Rusty
E*POWAH BOSS
The Bike:
Manufacturer: Scott
Model: Genius eRide 900 Tuned
Model Year: 2020
Price Paid: $11,800 (NZD) RRP
New/Used: Brand New
Score (out of 10): 8
Review: This is not a complete and impartial review as I am still damaged goods and due for surgery Wednesday so possibly have been leaning on the bike for assistance more than I normally would, however I have had the chance to ride a few different type trails and have formed some solid opinions.
First, this is a lovely piece of kit with the componentry for the most part I would fit if building from a frame/motor myself. Probably if I was to change anything it would be the grips as I prefer something larger diameter.
That being said .... Scott (for that matter all eMTB manufacturers) if you are listening ... 12 speed on an eMTB is total overkill - in fact I would classify it as pure BS. 10 speed is more than enough for a bike with powered assistance. Oh, and 50T is also overkill. I climbed some pretty steep stuff today that on a non powered bike I would need either a granny ring or a 50T at the rear, but with this I did not need to go near that ring.
While I am in bitch mode ..... Bosch - I love the new gen motor but seriously, your handlebar controller for the Kiox system sucks. Unless taking ones eyes off the trail and looking at the controller it is far too easy to change the display mode or come up with the reset prompt rather than change power levels.
I would also suggest different color for the battery indicator when it gets to 30%. Orange at 30% and Red at 15% (?) are too hard to differentiate at a glance. Also, if the tiny battery indicator on the speed/power screen can have colours, why not on the screen 1 back which shows the batter indicator much larger.
I hope someone comes up with a hack as I think 100% White, 75% Green, 50% Blue, 25% Yellow and 10% Red would be much better.
OK, to the rides. With a mixture of terrain and soil types with trails from G1 to G4 I have found the suspension more than capable of handling my svelt 112 kegs. Haven't done any tuning yet, but set sag as I would normally at around 20%. I will increase this to around 30% once I am back riding as with the Scott Twin-lock I like the suspension a lot softer and click into the 1/2 closed mode for riding the trails. The only time I use the full lock-out is if the trail has some serious rock gardens or drops.
I found the Shimano 8100 series brakes to be more than adequate on the type trails I have been so far with very nice modulation and good power.
The trails I have been on I am very familiar with having rode my 2019 eGenius 920 and 2019 Levo Comp on many a time so will use those bikes and their performance as references.
I found the Bosch motor to have good power and feel in Tour, eMTB and Turbo modes. In Eco I think it feels very weak compared to the similar mode with the e8000 or the Brose motors.
To be noted is that I have not done any tuning and am using stock settings and comparing to stock settings on the other motors.
Thursday I rode mostly in eMTB and did think a couple of the long climbs did suck up power. From 440M to 572M over 2.5km with a max grade of 16.9% and an average of 6.9%.
Today I started the ride off using eMTB on the access trails and the first main trail then seeing I had burned 16% of the 625W/h battery I started using Tour & Eco a bit with eMTB used on some trails with decent climbs and Tour for the easier ascents as well as the descents. Was 34.6 km in 2hrs 16 with 722M climbing and 720 descending. Finished the ride with 4% battery remaining. With the 2019 920 e8000 and 504W/h battery I could not complete this loop and usually bailed at around the 24km mark with the battery in the red. With the Levo it was much the same - using Eco on the access trails middle settings mostly and Turbo for the serious climbs. When I fitted the 700W/h battery I could do this loop and would come back in with 10-12% remaining.
With 300k or so on the bike now I have a bit of a feel for it. With the 2019 eGenius I found the bike to be solid in the rough and good on climbs but struggled on really tight uphill switchbacks and when in the air it had a definite forward weight bias causing the nose to drop. With the 2019 Levo Comp I found the bike to be much better in the air and the uphill switchbacks much easier to navigate, however it was twitchy on the fast, rough downhill runs. I put that down to a mix of not quite up to scratch Rockshox suspension components, the way the rear suspension had a tendency to load up the front under hard braking and the general geometry - (riding a Kenevo on some of these trails with Fox forks and an Ohlins shock was far steadier).
With the 2020 Tuned I am finding the weight bias far superior to the 2019 920. Several of the scalloped out tabletops that were a problem on the other two bikes were much easier to take on this one and thanks to really nice forks, when I stuffed up I was able to recover easily without taking a soil sample. On the rough, fast runs it was almost if not as steady as the 920 but was also playful like the Levo when skipping over little jumps. The geometry seems spot on or close to it as even though the trails were not in best condition there was nowhere it felt lacking - it climbed very well, navigated the really tight switchbacks and descended with a nice solid feel.
The one thing I did notice today was on a couple of the fast, fun tracks with high banked turns that are often slippery due to the moss on them it felt very planted and I put this down to the excellent Magic Mary Front and Hans Dampf Rear tires.
I gave it an 8 out of 10 score with the lost points due to the minor issues of the unnecessary 12sp and the shitty controller mostly. Would love to see a 700Wh battery which I believe would be achievable with the current size/form factor of the Bosch Powertube.
Manufacturer: Scott
Model: Genius eRide 900 Tuned
Model Year: 2020
Price Paid: $11,800 (NZD) RRP
New/Used: Brand New
Score (out of 10): 8
Review: This is not a complete and impartial review as I am still damaged goods and due for surgery Wednesday so possibly have been leaning on the bike for assistance more than I normally would, however I have had the chance to ride a few different type trails and have formed some solid opinions.
First, this is a lovely piece of kit with the componentry for the most part I would fit if building from a frame/motor myself. Probably if I was to change anything it would be the grips as I prefer something larger diameter.
That being said .... Scott (for that matter all eMTB manufacturers) if you are listening ... 12 speed on an eMTB is total overkill - in fact I would classify it as pure BS. 10 speed is more than enough for a bike with powered assistance. Oh, and 50T is also overkill. I climbed some pretty steep stuff today that on a non powered bike I would need either a granny ring or a 50T at the rear, but with this I did not need to go near that ring.
While I am in bitch mode ..... Bosch - I love the new gen motor but seriously, your handlebar controller for the Kiox system sucks. Unless taking ones eyes off the trail and looking at the controller it is far too easy to change the display mode or come up with the reset prompt rather than change power levels.
I would also suggest different color for the battery indicator when it gets to 30%. Orange at 30% and Red at 15% (?) are too hard to differentiate at a glance. Also, if the tiny battery indicator on the speed/power screen can have colours, why not on the screen 1 back which shows the batter indicator much larger.
I hope someone comes up with a hack as I think 100% White, 75% Green, 50% Blue, 25% Yellow and 10% Red would be much better.
OK, to the rides. With a mixture of terrain and soil types with trails from G1 to G4 I have found the suspension more than capable of handling my svelt 112 kegs. Haven't done any tuning yet, but set sag as I would normally at around 20%. I will increase this to around 30% once I am back riding as with the Scott Twin-lock I like the suspension a lot softer and click into the 1/2 closed mode for riding the trails. The only time I use the full lock-out is if the trail has some serious rock gardens or drops.
I found the Shimano 8100 series brakes to be more than adequate on the type trails I have been so far with very nice modulation and good power.
The trails I have been on I am very familiar with having rode my 2019 eGenius 920 and 2019 Levo Comp on many a time so will use those bikes and their performance as references.
I found the Bosch motor to have good power and feel in Tour, eMTB and Turbo modes. In Eco I think it feels very weak compared to the similar mode with the e8000 or the Brose motors.
To be noted is that I have not done any tuning and am using stock settings and comparing to stock settings on the other motors.
Thursday I rode mostly in eMTB and did think a couple of the long climbs did suck up power. From 440M to 572M over 2.5km with a max grade of 16.9% and an average of 6.9%.
Today I started the ride off using eMTB on the access trails and the first main trail then seeing I had burned 16% of the 625W/h battery I started using Tour & Eco a bit with eMTB used on some trails with decent climbs and Tour for the easier ascents as well as the descents. Was 34.6 km in 2hrs 16 with 722M climbing and 720 descending. Finished the ride with 4% battery remaining. With the 2019 920 e8000 and 504W/h battery I could not complete this loop and usually bailed at around the 24km mark with the battery in the red. With the Levo it was much the same - using Eco on the access trails middle settings mostly and Turbo for the serious climbs. When I fitted the 700W/h battery I could do this loop and would come back in with 10-12% remaining.
With 300k or so on the bike now I have a bit of a feel for it. With the 2019 eGenius I found the bike to be solid in the rough and good on climbs but struggled on really tight uphill switchbacks and when in the air it had a definite forward weight bias causing the nose to drop. With the 2019 Levo Comp I found the bike to be much better in the air and the uphill switchbacks much easier to navigate, however it was twitchy on the fast, rough downhill runs. I put that down to a mix of not quite up to scratch Rockshox suspension components, the way the rear suspension had a tendency to load up the front under hard braking and the general geometry - (riding a Kenevo on some of these trails with Fox forks and an Ohlins shock was far steadier).
With the 2020 Tuned I am finding the weight bias far superior to the 2019 920. Several of the scalloped out tabletops that were a problem on the other two bikes were much easier to take on this one and thanks to really nice forks, when I stuffed up I was able to recover easily without taking a soil sample. On the rough, fast runs it was almost if not as steady as the 920 but was also playful like the Levo when skipping over little jumps. The geometry seems spot on or close to it as even though the trails were not in best condition there was nowhere it felt lacking - it climbed very well, navigated the really tight switchbacks and descended with a nice solid feel.
The one thing I did notice today was on a couple of the fast, fun tracks with high banked turns that are often slippery due to the moss on them it felt very planted and I put this down to the excellent Magic Mary Front and Hans Dampf Rear tires.
I gave it an 8 out of 10 score with the lost points due to the minor issues of the unnecessary 12sp and the shitty controller mostly. Would love to see a 700Wh battery which I believe would be achievable with the current size/form factor of the Bosch Powertube.
