The wheels of the Pivot Shadowcat may be small but the standover is massive. And rocking a 160mm fork up front – with 140mm rear travel – the capability should be fairly large too.
27.5in wheel bikes are seemingly a rarity these days. Where does this new Shadowcat from Pivot fit in?
It’s a 140mm travel DW-link bike, rolling on 27/5in wheels, sporting a 160mm travel fork.
After scratching our collective head for a while, and sifting through the marketing material with our best hype-translation skills, we reckon the Shadowcat is not for average mountain bikers.
What do we mean by that? Crudely put, it’s for short riders. Yet it’s also for highly skilled riders who like to spend as little time as possible with both wheels on the ground.
Jumping, manualing, jibbing, wheelying, playing.
The Shadowcat doesn’t appear to be a mountain bike for average/typical/regular/normal* mountain bikers. That ship sailed a long time ago. And it had 29in wheels (if ships can have wheels).
*pick whichever offends least
Regarding height, the Pivot Shadowcat claims to fit riders from 4ft 10in (XSmall) up to 6ft 3in (Large). Although the latter sports a modest 480mm reach which, again, suggests to us the bike is clearly intended for maximum wheels-off-the-ground riders.
Anyhoo. We’re endeavouring to get someone on to one of these Pivot Shadowcats next week. Stay tuned!
No doubt everything we’ve just pontificated about will turn out to be complete bobbins.
Here are a few choice snippets from the PR material to be going on with…
Pivot Shadowcat
“Delivering inspiration and confidence to beginners and at the same time giving pros the creative weaponry they need to push their riding to the next level.”
“A new frame that weighs less than our impressively light Trail 429 frame. Heck, the Shadowcat’s carbon front and rear triangle weigh only 45 grams more than our featherlight Mach 4SL. We’re replacing the beloved Mach 5.5 with a 140mm ripper of a bike that weighs less than a lot of dedicated XC machines.”
“One word perfectly sums up the design goal of the Shadowcat: FUN.”
Integrated headset cup. Boost 148mm.
Vertical shock mount allows: a more compact frame design, better Fox Live integration, excellent water bottle clearance, incredibly low stand-over height.
“Independent strength to weight analysis for each frame achieves consistent performance metrics … Custom-tuned carbon scales stiffness across all sizes, ensuring optimal ride characteristics for all rider profiles”
Pricing ranges from $6,199 (Race XT) up to $13,599 (Team XX1 AXS Live Valve).
UK distributors Upgrade Bikes will be bringing in two models:
Shadowcat Pro XT/XTR w/ Carbon Wheel Upgrade, £8,850.00
Shadowcat Pro XT/XTR, £7,500.00
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