Thanks to Reynolds Cycling’s crew and the Pivot Cycles Facebook page, we got these pics of the Pivot Factory Team trying out their new 650B DH bikes with those prototype Reynolds Black Label DH wheels.
The design departs from the current Phoenix DH by putting the shock in a horizontal position, being compressed toward the head tube. This mimics virtually all of Pivot’s bikes, save for the Firebird 27.5 introduced last spring. It should make for a drastically simpler seat tube and bottom bracket junction, though the seat tube is still heavily formed to accommodate the DW Link movement.
Speaking of the links, this new design does away with the upper rocker arm, instead driving the shock directly from the upper linkage. You can see how the pivots are placed in this post on the Mach 6, but positioning is likely tweaked for this bike.
Another immediately noticeable change is the much lower rear triangle height. We’re thinking the bike will have a lower total weight and lower center of gravity. Be curious to see if they’re still eking out 8.15″ of rear wheel travel. Maybe that’s why they wanted that new WTB High Tail saddle.
That fork is the new X-Fusion RV1, introduced at Sea Otter last year along with a 180mm single crown counterpart. The new bike will be ridden by Eliot Jackson, Micayla Gatto and Bernard Kerr on the World Cup circuit.
The presumably outgoing Phoenix’s suspension design used a vertical shock and rocker arm with some serious metal work to make it all fit.
If we had to guess, the final design will be shown by Sea Otter. More as we get it.
