Endorphin: The Bike That Started It All
27 years later, we bring a design classic into the modern perspective. And ask, what’s next? Re-introducing the Endorphin: the bike that made history and inspires the future.
Givisiez, Switzerland. SCOTT Sports, for many decades, has been leading the industry, building the world’s lightest and fastest bikes according to three brand values: Innovation, Technology and Design. And almost no single product defined this approach more sharply than the Endorphin: The Bike That Started It All. Today, 27 years later, we bring a design classic into the modern perspective and ask, what’s next? A collaborative project between the Endorphin’s original designer and our Lead Designer today explores how a bike that made history would be reimagined in the modern day.
To innovate, the first approach is to think outside the box. In seeking the next step in bike design, SCOTT didn’t look to competition but found inspiration in an unlikely corner of the sporting world: tennis rackets. Their moulded carbon shape, unlike any other product in the early 90s, sparked the idea for the world’s first monocoque bike frame, carving the way to explore exactly what carbon was capable of. The Endorphin gave SCOTT engineers the opportunity to experiment with carbon in a totally new way, treating it as its own material, with its own properties rather than forcing it into the shapes of alloy and steel. With different layups – directions and thicknesses – almost anything became possible, including the Endorphin, with its iconic seat stay design, compliant ride feel, and its industry-redefining light weight.
The Endorphin introduced tech innovations that quite simply changed the industry, helping to inform and develop innovations for many years to come. And not just at SCOTT, but across the whole biking world. The project reached its peak with World Cup wins, cementing its legendary status and showing the world what was possible. The innovations that built the Endorphin laid the foundations for the carbon expertise that has gone onto define SCOTT’s great milestones, and the skillsets behind the lightest bikes of all time. The Addict RC, Genius, and Scale platforms can all trace their roots back to the Endorphin, as can the Spark RC, the most successful XCO racing platform of all time.
“Nothing like the Endorphin had been done before. It took countless months to find a manufacturing partner willing to work with our crazy idea, because no one trusted the technology yet, or they did not see the potential in cycling. But as soon as the Endorphin was presented and even won its first World Cup, the whole industry started to dig into this new technology. It without a doubt led the way for bike design that we still see today.” – Pascal Ducrot, Vice President, SCOTT Sports.
“From the beginning to the end, the Endorphin was a crazy idea. The unique approach about the project was to go all out with what was truly possible with carbon fiber, leaving behind the traditional tubes and lubes construction. We started from a blank canvas, considering the frame as both a structural and a sculptural object. This led us to rethink every cross section, curve and surface, everything having an influence on how the bike rode and looked.
At one stage during the development process, we also started to question the traditional diamond frame design and asked ourselves: “What if we could offer some on-board rear suspension to the rider?” This question led us to the iconic seat stay design that became the Endorphin visual trademark. In the end we came out with a new form, something different and more organic than anything we’d seen before,” Nicolas Savioz, Designer, Endorphin (1997) and current Head of Design, SCOTT Sports
For 2023, the Design team at SCOTT asked themselves, what would the Endorphin look like today? Taking the original silhouette of the 1997 Endorphin, the frame was reimagined with today’s approach to 3D design. Elevated tube volumes are accentuated with a combination of organic shapes and sharp lines which are now possible to produce with carbon and the expertise of 3D modelers. The iconic seat stay design remains, updated to follow a modern design language, whilst today’s components – including disc brakes and an integrated cockpit by Syncros inspired by the retro Y-shape combo – are incorporated into the complete design. To finish, an elegant retro-futuristic graphic design is accentuated with 1997 details for a nostalgic look.
The reinterpreted version of the iconic 1995/96 Endorphin was first seen at Eurobike in June, 2023. It received immense interest from fair visitors, spreading nostalgia and excitement like wildfire. While the first edition was successful on the race track, the 2023 Endorphin concept is primarily a research and development project. Will we see it between the race-tape at some point? Only time will tell.