Best MTB Of The Year: Scott Genius ST

The geometry is "pretty much as progressive as it gets" while also being "pretty much par the course these days". 🙂

That aside, I think this has everything I don't want in a bike, all in one vastly overpriced package with the ugly, bulky looks of an ebike

Headset routing
Stupid massive lockout lever
Proprietary shock
Integrated bar and stem
Hidden shock that's a pain to adjust

And yeah. £10,999. Bananas.

Aye.

Every other rider who passes you will ask whether you're going so slow because your battery has run out.

Eleven Thousand Pounds...

Eleven Thooouuuuu...arghhh

Bet they sell out  no problem still

However I often wonder how many bikes like these actually get made.  Would be interesting to know

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.

Ahh i see, got to be honest i skim read the article as my eyes were shaking at the Eleven Thoooouuuuuarghhhh...nope cant say it

Looked at the price and ignored it.

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.

The 920 has a carbon main frame not alloy

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...

Acros 32.52.107R1-AM and 11.52.106R2-AM and you're off to the world of regular bars and stems for an extra 15 euros.

Have these on my bold linkin with the same headset arrangement as the new genius and I run a one-up bar and FSA gradient stem.

https://postimg.cc/7fxT4qMJ

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).

I’ve got to wonder at the sense of hiding a piggy back shock inside the frame?

The amount of heat that comes off the reservoir on a bit descent is significant, I’d be worried that it would overheat inside a frame.

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.

I've got  a Spark and the headset stuff isn't really a problem - I run my own bar and stem with regular spacers and while the bottom headset bearing wears quickly, the cables don't go through it so it's easy to replace. The top bearing is fine.

It's a good bike - I've ridden it more than my other mountain bikes this year - but god it's unreliable. The main pivot nut is held in place by a specifically shaped hole in the carbon - this wore out during the Strathpuffer, leaving the back end really floppy, and I had to send the frame away to be repaired. There's a flap above the main pivot to stop dirt getting flung into the frame by the rear wheel and that rubs against the chainstay, wearing away the welds. The pivot bearings have lasted less than 1,000 miles. The shock bolts aren't loctited well enough, and when one comes loose you can't see it, because it's hidden in the frame - that ended up damaging the carbon. I love it but I'd not recommend it to anyone. These aren't issues that'd appear in the short time a bike magazine has one in for test and it kinda highlights the issues with this sort of testing.

I have also had "well, at least you have a battery" comments when my eyes are bursting out my skull at the top of steep climbs but I actually really like how it looks.

The bottom line is, the Scott Genius ST hidden shock isn’t just for aesthetics. It enables an amazing rear suspension design.

A Bold design choice by Scott there

With the internal cable routing and the adjustable headset, is it possible to change the head angle without disconnecting the brake lines?

Also in the review you mention that the internal shock isn't an issue with overheating in the UK. To my mind at 150/160 "super" trail/mini enduro bike is probably too much bike for most UK use and the shock overheating would be more of a problem on Alpine descents.

Thank God there's a bargain £5k alloy version with Sram SX.

To my mind at 150/160 “super” trail/mini enduro bike is probably too much bike for most UK use

There's definitely UK terrain where a 150/160 enduro bike is ideal/most suited/desirable. Its almost certainly either cheeky or pay to play though, not on a public right of way. Some people will never venture there but for others it makes up 100% of their riding.

Probably looking at a couple of minutes descending at a time though, so overheating is unlikely to be much of an issue.

Is that behind the Nationwide in Swindon? Might be under biked.