Foiled again

Scott's new Foil makes big promises for speed and comfort o

- CHARLOTTE HEAD

Even before the relaxation of the UCI tube profile regulations in 2021, it was standard practice for new aero bikes to preach the ‘deeper, faster, better’ mantra. Scott has continued this trend with the bold claim that the new Foil RC is 21% or 16 watts more efficient than its previous iteration, saying that it can shave a whole 1min 18sec off a 40km ride at pro pace.

‘To do this we kept the same F01 technology – a library of truncated aerofoil tube profiles, named after Scott’s first aero bike, Project F01 – but made the tubes narrower and deeper to reduce drag,’ says Paul Remy, bike engineer at Scott. Thus the new Foil bears a closer resemblance to the brand’s Plasma TT bike than its other road machines.

While the bike looks overtly aero, Remy says performance was gained by working in more subtle ways too. For example, aero specialist Simon Smart helped angle the profile of the seatstays so they better channel the air across the wheels while they spin, which reduces drag. And while the Foil has 30mm tyre clearance, it comes specced with 25mm front and 28mm rear tyres as standard, a choice that Scott says was informed by the results of real-world and wind-tunnel testing. The smaller front tyre narrows the bike’s frontal area, while the wider rear can hide in the lee of the frame to provide extra comfort with no aero penalty.

The front end has also been redrawn, with the fork legs deeper in cross section and a high fork crown cleaning up airflow around the front wheel.