Scott went big when they invited us to Deer Valley, in Park City, Utah to check out their 2016 lineup. We hit the mountain, and each lap started out at 9400 feet of elevation, looking out at the numerous peaks of the Wasatch mountain range surrounding us. Trips to our local resorts usually involve bringing out our long-travel rock gobblers and pinning it down the steepest, fastest sections of trail until our forearms are worked and it’s a challenge to simply grip the handlebars. This time, however, our focus was on an entirely different kind of riding. Since this was our first chance to ride Scott’s new plus-size offerings, we spent our days testing their traction and control on high-speed flow trails and enjoying their benefits on loose sections of trail.
Rather than testing the waters with a plus-size hardtail and then producing a full-suspension model the following year, Scott decided to offer both right from the get-go. On the full-suspension side of things, the Genius 700 and Genius LT (Long Travel) 700 lines are offered in three different builds designed around plus-size tires. On the other end of the spectrum, the Scale 700 line consists of two plus-size hardtails. While many companies are going all out with 3-inch-wide tires, Scott believes that’s a bit too wide. Scott specs its plus-size bikes with 2.8-inch Schwalbe Nobby Nic tires for additional traction without the tire roll or squirminess that often accompanies 3-inch-wide tires. Does Scott’s logic hold up out on the trail, or does it only make sense on paper?
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Absorbing the trail: We’re often asked what’s our favorite benefit of plus-size tires. It’s their ability to keep us confident and in control while keeping it pointed forward at high speeds.
Absorbing the trail: We’re often asked what’s our favorite benefit of plus-size tires. It’s their ability to keep us confident and in control while keeping it pointed forward at high speeds.WHY PLUS?
Most people would answer this question with phrases like, “So much smoother,” “Like Velcro on the trail,” and “It just rides better,” but Scott provided us with a few numbers (testing done by Schwalbe, in comparison to a 2.35-inch Nobby Nic) that put the advantages of plus-size tires into concrete terms.
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Scott Scale 710 Plus
Scott Scale 710 PlusIt’s easy to understand why a larger tire would have more traction, but Schwalbe claims the tire’s contact patch is increased by a whopping 21 percent compared to the smaller tire. What’s more, they say the increased contact patch only increases the rolling resistance of the tire by 1 percent. The increased volume and height of the plus-size tires are also claimed to reduce the likelihood of a snake-bite puncture by 8 percent. So what’s our answer to the question? “They’re really fun to ride.”
GENIUS 700 PLUS vs. LT 700 PLUS
Full-suspension plus bikes have become the show ponies of every mountain bike expo, window display and YouTube edit this year, yet many riders wonder how they actually fit into the mountain bike equa- tion. What purpose do they serve? While it will certainly take countless hours of testing before we have a solid grasp on the answer ourselves, we’re starting to understand their appeal.
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What’s the catch? While we certainly weren’t taking it slow through this section of trail, it’s G-out corners like this where we noticed the biggest drawback of plus-size tires.
What’s the catch? While we certainly weren’t taking it slow through this section of trail, it’s G-out corners like this where we noticed the biggest drawback of plus-size tires.Our first laps on the Genius LT 700 Plus left us wondering what we had gotten ourselves into. We were oversteering in corners and landing each jump in a wonky manner that made us juggle our feet just to stay on the trail. Turns out, we were going about it all wrong.
We had to learn to ride the LT 700 totally differently from the way we were riding the non-plus Genius 700. After some experimentation we found a way to ride the plus bike at full-suspension speeds and have an absolute blast. We realized the quantifiable benefits previously mentioned made the bike more fun, not necessarily more capable. We aimed for smooth, flowy turns instead of trying to rail the bike and risk rolling a tire or having it squirm underneath us. We aired off jumps in a low, racing style rather than boosting into the air, which can make plus-size tires feel cumbersome. We emphasized leaning into corners, as we discovered traction that typically eludes narrower tires. We looked further down the trail in anticipation of obstacles to avoid making small, last-second corrections. In straight, loose sections of trail, we let go of the brakes completely and held on for dear life, as the big tires floated across the top of the terrain and held their line with little input from us.
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Bike of choice: Whether pointing up or down the trail, the Scott Scale left us dreading the next time we ride a hardtail trailbike with traditional-width tires. Outside of racing, we don’t see why riders wouldn’t desire the advantages of plus-size tires on their hardtails.
Bike of choice: Whether pointing up or down the trail, the Scott Scale left us dreading the next time we ride a hardtail trailbike with traditional-width tires. Outside of racing, we don’t see why riders wouldn’t desire the advantages of plus-size tires on their hardtails.While some swear by the 160 millimeters of travel delivered by the LT model, we enjoyed the smaller and lighter package of the 140-millimeter-travel non-LT model. We don’t think plus-size bikes are right for sending it off sketchy drops or charging through gnarly rock gardens. Plus-size bikes provide a more relaxed trail experience, for which the shorter travel always seemed sufficient. We’d actually enjoy testing a plus-size version of Scott’s 120-millimeter bike, the Spark, if Scott would make one.
Of course, there will be videos depicting professional athletes shredding on plus bikes and attaining record times, but maybe it takes a certain level of skill to be able to push these bikes that far. For the rest of us, plus-size bikes simply offer a unique riding experience that puts a smile on our faces.
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Scott Genius 700 Tuned Plus
Scott Genius 700 Tuned PlusSCALE 710 PLUS
We spent the least amount of time on this bike, yet it proved to be the most fun. Jumping on a bike like the Scale, it’s immediately apparent that hardtails are the most compatible with plus-size tires. The disadvantages of hardtails over full-suspension bikes, such as their harshness and resistance to hugging the terrain, are both mitigated by the larger-volume tires. They don’t level the playing field by any means, but the larger tires certainly improve the capabilities of hardtails in a trail environment. The Scale 710 Plus we rode took trails that would have been bone-jarring on a standard hardtail and transformed the sensation into a smooth rumble. The rear tire still skips around, as with all hardtails, but is better with the traction that is there. We’ve said it in previous issues and we’ll say it again traditional-width tires will always have a place on cross-country race hardtails, but many of us will soon find ourselves reaching for their plus-size counterparts for any other hardtail outing.
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