SUN VALLEY, ID (BRAIN)—After five years in the U.S. market, Scott will deliver retailers an option in the midrange travel segment. The revamped Genius rounds out the company’s trail offerings, giving it a complete line of full-suspension mountain bikes in a broader price range for 2009.
Falling between the Ransom, which offers up to 165 millimeters of travel, and the Spark, which offers 110 millimeters of travel, the Genius fills the trail category, which now is the lifeblood of the full-suspension market. The carbon fiber bike offers adjustable travel up to 150 millimeters, but weighs less than 25 pounds.
“This is the final piece of the puzzle, especially for trail or endurance. Retailers want to sell one bike a customer can take anywhere. We feel this is the one bike they need to do it all,” said Adrian Montgomery, marketing and PR director for Scott USA’s bike group.
For Scott USA, this second iteration of the Genius has been a long time coming. Scott has sold the Genius in Europe and elsewhere since 2004, but never sold the model in the U.S. market. It used a rear pivot system that Specialized claimed infringed on its Horst Link patent, which covered 4-bar linkage suspension designs in the United States.
The new Genius features a rear suspension system that circumvents Specialized’s Horst Link patent. Scott has seven patents covering its suspension design including protection of its exclusive three-position rear shock and the shock’s oil transfer system.
The heart of the system is its new Equalizer2 rear shock it co-developed with DT Swiss. The pull shock has three connected chambers, allowing for three travel modes: traction, full travel and locked out.
Riders can adjust the travel position using a handlebar lever that is part of its Traction Control system. The system uses the same underlying technology Scott applied to the first Genius and subsequent full-suspension models including Spark and Ransom.
For 2009, Scott also will introduce the Spark and Genius in alloy versions giving dealers a lower opening price point. It will finalize pricing in mid-July, but it expects the Spark alloy to start at $1,800 and the Genius alloy to start at $3,000.
—Megan Tompkins
