So, after teasing the world with a Pivot Switchblade slide on its homepage, Pivot Cycles has today launched the Switchblade. As many of our forum users predicted/suspected, the bike offers compatibility for both 29in (by 2.4in) and 27.5+ (by 3.25in) tyres on an aggressive geometry, 135mm rear travel frame that’s compatible with a 150/160mm fork. It also is the first bike to feature Super Boost 157.

‘Wait, did you say Super Boost 157?’

The bike boasts class-leading 428mm dropouts by using a (ready for this?) Super Boost 157mm rear end. This is a downhill standard hub spacing, but the chainring is pushed out from the bike centreline by 6mm (rather than the 3mm for ‘normal’ Boost (I can’t believe I’m typing that – Ed)

Other features – well, it’s carbon of course as you might expect, the claimed weight is 6.4lbs with shock in a medium. There is a 17mm headset cup extension included with each frame to increase the BB height (and thus reduce pedal strikes etc) in 27.5+ mode, or slacken the head angle in 29in mode (it’s never quite as simple as just swapping wheels…)

The Switchblade incorporates a Phoenix DH-inspired double wishbone rear triangle – the same design used in the Mach 6 Carbon. Suspension is still the well-proven DW-Link design, offering 135mm rear travel. Like the Mach6 and the Mach4 carbon, there is full cable and hose management on hand with every compatible bolt-on port and blanking plate you might need supplied with the the frame/bike. In a rare move for these times, there’s full (bolt on) front mech compatibility.

Tyre clearance on the new bike is certainly impressive – with room for 3.25in on a 27in wheel and 2.4 or even 2.5in on a 29er. Interestingly (for a company based in the Arizona desert) Pivot says of wheel choice “You can run your racy 27.5 X 2.8 tyres in the summer and then step up to something much wider in
bad weather to extend your riding season or just plow through the mud on your 29er wheels with confidence knowing that the Switchblade can handle it all.”
We’re not sure we’d want to go wider in bad weather (unless Pivot only means snow), as the current crop of Plus tyres in the mud are the worst handling things in the world – nor have we heard of ‘racy’ 2.8in tyres, but hey, they’re American and things are all bigger over there, right?

So there we go. There are a couple of test bikes floating around in the UK at the moment and we’re sure that we’ll get a better look at the bike at next month’s PressCamp in the US, but the bike is very new and there are no UK dates or prices floating around at the moment. We’ll let you know when we know. In the meantime, what do you reckon? Long travel 29 is back! (Or did it never go away?) And what about the Plus size compatibility? And what about Boost Plus? We can hear the keyboards being mashed from here. Just remember, it uses ‘normal’ 157 downhill hubs that already exist, OK?

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