Summer is definitely coming on strong in Seattle and so are the demos! This week we started our test ride season out with Victor and Jason from Pivot. For those of you in the know you will have heard that this company is the brain child of Chris Cocalis the long time owner and manager at Titus Cycles. His designs have long been among the best in the full suspension world and have mostly featured modified single pivots or variation on the four bar linkage so we were interested to see how he had adapted to DW Link.
Since the shop had participated in the Lance Challenge the night before at least one of us was feeling a little under the weather; combine that with temperatures in the mid to upper 90s and we were not raring to go ride. The demo fleet from Pivot as been making the rounds since the beginning of summer but surprisingly few of the bikes were showing much wear. Hats off to Jason for keeping them looking like they had not actually been on the bike death march that is demo season. It also helps that the majority of their spec is Shimano XT and XTR with occasional dalliances in more inferior groups. Fox and DT Swiss provide the forks and wheel with various manufacturers represented in the finishing kit. I can’t fault any of their parts choices in the context of each of their frames. Now, lets get to the riding….
Scotty decided that he would ride their line-up from the bottom up focusing on the differences between each suspension platform. I took my usual approach to demoing: ride whatever you are most interested in. This put Scott on the Mach 4 and me on the Mach 429. These bikes are ostensibly the same platform for 26” and 29” with identical spec. A quick tune of the Fox platforms and we hauled off into the depths of St Ed’s. The first impression of the bike was that the suspension was well balanced between pedaling efficiency and smooth travel. Climbing from the first parking lot at Big Finn Hill up to the Pine Tree section between 141st and Holmes Point we both felt that the bikes were amazingly agile while we climbed. The suspension never felt like it was slowing me down efficiency wise and I was pleased with the way the rear wheel didn’t lag in uphill corners. The RP-23 from Fox helps out most platforms immensely with its Pro-Pedal setting and I could feel the difference with it on or off. Interestingly I found that the DW Link is less effected by rebound settings than VPP or Horst Link Designs. This may have to do with the “Anti-Squat” design in the suspension; lets call it travel threshold.
With the travel tuned to about 30% sag I felt confident in the rear end on the 429. The tire choice was a little lacking for the conditions and I regretted not being able to tackle a loner climb with the bike so that I could find my climbing position and really push it through its paces. In another note, I was riding a medium frame. I am 5’11” and have really long legs so I felt like I might have been a little over the front of the bike. This may have attributed to the sensation that when I stood the front end became a lot less predictable than I would like. Scotty had a similar issue with the Mach 4 he was riding and ended up using up more than the full width of the trail a couple of times. Between the two of us we must have sounded like a heard of elephants descending. Stem length and bar sweep could have played an issue as neither of us have ever ridden the Syntace bar/stem combo on these bikes. All quibbles aside we were both moderately relieved that both bikes rode better than we had expected. Our experiences with DW Link had lead us to expect drastically different bikes than what we rode. Both were light, snappy and fun to ride.
In our demo progression Scotty chose to ride the all-mountain Mach 5 next while I hopped on a freeride geared Firebird. Not being a bike I would normally choose my first thought was that the frame would be similar to most of the longer travel designs I have ridden: smooth but sloppy. Being used to 70˚+ headtubes and 2.10 tires I always have an interesting time riding bikes with slacker angles and large tires. Pairing those changes with most freeride designs yields a bike that feels like it is always trying to slide away from me. Interestingly the over-engineering of the Firebird’s suspension made it climb a little more like the XC bikes we had just tested. I rode a L frame this time and felt like I as at least in the wheelbase instead of over it. A decent climber, the Firebird never let me use all of its travel and even felt a little unbalanced on rolling trail. I had to find the few steeper sections of trail with large obstacles to open the suspension up. Kenda Nevegal 2.5’s didn’t help the front end feel any lighter in its steering and contributed a little too much bite a couple of times pushing through corners. Again I might have been feeling the stem/handlebar issues that I identified on the 429 but I really never found the sweet spot standing over the frame either. I would say that it is a smooth descender but definitely a little squirrelly once the wheels left the ground. In our ongoing comparison of 6” travel bikes it isn’t as polished as the Intense Tracer for all day riding and for the weight lacks the extra travel of the Uzzi.
Scotty got the short end of the stick set up wise on the Mach 5 and had to have a stem hight change before he was comfortable on he bike. A quick second ride on the M frame gave him a better impression of the bike. He felt that it wasn’t a huge departure from the Mach 4 and was a little heavier for not much of a difference. Still, he found little to fault in the bike and thought it deserved a longer ride with a setup a little more to his liking. We moved on to our last rides of the day just as it really got hot.
I rode the Mach 4 in a L so that I could feel the suspension on the racing bike better than I had on the 429 and Scotty rode a Firebird. I’m not going to speculate but my eyes were telling me that the Monopolowa had finally won its battle with Scott’s need to ride that day and he was done. A quick uphill confirmed that and he headed back to the trailer and water. I continued on and found myself enjoying a ride I have done a hundred times because of the bike I was on. Correct sizing on the bike was all I needed to really feel like the bike was working for me and not against me. A couple of stem tweaks would have made it almost perfect. The 26” wheels accelerated quickly and the rear triangle was stiffer than the 29” bike. Climbing and standing corners were a lot more predictable which more than made up for my indifference to the Firebird. I guess I am a XC Racer after all. Focusing on the shorter travel bikes from Pivot I can recommend the MACH 4 and 429 as options for short travel race or trail bikes. Both handle well and the rear suspension is very well balanced between pedaling efficiency and travel use. More technical trails would definitely give me better perspective on the Firebird so I can’t really say that it is on my list of bikes I approve of. Maybe a second longer test ride at Tiger or Flowtron will give me a better idea of how the bike rides. The best part about Pivot is that they are a great option for the price to weight comparison. Decently specced bikes are relatively inexpensive next to the other small North American brands but are still pretty well balanced weight and durability wise. Come ask us questions about the bikes or let us know what you thought about the demo. Next up: Intense all weekend. Hopefully we will see more from these guys at Interbike in September!
