Scott Launches New Enduro Bike
The Ransom is resurrected for the rising discipline
The Ransom is resurrected for the rising discipline
At Eurobike this past July, there was a closed room at the back of Scott’s large booth that I wasn’t supposed to go into. It was for sale reps, not media. But I’m a trustworthy guy. Also, my contact at Scott Canada vouched for me. We went through the door. Inside, I saw the new Scott Ransom.
When Scott re-launched its 150-mm-travel Genius in late spring 2018, the company stressed it wasn’t turning the familiar model into an enduro bike even though it lacked a machine for those riders pedalling up climbs and having their descents timed. Also, it dropped the Genius LT, a 170-mm-travel version of the trail/ all-mountain bike. At the end of August, more than a year after the Genius revamp, Scott announced, officially, its new 170-mm enduro/all-mountain rig with a name not seen in the company’s lineup for a few years.
Scott says i ts top-end Ransom, the 900/700 Tuned ($11,000), has the strongest carbon-fibre frame it has ever produced. Designers ensured the Ransom has maximum rigidity from the head tube along the down tube through the bottom bracket and the chainstays to the rear axle. The main pivot at the bottom bracket is quite beefy: 63.1 mm wide. In comparison, the Genius is 54.6 mm at that spot. Since the Ransom will only be spec’d with 1-by groupsets, any space that might have been needed for a front derailleur was used to eke out more width and stiffness in the bottom bracket. The Ransom 910 ($8,000) has an alloy swing arm, while the 920/720 ($5,600) and 930 ($4,400) have full aluminum frames. Following the cues of the 2017 Scott Spark and recent Genius, the Ransom gets a trunnion-mount shock. The component, with its wide mount at the bottom, positions most of its mass close to the bottom bracket. This shock, the Fox Nude TR Evol, has a Ramp Adjust lever. You can use it to choose your preferred type of compression. If you’re riding a trail with a lot of small bumps or moving through a technical section, you might prefer compression that is linear, requiring the same amount of effort to compress the shock throughout the stroke. If you are facing bigger hits, you might want a more progressive compression, one that requires more effort to compress the shock near the end of its stroke, which can keep you from bottoming out. The compression adjustment pairs with the suspension’s Descend mode. If you are familiar with Scott technology, you’ll recognize this mode as part of the Twinloc suspension system. Descend mode allows you to use all the bike’s travel and benefit from i ts slack head-tube angle. Hit a switch and you get Traction Control mode with less sag and a firmer suspension. Also in this mode, you get a steeper seat-tube angle, a change in geometry that will help with the climbs. The third setting is full lockout. This edition of Twinloc has an improved lever throw so i t’s easier than before to click into Lockout mode. Traction Control and Lockout modes aren’t the only features on the Ransom for helping you to get uphill. Scott wanted to ensure the bike climbed well, so it worked to keep weight off of the top tube and seatstays. The company says the frame, shock and hardware weigh in at 2,650 g. As with the Genius, the Ransom won’t hold you to one wheel size. A flip chip in the linkage allows you to set up the bike for 27.5" or 29" wheels. With the smaller wheel size, you can run tires as wide as 2.8". The 29" hoops can take 2.6"-wide treads. Finally, the Ransom features the Hixon i C integrated bar and stem by Scott housebrand Syncros. This system first appeared in 2017 with a 760-mm-wide bar and 50-mm virtual stem length. Now the Hixon also comes in a 800-mm width. There’s also a 40-mm virtual stem length available. The bar’s rise is 20 mm for a slightly higher position. After two and a half months, it’s nice to be able to write about the Ransom. The bike will be out from behind closed doors and in front of Canadians in September.