First Look: Pivot's New Mach 4SL
Pivot has a strong presence in the world of mountain bike racing, with teams in every discipline from downhill to marathon. Today marks an update to Pivot's bike for the latter half of that spectrum, with the third version of their Mach 4SL.
Firmly focused on light weight and responsiveness under power, the team at Pivot is touting the whippet as a World Cup bike that can punch above its weight class. The frames have shaved about 300-400 grams from the previous version, with revised geometry to better handle modern tracks.
Firmly focused on light weight and responsiveness under power, the team at Pivot is touting the whippet as a World Cup bike that can punch above its weight class. The frames have shaved about 300-400 grams from the previous version, with revised geometry to better handle modern tracks.
Mach 4SL Details
• Intended use: XC
• Carbon frame
• Travel: 93 or 103mm (World Cup builds) / 106 or 115mm on all other builds
• 100mm or 120mm fork
• 66.7° head angle (120mm fork)
• Small frame with rear shock (DPS): 1930 grams (4.25lbs)
• Complete bike weight under 23lbs (Size small, XX World Cup build)
• Price: $6,199 - $10,999 USD
• www.pivotcycles.com
• Intended use: XC
• Carbon frame
• Travel: 93 or 103mm (World Cup builds) / 106 or 115mm on all other builds
• 100mm or 120mm fork
• 66.7° head angle (120mm fork)
• Small frame with rear shock (DPS): 1930 grams (4.25lbs)
• Complete bike weight under 23lbs (Size small, XX World Cup build)
• Price: $6,199 - $10,999 USD
• www.pivotcycles.com
Geometry for both the 100mm and 120mm fork variants.
The Mach 4SL comes in a 100 or 120mm fork spec, with fairly significant geometry differences between the two. The head angle goes from 66.7° to 68° when switching from 120 to 100, with an accompanying increase in reach of about 13mm. Seat tube angles are quite slack compared to other current options, sitting at 76° on the 100mm and 74.7° on the 120mm. Chainstays are the same length regardless of frame size, measuring at 432mm. Stack heights grow proportionally with each frame size, which is nice to see as you'll be able to make use of the full advertised reach.
For speeding off into the sunset.
The Mach 4SL continues Pivot's use of the DW-link suspension design, which should continue to offer an active yet efficient ride characteristic. Even at shorter travel numbers, dual link designs can provide pretty solid grip to the rear wheel. Speaking of travel, the rear-wheel travel of the Mach 4SL can be adjusted by a few millimeters with a flip chip on the rocker link. This gives you the choice of 95mm or 103mm on the World Cup builds, and 106mm or 115mm on all other builds.
There are plenty of spec options to choose from, with prices ranging from $6,199 to $11,599 USD. There are two frame colors to choose from: Seafoam Green or Ice Blue.
Ride builds.
Pro builds.
Team builds.
World cup builds.
There are some nice details on the Mach 4SL frame, including a 3-boss mount underneath the top tube, as well as a cleanly tucked away multitool under the bottom bracket. Probably best not to use that as a bash guard, but luckily that should be easy enough if you're sticking to XC terrain. All sizes will fit a large water bottle inside the front triangle, and there's enough room on the medium to XL sizes to carry two water bottles.
Storage.
And tools.
Very much a Lycra bike.
We'll be testing the Mach 4SL on some long and speedy pedals over the course of this summer, so stay tuned to see how it stacks up against the competition. To see how the team felt about the past version of the speedy Pivot, you can head here.
Does not include pet hawk.
For purchasing options and more information on the Pivot Mach 4SL, head over to Pivot's website.
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I wonder if that container is waterproof. Around here that thing would be blasted with water/mud/loam soup, and I'd imagine the multitool would be pretty prone to rusting.
But props to Pivot for designing a XC race bike that doesn't look like 85% of all the others at the starting line.
It would indeed have helped this discussion if the reviewer deliberately smashed the bb area into a rock and checked what failed first, the chainring or the tool. Would it be the chainring (which I expect, to be honest), the discussion would who on earth decided to put a chainring that low and exposed. Would love to see that.
the location in those photos is a bit odd i agree but it can be install on any bottle cage mount (top tube, downtube or in that case under the BB.. mine is located under the toptube which give me a very quick access i love it
Gnarly, what happened?
Everything breaks, that’s ok, but Pivot were total jerks to deal with, which alone is the reason why I’ll never buy one again.
That's very informative. By the looks of it, that 'average saddle height' was chosen such that the angles come out the same for each size. The common assumption is that STA is calculated at stack height, is that what is going on here too?
I want A) specification of that height B) an actual seat angle so that I can at least know what that means for me. My saddle is never at 'average height'.
Another 'fun' trend to see now is brands beginning with a design philosophy of needing a 'steep' seat angle, but being stuck with proprietary linkage designs that mean the only way to achieve this is to market 450mm chainstays as a performance enhancement.
@Linc: the subtle backwards bend in the seat tube just above the lower link has a less subtle effect at saddle topout. The bend could have been even more subtle with minor changes to subframe and rocker. I don't think it's a packaging issue, since their 165mm bike in size Small has 2mm shorter stays
1. Super Boost (I know the Mach 4 is boost, but see reason #2 and 3)
2. Pressfit
3. No frame-only option (I am picky about my parts, have access to some component discounts, and will always build up my own bike)
So I too am riding a Ripley.
I had the previous Mach 4 SL with Live Valve....it was great, but certainly wasn't perfect. After living with it (and racing XC with it) for a year I told myself if I were to get it again I would do without Live Valve.
After 2 years, when it came to sell my Mach 4....I opted for an Ibis Excie. DW Link which I love, non-flex stay which I dig, and options for 2 bottles and a little more updated geo & reach than the previous Mach 4 SL.
Like what Pivot did here based on my experience with the old ones. Curious how easy it is to use the flip-chip in reality to change the travel.....I only skimmed the article, will go back.
So cleanly it will probably be invisible after just a few rides anywhere with actual rocks. Will make a nice frame protector while it lasts, though.
Another bike they just released, the shadowcat is also regular boost. Hopefully they are going away from superboost?
If I had to bet on it, I'd think the slacker / more travel versions will be way more popular even at the WC level.
Had a Switchblade v2 and the rear end was super harsh from the beginning. I'm no Ed Masters but I would crash in weird ways like tiny rock gardens that I have never crashed in before or after this bike. I check my bearings and they felt like i was rotating bearings through huge pieces of sand/rock so I opened up the bearings and put some grease in to see if it would help. It helped a tiny bit but still felt pretty bad so I reached out to Pivot and they don't proceed to give me solutions but tell me that I have basically voided my warranty at this point because I open up the bearings and put grease in. He offered a one time deal of sending me one bearing for free which seemed a bit insulting. I replied with I don't need the bearing if this is how the bearings are supposed to feel and never heard back. Really left a bitter taste in my mouth. I could never get it to feel right although to be fair, I never outright replaced the bearing since it was during the shortages and couldn't really get them.
I'm actually surprised people are talking about how great Pivot's customer service is but I guess everyone misses sometimes.
Correct - I would not use one under the downtube, ever. I never said that I would use that one, so I won't be letting you know how that works in an XC race.
But the horizontal one under the top tube? Sure, that would be fully usable....oh good forbid if a bottle drips a little. My sweat dripping all over my bikes is probably more toxic lol. It would be less of reach to grab one from there, then in a traditional spot where the shock is.
You really think the mount under the top tube is "un-usable".? OK. Fully disagree there.
The bike has 1 usable bottle mount for bottles in an XC race. Just riding around you can stop and switch out the bottle from under the downtube. Using the under the top tube as a bottle mount is not happening.
It sounds like you don't know how to close the opening of a bottle and it leaked out on you, and you are blaming the mount versus your lack of knowledge of how to work a water bottle. lol.
Maybe you should incorporate how to properly close a water bottle into your interval training.
That upside down mounted shock greatly increases service intervals—the internals get bone dry. Irritating that this is the only solution to having a lockout.
What length stem is it designed around?
170 mm rear end? Sure.
~100 mm rear end? Not so much.
The first 40 ( 40th Anniversary editions) were under 23 lbs. Scott Nicol’s size large was 22.69 lbs.
bikerumor.com/limited-edition-ibis-exie-40th-anniversary-bikes-are-built-to-fly-as-light-as-22lbs
There will be an 'actual' new one in 3 years and it'll be what they fully want to send to market.
ups: better geo than before, no headset routing, lighter
downs: still too heavy, upside down shock, some goofy frame bits
How is that the "same bike you can buy now with a UDH?"