First Look at new 6-Bar Scott Ransom

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

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

I do my own bike servicing, but I dont do it for either of those reasons, essentially it’s just easier to diy than call lbs, negotiate a time to drop it off, load bike into car drive top shop drop it off, wait a week without bike, Pick it back up,pay for it, find out they didn’t tighten something up coirectly etc.

Diy means I have an hour of bike downtime versus a few days at best, it’s my fault if I cock it up (I won’t) and it’s cheaper. Changing bearings is usually easy. Internal cable routing is fine, although through headset routing looks like a massive pain.

I don’t do my cars because they’re invariably miles more difficult/dirty/messy/require tools I don’t have than changing the bearings on a bike,and the second hand car market likes a full service history, although I did used to service my Caterham 7.

Bike mechanics are increasingly grumpy because bikes are increasingly complex but the time they have available to work on them is, if anything, decreasing.

Cup of tea and a decent stand I can strip my spark down to bits and put it all together before radcliffe and macone get to the crisps.

I remember my colleague buying the first(?) incarnation of this in ~2008. Silver bike with a a pull shock and “traction control” lock out leaver thing. Anyway the lockout dial was sprung such that whilst descending the forces would cause it to pop “open” and lock the shock out. Nearly killed my colleague a few times, a memorable occurrence involved a full blown tantrum and the bike being thrown down an Alp.

It’s a proper six bar as the title says. The extra link changes the axle path so the chain doesn’t shorten as the suspension compresses. TBH it was only on the granny I could ever feel a difference in the way suspension systems pedaled so now we all have single rings I’m quite happy with FSR or similar.

The original Ransom was quite innovative at the time. Scott turned up at a local downhill and lent them to anyone interested – I set second time on the first run on one without accidently flicking the lock levers. This bike continues the theme, a bike that pedals well and works almost as well as an Enduro bike in that a proper Enduro bike would have coils and be close to a DH bike.

It would no doubt suit the kind of riding I do well, but so does a cheaper, simpler more rugged bike.