Master of All Trades

In terms of all-out blistering speed, I’ve never experienced anything like the Foil. It’s the rare aero-road frame that feels every bit as light, stiff, and snappy as its more traditional, round-tubed brethren, yet it holds huge aerodynamic advantages over those frames. (Scott claims a 20 percent boost over round-tubed frames.) In essence, the Foil is free speed.

Aero-road frames have been around for only four or five years, but they’ve quickly become a required product for any serious frame manufacturer. The frames borrow the teardrop tube shapes of triathlon bikes but with geometries and components made for road racing. The idea here is to find some extra speed on the bike while preserving the responsive handling and lateral stiffness of standard road frames.

But the narrower tube profiles can introduce a lot of side-to-side flex, which robs pedaling efficiency. This isn’t as much of an issue on triathlon bikes, where riders race at a steady power output. But it’s detrimental in road racing, where frequent brutal accelerations and all-out sprints are the norm. The only way to combat this is to add more material in the frame. So buyers of aero-road frames have generally had to choose between a bit of lateral flex or extra weight.

Scott solved this by cropping off the back end of each tube. If you think of the aero tube cross section as being teardrop shaped, Scott chopped off the rear third or so, the part that narrows down to a point. As with Trek’s patented Kamm tail shape, the trailing edge of each tube is flat and runs perpendicular to the frame. This not only sheds weight, it stiffens the frame.

Our 15.2-lb test rig (56cm) felt like possibly the stiffest bike in our test. It lurched forward with every pedal stroke. It leapt up hills, cut through headwinds, and flew down the descents without feeling squirrely. The Foil’s shape hit the sweet spot in all three categories — it’s as stiff and as lightweight as a round-tubed frame, but offers 20 percent less wind resistance.

Despite the racer DNA (this is the same frame Australia’s GreenEDGE team will ride in the Tour de France), the Foil is surprisingly comfortable. I definitely wouldn’t call it plush. But I could take it out for six-plus-hour rides without feeling beat up. Our tester had mechanical Shimano Dura-Ace components and Mavic Cosmic aero rims, which aided the aero feel of the bike but definitely made for some challenging rides whenever the brutal Bay Area winds were coming at me from the side.

WIRED Everything that makes standard race bikes fast, plus aero benefits they can’t match. Surprisingly comfortable for such a twitchy, race-oriented frame.

TIRED Ho-hum graphics and overall look. Frustratingly slippery seatpost clamp; I finished several rides with my saddle a few millimeters below where it had started.