BEN’S SCOTT GENIUS ST 900 TUNED
£10,999 • 29in • scott-sports.com MONTH 6: Ben looks back on his first six months on the Genius, taking stock of the outstanding performance and price tag
Countless hours on the trails make this the ultimate test of performance as well as reliability
After six months and several hundred miles on the Genius ST 900 Tuned, I thought it would be good to step back and reflect on my experience so far with the most expensive bike we’ve ever had on the mbr longtermer fleet.
With the proprietary Fox Float-x Nude shock completely hidden inside the sleek carbon frame, it makes for an incredibly clean-looking bike. It also makes for lots of slightly confused questions from other riders - no, it’s NOT an e-bike. Thankfully all the adjustments for the shock are easily reached through the removable cover at the base of the down tube. Also, I found it very easy to get a good baseline set-up as the clever sag dial located on the main pivot negates the issue of not being able to see the shock itself.
The suspension delivers its 150mm travel in a lovely progressive style with no discernable bottom-out, even though that sag/travel dial regularly shows that I’ve used 100% travel. And as I mentioned last month, the light action of the Tracloc remote means that I regularly flick the bike into Ramp Control or Climb mode, even though it climbs superbly with the suspension fully open. Tired legs need all the help they can get, right?
Being the top-spec model, it comes fitted with a one-piece Syncros Hixon bar/stem, which despite initial concerns about not being able to change the sweep of the bar, I’ve had no issues with it at all – maybe I’m just lucky, but the profile feels spoton to me. One thing I did have issues with were the slender and hard Syncros grips, which I’ve since swapped for some more forgiving Burgtec Bartender Pros.
The bike also features a neat removable QR lever in the rear axle that has a 6mm Allen key, T25 and
T30 Torx keys integrated – great (if a little short) for removing the wheels. Frustratingly, as I regularly remove the front wheel to squeeze the bike into my car, the tool no longer sits as securely in the axle, rattling around when riding rougher tracks – so it now sits in my riding pack instead.
Rounding out the package, the Syncros carbon wheels are super-light and direct, but manage not to feel too harsh, and now that I have more suitable EXO+ casing tyres fitted, instead of the weightsaving EXO casing tyres that came stock, I feel more comfortable and confident when charging hard into rock gardens.
As you’d expect on a £11k analogue bike, the rest of the spec is suitably high-end. The XTR brakes feel great and are really powerful, the SRAM X01 AXS mech and GX AXS shifter have been faultless, apart from that one time when I let the battery run flat and got stuck in one gear. The Syncros dropper has a nice light action and the Syncros Tofino saddle is thankfully more comfortable than its minimalist look suggests.
So it’s been a great six months on the Genius. It’s light and super agile, fast rolling, the suspension feels great and it has good sizing and geometry too. In fact the only stumbling block, and it’s a big one, is that rather absurd price. That said, if the sky's the limit on your budget, then the Genius ST 900 Tuned is one heck of a ride.