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One Ride Review: The quite capable Pivot Mach 429 Trail

pivot mach 429 trail mountain bike review
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pivot mach 429 trail mountain bike review

The first 29er I ever rode was the Pivot Mach 429. It was at a demo day in Charlotte, NC, well before Bikerumor was a twinkling in my eye, and it hooked me. Immediately after that test loop, I rode the 26″ version and felt slow and clumsy. Twenty niners were it from then on out for me.

Now, almost a decade later, I hopped on the latest and greatest version of it, the Mach 429 Trail. Compared to the standard Mach 429, the “Trail” version adds 16mm of rear wheel travel (116mm total) and pairs it with a 120-130mm fork (up from 100mm for the more XC/race 429). We rolled out on the Shultz Creek trails in Flagstaff, AZ, to see what it could do…

pivot mach 429 trail mountain bike review

The Mach 429 Trail uses a DW Link suspension design, which is perhaps the most inherently efficient suspension system I’ve ridden. It climbs like a goat and sprints like a cheetah, both of which are enhanced by the ultra stiff carbon frame.

pivot mach 429 trail mountain bike review

The bike now uses a Boost rear end, which lets it also run 27.5+ tires up to 2.8 on 40mm rims. Max tire size for 29ers is 2.35 to 2.4 depending on rim width, but the bike comes stock with 2.2 and the safe recommendation is topping out at 2.3. I rode it as a 29er in the XT/XTR trim with Fox 34 Boost fork and DPS rear shock.

pivot mach 429 trail mountain bike review

Everything pivots on Enduro Max cartridge bearings with cold forged alloy linkages. Check out our Pivot HQ tour for a look at how those are made and prototyped.

pivot mach 429 trail mountain bike review

pivot mach 429 trail mountain bike review

Under the downtube and on the driveside chainstay are rubberized leather frame guards. They’re molded to fit the frame perfectly and retain access to cable guides and ports. The frame is ready for anything (Di2, standard, SideSwing, 1x, 2x) thanks to a modular cable port system. Most everything is run externally on the bottom of the downtube for easy maintenance, with stealth dropper posts entering just in front of the BB shell.

pivot mach 429 trail mountain bike review

My size XL frame gets an appropriately tall headtube. If I were riding it long term, I’d have put a slightly longer stem on it and flipped it to bring the cockpit a bit lower. Other than that, the bike fit really well for my 6’2″ frame of fairly average proportions. Pivot’s size guide puts the Large at fitting riders up to 6’2″ and the XL at 6’2″ and taller, so if you’re on the fence, try to test ride both.

Before wrapping up my ride thoughts, it’s worth showing off what a pro can do on this “short” travel trail 29er. Pivot rider Bernard Kerr simply shreds it at Peaslake in Surrey Hills, UK:

pivot mach 429 trail mountain bike review

Our ride consisted of flowing through Shultz Creek, up Brookbank, ripping down Sunset and then finishing back to the car on Shultz Creek again. It was about a two hour ride (including stops to talk and take in the view) and a good test. Techy rock-and-root strewn climbs really highlighted the bike’s ability to simultaneously avoid pedal bob while absorbing bumps under power to maintain traction. That was probably the most impressive part of its performance.

A close second was the frame stiffness. It holds everything where it needs to be, making for a predictable ride, but never felt “dead”. Not quite as “lively” as some other frames, but if I had to err on either side of that equation, I’d lean towards the stiffer frame. As for Boost wheels, yes, they continue to impress. As a package, the 429 Trail inspired confidence down grin-inducing groomed descents and over rock gardens. This is a bike I’d like to spend more time on.

Pivot has east coast, west coast and European demo vans with a schedule on their website if you’d like to try one.

PivotCycles.com

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Frank
Frank
8 years ago

Would you say it climbs better than a similar hardtail? I’m curious how it would handle technical climbs, like the rocks and roots of Upper Brookbank.

Tyler
8 years ago
Reply to  Frank

Frank, I’ve never felt a full suspension that gets as firm as a hardtail, but my hardtail (a Niner AIR9 RDO) doesn’t soak up the bumps like this (or any full suspension), so there’s times when I have to pay more attention to keeping the rear end planted to avoid bouncing or slipping. My preference is full suspension for most every ride, and on the particular climb mentioned in this review, yes, I’d say it climbed better than a hardtail would have on the same root/rock section. It was pretty bumpy, with a lot of little step ups, angled bump ups, etc., and the Mach 429T simply cruised through all of it. I’m pretty sure that was part of Brookbank, but not the excessively steep hike-a-bike section. I also think the larger 29er wheels played some part in its climbing prowess as they just rolled over all of it. Overall it it was very impressive.

elvis
elvis
8 years ago

Have one and am pretty happy. Use it for some of the burly marathons, I’ve had mine down to ~24 lbs w/ i9 ultralites and 2.2″ rubber. Pretty damn happy, with only gripe being the external routing.

Marin
Marin
8 years ago

See you’re running XL one like I am. Great bike, really amazing ride and very capable.
I’ve done 2000km in about 2 months.
Having gone from Trance Advanced SX 27.5 to 429T, I have no regrets.
27.5″ is inferior to a good 29er in every respect, at least for my height (~190cm).

429 Trail has been the best bike I have ever ridden and the only one I can’t fault at anything.
Fox Factory suspension is better than Pike/Monarch+ in my experience.

The only thing I changed had been the rims. I exchanged M1700 for DT XM481s die to denting the rear rims and it’s been going strong for over 2 months now.

BryGuy
BryGuy
8 years ago
Reply to  Marin

The Hightower and Jeffsy are both longer travel bikes than the Trail. If you are after less XC geometry you should check out the Pivot Switchblade.

fiddlestixob
8 years ago

i like the 429 trail – rear suspension is quite good and the bike is in fact quite good altogether – but – its still very xc-ish geo. sorta like better the slacker 29’ers around like the hightower, jeffsy, etc.

joby
joby
8 years ago

Digging my 429T, had it since October. It’s a super-capable ride and after riding a Switch Blade, definitely going to get some 27+ wheels to switch up the pace. I’ve climbed with the lockouts fully on and off and usually ride full open.

Tom
Tom
8 years ago

Nice to see a 120 bike that retains a nimble geometry. My Fuel EX is similar in that regard, and I love it. The 429T would be my second choice, without a doubt.

lonbob
lonbob
8 years ago

Nice bike but I can’t get past that external routing. Not sure why they don’t at least do it on the top side of the downtube

JB
JB
8 years ago

External routing looks crap, but besides the dropper post internal routing (which this has), serves very little practical purpose, and makes replacing cables and housings a bitch. Not to mention adding to frame cost.

Just test ride one today, and was quite impressed. I wasn’t sold on 29ers with the 429 5 years ago, but this one won me over. A back to back with my 5.7carbon clearly showed the faster bike, and it wasn’t much less nimble either. I’ll be curious to try out some competitors with a bit more aggressive geometry (the tallboy being on top of the list), but for the trails/ style I ride, this bike seems damn near perfect for everything but the occasional DH day.

Graeme
Graeme
8 years ago

External routing on the BOTTOM of the downtube makes cleaning mud off unnecessarily difficult… I wish they’d done something different for this bike

elvis
elvis
8 years ago
Reply to  Graeme

The 3rd hand info from Chris is that they did it to save ~$500/frame which with the exchange rate for the Euro would/could have severely impacted sales. Not my words

Marin
Marin
8 years ago

External routing is great if you have to do any work on the bike.
It also prevents rattling inside the frame and instead of using custom cable covers that are hard to find if you lose them after few years, you just need zip ties.

Graeme
Graeme
8 years ago
Reply to  Marin

I agree! Can we just have external routing on the TOP of the downtube!? Might be a little tricky to do on this frame though. Running it on the seatstay (like Santa Cruz does) would probably be ok, although it might interfere with the water bottle?

Jacu
Jacu
8 years ago

I would have bought this frame ten times already if not for the huge headtube in XL size. Not many options if you like a short stem and need the get the cockpit a bit lower…

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