Scott debuts the Foil Disc

Ahead of the 2015 Tour de France, Scott’s aero platform the Foil received a head-to-toe redesign, morphing from a body busting-ly stiff frameset to a more comfortable, more traditional aero-looking frame.

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Since then it has seen accolades the world over, including becoming the first aero bike to win on the cobbles at Paris-Roubaix.

In passing, a Scott product manager even told me that the Orica riders’ Addict frames were collecting dust because the pro racers can ride the Foil everywhere, except mountain stages.

With every bike brand now jumping on the disc brake train, we’re also beginning to see more aero bikes sporting hydraulics; Giant just launched the Propel Advanced Disc, for example. For Scott, which launched the Addict Disc last year, now we have the Foil Disc.

Other than the rotors and hydraulic calipers, the most noticeable difference to the Foil Disc is on the fork. Thanks to the UCI relaxing the 3:1 aerofoil rule, Scott has shrouded the flat-mount brake caliper on the fork to smooth airflow over the structure.

According to Scott, the different profile of the fork with the fairings on both sides add up to a reduction of half a watt at 40kph compared to the previous Foil’s fork. 

The fork also sees internal routing for the brake hose and can accommodate a 30mm tire. Notably, the bikes will come stock with 28mm tires, large even by today’s wide standards.

Beyond the fork, the rest of the front triangle is identical to the rim brake version, including the lowered transition between the down tube and head tube to eliminate the gap behind the fork crown.

Also carried over from the rim-brake bike is the PF86BB bottom bracket and extremely wide shell that Scott says is 13 percent stiffer than the previous Foil.

A minor but noticeable improvement is the two-in-one cable routing. On the current version of the Foil, the port itself wasn’t connected to anything and although it fits nicely in the frame would occasionally move when the cable actuated. Scott has solved this with a single bolt, which it says will also roll out on the rim-brake frames.

At the rear of the bike, the Foil Disc still sees the same dropped seatstay and flat-backed seat tube and seatpost that Scott calls Comfort Zone construction. But there are subtle changes to accommodate the discs.

In order to compensate for the braking forces, the non-drive side chainstay has been beefed up and is also quite boxy. The chainstays are 5mm longer than the standard Foil, measuring 410mm throughout the sizes.

Scott uses 100x12mm front and 142x12mm rear thru-axles. The axles are branded Syncros but use the DT Swiss RWS design.

With all the changes to the frame, Scott claims the top end HMX carbon disc frameset only gains 40g over the rim brake version.