Pivot Bikes are here.....

We've taken our first delivery of Pivot bikes in the shape of the 140mm travel Mach 5.5 27.5. A perfect bike for our local Surrey Hills trails but more than capable for the trips away to Wales & beyond. We'll shortly be receiving the Enduro designed Firebird 29 with 170mm travel that has to be ridden to be believed how well it rides. We'll also be receiving the only aluminium bike in the range, the Switchblade 27.5+/29 with 135mm travel a great all round bike & at a slightly more affordable price 

History

Pivot was launched by Chris Cocalis in 2007, after leading Titus Cycles since 1991. He began his career in the bicycle business in Chicago during the early 1980s, working in the retail channel while racing BMX throughout high school. He started racing BMX professionally during his time at Arizona State University, where he majored in accounting, and helped run two successful bike shops in Phoenix.

Pivot's take on why DW Link over Horst Link? 

Horst Link bikes can do amazing things. They are active under braking and active under pedaling plus can be built light, but there are limits. Any 4-bar is constrained to a relatively fixed travel arc. You can change the arc with the pivot locations, but it's still a constant arc. With a dual link bike, there is greater flexibility to change that arc at different points in the travel to optimize certain characteristics at certain points. With the DW-link, Pivot can make the bike pedal better and get increased traction in the beginning part of the travel as well as achieving much better square edge bump performance then a Horst-Link bike. Whilst still maintaining that active feel & keeping braking forces out of the equation.

The other big thing is to increase frame stiffness. With the Horst-Link it is very difficult to make as laterally stiff a rear triangle. With the DW-link Pivots. The one-piece rear triangle and close proximity of the upper and lower links really makes for a stiff and light rear end. The DW-link aspect brings something truly unique to the table. All other innovations aside, DW-link designs don't squat or bob under power and that's a big deal. It's the first design that really takes a riders mass and position into account. Pivot have focused efforts on the travel path, linkage rate, chain torque effect and various other driveline and braking forces on the suspension to get the bike to behave the way we all want it to behave.

That's all very important, but it can all go out the window when a rider stands up and throws all his or her weight and power into the suspension. The shock companies came up with "platform" damping to help keep this at bay. It works and makes a lot of not so good bikes work pretty good, but even the most knowledgeable shock engineers realize that solving one problem with shock valving creates other problems in the way of reduced small bump sensitivity and traction. Dave Weagle takes a different approach by placing the linkages in a position that neutralizes the effects of the rider's mass movements (anti-squat) and allows Pivot to run much lighter shock valving so that the shock works better in bumps of all shapes and sizes while still achieving incredible pedaling performance. 

Carbon frame 

Pivot use the highest level of manufacture with quality & attention to detail paramount, the inside of the frame being as good as the outside, with paint or without. They use Unidirectional carbon fibres, which means the fibres all run in one direction similar to the grain of wood, with fibres being 70 times stronger with the grain than against it. 3K is used at cable ports & additional structures to the frame. This all gives you a stronger stiffer bike. The factory aim for less than 1% return & with such quality Pivot are confident enough to offer a 10 year warranty on their frames. 

Don't just take our word for it, book a demo & find out for yourself....Or follow this link for an independent review Pivot Mach 5.5 review