Pivot Cycles has updated their XC and trail bikes, dropping weight and increasing stiffness while modernizing the spec.
Starting with their original bike, the totally redesigned Mach 4 gets a tapered head tube and all-new frame. They did away with the bracket that used to bridge the top- and seat tubes. Now, they have a swoopy hydroformed top tube that’s larger in diameter and uses a new shock mount (more on that in a minute). But that’s only the beginning.
The Mach 5 gets renamed the Mach 5.7 to reflect it’s increase in travel, now at 145mm…and its frame gets a lot lighter thanks to some nice new touches.
Check it all out, along some sweet color options, after the break…
Visually, the biggest differences are the bell-shaped tapered headtube and flowing top tube. Travel stays at 100mm.
They switched to high modulus UD carbon fiber for the rocker arm. Because getting the sag set correctly on a DW-Link suspension design is critical to the bike’s performance, Pivot includes a custom sag indicator attached to the rear shock.
They removed the larger forged bridge on the chainstays (not visible) and redesigned it with a lighter tubular cross brace that makes a better use of the space and improved stiffness. The seatstay bridge remains lean and machined.
The bottom bracket remains a BB92 set up.
The result of all the changes is a frame that’s 5/8 of a pound lighter, 20% stiffer and a good bit better looking.
What that means in the real world is that their top of the line XX- and carbon DT Swiss wheel equipped version weighs in at a 22lb 4oz weight. Pivot says sponsored rider (and 24 Hour Solo Champion) Jason English’s race bike weighs in at 20lb even.
The new Mach 5.7 replaces the Mach 5 with a travel increase. It also dropped a half a pound from the frame, got stiffer thanks to a bit shorter rear triangle with new forged vertical brace and revised top tube like the Mach 4. It also gets a new carbon rocker arm and tapered head tube too. Overall geometry is a bit slacker, in line with the longer travel it brings to the table.
A new feature shared between these two bikes is the new shock tab on the top tubes. They’re new one-piece designs that build in the cable stops (see below) and replace the old two-piece version. This adds strength and drops weight
While Pivot doesn’t make womens specific frames, they do make some pretty small sizes, as short as a 14.25″ seat tube on their XXS Mach 4, as well as some very pretty colors like the light pink shown already, this hot pink and black and the baby blue below.
The Mach 429 29er doesn’t get much in the way of frame updates other than an oversized headtube that’s capable of housing Cane Creek’s XX headset to allow the use of tapered steerer forks.
