Transition Scout (2017) Frame

(discontinued)

The Scout is an incredibly versatile, fun and surprisingly capable bike. It can be built into a potent weapon for XC to Enduro and everything in between. With some tough tyres and a taller fork I’ve ridden at DH venues alongside DH bikes and the Scout has proven itself extremely capable.

The original stock builds came with a 140mm fork meaning the bottom bracket was pretty much on the floor. It’s easily remedied by using a taller fork and because the BB is so low you can happily run anything up to 160mm at the front which in turn will slacken out the head angle and provide more gravity ability - one of the reasons this bike is so versatile. 

The shorter travel and short wheelbase mean you don’t have to be riding at warp speed and/ or be Sam Hill to have fun on the Scout. Manuals come easily and it has a lot of pop which allows it to be flung around even off smaller features. It’s also very good at going sideways without leaving the ground. The Scout won’t have you scared for your life as slides are easily controlled and when things get a little wild the short wheelbase is easy to reign in. 

Having ridden the Scout I’m no longer interested in such things as long travel, long wheelbase, low, slack (insert buzzword here). There may be nothing wrong with those bikes but the Scout shows you don’t need a limo-like wheelbase to go fast and quite often embarrasses those stern and serious, race-bred machines as you hop, skip and cutty down the trail. There’s a lot to be said for agility that seems to have been forgotten lately. 

The internal cable routing and cheap bearings seem like an after thought but aren’t too difficult to fix with some good bearings and there are plenty of folks who’ve come up with clever solutions to the noisey cables. 

My personal Scout has become quite heavily modified but it started from stock and there’s no need to go to the lengths I have, I just like tinkering. The best all round setup is probably just to bang a 150mm fork on there and go out and overtake some enduro bikes :D