Scott Ransom 30
Written by Robbie Powell | 15th April, 2010
I recently acquired a Scott Ransom 30 for 6 months of testing. Retailing at R 22500.00 and falling into the “all mountain” category I already had some preconceptions about this bike but boy was I wrong; This bike is a one of a kind!
Coming from a D/H background I have ridden heaps of 6” + travel bikes and was expecting more of the same but the Ransom 30 rides like a XC bike and descends like a D/H bike. While the bike looks complex it rides really well, I really appreciated the slacker head angle and longer wheel base which made all day riding quite comfortable. I especially liked the way I sat into the travel and not on top of the bike like some 6”+ bikes that I have ridden. Scott fitted the Equalizer TC shock in the back which is what makes this bike so special. Using the bar mounted lever you can switch between 6, 5” travel to 4” travel to full lockout. This means that I could ride the normal XC trails using 4” travel mode and blast down the hills in 6, 5” mode, leaving my buddies choking on the dust. The shock also sports a pro-pedal feature, pull the big rebound knob and the shock adds a bunch of compression damping to eliminate any bob. There is a blow off feature built into the shock just in case you forget to turn it off when descending.
Looking at the bike it’s hard to see that it’s alloy with the big formed and shaped tubes. The bike also has full outer gear cable routing which I love and the finishes are top notch. The bikes comes with mixture of SRAM with Avid Juicy 3,5 brakes, a Truvative Firex crank set and Marzocchi 55R front fork. The bike rolls on an Alex SX44 wheel set and Schwalbe Nobby Nic tires.
Riding the bike is a blast; the Ransom carved the corners really well, descended like a demon, and even climbed OK considering its travel. Testing the ability of the bike I picked a trail with a 1.5m rock drop to flat and did some runs to see if it could live up to its “all mountain” label! The bike felt stable and predictable over the rocks and in the air, and landed the drop with easy, not even bottoming out.
I still have a lot of testing on this bike and my next test ride will be on the Red Route in Knysna, I love my job!
