Scott Lumen eRIDE 910 review

Scott’s Lumen eRIDE 910 is its ‘mid-level assist’ trail-friendly lightweight eMTB, dishing out 130mm of suspension travel front and rear via an internal shock. It rolls on 29in wheels.

Scott claims the bike is designed to excel on both the climbs and descents. It says it's aimed at trail and XC riders hoping to keep up with Nino Schurter, the Scott-sponsored 10-times cross-country world champion.

Jokes aside, Scott says it should open up more trails for more riders, and help those who want to travel further or faster.

Powered by TQ’s HPR50 electric bike motor, it dishes out a punchy 50Nm torque, 300W peak power, and is powered by a 360Wh integrated battery.

The Lumen eRIDE 910 put a smile on my face on more than one occasion. Its ability to provide a fun and engaging climbing experience was rewarding, especially on technical and demanding trail-centre climbs that can often be a chore.

Its secret weapon is the suspension performance from its 130mm of rear travel. That, combined with responsive handling and a calm trail demeanour due to its low-slung additional weight, make the Lumen tons of fun to ride.

However, for those looking to get the most of its rear travel, a few spec changes may be needed. Still, for riders prioritising covering ground as quickly as possible, it's on point.

Scott Lumen eRIDE 910 frame, suspension and motor

There’s no shortage of tech and features with the Lumen eRIDE frame. It’s constructed from Scott’s HMX carbon fibre, which offers lower weights for the same strength as Scott’s HMF (High Modulus Fibre) and is reserved for its top-end bikes.

Scott has taken plenty of inspiration from its Spark trail bike, and carried over the integrated shock.

Scott says this enabled it to build a lightweight yet stiff frame, where lateral frame and linkage movements that reduce shock performance during compression are minimised.

This design is intended to improve suspension sensitivity and feel. It also keeps the shock sealed from the elements for minimal maintenance and delivers a sleek look.

To help boost this stiffness, the Lumen eRIDE gets large seat tube pivot bearings. The shock is accessed through a removable hatch under the down tube that gives access to the shock's adjustments. There’s also a marker on the frame to help you set sag.

The suspension design is single-pivot, with a linkage-driven shock that uses a flex stay to help reduce the weight of the frame. It delivers 130mm of rear-wheel travel.

The internal shock is not a standard item either, but a Fox Nude 5T EVOL Scott custom shock, that works in collaboration with Scott’s TwinLoc system to change the bike's geometry and suspension dynamics on the fly.

Scott’s TwinLoc offers three settings: Descend, Traction and Lockout. When TwinLoc is in Descend mode, the shock's two positive air chambers are open, making for effectively one large chamber. This is designed to deliver the bike's full travel and is optimised for descending performance.

When Traction mode is engaged, this closes off one air chamber with an accompanying increase in compression damping, resulting in a more progressive air-spring curve and firmer support.

This changes the bike's geometry because it doesn’t sit as deeply into its sag, raising the bottom bracket and offering a more forward position for improved climbing and power delivery.

Lockout mode is for smooth tarmac and does what it says. It still has a blow-off point though, so if you forget to unlock the bike when you hit the first rough section, you shouldn’t damage the suspension.

Scott is big on integration and the Lumen eRIDE 910 uses Syncros’ internal headset cable routing and head angle adjustment.

As for the frame standards, it uses a Boost 12x148mm rear-hub size. There’s space for two water bottles inside the front triangle.

Motor

The Lumen eRIDE 910 gets its boost from the TQ HPR50 motor, currently one of the smallest, lightest and quietest ebike motors available.

It delivers 50Nm of torque and has a maximum power output of 300W, with a 55mm chainline.

To power this potent but subtle motor, the Lumen eRIDE 910 has an integrated 360Wh battery stashed in the down tube.

While this isn’t removable for charging or changing batteries, the frame can fit a 160Wh range extender, taking the bike's maximum battery capacity to 520Wh.

Because there are two bottle cages inside the Lumen eRIDE’s front triangle, riders don’t have to forgo a water bottle to fit the range extender.

Scott Lumen eRIDE 910 geometry

The Lumen eRIDE 910’s geometry will suit its target audience, especially with its head tube adjustability that gives the bike extra versatility. There are four frame sizes available, from small to extra-large. I tested the size medium with the stock headset cups.

This features a modest 446mm reach and trail-oriented 65.5-degree head tube angle. For this frame size, there’s a 77-degree effective seat tube angle that gives the Lumen eRIDE a comfortable 589mm effective top tube with its moderately aggressive 615mm stack height.

However, a neat feature for riders who want to tailor the bike's front-end geometry, the Lumen eRIDE comes with angle-adjust headset cups. These slacken or steepen the 65.5-degree head tube angle by 0.6 degrees.

Chainstay lengths are a generous 450mm across the size range, and the bottom bracket has been slung low at 338mm.

Scott Lumen eRIDE 910 specifications

Scott has made practical spec choices for the Lumen eRIDE 910 that aren’t necessarily the most exciting, in order to help keep the price in check.

The bike gets a 130mm-travel Fox 34 Rhythm fork and Scott’s custom Fox Nude 5T EVOL shock. Shimano supplies the Deore drivetrain, which gets an XT derailleur upgrade.

The Deore M6120 four-pot brakes have trail-biased 180mm rotors.

The bike rolls on Syncros rims laced to Formula hubs, which are shrouded in Schwalbe’s Wicked Will tyres with an Addix Speedgrip rear tyre and Addix Speed Soft front, both with SuperRace casings.

The rest of the bike is built from Syncros components, including its Fraser 2.0 DC handlebar, Syncros DC 2.0 stem, Duncan Dropper 2.0 and Tofino 1.5 saddle.

This build weighs in at a respectable 18.15kg in a size medium, without pedals.

Scott Lumen eRIDE 910 ride impressions

I tested the bike around some of South Wales' best riding spots – Cwmcarn, Risca and BikePark Wales, along with trips to the Forest of Dean in the south west of England.

This gave me a wide scope of trails on which to push the Scott’s capabilities. These ranged from smooth flow trails to steep off-piste descents, and long trail-centre loops to tricky tech climbs and bike-park gnar.

Trail conditions were mostly dry, with some greasy days out thrown in for good measure.

Setup

Setting up the Lumen eRIDE 910 took a little fiddling to get the cockpit controls in the right place.

It ended up with me pulling the TQ drive unit's mode selector wire out of the frame to try to fit the unit between the Shimano brake lever’s dual-handlebar contact points. This would enable me to get the brake lever as close to the grip as I wanted.

However, it wasn’t possible. Unfortunately, putting it back on the frame was too tricky, so take care when adjusting your contact points and remotes.

Otherwise, getting the bike rolling was simple enough. For my 75kg riding weight, I set the fork to 85psi, opened the low-speed compression damping fully and preferred the rebound speed at nine clicks closed out of 22.

For the shock, I inflated it to 193psi to get the recommended 25 per cent sag. Rebound was set to five clicks of 14 from closed.

Scott Lumen eRIDE 910 climbing performance

The Lumen's TQ motor packs a punch for its size and has plenty of power to help you up the climbs. I found the lowest-power mode, ECO, great for cruising along smooth fire roads and gentle gradients. If you’re not in a rush, it's a useful helping hand.

The MID power setting was ideal for trail-centre climbs and anything demanding more effort. It was the setting I spent most of my time in and it turned uphill slogs into fun and rewarding flow trails.

You still have to work, but the TQ HPR50 gives you a decent shunt. It’s as if you’ve got an extra pair of legs or two. I still got out of breath when charging, but the speed at which I could dash up trails was a worthwhile reward.

The HIGH power mode is only really needed when the trail points skywards and you need that extra surge to get you up something steep and technical.

While this little but powerful motor won’t match a full-powered electric mountain bike, it made climbing fun and enabled me to hunt out more direct and technical lines up climbs.

Scott has got the Lumen’s climbing geometry well sorted; the seated position sat me over the bottom bracket, enabling a strong pedal stroke.

The balance of its stack height and effective seat tube didn’t make me feel too aggressively pulled over the front, or as though I’d slip off the rear of the bike on steep pitches. This made it ideal for all-round trail riding.

Idle hands

For climbing, I spent most of my time in the TwinLoc’s Traction setting. This delivered ample comfort and grip up most climbs, with the bike wallowing into its travel.

It’s fair to say the Scott Lumen eRIDE 910 is a fairly balanced pedaller, and doesn’t become bogged down into its travel even when in Descent mode. It stays perched in its travel and offers a stable platform.

However, I found my left thumb was busy activating the dropper post, TwinLoc lever and motor mode selector on undulating trails. Finding each of these buttons while riding over technical terrain takes a little figuring out.

Changing gears under power, Shimano’s modestly priced drivetrain worked well. Still, it would be better to see Scott spec an XT shifter and downgrade the XT derailleur to make the shifting feel higher-quality.

Scott Lumen eRIDE 910 range

While many factors affect an ebike's range, I found the TQ HPR50 motor to be fairly frugal with its power consumption.

While most of my test rides didn’t drain the battery, I could get through trail rides of around 30km, and 1,000m climbing, mostly using the middle setting. This left around 15 per cent battery available at the end.

Scott Lumen eRIDE 910 descending performance

Descending on the Lumen is great on the right trails, but it's not too hard to find its limits when things get rowdier, due to its tyres, stock head tube angle and fork travel.

While there’s plenty of fun to be had riding the Scott, I would definitely recommend setting the bike up in its slackest headset cup setting, because the stock 65.5-degree head tube angle is too steep for maximising confidence on the descents.

Hidden performance

Still, the Lumen's 130mm of rear-wheel travel is impressively capable and a highlight of the bike. There’s good suppleness at the start of the stroke that hunts out grip on coarse and stoney surfaces. This makes it feel controlled and capable on traditional trail-centre trails.

The suspension's mid-stroke delivers worthwhile support to help maintain momentum when pumping and trying to carry speed, but it will still soak up bigger-sized bumps and trail features without transferring jarring feedback through the frame.

Deeper in the travel, there’s a smooth build-up of support and the rear suspension feels more capable than its 130mm of travel suggests. I didn’t notice any harsh bottom-outs when getting riskier on the Lumen.

Playfully stable

The Lumen carries its speed well down undulating trails, where drops, rocks and kinks in the trail are handled sure-footedly.

The additional weight of the battery and motor add to the feeling of stability without turning the bike’s riding character into a clumsy heavyweight.

Its handling offers a fun ride and composed feel, and I never noticed its extra weight being a hindrance through the corners.

On mellower trails, there’s an eagerness to the Scott’s corner initiation. Thanks to its low bottom bracket, it can dive in and out of turns without needing to apply tons of body language. It’s more agile than you might expect.

The only time it felt like a chore to ride was when I was above the motor's speed limit on flatter terrain and needed to pedal hard to maintain speed.

Here, I could still tell I was on an ebike and needed to overcome more weight resistance than a typical enduro bike for example.

Untapped potential

The Wicked Will tyres are great over moderate terrain, but struggle on steeper, loser or muddier trails due to their smaller tread depth, less damped casing and firmer compound compared to more aggressive mountain bike tyres.

The Lumen’s capabilities outperform the tyres, and some burlier rubber would deliver a new level of fun. However, that would sacrifice some rolling speed and battery capacity.

You’ll need to set your priorities here, but it's great to know you could fine-tune the Lumen to be a rowdy trail rocket with a few tweaks, or continue on its speedy path as is.

As a fast trail bike, Scott has nailed it with the Lumen, but the frame's impressive suspension and capable handling encouraged me to push the bike beyond what its parts can comfortably handle.

Scott Lumen eRIDE 910 bottom line

The Scott Lumen eRIDE 910 has plenty going for it. The frame and motor deliver a fun and capable ride on most trails and have the capacity to handle some aggro trail riding.

The spec choice is where Scott has pulled in the reins. It’s suited to those looking to maximise trail speed without getting too adventurous.

If that’s you, and you’re after some additional uphill assistance without sacrificing a realistic trail-bike ride feel on the way back down, the Lumen eRIDE 910 will be a worthy companion.