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2013 Pivot Mach 429 Carbon, Les 29er Hardtail Mountain Bikes- Photos, Specs & Details

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2013 Pivot Mach 429 Carbon full suspension 29er mountain bike

Pivot’s new Mach 429 Carbon is more than just a carbon version of the alloy Mach 429. As with all things Pivot, if it can’t be made better, it isn’t going to be made just for the sake of using a different material. As expected, it’s stiffer and lighter, but it also tweaks the geometry to get the most out of the bike.

Front end has a constant 69.3° head angle across the sizes (the alloy model varies by frame size) and a 2.5mm lower BB. Combined with the stiffer carbon frame and an 8mm shorter chainstay (448.3mm/17.65″ versus 456mm/17.95″ on the alloy), it supposedly provides a much quicker, nimbler ride. Top tube length stays the same, but standover improves by up to 1.5″ in the small, a small amount on the medium, 1″ on the large and 0.5″ on the XL. Frame is about 15% stiffer in the BB and rear triangle and 12% stiffer at the headtube.

Todd Tanner, Pivot Sales, says they’ve taken the chainstays as short as they can on a full suspension frame and still clear a triple crankset. It’s an XC/Marathon bike, but gets the 12×142 thru axle rear and ISCG05 chainguide tabs just in case. They’re spec’ing all models with a fixed 120mm fork. Last year, all Mach429’s came with a TALAS fork, but riders were requesting a lighter fork, and Tanner says because of the DW-Link’s anti squat characteristics, you don’t need to drop the fork to climb well. It can be ordered with a 100mm fork if you want, which will steepen the head angle to 70.3°.

2013 Pivot Mach 429 Carbon full suspension 29er mountain bike

These frames are production, But will get slight tweaks to the cable mounts on the side of the frame to clean it up a bit. Should be about 1/4 pound lighter than the alloy Mach429, which got a makeover last year and dropped a half pound from the frame. Because a few things may change slightly (and Cocalis said these were overbuilt a bit to make good demo bikes and arrive on time), we weren’t allowed to weigh them.

2013 Pivot Mach 429 Carbon full suspension 29er mountain bike

Internal shift cables only run from headtube to under the shock mount, and there’s a window with plug to make installation super easy. Tanner says the design eliminates any cable rattling, and rear brake and dropper post routing runs alongside it outside the frame.

2013 Pivot Mach 429 Carbon full suspension 29er mountain bike

All pivots use Enduro Max double wide bearings. They used to use two bearings per side in each pivot, in 2010 they went with the wider bearings. Frames get Lizardskin rubberized leather protective patches, note the extensive coverage in the pics above and below.

2013 Pivot Mach 429 Carbon full suspension 29er mountain bike

Pricing starts at $4,699 for the SLX/XT build up to $7,599 for the XTR. The XX1 build is $7,049.

2013 Pivot Mach 429 Carbon full suspension 29er mountain bike

Framsets are $2,799 (frame & shock) and a frame kit with headset, fork and BB is $3,599. Available November.

The XX1 group on this bike is a show piece only. Rear derailleur isn’t real and has no tension, hence the slack chain in this photo and the leaked photos posted earlier.

2013 Pivot Mach 429 Carbon full suspension 29er mountain bike

2013 Pivot Mach 429 Carbon full suspension 29er mountain bike

2013 PIVOT LES

2013 Pivot Les carbon fiber 29er hardtail mountain bike with swappable dropouts for geared or singlespeed drivetrains

“We don’t do bikes jut to do bikes,” said founder Chris Cocalis. We have to do something unique, and we had a number of customers asking for a hardtail frame. We used a lot of the carbon molding tech we developed with BH to make this frame.”

2013 Pivot Les carbon fiber 29er hardtail mountain bike with swappable dropouts for geared or singlespeed drivetrains

One of the more unique features is the replaceable dropout. The Swinger singlespeed dropouts are forged aluminum and have indexed Allen bolts on the rear with a spring tensioned ball bearing to give a tactile “click” every quarter turn.

2013 Pivot Les carbon fiber 29er hardtail mountain bike with swappable dropouts for geared or singlespeed drivetrains

2013 Pivot Les carbon fiber 29er hardtail mountain bike with swappable dropouts for geared or singlespeed drivetrains

The geared dropouts are full cabin and bolt into the frame in a fixed position. Final fit and finish will be a bit prettier than what you see here.

2013 Pivot Les carbon fiber 29er hardtail mountain bike with swappable dropouts for geared or singlespeed drivetrains

The rear end is designed to take some of the harshness off the trail, but they’re no claiming any particular deflection measurement. Laterally, it’s super stuff because it’s using the same design tech as the BH Ultralight road bike frame.

2013 Pivot Les carbon fiber 29er hardtail mountain bike with swappable dropouts for geared or singlespeed drivetrains

A panel on the bottom of the frame lets the cables dropout for easy installation.

2013 Pivot Les carbon fiber 29er hardtail mountain bike with swappable dropouts for geared or singlespeed drivetrains

The driveside chainstay has an internal ramp and inmolded cable channel to guide the rear dérailleur cable out the back.

2013 Pivot Les carbon fiber 29er hardtail mountain bike with swappable dropouts for geared or singlespeed drivetrains

Like the Mach429 Carbon, Tanner says the chainstays are as short as possible and still clear all chainring combos. Length is 434.3mm / 17.1″.

Pricing will be $3,799 for the SLX/XT kit, $6,149 for XX1 and $6,699 for XTR. Frameset is $1,999 and $99 for the Swinger dropouts to convert to singlespeed. Frame kit is $2,699. Available January 2013. Frame weight is about 1,200g for a medium (claimed).

 

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Johan
11 years ago

Carbon 29er singlespeed!!!!
Yeeha!!
At last , some manufacturers realising how awesome a lightweight carbon 29er SS is, love those ss dropouts.

jdog
jdog
11 years ago

This is a smart looking hardtail. Internal cables on a mtb are lost on me though.

Josh
Josh
11 years ago

So glad that Pivot has seen that there is no other MFG out there to incorperate all of the latest MTB technology on a frame that can be converted to a SS. For 2012 I settled on a Trek SF SS and I could not be happier to have another option for a better geometry stiff, light weight SS machine!

Jake
Jake
11 years ago

@jdog: They make perfect sense to me. Keeps mud and crud away from your cables so they’ll last longer. Yeah they’re more of a pain to replace, but you’ll probably have to replace them half as much as you would external cables.

I’m curious to see what the final frame weights on the squishy bike are. I’ve always liked the look of the 429, but they were always to heavy for my liking.

GrandesRoues
11 years ago

No plan for a 529 ?

GrandesRoues
11 years ago

About chainstay lenght :

The clearance of the front derailleur can cause problem because shimano crankset have a bad chain line. 29″ers need a bigger chainline, but shimano “trail” double is only a triple crankset without the big ring.

With a correct double crankset, one can fit a big tire and short chainstays

Ding
Ding
11 years ago

Why can’t Pivot get their hands on a working derailleur?

Bikerumor
11 years ago

Ding – nobody can. They’re just not available yet, same with a lot of the new Dura-Ace bikes, they have very real looking plastic parts for show, but the goods just aren’t shipping yet.

call420
call420
11 years ago

these comments seem incongruous: “these frames are production” “they will get slight tweaks” “cocalis said these were overbuilt to make good demo bikes” “we weren’t allowed to weigh them”.

making “good demo bikes” could mean making them stiff but heavy and not letting them be weighed, and then making lighter and flexier ones so people will buy them based on ride reviews of something different sounds like a typical bait and switch.

JB
JB
11 years ago

@call420 – bikes take quite a while to build, paint, and ship from Taiwan (which is where 90% of the high end bikes come from these days). If you need a demo bike fully finished, painted and built, months before you’re actually going to be shipping bikes, you’ll be using an early production (“design verification” generally) build to do so. It’s off the production tooling and with a production layup, but not necessarily dialed in all the way – maybe it has an extra layer of carbon in an area later analysis decided to remove. Maybe it has internal mandrels that haven’t been completely dialed in yet, so you end up with more resin, increasing the weight of the bike. This is pretty damn common in any production industry, depending on the process.

As for the rear derailleur, it’s likely a painted SLA/Objet/SLS model – visually it will look right, but it’s not production at all. Similar story as the bike, just one step further back in the process!

mtnpdlr
mtnpdlr
10 years ago

Got my Pivot 429 Carbon 2 weeks ago and it is AMAZING!!! Climbs like it’s trying to get out of a racing gate and descends as though it had about an inch more travel…I LOVE THIS BIKE! I’ve got a mix of XT and XTR and I love this thing. The hills around my place are getting torn up by me in a whole new way. Pick a line and feel the bike rail it. The only thing I can add is for anyone considering anything else and hasn’t demo’d the 429 Carbon…try it before you buy ANYTHING else!

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