BB junction scream out ebike to me.

Scott giveth with one hand and taketh away with the other.

Feels like a lot of takething and not much givething on this one.

Looks like they’ve combined the current genius/spark setup with the Bold VPP bottom bracket pivot but the open rear triangle needs tying together so used the same idea as felt but without the silly igus bushes that wear out the dog bone.

Looks similar to yeti sixfinity

There’s only two on the Enduro team but I still feel sorry for the mechanic, they might need therapy at the end of the season.
I need two paracetamol just looking at it and trying to figure it out.😀

£4.5k – A mental price for a base model!

A mental price for a base model!

That has the same, carbon & fully integrated, frame as the £8.5k range topper? I wouldn’t say that was too bad. How much is a base model Porsche?

Some brands won’t even sell you an aluminium frame for less than 5k now

Not wanting to split hairs, but

That has the same, carbon & fully integrated, frame as the £8.5k range topper? I wouldn’t say that was too bad.

The Ransom will come with 5 different models featuring the Ransom 900 RC (Racing Concept) in HMX carbon as well as a range of Ransom hybrid models (HMF Carbon Mainframe/Alloy rear triangle) including a dedicated Contessa version

Doesn’t sound like it.(link to Scott’s site didn’t work for me to check)

A face palm in bike from, just gives me a headache looking at it.

Just because you can, doesn’t mean you should.

Yet to see a single Scott bike on the trails(with the exception of some duff XC hardtail type things)…who buys these things?

So, apart from the looks (whether you like it or not) are there any advantages to this? I hate internal routing, but I appreciate some (most?) folk like it when done well, and the big hole in the downtube would surely be useful.  Does the internal shock keep it clean and free of mud, or does it scoop it up into the bearings and make it all worse?

Those that do, do you do it for fun or to save cash – and do you also home mechanic your cars too?

I don’t trust bike shop ‘mechanics*’ to not **** up any job way worse than I could.

On my car, I used to do all my own spannering but now I just give it to a garage.  Suddenly finding you need a particular part with the suspension in bits is no fun.  Garages have the advantage of just being able to ring their motor factor.  Also, at least with garages you know that the mechanics there have had some training and aren’t just the Saturday boy who is sick of dealing with customers and feels like a change.

*There are one or two bike shop mechanics who are exceptions but none of the ones I know are living in the same country as me at the moment.

Mega post incoming, but I feel I have something to add! To Clarify – at the end of 2022 after much to-ing and fro-ing based on the kind of comments we see above, I bought the new version of the Scott Scale which uses the same Syncros style Headset design, routing, integrated cockpit idea etc.

End of last year, I purchased a Bold Linkin, with all the same tech and more. To put it bluntly, if even half of what everyone seems to afraid of with headsets and routing were true, I wouldnt have gone back for more would I. To answer a common question, no, you are not ‘stuck’ with using Scott/Syncros parts – all the components to run either the integrated cockpit, or any old regular stem and spacers, are included with the bikes. Brendan Fairclough will be running his usual DMR bar and Stem on his this year…

Also bear in mind, these have replaced an Orange, and a steel hardtail. I always build from a frame, and I do all my own DIY. Theres absolutely nothing that is not DIYable.

The Bold is, to all intents and purposes, The Lexus to Scotts Toyota. They are made in the fame factories, using the same technology, to the same standards, using the same bits – As posted when I did my ‘NBD’ this just confirms that Bold are effectively the prototype arm of Scott. The longer travel Unplugged Enduro bike would be the equivalent to the Ransom, my Linkin at 135 or 150mm travels sits between the Spark and Genius (which lets not forget was Bike of the Year 2023 for STW mag!).

The Linkin and Unplugged are slightly different in that its a 4 bar with a solid triangle. Scott have gone for the extra linkage presumably to add a little more shape to the axle path, probably at the very end of its travel.

However the similarities are clear, there are shared components too based on the photos.

Every Scott bike I see is like a checklist of features that I never, ever want to have on a bike.

Thats what I used to think.

Looks like they’ve combined the current genius/spark setup with the Bold VPP bottom bracket pivot

Not quite – the Spark/Genius have an upright shock driven by the top linkage. The Bold, and now this, use the lower link to drive the shock. The entire BB shell is a beautiful machined adjustable piece that rotates on huge bearings, with preload adjustment, and in the case of the bold two different linkage/cranks to allow for 2x travel options. This is one of the key parts of the whole design, getting the shock lower, COG lower, and crucically for someone my shape, allows for a very deep seattube insertion on a relatively small seat tube. I now have 190mm of drop (and could get away with 200 if I was always using SPDs) combined with the long reach of a large – whereas even on relatively progressive bikes such as SC and Orange I could only ever get to 150mm.

I’ve seen a few of the integrated shock bikes at Hamsterley and Gisburn, and the owners seem very happy with them from chatting at trailheads etc

My experience too, in particular the Sparks, lots of them about near me and when I asked how they are getting on all the owners can only rave about them.

So, how many separate bearings are there and how difficult are they to change, bearing in mind the frames are mostly carbon?

I can’t speak for the extra rear most pivots (at the axle) on the Scott, but most of it is accessible and in the linkages not the carbon, just like a Santa Cruz –

I had mine completely stripped bare to inspect and check as part of the build and dont foresee any issues, no different in maintenance to any other FS bike once you get part somehting like my old Orange.
The lower link in particular runs on lovely large bearings, hidden away and with a preload ring like an old XTR bottom bracket.

So, apart from the looks (whether you like it or not) are there any advantages to this?

Storage. CofG (and yes I am convinced I can feel it). And the aforementioned incredible hardtail like dropper post compatability. Also:

Does the internal shock keep it clean and free of mud, or does it scoop it up into the bearings and make it all worse?

Exactly that. I’m not that far in, only a few months, but the shock still has the ‘fresh out the box’ look and the original light protective oil on it. No dirty black tide mark giving away how much of a mincer you are or arent!
Adjustments to damping or pressure take only one extra thumbturn fastener on the hatch lid compared to an external shock (looks like a push button on the Ransom).

I am not going to say its for everyone or claim its the second coming of christ. I am also well aware of the potnetial confirmation bias going on here and hints of fan-boyism but honestly starting with the Scale last year, Scott have gone from a brand I had little to zero interest in, to one that I can see is really class leading in terms of design, execution, finish & build quality and execution of the brief.

Aha, lbs has been teasing this… looks good.  I’m not the target market, nor could do it justice anyway, but I’m sure they will sell and will be seen out and about.

can someone explain a 6 bar linkage please?

Looks like a 4 bar type setup with a convoluted linkage to actuate the shock (To me)…

It’s lovely I’m sure but the mixture of complicated suspension parts, internal/integral bits and proprietary parts just puts me off more than the looks could ever make up for…

It looks kind of like someone’s nailed a horst link to an idrive. I love its overall looks tbh and I agree that internal routing isn’t that big of a deal if it’s done right- if you’re a magazine tester or a magpie then sure, it’s a nightmare but how often do you personally replace a brake or even a cable? Especially an internal cable outer that’s only exposed to mud at the tip? Cables and hoses can get damaged, sure, but the more internal they are the less that happens. And with a lot of designs changing a cable inner is basically the same as it is with external routing.

So much of it is about bad design- if your idea of “internal routing” is something like an orange swingarm where it’s basically just a loose cable rattling inside a box with awkward grommets and absolutely zero thought given to how you fit it, then sure it’s noisy and a pain in the arse. If it’s something like my old Remedy, with everything well controlled and thought given to installation, it’s a nothing, it’s like 1 minute longer to fit a cable and maybe 5 to fit a brake. You basically only have to prevent one incident of cable/hose damage in the entire life of the bike to make that a positive instead of a negative.

My grumpy self wants these things to be simple. But my idea of what simple is has changed over time.

Does the internal shock keep it clean and free of mud, or does it scoop it up into the bearings and make it all worse?

According to the chap who had one in for test on another site it worked very well at keeping the muck out when testing in the slop of the tweed valley the last few weeks