The Suspension
The suspension runs on the familiar (to Scott) “Twinloc” platform. This patented system changes both the front and rear suspension simultaneously, and gives the rider three different and distinct modes of suspension to choose from: full open, traction (middle), and locked out. The system is designed to do more than just “firm up” the suspension in the middle setting- it works in conjunction with the custom SCOTT-FOX NUDE Evol shock on the rear, adjusting both the damping and the spring curve. This creates a firmer-feeling bike that has less dynamic travel, keeping the rider higher in the suspension with a steeper seat angle, useful for climbing.

As far as kinematics go, the suspension curve on the rear end is designed to be sensitive in the beginning of the travel and then more supportive in the middle of the stroke. The end of the stroke ramps up some to manage larger impacts. Scott uses the same trunnion mount style shock that is seen on the Spark. According to Scott’s engineers, this allowed them to make a stiffer area in the already stout bottom bracket region to handle the forces of the shock and pedaling loads.

Geometry
With the makeover of the bike, geometries were also altered. Designed around a 150mm travel fork, the head angle is a slacker 65.6 degrees and the seat angle is steeper at 75.3 degrees. Chainstays are shortened 9mm to 436mm and the reach is 445mm. The BB sits at 346mm in the low (29”) flip chip setting and 340mm in the high. These changes were made to help balance the climbing with the descending, according to Scott’s engineers. Downtube protectors and chain guides come as standard equipment. Cable routing and integration options are present for both standard and di2 systems and a unique and a clean direct mount fender from Scott’s brand Syncros is also found on the new bike (the Fender works with Fox 34 and 36 boost forks only and available aftermarket).

Cockpit Updates
As far as components and even the whole bike goes, the real eye-catching piece would have to be the one-piece design Hixon iC (iC stands for integrated cockpit) bar/stem from Syncros. While the ones on our bikes were early production samples, they still looked great, felt good, and are certainly unique. The reach of the bar measures to the equivalent of a 50mm stem and bar set up (40mm and 60mm lengths are also available but not spec’d). According to Scott (Syncros), by eliminating the sharp corners that are present with a separate stem and handlebar, they were able to use less material and save weight while maintaining strength. The Hixon bar has a 6 degree upsweep, 9 degree backsweep, and 12mm of rise with a 760mm width. The full carbon one piece set up weighs 290g and features replaceable stem bolts and nuts—handy if you cross-thread or strip one out.

Initial Ride Impressions
Having ridden and liked the new Spark, I was excited to see how the new Genius performed. Scott recently invited us to the Aosta Valley region in Italy to see and ride the bike first hand over a few days alongside their design team and several of their athletes. The terrain in this region is nothing short of phenomenal offering huge mountains with world class descents that go on for what seemed to be hours. While we were fortunate enough to have the crew from Aosta Valley Freeride on hand to shuttle us up and down on some longer point to point rides, we also found substantial amounts of climbing interspersed in the high speed, dusty, and variable condition descents.I spent most of my time on the 29” wheeled Genius 900 Tuned, outfitted with a Fox 36 Float Factory Air, SRAM Guide RSC Brakes, and X01 Eagle. After dialing in my base settings and first pedaling the bike, the suspension felt very supportive and it climbed like much less of a 150mm trail bike and more like a shorter travel xc bike. I often found myself climbing long stretches with the suspension in the fully open mode. While the middle setting certainly proved to stiffen things up and offer even more support, I didn’t find it overly necessary, which is a good thing. I think that on longer climbs and on more variable uphill terrain it would be incredibly helpful but the suspension as it is does a fine job of managing pedaling forces.Descending the bike took a little bit of time and experimentation with air pressures in both the fork and shock to get dialed in. The bike initially felt a little harsh on the top in choppy terrain and didn’t want to sit down into the travel as much as I felt it should. After letting only 0.3bar out of the shock, and a little less on the fork, it was an entirely different machine. To say that it was a complete thrill to open up the bike and let it run downhill would almost be doing it a disservice. The trails were incredibly dry and loose with some steeper pitches, but the bike was predictable and went where I wanted it to go. It was stable at speed over loose rocks and chunder and responsive in turns and direction changes while maintaining traction during braking.

There were few shortcomings to be found with the bike. Although a wider bar would be nice in many situations, the 760mm bar worked well given that I was managing a shoulder injury while on this trip and many times prefer a less dramatic spread. I do think that a 780mm width would be nice to see offered in the future. The tyres that were on the bike, Maxxis’s Rekon 2.6 could certainly be beefier for the application we were using. A Minion or similar tyre in the front at least would give more confidence and compliment the capability and intended use of the bike. Outside of those two minor and easily changeable details, I had trouble picking much else out that I didn’t like about the bike in the few days I rode it.Riding a new bike in a new place is many times exciting and it takes a lot of thought to differentiate certain qualities and characteristics in the bike and in the experience had riding it…really, it’s hard to not have a grin on your face when you’re riding singletrack in the Alps. It was interesting to see and observe the reactions of some of the others in the group who were also on the new Genius for the first time. Olympic gold medalist and multiple time World Champ Nino Schurter along with Brendan Fairclough, Remy Absalon, and others were with us and their genuine excitement over the bike was impossible to not notice. Brendan was so impressed with the bike that he crammed one in the already overloaded shuttle van to the airport rather than wait for it to be shipped to him. These observations reinforce my idea that the team at Scott did a great job with this bike.Scott has made some big advances with the remake of the Genius. It’s an all-around solid bike that was a pleasure to ride. I was happily impressed with the capabilities and updates to the Genius in the short amount of time that I had on it in Italy and I’m looking forward to getting out on one in some different terrain to see how it performs elsewhere. I’m sure I won’t be disappointed.

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