Scott’s Genius LT, released in 2010, helped redefine the all-mountain category, closing the gap between big, heavy freeride trail bashers and hill-climbing mile-munchers. We felt the alloy version was a little heavy but the slick carbon fibre flagship really impressed our testers.
Well, the Genius LT is back for 2012 and it's one of just two bikes on the market (the other being the Trek Slash) to sport RockShox's new Reverb Stealth dropper seatpost. With this design there's no trailing hose or cable that requires creative use of zip-ties; instead, the hydraulic line exits the bottom of the post inside the frame and pops out in front of the bottom bracket, from where it's routed up the down tube to the handlebar remote.
The handlebar is a busy area, because as well as the seatpost line, gear cables and brakes hoses, there's also a cable for Scott's Twin Loc lever. One click switches the proprietary Equalizer3 rear shock, developed with DT Swiss, from its full 185mm travel setting to a 110mm traction mode. A second click locks out both the shock and the Fox 36 TALAS FIT fork up front. Now that’s impressive.
The spec of the top-end LT 10 is completed with a SRAM X0 groupset, Avid 9RS brakes and DT Swiss AM 10 wheels. Clearly this level of performance doesn’t come cheap – RRP is £5,699. Look out for a review in What Mountain Bike magazine in the new year.
The Coastal Crew ride the Scott Genius LT:
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