Scott Addict 30 review

The Scott Addict is the Swiss brand’s endurance road bike platform, sitting alongside its near-namesake in the range (the Addict RC, a lightweight race bike) and the Foil RC (its recently updated aero racer).

It completes the triumvirate of carbon-framed road bikes, and recent history shows Scott has earned a reputation for impressive performance bikes – first with the Bike of the Year shortlisted Addict RC 10, and then with the highly regarded Foil RC.

The Addict is more than up to the standards set by its racier brethren, itself carrying a racer’s edge while incorporating well-considered geometry, a high-quality build and smart finishing kit that softens the edges without compromising speed.

It could prove to be all the road bike you ever need.

Scott Addict 30 specifications

The Scott Addict 30 features a full-carbon frameset, constructed using Scott’s HMF carbon layup.

Putting that into perspective, HMF carbon lives beneath HMX and HMX-SL in Scott’s range, and is essentially its entry-level carbon material before you hit the alloy Speedster.

But to call it only an entry-level layup would be to do HMF carbon a disservice. Only recently, at the Scott Foil RC launch, Scott’s engineers explained to me that the carbon tiers are not just designed to help bikes hit certain price points. They're conceived in such a way as to offer the ride characteristics a model’s average rider is likely to appreciate.

In summary, HMF carbon is cheaper to manufacture, but Scott says it designs it carefully to be more compliant than the HMX and HMX-SL layups found on the Addict RC and Foil RC, while delivering a blend of stiffness and low weight.

For example, it can be found in the premium (and far more expensive) Addict Gravel 10 bike, principally for its slightly more compliant and sturdy nature.

Claims aside, the Addict frame comes with the usual mod cons you’d hope for in a bang up-to-date platform.

There’s clear aero profiling to the tubing, not unlike the Addict RC frameset. Plus, like the Foil RC, the fork crown is notably tall, which in the Foil’s case was said to improve airflow when wider tyres are fitted.

The fork is made of the same HMF carbon, with a bowed design that starts narrowly at the shoulders and broadens out around the wheel towards the thru-axle dropout. It features a tapered carbon steerer – 1-1/4in at the top and 1-1/2in at the bottom.

The down tube is markedly broad, with flattened rear sides. It flares significantly towards the BB86 press-fit bottom bracket, and (visually, at least) gives the Addict a muscular quality for improved pedalling rigidity and power transfer.

The rear triangle sees dropped seatstays – a common inclusion for both aero and comfort benefit.

Tyre clearance is visibly high, with spare capacity either side of the fitted 32mm-wide rubber. Scott says the Addict is good for 35mm clearance, which should be more than enough for any road-going adventures and, potentially, some light gravel riding.

The frameset benefits from full internal cable and brake hose routing, with cables entering a port in the underside of the Syncros stem before routing down the front of the head tube.

You also get mounts for a Syncros mudguard/fender kit.

Overall, the Addict 30 weighs in at 8.32kg, without pedals, which isn’t too shabby in a 56cm size, and with its build in mind.

Scott Addict 30 geometry

The Addict 30 plays to its endurance tag pretty solidly, although it has some refreshingly aggressive nods without straying into race bike territory.

Notably, the reach is a comparatively long 394.3mm, made possible in part, I suspect, by the long 1,015.4mm wheelbase.

This kind of reach is more typical of road racing bikes such as the Giant TCR (393mm reach) and the Trek Émonda SL (391mm reach), but extra stack (as we’ll come onto shortly) does help to relax the riding position somewhat.

On the one hand, you have a reach that enables you to stretch out a little more (especially if you like to inhabit the handlebar drops) in a way that makes you feel part of the bike, rather than simply perched on top of it.

On the other, the long wheelbase gives the impression that the Addict has ‘long legs’, feeling particularly stable over longer distances and poor surfaces.

The tall 593.3mm stack (the Addict features a 165mm-long head tube), in tandem with a squat 103mm stem, ensures the bars aren’t too far away or too low, but the 73-degree head tube angle is certainly race-bike steep.

The long wheelbase also enables the use of 420mm chainstays, which together should mean the Addict has good manners imbued within it.

Shorter chainstays often result in whip-like action when riding out of the saddle aggressively; lengthening them tends to calm the experience down, and that’s the case here.

Scott Addict 30 performance

On paper, I had expected the Scott Addict 30 to feel as large as the long wheelbase might indicate. But it doesn’t.

Instead, the sheer stiffness of the frameset dominates, providing a taught, sharp and – importantly – agile experience.

Yes, compared to a Foil RC or an Addict RC, you're slightly further away from the action thanks to the tall head tube, but the Addict frameset impresses with its ability to turn your efforts into speed.

On the flat, it glides serenely forward. It shrugs off disruptive crosswinds, yet feels efficient when moving at 30 to 35km/h – impressively so for a bike lacking a mid- or deep-section wheelset.

When you climb longer, shallower ascents, the rigidity through the bottom bracket provides a sense of efficiency when settling into a rhythm. I found it equally easy to rest on the tops of the bars and tap out a steady tempo, or get a bit keen and push out a harder effort.

Maximal efforts – sprints, or full-gas efforts over steep rises in the road – are lapped up by the frame’s stiff core, although the lengthy wheelbase does preclude the fastest reactions to your inputs.

You have to really work the bike side to side, but once you’ve put the effort in for a few pedal strokes, the speed builds in a satisfyingly smooth way.

The additional upside to the size of the wheelbase is incredibly calm handling. The steep head tube angle keeps things interesting and the steering entertaining, but it’s very predictable, and instantly easy to get used to.

The Addict also really excels when you tip it into challenging downhill bends at speed – the steering is sharp and accurate enough to encourage you to challenge your bravery, and its composure often leaves you wondering if you could have been even more aggressive when you exit the corner.

All this is fortified by the 700 x 32c Schwalbe One tyres. They deserve a special mention here because their voluminous capacity helps to soften what would otherwise be a rigid ride.

Had Scott specced 28 or even 30c tyres, the Addict might have behaved with more harshness, demanding more of both the rider’s mind and body.

Additionally, the sight of 32mm-wide tyres lends confidence to your cornering. You know your contact patch is relatively squat on the road for great grip, while creases in the road surface that creep up on you feel far less significant.

Scott Addict 30 finishing kit

The Scott Addict 30 is supplied with a finishing kit courtesy of Syncros, Scott’s in-house components brand.

The handlebar is a 420mm-wide Creston 2.0 Compact model, while the stem is a visibly chunky RR2.0 model, 103mm long. Both are alloy.

The bars are comfortably shaped with very accessible drops, but the stem certainly shines as being highly rigid and able to handle whatever efforts I could put into it.

Scott has opted to fit a tacky bar tape – Syncros’ Super Light tape – which, despite its name, does offer some welcome squidginess and feels premium to hold.

The seatpost is a carbon Syncros RR1.2 model, with a standard 27.2mm-wide diameter. I found it to be acceptably good at dispersing road buzz, but much of that sensation will inevitably be down to the wide tyres.

Atop the post is a Syncros Tofino Regular 2.0 Channel saddle. The channel it refers to isn’t a cutout, but rather a divot that runs along the centre of the upper. I had no struggles with it, getting on well with its relatively flat design.

Scott Addict 30 groupset, wheels and tyres

The Shimano 105 R7020 groupset is full series-spec, except the chain, which has been sourced from KMC.

The X11 chain is more than a suitable match for the groupset, and I found it performed just as well as a Shimano chain. Shifts are fast and crisp, with transitions between big and small chainrings slick and efficient.

Scott has specced the Addict 30 with a compact (50/34-tooth) chainset and an 11-32t cassette.

I appreciated the cassette especially – by not opting for a wider 11-34t range, Scott has avoided excess gapping between ratios in the middle of the block, which makes gear selection easier at speed.

I missed having a semi-compact 52/36T chainset. The Addict 30 is more than capable of justifying larger gearing thanks to its quick nature, but the stock choice of a compact chainset is understandable – remember, it’s an endurance bike first – and offers a welcome small 34x32t ratio for when the road gets really steep.

The rolling stock comes from Syncros, with its unimaginatively named RP2.0 Disc wheelset. It features alloy rims, laced to alloy hubs using 28 spokes both front and rear.

It’s an unremarkable wheelset, and is arguably a little shy of today’s ever-widening norms with a 19mm internal rim width (and 24mm external rim width). That said, it performs solidly and dependably, and with sealed cartridge bearings servicing should be relatively inexpensive.

The 32c Schwalbe One tyres are a clever choice, and while they may be middle of the road in terms of ultimate speed, grip and puncture resistance, they’re a good-quality tyre to have installed out of the box.

The only real drawback is they can’t be run tubeless, if that’s your thing. The wheels are tubeless-ready, though, so either swapping out the tyres or overhauling the whole wheel-tyre system will yield tangible benefits.

Scott Addict 30 bottom line

The Scott Addict 30 is an impressive endurance road bike. It delivers an exciting ride out of the box, while I suspect the frameset has more to give if you have the budget to throw a set of the best road bike wheels and tyres at it.

The overall behaviour is on the rigid, racy side of what one may expect from an endurance bike, but the choice of 32c tyres is a real winning factor here and damps things down enough to soften the ride. If I were to upgrade them to tubeless tyres (or even better clinchers), I’d be keen to preserve that width.

Overall, it’s a bike well-suited to keen club riding and sportive conquering, while it’s got enough flexibility about it to act as your sporty summer bike as well as a winter mile-muncher.