Scott Addict 30 Disc review

Last month, we tested the alloy Scott Speedster; this time it’s the turn of the carbon Scott Addict.

This Addict is actually not the same bike as the top-end Addict RC, the bike ridden to victory in the Vuelta a Espana by Simon Yates. The latter's geometry is more aggressive and when we rode the stock rim brake bike a couple of years ago, it tipped the scales at just 6.6kg. At the time, it also cost £7,600.

Buy now: Scott Addict 30 Disc from Hargroves Cycles for £1649

Scott is increasingly majoring on disc brake bikes and the Scott Addict Disc family starts with the Addict 30 Disc tested here, priced at £1649, and heads up to the Addict SE at £3600. In between are two other men’s models and two Contessa Addict women’s models.

If you’re not too worried about discs, there’s a four-bike rim-brake Addict range too.

All the Addict family have Scott’s HMF carbon frameset, paired with an all-carbon fork with alloy dropouts. Although its geometry is more relaxed than the Addict RC, the Addict Disc features the same mix of a wide down tube and bottom bracket shell, paired with a skinnier top tube to help absorb road buzz. There aren’t any aero features, with the seat tube round and the down tube more designed for power transfer than cutting through the wind.

The frame is painted a mix of gloss black and white, with matt black on the top of the top tube. It looks smart, although I found that the gloss tended to attract dust from dry road surfaces and the matt sections collected sweat patches. Coupled with staining of the grippy white bar tape, I found that the Scott Addict 30 needed a clean-up after each ride to keep it looking smart.

Scott Addict spec

Scott has taken advantage of the increased clearance afforded by disc brakes to fit 32mm wide tyres. It’s the same trick as played with the Speedster and means that you can run much lower pressures, which really help soak up the jolts from UK tar and gravel road surfaces, as well as the odd pothole.

You also get thru-axles and disc brake specific Syncros Race 24 Disc rims, mounted on Formula Team Disc 28 hole hubs. They’re laced up with plain gauge round spokes.

Time was, not so long ago, you’d expect a 105 groupset on a bike at the Scott Addict 30 Disc’s £1,650 price point. But with hydraulic disc brakes running a few hundred pounds more expensive than rim brakes, the Scott Addict 30 Disc is specced with Tiagra, as are many sub-£2,000 bikes from major brands nowadays.

That means dropping a sprocket from the cassette and larger jumps between ratios to achieve the 11-30 spread of gears. But I’ve never found the drop from 11-speed 105 to 10-speed Tiagra significant when I’ve been riding. That’s not just that I don’t notice the wider jumps, but also because the shifting quality of Tiagra, its looks and the lever feel are now really not very different from 105.

The rear mech doesn’t yet incorporate Shimano’s Shadow wrap-around design, but shifting is still very good. The Tiagra-level hydraulic levers on the Scott Addict 30 Disc retain the chunky shape of Shimano’s older mid-range levers. I’ve heard them described as ugly, but they work just fine and the slightly wider lever body helps distribute pressure better over the hands when riding on the tops.

Shimano has just announced an upgrade to Tiagra, which will ditch the current levers in favour of something with the sleeker look of the 105 hydraulic shifters. So it’s likely that the Scott Addict 30 Disc will get facelifted levers in the near future.

The bar and stem are Syncros-branded alloy, with the stem at 120mm long a bit longer than usual. It’s nice to see a carbon seatpost for a bit of extra compliance, although the seat tube extends quite a way above the top tube junction, lowering the effective free seatpost length available to flex under load. The Syncros Tofino saddle is not as padded as the Syncros FL2.5 model fitted to the Scott Speedster, so there’s not quite as much isolation from road surface imperfections here, but it's still a comfortable perch.

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At just over 9kg, the Scott Addict 30 Disc does not inherit the fly weight of the Addict RC. In part, that’s down to the disc brakes, which always add extra mass over a rim caliper. The Tiagra groupset is also a bit weightier than Shimano’s 11-speed groupsets and 32mm tyres will be heavier than narrower rubber. Scott quotes a weight drop of around 700g for the switch to the next spec up, £2000, Addict 20 Disc.

Riding the Scott Addict

I’ve enjoyed riding the Scott Addict 30 Disc – it’s a bike that just seems to punch above (or should that be below?) its weight. I found myself wanting to take longer excursions, taking advantage of the better weather conditions on offer now that spring is here, as well as the bike’s excellent rolling characteristics.

The combination of good power delivery through the substantial bottom bracket shell and chainstays, along with the compliant upper part of the frameset makes for fast, comfortable progress. That’s also helped by the wide tyres, with their tarmac smoothing capabilities. You roll over the usual UK tar and gravel road surfaces rather than your efforts being side-tracked into up and down vibration.

There’s masses of gear range to push on up the steeper hills around London, compensating for the Scott Addict 30 Disc’s rather high weight. And on the flat and downhills, the bike feels fast and stable, leading to confident descending even on dodgy surfaces. At some points, I found that I was spinning out in the 50x11 top ratio; it’s a bike that might benefit from a semi-compact chainset to provide more top-end range.

Disc brakes are rapidly taking over the road bike market for their superior modulation, stopping power and consistency in different weather conditions. I really felt the benefit of the hydraulic disc calipers over the mechanical Shimano disc brakes fitted to the Speedster too. There’s more bite and much better modulation and feel from the hydraulics.

Value

The Scott Addict 30 Disc looks like reasonable value. Its spec is well thought out for the endurance rider, with the 32mm tyres being a particularly sensible feature, taking advantage of the frame’s clearance. You may not get an 11-speed groupset, but the saving has been spent on hydraulic braking, which feels like a good trade-off.

Buy now: Scott Addict 30 Disc from Hargroves Cycles for £1649

But if you can stretch to the additional £350 outlay of the Scott Addict 20 Disc, you get a significant up-spec, including an 11-speed 105 groupset, as well as a useful 350g weight saving.