Scott Genius 720

For several years Scott’s Genius all-mountain bike has cut one of the most distinctive silhouettes on the MTB scene; its dramatically sloped seat tube and rear-mounted pull shock could not be mistaken for anything else. For 2013 the Genius hasn’t just had a facelift; it’s undergone major reconstructive surgery as if it was entering some witness protection program, and is now all but unrecognisable when compared to its former self.

The front triangle is completely reworked and is a much more ‘traditional’ looking unit, and the pull shock has been replaced by a more regular looking DT Swiss Nude2 shock mounted under the top tube, much like the 2012 Scott Spark. Likely the biggest talking point, however, is that Scott have dropped the 26-inch wheel altogether. Instead the Genius is offered in the two other wheel sizes; there’s a 29-inch wheeled Genius with 130mm travel, and a 150mm travel version sporting the ‘new’ 650B wheel size (which we’ve been testing). It’s a very smart-looking bike in either format but the question remains; does this new Genius belong at the top of the class, or is it too clever for its own good?

Our Genius 720 will be the top model on the Aussie market; it uses an alloy rear end connected to a carbon fibre main frame and sells for $4,999. There will also be a $3,399 all-alloy version with a lower-end parts spec, as well as two Genius 29er models to choose from. Internationally the range is bigger with five 650B models and the same with 29-inch wheels.

In addition to the major updates mentioned above, there’s also been a raft of less obvious but still significant changes to the new Genius. The head angle has been slackened to either 68.2 or 67.7-degrees depending on which way you run the adjustable ‘flip chip’, there’s multi-standard thru-axle rear dropouts, and direct style post-mounts for the rear brake fitted to the solidly built chainstays.

Front suspension is handled by a Fox 34 TALAS fork, which is substantially stiffer than the 32-series fork on previous models—this is pretty much the perfect all-mountain fork and it performed flawlessly throughout our test. SLX brakes and XT running gear supplied by Shimano are all excellent, and the Shadow Plus rear derailleur certainly helps to eliminate chain slap. Somewhat surprisingly the XT cranks are a triple ring setup; we can’t help thinking that a double/bash-guard setup would be more in keeping with a 150mm all-mountain bike. It is nice, however, to see a long travel bike which still fits a water bottle cage inside the frame for times when you don’t want to carry a hydration pack. There’s plenty of room around the 2.35-inch Schwalbe rear tyre too, and the aluminium guard which protects the front triangle in case you drop a chain is a welcome addition.

In the interests of clean aesthetics there’s internal routing for all but the rear brake cable, and the ports are nice and big so it’s relatively easy to do a cable swap when required. That said, there are still enough cables at the front of the bike to tempt weary migratory birds into overnighting on your handlebar—add a dropper seatpost and there’ll be an even more of a bird’s nest. Given the $4,999 asking price it would have been nice if the 720 came with a dropper of some sort; they are such a handy addition that they should almost be considered as standard equipment on a bike in this category.

Our medium sized frame and shock weighed 2,750g and the complete bike came in at 13.8kg including pedals—perhaps a little heavier than we would have expected given Scott’s history of super-lightweight carbon fibre frames. It is, however, very stiff laterally both at the bottom bracket and the headtube. The pivot bearings are all seriously sized and have torque specs clearly etched into them; so no excuses for stuffing things up when performing maintenance.

The Genius 720 comes with a regular 135x5mm rear hub, however instead of using open dropouts, the skewer still threads into a ‘nut’ on the right hand side. In function it’s like a 5mm thru-axle, although getting the thinner axle to line up and engage the threads was a little harder than on most 12mm axles that we’ve used. It seems a shame that only the upper level Genius 710 and 700 come supplied with 142x12mm dropouts, and these models won’t be available in Australia to start with. It’s possible to retrofit a 12mm thru-axle to this bike but we can’t help feel that this omission on a $4,999 all-mountain bike seems a bit like penny pinching. Looks are a personal thing but we feel the new Genius is a far more attractive bike than the one it replaces, and feedback out on the trail seems to support our opinion.

When One Equals Three

What hasn’t changed is the patented Scott Twinloc suspension, which has always been at the heart of the Genius bikes. A flip of a bar-mounted remote alters rear travel as well as the front and rear damping balance. It changes the bike from a supple and stable 150mm downhiller to a 110mm efficient pedalling trail bike, to a locked out smooth-road climbing machine. The remote has two levers; one to make the suspension firmer by one level, and the other that releases back to the next-softest setting—the action is not unlike shifting gears. It sits high above the handlebar where it is exposed to damage in the event of an ‘acute gravity attack’; however given the way it works, we can’t see any other place Scott could have positioned it.

In practice, swapping modes makes the Genius feel like three completely different bikes, which has both advantages and disadvantages. It makes for a super efficient climber in lockout mode, with essentially no movement at all from the rear shock or fork no matter what you do at the cranks. It also provides an extremely supple bump-gobbling ride in downhill mode; it’ll handle anything that you could reasonably expect of a bike that can actually be pedalled to the top, and then some. It feels composed at speed, both on the ground and in the air, and it uses all its travel whilst still maintaining enough support to resist bottoming out harshly. At 440mm the chainstays are a little longer than some other all-mountain bikes, which aids stability in steep terrain and also helps climbing traction, however it does make the Genius marginally less playful; lofting the front wheel isn’t difficult, but nor is the bike constantly urging you to pop off every rock and lip you find.

Traction mode, which cuts rear travel back to 110mm as well as firming up the damping significantly, is pretty much slap bang in the middle of these other two. It works great for flowing trails whether climbing, traversing, or descending, and makes the Genius feel quite sprightly at the pedals whilst still absorbing the undulations and mid-sized hits of a typical well maintained trail. This setting provides plenty of support for climbing, even on quite steep ascents, and because the shock sits higher in its travel, the geometry is effectively steeper; you can save the lockout mode for bitumen or freshly graded gravel. If your usual ride involves slogging up a fire road before screaming down a chopped-out downhill run, or if you’ve got mostly sweet, groomed trails with a bit of the above thrown in, you’ll likely find the Genius perfectly suited to you.

Potential shortcomings become apparent when you ride trails that don’t fit neatly into one of the three aforementioned categories, especially with rough, root-choked climbs or eroded and rocky natural terrain. In these instances the traction mode feels somewhat harsh and overdamped (which can ironically lead to a loss of traction), however the fully open mode provides virtually no pedalling support and bobs like crazy when you stamp on the pedals. Unlike many other suspension designs that use more a pronounced level of chain-growth to limit unwanted suspension movement, the Genius relies almost entirely on its clever, variable rear shock which is only designed to control pedalling forces in the stiffer two modes.

The Genius simply has no answer for trails where you need both a degree of pedalling efficiency and supple, ground hugging traction. The ideal scenario would be a Nude2 shock that allowed you to vary just how supple or stiff the traction mode was, so that you could customise it to your own trails and riding style—that’d be truly brilliant but it doesn’t exist at this point.

It’s also worth bearing in mind that if your trails change in nature rapidly you’ll be working the Twinloc remote overtime in order to keep the bike in its optimal setting. Add in the operation of two shifters and perhaps a seatpost remote, and you’re almost certainly going to end up with thumbs like The Hitcher from The Mighty Boosh. On some of our all-natural local trails, with lots of short but rough climbs interspersed with numerous technical descents, these traits made the Genius good rather than great. It was much more at home on the purpose-built trails of Mt Stromlo in Canberra, and in fact on trails like this it was a whole lot of fun to ride. It seems apparent that this is the type of terrain Scott built the Genius for.

Genius Gets a ‘B’

There’s been quite a kerfuffle made about 650B (or 27.5-inch) wheels over the last six to 12 months, with proponents claiming they give all the benefits of both 26 and 29-inch wheels without any of the downsides.

The truth is that they ride very much like 26-inch wheels, which is not surprising given that their rim diameter is actually only 25mm larger. If you’re a fan of the manoeuvrability of smaller wheels you’re going to like them; they feel familiar enough that you won’t need to adjust your riding style in any way, and they also don’t have the wagon wheel appearance of a 29er.

The rollover advantage they provide versus 26-inch wheels is there but it’s quite subtle, so whilst they don’t have the inherent flex and directional momentum (read: slower handling) of a 29er, they don’t really have the terrain-softening advantages either. The rear axle of the Genius moves forward as the suspension compresses past the sag point, so despite the slightly bigger wheels it still has a bit of a tendency to hang up on square edges; it’s important to remember that when trying to analyse bump performance you need to consider the bike as a whole, not just look at wheel size in isolation. The flip side of this axle path is that there’s very little pedal feedback when powering through bumps—a trait that some riders are very sensitive to.

The rims on the Genius are only 19mm internally, so there’s quite a bit of tyre roll when cornering at speed. Given that many all-mountain rims are at least 21mm wide (and many are 23-25mm), the Syncros hoops are a bit under-gunned. Likewise, the freehub only engages every 20-degrees (18-points), which feels sluggish when ratcheting the pedals or trying to throw down a few quick cranks between corners; these days we’d consider a 24-point engagement to be the minimum acceptable for anything other than a cross-country marathon bike. With a wider set of rims and a faster engaging hub we think the Genius 720 would certainly step-up a notch or two in all around performance.

Complex or Clever?

There’s no doubt in our minds that the Scott Genius 720 is a very capable bike. It’s improvement on the older model in every respect; it’s better looking, more refined, easier to setup and service, and the 650B wheel size adds a degree of rollover performance without any noticeable drawback. Sure, the wheels are not as good as they could be, and it really needs a dropper seatpost in order to bring out its full potential, but these things can be remedied aftermarket.

Whether the Genius warrants a place in your shed really comes down to how and where you ride more than anything else. If you want to just get on your bike and hammer without having to think about switching suspension modes as the trail changes, or if your trails change so frequently that to do so would give you a case of RSI, then perhaps Scott have outsmarted themselves. If, on the other hand, you like the idea of having three different bikes all rolled into one and all optimised for different trails, then it’s definitely an intelligent choice.

Thumbs Up

Sure-footed descending ability

All-out rigid for smooth climbs

Solid and stiff frame/fork combo

Thumbs Down

Pedals inefficiently in full-travel mode

Mixed terrain demands lots of lever pushing

A dropper post and 12mm axle would have been nice

Specifications

Frame: HMF Carbon with alloy swing-arm

Shock: DT Swiss Nude2 150mm travel

Fork: Fox 34 TALAS 120/150mm travel

Headset: Ritchey Comp 1 1/8 - 1 1/2

Handlebars: Syncros FL 1.5 Alloy riser 700mm

Stem: Syncros TR 1.5, 70mm

Shifters: Shimano SLX

Front Derailleur: Shimano SLX

Rear Derailleur: Shimano XT Shadow Plus

Cassette: Shimano XT 11/36 10-speed

Chain: Shimano HG74

Cranks: Shimano XT 24/32/42

Bottom Bracket: Shimano BB71 Press-fit

Pedals: Shimano M520

Brakes: Shimano SLX

Rims: Syncros/DT TR 2.5

Spokes: DT Swiss Supercomp

Hubs: Syncros TR 2.5

Tyres: Schwalbe Nobby Nic Snake-Skin 2.35

Saddle: Syncros TR2.0

Seatpost: Syncros FL1.5

Weight: 13.8kg including pedals (Medium frame 2,750g)

Available Sizes: S, M (tested), L and XL

Price: $4,999

Distributor: Sheppard Cycles 1800 883 305 / www.scott-sports.com