Funny ,i have an older genius and use the twinlock as much as my gears..brilliant thing..
Still fine fully open but having it is great makes a buge difference.. ride style location dependant of course..im more of a long day out up dale down dale across dale sort
@ehwhome. It sounds like the settings on this one are different from the twinlock. The middle setting being for big terrain rather than climbing. I think the non st version is more similar to the previous model.
I work on the Epic Series of races, Swiss Epic, Cape Epic etc etc and unsurprisingly I see a lot of these kind of bikes and not just in the Elite / Sponsored / Factory riding participant category. Some people do have the cash for these things.
I see a lot of top end Trek Caliber, Spesh S-Works Epics, Stoll and so on. On those events they do get a hammering.
Great review this – I feel compelled to comment on the “restrictive cockpit” and Scott in general!
This year I bought the new Scale – opposite end of the Scott MTB range but shares the same headtube, headset, stem design.
At time of ordering the frame only, I also ordered the matching stem spacers, the top cap etc on the understanding that I needed all these parts, to give a similar setup to whats shown here. We waited and waited, but they were never going to turn up so eventually thought I’d start the build. Turns out, its entirely possible to run regular headset spacers and a regular stem – the parts to do this are included in the box with the frameset and I’m sure would be included with the bike aswell (which STW possibly didnt see with it being a test bike)
It was easy to build, no more fiddly than any other cable routing I’ve done, it not filled with water, it hasnt caused me to hate myself, it looks really, really neat, its not been restrictive in my choice of parts etc.
None of this info is freely available on the Scott website and the dealers are not that familiar with it (as they only ever see 90% finished built bikes!).
I guess that just as @Ben_Haworth picked up from having a test bike, when I saw fully built showroom bikes I was very cynical but having actually bought, built, and maintained a new Scott with this setup – My cynicism was very unfair. It works spot on.
I’ve had some nice bikes, and always found Scott intriguing but never wanted one (a bit like Cannondales, for similar reasons, weird proprietary stuff mainly). But having now owned one, 100% would buy one of their more complex, and more ‘integrated’ bikes. The frame quality is stunning, the best paint I’ve ever seen, the best box of ‘extra bits’ I’ve ever had, most well thought out
Terrible photo but helpful to demonstrate:
(I cancelled the order for the extra bits and spent it on clothing!)
Also note – Scotty Laughland and Brendog all run these frames but are able to run their own choice of stem, bars, spacers etc etc…
Funny ,i have an older genius and use the twinlock as much as my gears..brilliant thing..
I can understand people not wanting the extra rats nest of cable, and you don’t really buy a 150mm bike purely for pedalling efficiency, but I use the lockouts on my 140mm bike whenever I’m just spinning up a fire road or on the road, it makes a big difference.
The ST version 160/150 looses the fork lockout in favour of better dampers and looses solid rear lockout as it uses a piggyback shock for better descending that has no 0mm option. It still has a “not travel locked” (firm) climb mode and the middle mode is still 100mm reduced travel for when you’re not pointed directly down hill.
The regular (non-ST) 150/150 genius retains fork lockout and 0mm locked rear in an inline shock like previous generations
Mode adjust travel control on the Scott bikes has always been a great tool that really needs as little thinking about as changing gear or using a dropper post. It’s there, you use it, it has a genuine benefit.
I can see the lockout being useful as whenever I’ve had a shock mounted one I just forget to turn it on or off thus making it pointless. If a shock has different settings to be used on the move then I think it’s better to make them easy to use (i.e. handlebar mounted).
On a like for like descent, the piggy back version should be better able to cope than a non piggy back as there’s more oil volume to heat up, before it becomes a problem – single can shocks heat up faster.
What will be more interesting will be what they do with the Ransom when that’s updated – an internally located shock on a bike like that may well need some engineered air flow to keep it cool enough I reckon.