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The Trail 429 is an all-new short travel trail bike from Pivot Cycles, with 120mm rear travel, a 130-140mm travel fork, and the option to run 29in or 27.5+ wheels.
Wil went out to Moab in Utah to test out the new bike on the rocky singletrack of Mag 7 and Portal, and you check out the full tech feature here: https://singletrackworld.com/2018/05/first-ride-review-the-pivot-cycles-trail-429/
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hello everyone my name is will and I'm
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the technical editor for a single track
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magazine and single track WorldCom and
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I'm currently a Moab in Utah on a pivot
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cycles launch now the bike that we're
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here to ride is called the trail four to
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nine you've probably heard that name
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before and it's because it's an existing
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model in the pivot cycles lineup called
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the Mach 4 to 9 trail pivot have decided
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to simplify the name to trail four to
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nine in order to better differentiate
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this bike from the Mach 4 to 9 SL which
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is a race bike this on the other hand is
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a straight up 29 inch short travel trail
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bike now it does have some similarities
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to the existing Mach 4 to 9 trail but
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there are a whole load of differences as
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well it still uses 29 inch wheels but we
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have had a slight boost in travel on the
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back from 116 to 120 millimeters up
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front we have a 130 millimeter travel
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fork though there is the capability of
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running 140 if you so choose in addition
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to that there is 27.5 + compatibility so
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you can run this bike with 29 inch
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wheels with tires up to two point six
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inch wide and you can run it with 27.5
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inch plus wheels with tires up to three
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inches wide so there's a huge amount of
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clearance in the backend either four
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plus rubber or four British riders for
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mud so plenty of room in the back end
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now geometry on this bike some of the
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numbers are fairly similar to the
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existing Mach 4 to 9 trail and others
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have changed quite a bit so up front
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we've gone a little bit slacker 67 point
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three degree head angle on the seat
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angle that's actually got steeper to 74
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degrees
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the reach has grown quite a lot so the
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medium that I'm riding here has a 440
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millimeter reach so quite healthy gives
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the bike a nice long front center with
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that slack head angle for for a trail
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bike of this amount of travel there will
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be five frame sizes available in the new
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trail four to nine from extra small
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through to extra large and perhaps
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impressively all of them will take a
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water bottle inside the front triangle
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which is a pretty neat feature one
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exciting thing about this bike is it is
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one by specific now there are a lot of
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trail bikes on the market that are one
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by specific but for pivot cycles with
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the exception of the phoenix downhill
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bike all of their by
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we'll take a front dérailleur but the
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trail four to nine does not by going one
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by specific they've been able to beefing
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up the DW link suspension design that
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lower link down the bottom is much wider
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and as a result much stiffer the DW link
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system on the back is very similar to
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the current Mach 5.5 in terms of its
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layout it's designed to provide a really
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nice firm efficient pedaling platform
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without any need to flip levers on the
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shock it's a very very efficient design
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but it's still designed to be active on
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the small/medium at big hits as well now
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one of the other changes with the trail
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four to nine is slightly controversial
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the change to super boost + pacing which
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is also featured on pivots existing
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switchblade model now pivot have gone
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for the super boost + spacing in order
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to facilitate that huge amount of tire
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clearance on the back whilst also
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keeping the chain stays quite short
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we've got four hundred and twenty nine
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millimeter chain stay lengths on the
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back and to do that they've gone with
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that 157 millimeter wide hub so nice and
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wide relative to a standard boost with
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hub which is one hundred and forty eight
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millimeters wide in terms of the
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complete bikes on the twenty nine inch
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models we've got rims with thirty
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millimeter wide internal rim width we're
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running tires from axis these are 2.4
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inch wide trail tires so they're
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designed specifically for those wider
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rims for the cockpit we've got 45
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millimeter long stem and a 760
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millimeter wide handlebar and that's
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consistent across every size range
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except for the extra small which goes a
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bit shorter on the stem and a little
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narrower on the hand over the grips our
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WTB padlock so they've got that nice
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soft end to them and that actually adds
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a little bit of extra weight by the time
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you account for the grips it's slightly
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wider than 770 millimeters so nice and
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wide for a bike of this amount of travel
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so how does it ride well the trails have
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been riding today here in Moab you may
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be familiar with we've been riding mag 7
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and portal which are very technical very
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rocky trails that have been putting this
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bike to its absolute limits one thing I
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can say is this bike climbs incredibly
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well that DW link suspension design is
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very very efficient which is not exactly
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a surprise given it's a pivot their
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suspension design always feels very very
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firm under power
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there's very little energy loss when
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you're pedaling along and that's true
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for this trail four to nine perhaps the
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the most surprising thing is on the
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technical climb so the suspension is
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still active and that means on big
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slabby rocky chunky kind of climbs that
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we've been going up this bike is able to
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to skip and hop its way up really really
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well it's quite low in the cockpit
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there's the head tube is nice and short
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with the hidden lower head set there as
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well and that means it's quite easy to
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get over the front end of the bike to
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lift it up over rocks and and keep it
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moving on the climbs on the descents
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we've definitely been using all 120
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millimeters of travel the the trails
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have been riding today have pushed this
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bike to the limits but I've been very
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very surprised what I've been able to
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get away with it's never bottomed out
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harshly it's certainly used all of the
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travel on multiple occasions but it
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handles those big rapid hits
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surprisingly well and I guess that's a
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sign of a really well sort of chassis
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nice stable geometry but also a
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fantastic suspension design that that
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handles those those big impacts with
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with very little fanfare so been very
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impressed so far with the the trail 429
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and how versatile has been for riding
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extremely technical terrain now if you'd
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like to read more about my first
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impressions of this new short travel
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29er trail bike from pivot cycles jump
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on singletrack WorldCom to read all
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about it
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thanks guys turu
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