First Look: 2023 Scott Genius & Genius ST
Scott Genius ST 900.
Scott's Genius trail bike has received a massive update for 2023, and not just in the typical longer, lower fashion. Those geometry changes did occur, but the biggest talking point is the location of the shock inside the frame, a design that was first applied to the Spark, and to Bold's line of bikes before that.
Scott acquired a majority share of Bold back in 2019, and while at the time they claimed that there wouldn't be any crossover on R&D, it sure looks like someone at Scott has been peeking at Bold's homework.
Scott acquired a majority share of Bold back in 2019, and while at the time they claimed that there wouldn't be any crossover on R&D, it sure looks like someone at Scott has been peeking at Bold's homework.
Genius ST Details
• Carbon and aluminum frame options
• Wheel size: 29"
• 150mm travel / 160mm fork
• 64° head tube angle (adjustable to 65 or 64.5°)
• 77.2 seat tube angle (size L)
• Sizes: S, M, L, XL
• Pricing: $3,799 - $12,000 USD
• scott-sports.com
• Carbon and aluminum frame options
• Wheel size: 29"
• 150mm travel / 160mm fork
• 64° head tube angle (adjustable to 65 or 64.5°)
• 77.2 seat tube angle (size L)
• Sizes: S, M, L, XL
• Pricing: $3,799 - $12,000 USD
• scott-sports.com
The Super Trail model receives a piggyback shock, and the fork isn't attached to Scott's TwinLoc remote; activating the handlebar remote only affects the shock. On the Genius model the fork is connected to the remote, and it uses an inline shock. All-mountain is a term that's fallen out of favor, but in this case I'd say it makes sense to call the Genius a trail bike and the Genius ST an all-mountain bike. That is, unless you really like the term super trail.
Prices range from $3,800 USD for the alloy Genius 940 all the way up to $12,000 USD for the carbon Genius 900 Ultimate, and there are a total of 10 different models in the Genius lineup – 6 iterations of the Genius, and 4 of the Genius ST.
Frame Details
The new Genius is available in three different frame configurations – there's the top level, full carbon version, followed by a version with a slightly different carbon layup and an alloy swingarm, and then the full alloy version. Personally, I think the raw alloy frame found on the base model Genius 940 is the best-looking of the bunch.
Compared to the shorter travel Spark, which uses a flex-pivot design, the Genius uses a Horst link layout for its 150mm of travel. The short link that sits between the seatstays and seat tube connects to a splined aluminum link inside the frame that drives the shock.
The shock cover can be removed with the push of a button, allowing access to rebound, compression, and air pressure adjustments.
External sag indicators help speed up setup.
Accessing the shock to make air pressure or rebound adjustments is done by pushing a button on the plastic downtube cover – no tools required. Once the cover is off, the air valve of the shock is located at the top of the shock for easy access. Because the shock's shaft is hidden inside the frame, a sag indicator is built into the upper link. Overall, getting the bike setup doesn't take any longer than it would with a bike that didn't swallow its shock.
2022 has been the year of routing cables through headsets, and the Genius keeps that trend alive (unfortunately). The cables pass through the split plastic headset spacers, then through the upper headset bearing before going to their respective destinations. Changing the the orientation of the headset cups won't require a brake bleed, but that will likely be necessary when it's time to swap out the headset bearing.
Scott sure do like hiding things inside the frame.
There aren't internal tubes for the dropper, derailleur, and brake lines - instead, foam tubing is used to keep things quiet.
The Genius doesn't have tube-in-tube routing, relying instead on foam sheaths to prevent rattling, although we still experienced some noise on our test bike.
In keeping with the integration theme, the Genius uses Syncros’ one-piece Hixon carbon stem / bar combo. Sizes small and medium receive a version with 15mm of rise, and the large and XL bikes get the 25mm version.
The remote's still not the prettiest thing, but it does work as intended, and doesn't take long to get used to.
The Genius ST (left) and Genius (right).
Genius ST vs Genius - What's Different?
The travel amounts between the Genius and Genius ST are the same, but Scott has taken steps to give them distinct personalities out on the trail. Out of the box, the Genius has a steeper head tube angle, and uses a Fox Nude 5T inline shock that has 3 modes – Lockout, Traction Control, and Descend. In the Traction Control mode, the shock's air volume is reduced and the fork's compression damping is increased. That causes the bike to sit higher in its travel, giving it a better climbing position.
On the Genius ST, Scott has made it possible to adjust the Float X shock's progression on the fly. There's a fully open, Descend mode, a Ramp Control mode, and a Climb mode. In Ramp Control, one of the air chambers is closed off, which increases progression in the same way that adding a volume spacer would. In climb mode, the compression damping is increased, creating a firmer pedaling platform for getting to the top of the hill. As for the fork, that's not affected by the remote at all, allowing riders to access all of the adjustments that come with Fox's Grip 2 damper.
Geometry
The Genius has headset cups that allow for two different head angles – either 64-degrees or 65-degrees depending on the orientation of the cup. The Genius ST comes with the cups in the slacker position, and they're in the steeper position for the Genius. The carbon models also come with another headset cup that splits the difference and creates a 64.5-degree head angle.
The Genius's reach numbers have increased significantly compared to the previous version – when it comes to geometry, a lot has changed in the last five years. The reach of a size large is now 485mm, up from 466mm on the old Genius. The seat tube angle has been steepened to balance out the increased reach, and now sits around 77-degrees depending on the frame size – it gets steeper with the larger sizes.
We're starting to see more and more companies go with size-specific chainstay lengths, but that's not the case here – no matter the size, they measure 440mm.
The carbon Genius Ultimate retails for $12,000 USD. The no-holds-barred built kit includes a SRAM XX1 AXS drivetrain, Syncros Revelstoke carbon wheels, Shimano XTR 4-piston brakes, and a Fox 36 Float Factory FIT4 fork.
Build Kits
As I mentioned earlier, there are 10 different versions of the Genius, with a variety of frame and component options - it's easiest to head over to Scott's website to view the exact specifications. As you'd expect, the highest end options have carbon wheels SRAM's wireless shifting, and Fox's Factory level suspension - a Grip 2 36 on the Genius ST, and a FIT 4 36 on the Genius.
One step down from the top you'll find the Genius 910, which has a carbon mainframe with an aluminum swingarm. The $7,600 price tag gets you SRAM's GX Eagle AXS wireless drivetrain, Shimano XT brakes, and an Ohlins RXF 36 fork.
The base model Genius 940 has an aluminum frame, and is priced at $3,800 USD. It has a Marzocchi Z2 Air fork, X-Fusion Nude shock, SRAM SX drivetrain, and Shimano MT501 brakes.
Genius 940.
Ride Impressions
The Genius ST was one of the bikes in our recent Field Test that took place up in Whistler, BC. Those articles and videos will be coming out at the end of this month, so you'll have to wait a little bit for the full scoop on the Genius' performance.
Certain features of the Genius are going to be polarizing – the hidden shock and remote lockout aren't going to suit everyone's tastes, myself included. However, the actual ride quality of the Genius ST is excellent – it's quite light for the amount of travel (our Genius ST 900 Tuned test bike weighed in at 30.1 pounds with Maxxis DoubleDown control tires installed), while still remaining surefooted on chunky descents, or getting airborne on Whistler's jump trails. It's stiff without being overly harsh, and even the one piece bar / stem was comfortable for multiple testers
The Super Trail designation is easy to poke fun at, but after spending time on the Genius ST I understand what Scott was going for. This is a bike that can easily be pedaled on big rides without giving up much (if anything) on the descents. There's no reason this couldn't be used to race the occasional enduro either - the geometry isn't going to be the limiting factor between the tape.
Keep an eye out for our Field Test review of the Genius ST, where it'll get compared to other similar bikes, along with being subjected to the Impossible Climb, Efficiency Test, and the Huck to Flat.
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What's the purpose of riding this rebranded bold?
Does anybody hear?
* Remote lockouts (moar cablez!)
* Hidden suspension components
* Cables and hoses running through the headset
* Internal cables and hoses without internal tubes
* Integrated bar/stem combos
Scott seems intent on winning "Hard-To-Service Bingo"
also add "proprietary suspension" to the list.
/s (in case you're mental)
f*ck off Scott. That almost ruined a weekend of riding for a friend.
Making sure Scott officially sees this.
This is a huge recurring theme. Any new mountain bike with heatset cable routing, is immediately removed from the list of potential future bikes by me, and apparently hundreds of other riders. I will not own a bike that makes normally easy maintenance/adjustment tasks so unnecessarily difficult for me, nor will I recommend it to others.
And then, to add insult to injury, you have an integrated bar and stem.
Which means if I want to do something as simple as add a different rise handlebar, I now need to buy a handlebar and stem, do a full bleed of the rear brake, and re-adjust the rear deraileur. Literally no one wants this.
Headset cable routing might make sense for types of road bikes that care much more about aero. But the incredibly large majority of mountain bikers do not want this. There are multiple editorials about it from different publications/websites, and literally _every_single_ new bike that comes out with this, gets roasted about it.
Please help make this a quickly passing fad in the industry, and not a new "era of bike design".
That is all.
When was the last time I needed to change a brake line or headset bearing? Yeah like 20 yeads ago..
I can tell you as a mechanic looking* at this bike, that yes, it's serviceable, but I will charge you £1million in labour hours to do so.
*You can know stuff by looking, not necessarily touching
About adding spacers.
It depends on the headset routing used. Some enter the headset by the dust cap, others go through the stem. If it goes through the dust cap, you're good to add/remove spacers, or handlebars without any issue.
In this case, it looks the cables are routed through the stem. Which means you can't add a stem spacer without bleeding the brakes, unless I'm missing something, or you have some two piece stem spacers or something like that.
No, no, no... It takes a _special kind_ of genius.
1.That bike and the older Genius my friend was riding has the Scott Twinlock lever. Most other Scotts with that twin lock lever don't have an integrated tool, which leads me to point 2.
2.That lever uses a T10 bolt to secure the cables for the dropper and rear shock onto the lever. Huh that rear axle multitool doesn't have a T10...or even a closely sized Allen to get by in a pinch
3. Name another common part on a mountain bike (other than an Avid bleed screw) that uses that size bolt.
4. Come up with a good reason for trading off making the bike harder to work on by using a less common fastener, when a 2-3mm Allen bolt works perfectly fine (I'm sure that 99.9% of the other dropper levers on the market are missing a huge opportunity...)
There's a reason I now own a Geometron.
The lack of internal tube in tube routing is one of the best aspects as it allows Brits and Aussies etc to have better brake routing.
Why? Because his customers are mostly his friends, and either he charges them with fair and astronomically high service bills, potentially losing them as customers and friends, or he accepts to work underpaid.
This without bleeding any hose or changing any cable, because nothing goes through the stem/barstem.
Same goes for spacers.
You're welcome.
yes, headset spacing adds complexity once ever 18-24mo when you swap the headset....ok.
Even if you have the skillset already, it's incredibly annoying to have to employ 5 skills to do what used to be one.
An example. A bike comes in with a rear puncture, if it's got a quick release then that's a sub 1-minute job. A bike comes in with a puncture, it's got a coaster brake, rear facing dropouts and mudguards with tight clearance, and a Nexus hub. Changing an inner tube now takes 15-20mins, and six different tools.
Tell me that's not annoying, whilst you're trying to change a puncture at the side of a road, in the rain.
I still don't have the hate for headset routing like all the 23yr olds here seem to.
almost any shop has a higher price for puncture/tube/tire change on bikes with gear hubs.
The other guy has taken my comment about it taking more time/money and taken it to mean I'm frightened of working on a complicated bike.
Bottom line; bike manufacturers have made something overly complicated for "aesthetics", mechanics mention it's more complicated to work on, but somehow we're dickheads for saying that
I guess you only own elite level bikes that are $9k or higher?
Getting back to the point of the argument, how often are you replacing headset bearings anyway? The last time I had to replace a headset on an MTB was in 2005, after I fully submerged my bike on a ride, then put it away wet for 6 weeks while I went on holidays. I ride in all weather, and pressure spray my bikes to clean them, and have kept my last two FS bikes 7 years each. The last time I replaced the headset on my commuter was in 1999, when I changed from a rigid fork with threaded steerer to a suspension fork with threadless steerer. The same headset with original bearings is still on the bike now, and I ride it to work every day rain or shine.
I'm much more concerned about the potential for wear on the steerer from cable rub than time taken to replace bearings.
In the last year of MTB ownership, I've replaced headset bearings three times. I don't pressure wash bikes, I live in the UK so our weather is awful, and I maintain my own bikes near enough daily. Including road bikes, I sometimes replace those bearings once a year too (thanks Cannondale lower bearing design ) so that's 5 sets of bearings, more than once each per year. I ride a lot, so maybe I'm not indicative of the population, but if I had to bleed brakes or changing cables EVERY time I was doing this, I'd be fuc*ing livid. Not that I'd have bought a bike with internal routing through a headset to start with, because I'm not a martyr.
I live in the PNW, so also wet weather riding for 1/2 - 2/3 the year. But I also only have one bike, and don't ride all that often compared to most. With a couple times a week, to 1-2 times a month sort of average throughout the year.
No new headsets for my personal bike so far. But my old bikes headset was caged ball bearings instead of a sealed cartridge bearing. And I serviced those about once a quarter. My buddies Commencal went through a headset in the first 9 months. My brother in laws Transition Sentinel went through a headset in 7 months.
So, its not a "normal everyday" activity, its totally true. But enough that I wouldn't want to intentionally make it more difficult than it needs to be.
If I cared more about cable length, or frame weight, aero, or a "tidy cockpit", then maybe. But personally those things all rank about as low down on my bikes priority list as I can possibly think. Well below "what color valve cores should I use" and "which water bottle do I take today".
I'm not arguing in favour of cable routing through the headset, but in my experience (having also lived in the UK, and having had 100mm rain last week where I live now) replacing headset bearings is not something that needs to be done routinely enough to be a major factor in the decision either way. I'm honestly baffled as to why your experience with headsets is so different to mine, as I seem to get pretty comparable life from cassettes and chains as most people report, and those are equally related to miles, weather and trail conditions. I agree road hydraulics are a pain because you need to unwind the bar tape, and at least on SRAM it's hard to disconnect the hose at the lever without spilling all the fluid from the reservoir, but every MTB brake I've had is easy to disconnect at the lever without spilling much, and bleeding a brake is no big deal. If you're a pro mechanic, why wouldn't you just charge for the extra 15 minutes work instead of being angry about it?
But all else is never equal, and even going into it eyes fully open the extra hassle involved in changing headset bearings isn't something that I would lose any sleep over.
Agreed to a point. If there were no options without headset cable routing, I’d still be a mountain biker. I’m not a pro mechanic, but bleeding brakes is something we’ll within my skill set. And if I had to, I would do that.
But all things being equal, I’ll try not to make myself do that. I was just trying to inform Scott that I, and apparently hundreds of other people feel the design is sub-optimal.
If you actually want to know what the supposed advantages are for this routing, there's a whole article on it that you can go and read, or if you prefer just head straight to the comments section and continue boxing with shadows like you are here.
I've been called contrived for providing an example, and told my own personal experiences of changing headset bearings is strange.
If neither of us like the routing, why are we even talking about it. Let's just leave it there.
Engineers: make regular bikes look more like e-bikes!
This is one of the best looking bikes out right now from a bike brand. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, I guess... As a bonus they ride really well both uphill and down. Yes, I know, I have one..
I'm not a native speaker, and Googled puddle cup, not pudding up...
Kind of makes sense though, doesn't it? "Not today honey, there's a puddle cup in my down tube."
But at least we have won one of the worst cable routing ever. And I'm not even talking about their thinner outer and inner cable for the seat post …
I had to remove some Vittoria foam road inserts yesterday, customer wanted to keep everything for swap onto his new wheels. I’ve been working in a bike shop in some form since 1992, that was one of the more difficult things I’ve worked on.
I just had to replace the new thinner cable/ housing on a customers Patron, due being totally shredded to pieces when he made an attempt at mounting the seat post... A regular sized cable/ housing did fit just fine!
For the average person what is it actually adding?
Its pretty clear more rearward travel makes a bike descend better (once again, within reason). Everyone is going to mid to high pivot idler DH bikes now on the World Cup it seems. The problem is that without an idler you get more chain pull too. Too much chain pull and it drags on your suspension, making it less sensitive. I believe, however, this threshold is much higher than most believe. A good example was the last-gen Scott Gambler- a legendary bike. Everyone who rode it loved it. The main pivot on that sucker was so freaking high even without an idler pulley to manage the chain pull. Specialized seems to agree with this, as their Enduro and Demo have extremely forward placed main pivots, which gives you the same effect (its more complicated than just that, obviously). Neko Mulally also agrees with this, although he "cheats" with an O-Chain.
If we sacrifice and get more chain growth to get a more rearward axle path, and that trade off is worth it, what else do we get? More antisquat. Now your suspension is firmer under power too. Win win, in my book.
Also happy to argue coil shocks sometime. Is there already a forum thread for discussing coils on shortish travel trail bikes?
1. A project manager who came up with dumb idea, is obsessively proud of dumb idea, and refuses to hear any input as to why dumb idea is dumb
2. A group of engineers crying at night because #1 made them implement dumb idea despite numerous objections and explanations as to why it is dumb idea.
This will look good on my resume. Send it!
I’ve also worked with some who came up with dumb ideas that they wouldn’t let go of despite pleading from engineers.
I’m not saying all PMs are like this, but it does happen
3. Engineers who have zero practical knowledge. I have met plenty of those.
4. Sales teams who insists that some dumb thing is needed for some reason.
And to those who complain about TwinLoc: Go and try it, it really works a treat.
Home mechanics beware.
One of the worst customer service on the market especially if you deal with them directly. Prices are high but service is below average. They take ages to answer and make fun of themselves ! They claim that some of their suspension bolts need to be replaced every 12 to 18 months.
When confronted with a Bosch diagnostic and its odometer saying that the bike barely rode during pandemic they still said no. Arguing that some bolts wear out just like that. What a joke and a bunch of tools they are. Needless to say that my customer was not moved by their answer. Poor lad will never buy another 10k bike from them. All they had to do was to ship a 9€ bolts at their expense …
Oh and what about their crash replacement policy ? Did you know what 'Crash Replacement' means for Scott on parts and accessories ? It means GFY after the warranty is over ! Broke your carbon rim on your 4 years old Scott Spark ? Then you do not qualify for a crash replacement.
I snapped my Ransom frame in half in a crash (not the bikes fault, any frame would have smashed IMO) so it would be nice if there was some other option than the $5500 ($4600 real world price) frameset with a fork I don't need and doesn't even have Grip2.
I looked on their website for anything related to crash replacement but didn't see it, post a link if you got it.
I feel like people get off on telling people how good at breaking bike parts they are. Not trying to disagree about people's opinions, it just has been my experience that people seem to generally get along with deore build bikes. I started breaking/bending less bike parts the better I got at riding (talking DH) and I was riding faster, so I guess what I'm saying is maybe most broken parts are operator error.
Sidenote, brakes on low end builds are always going to be the weakpoint.
I run GX, XT and X01. XT brakes RSC levers on my sram brakes. That stuff lasts forever and doesn’t cost much more.
Scott,
WHY?
F*CK
NO
Seriously though... we have access to so, so many great bikes and as someone who likes to maintain my own ride while also liking to keep things simple... these bikes have become just an interesting oddity, and nothing I'd ever even consider owning.
"Impossible." Figuratively speaking. On none of the frames I have ever owned has it required me to 1) pull a door to gain access and 2) flip the bike upside down to have clear line of sight to the clickers. Furthermore, the rebound adjustment will become impossible to reach with most other shocks that have the rebound on the opposite end of the shock. That begs the question: was that shock selected to achieve the design goal, or is it a compromise.
Any interupted seat tube is a limiter on how long of a dropper is compatible. It's actually not debatable.
Assistant to mechanic "quick job for you mate" (because we are all mates down here)
Mechanic walks out for extended mental health break!
On a side note, why doesn’t every single bike have a internal
Gearbox? Much less even talking about it?? These bikes in cahoots with the derailleur companies?
204mm insertion on a medium is crazy short and will not accommodate any size dropper fully slammed
surely they'll ride better than the previous edition genius/ransom, those were rubbish
I prefer the amount of drop this gives me. The max insertion on the genius seems really limiting
P.S. my new bike doesn't have a remote and i really miss it, especially when you forget to turn climb off before dropping into the descent, which is all the bloody time!
It will stop the oil dripping onto the ground at least.
Scott is claiming 2300 g for the full carbon Genius frame size unknown.
That is actually a little heavier than the claimed weight of a 2019-2022 Ransom full carbon frame (although the only time I saw real world weight in a German bike magazine it was 2440g (large) not the mfg claimed 2230g).
Of course that's not really very relevant when the only way you can get that frame is to buy an $12k bike.
Geez, seriously, how do you jump from $7500 to $12000 ? A bit more carbon and AXS costs as much as a whole 'nother bike ?
It’s kind of happy mind numbing.
You guys and gals get me.
Thank THOR that I don’t work on whole bikes anymore, cuz where I live, lots of Scott bikes seem to be rolling around.
Maybe this new ish nude will be good for the suspension service industry?
But I keep thinking as I’m reading and watching the Santa Cruz ads and the ride wrap ads with Santa Cruz bikes in them pop up at the sidebar……
This bike makes me want a Santa Cruz more.
So that’s something….. I guess?
So hear me out:
The top level Scott Genius comes with wireless SRAM AXS. Cable routing is only for the brakes and remote. You can opt to remove the remote completely. When it comes to the brakes most of the time you’re going to be bleeding the brakes and not replacing the hose itself,
The top level Scott has the all in one handlebar/stem. The rest of the line comes with a seperate bar and stem. Unless, you can afford a $9k - $12k bike this really doesn’t effect you whatsoever.
If you CAN afford any bike at this price I’m ALMOST certain you can afford to replace the integrated handlebar/stem if you so choose.
As for the internal shock, They did make it accessable. The dials are all on the bottom of the shock, The sag meter is on the outside so you can see. Removing the shock is just as easy.
I’m pretty sure Scott would not be making their Genius line the same as the Scott Spark if it didn’t sell well. Clearly it has and there’s a market for an MTB bike like this.
Hate it if you will, but it’s just another option for everyone to consider. No one is forcing you to own this bike. More options the better for the consumer.
Scott: "I have an idea"
"IT's nOt A TrAn-Si-SHuN!!"
Unpopular opinion: I get that not everyone might want internally routed cables through the headset, but honestly, ignoring what a bike offers as a package based off one disliked feature is like avoiding a restaurant because they serve Pepsi instead of Coke.. No wait, that's justifiable.. The point being, there's arguably a lot of good features on the menu here despite one or two things that don't resonate with everyone.
The ramp controls in the Scott Nude shocks are one of the most criminally underrated features in mtb tech today - I wish all shocks had the same on-the-fly ramp up adjustment, it works exactly like adding a removing a token with the flip of a switch. It makes so much sense, but it seems most people are blinded by the answer to the criticism the last Genius got about clustery cable routing.
Back to the regularly schedule bashing...
Kidding! My advice, don't buy it. Don't let it ruin your afternoon though.
Should have been cheaper than ever to produce, but it’s more expensive than ever in the end !
Enjoy being ruled by trump.
our biggest brand here in town is scott and they are definitly not known for their strength - Theres always One or more in the shop awaiting replacement. Most sold are the spark as many now buy other brands if they want a big hitting bike... me being one of the 100 that used to ride scott bikes here.... Everybody in the club used to ride scott, 99% of them have changed after issues.
You can test a Frame or car for protection etc as much as you like in a lab under "controlled inviroments" but real world results are always far different.
Car ratings are terrible
Insert: sarcastic Robert Downey Jr. Accent.