RR1

@DetroitCity: You make a lot of assumptions about me....but you are really clueless. And you are talking in caps now too, wow, that must mean you are very a knowledgeable subject matter expert here. 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.

@DetroitCity: Yes I know where the bottle mounts are, I read the article, but thank you for pointing out where they are for me again. 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.

Read the article, and look close -- It CAN hold 2 water bottles in the front triangle (on medium to XL sizes)

The Mach 4 SL never had SuperBoost. It's always been a 148 rear end. Only the bigger travel bikes were ever SuperBoost.

@hughbm: The second bottle cage is in a non-traditional spot...it's underneath the top tube, near the seatstay junction.

You may have missed the parts where: 1) they dropped nearly a pound (.9) of weight (size depending), added some reach, now have a 66.7 HA with the 120mm fork options which is a lot different than your 2020. And also can carry 2 bottles in the front triangle which is also different than your 2020. How is that the "same bike you can buy now with a UDH?"

Smart move ditching options for super expensive Live Valve and replacing where the controller box (or whatever it's called) would go with mounts for possible second water bottle cage. 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.

I must have warranty 3 or 4 Next cranks over the years due to pedal inserts. Never had an issue with RF honoring warranty... no clue if it was hassle or not as my local bike shop (RF dealer) took care of it all. Sure it was hassle being without a crank for a bit but they always honored warranty for me. That said, I got super sick of breaking crank arms...finally invested in eeWings and now all good and never have to deal with breaking anything (yet) or warranty (hopefully never again).

Same. Wearing mine right now. Still looks good as new after 6 or 7 years....so that $300 or whatever stretches out over time.....

So great.! ... "Something tells me this Pidcock guy would be pretty good at mountain biking as well..." I think when he won World Cup MTB races, the rest of the world realized that too.