Founder of Pivot Cycles, Chris Cocalis, and Pivot Factory Racing extraordinaire, Ed Masters, walk you through the all-new Switchblade. They touch on all the updates, tech specs, and features of the Switchblade and the next step in evolution for all-mountain bikes.
Founder of Pivot Cycles, Chris Cocalis, and Pivot Factory Racing extraordinaire, Ed Masters, walk you through the all-new Switchblade. They touch on all the updates, tech specs, and features of the Switchblade and the next step in evolution for all-mountain bikes.
Pivot Cycles All About Bikes (00:03)
Pivot was founded in 2007 and our development team around Chris Cocalis has gone full force since then. This means we constantly improve our bikes to elevate the riding experience to the next level. Today we level up a model which hasn't even been in the portfolio since the beginning of Pivot, but had a major influence on the Enduro and trail bike segment, the Switchblade. The newest version offers 160-142mm of travel and besides you can't oversee this bike because of its glowing hot...
neon pink color and is maybe the best example to explain what is going on under the hood of pivot bikes and give an insight on the attention to detail we all love on our pivot bikes. My name is Jens Staudt, your host for today. With me is the mind behind the switchblade Chris Cocalis and also a very special guest and team rider Eddie Masters. Welcome Chris, welcome Eddie. Thanks Jens. Thanks for having me. So, Eddie, what have you been up to?
Yeah, it's been a bit of radio silence for me for the last two months or so, because yeah, 2023 as a race season for me didn't really go as planned, unfortunately. Nothing like major, but just picked up two injuries that sidelined me for probably half the season, if not more, which is never something that's that fun to go through. I'm basically, I'm just coming out of the black hole.
the black injury hole tunnel now where I've just started riding again. Yeah. Back on the bike and back starting to prepare for the coming year. But yeah, it's been a slow, basically I, I crashed into a rock that was on the inside of a corner at the Ludenville EWS and it was really unlucky, ripped a turn and there was this boulder on the inside and I just plowed my hand into it. So I didn't really,
I didn't really, I felt a little hard done by cause I've, I had an x.
I didn't feel like I'd made a mistake. It was just should have, would have, could have, but did quite a lot of damage to my fifth metacarpal. And when you think of a pinky, it's, you know, you'd like, oh, broken finger. Well, mine's the knuckle, but, you know, I didn't think it would be as complicated as it has been, but when you break a small bone into lots of pieces, it takes quite a while for it to come right. And then, so I've had a couple of surgeries because my pinky was essentially fused for a little bit. And now I've got it to the point where
through a lot of physio and rehab, we've got it back working normally again. So pretty pumped on that because it's been quite a frustrating road when, especially when you think that, you know, that things are gonna kind of be pretty quick and easy. When I did it, I was, you know, it's straight away counting the weeks of, you know, I could be racing Snowshoe and Mont-Saint-Anne, but that wasn't to be the case. But yeah, so.
Pretty stoked to be out of that cloud and back in business. I don't know when this has dropped, but we've just gonna be, the next race for me will be, we're gonna be doing hard line in Tasmania. So, you know, there's a bit of nervous apprehension, but I've been to hard line before and I'm quite excited to go to a new course and tackle that with everyone. So that'll be cool. And Bernie's heading over in a few weeks to test out the jumps. So I'm sure he'll make sure that they're all doable.
Hopefully and then yeah, just getting got a good summer on the cards Spend a lot of time at home I was really quite fired up last year because the way this season worked was gonna be able to race pretty much all But one of the World Cups and then this year as well. We've got we can race quite a few World Cups So hoping to spend a chunk of time getting ready getting up to speed on the downhill bike because I think in the past
been super beneficial, especially when it comes to enduro racing, when I've, when I've spent more time on the downhill bike. So I'm looking forward to that. Hopefully swing a leg over the, um, the new downhill bike at some point. And, um, we're making some new ones for you right now, man. I can't wait. Like I love, I love the old bike, but, uh, it's, it's like when you. Yeah. It's like you've got a mistress or something. And
You know what's out there. But yeah, and then hopefully, hoping the young pivot guys are gonna, cause they're hoping to come out to Queenstown So it'd be cool to get the whole team together in our backyard and really show them a good time down in New Zealand and do a bit of, do, you know, spend a bit of time testing with those guys. And cause I think they've got a real good shot at pulling some big results this year. So it'd be cool to like get involved and help them out. So yeah, all good things.
Most importantly, just over the moon to be back turning some pedals. You really, I know they say absence makes the heart grow fonder, but it is actually true. You're like, put me, put me in the game coach. That's, that's what I've been up to. And then, Bernhardt's back. So he'll be, he'll be cracking the whip and putting us to work.
And you, you had been able to turn the pedals and you had been turning the pedals on a new bike.
just recently, right? I have been turning the pedals on a new bike and I'm very lucky. Yeah, it's funny. It's twice my comeback from injury. Steed has been a switch, a new Switchblade I think that's great for rehab and also mental health having a bike like that. There had been many exclamation points in your first message after riding this bike. Yeah, I was thinking about that when you said it with the exclamation points and I was...
The new Switchblade puts an exclamation mark on whatever you're riding. And I think, you know, the version before I'd been pretty vocal with it being my favorite bike in the pivot range. It's hard to pick a favorite, but if you have to pick a favorite, that's the one that I find myself going back to. And when I think about that, I'm like, oh, why is the Switchblade my favorite? And yeah, it's for that reason, is because it bangs a few exclamation marks on whatever form.
you know, or whatever style of trail you're riding. And you just get so much enjoyment out of it. So when I got the opportunity to ride this new Switchblade, sometimes I struggle to give feedback in the sense that like, oh, it's already really good. He's done it again. He's made it even better. So congratulations, Chris. You've pulled the wool over my eyes yet again.
I'm kind of coming back from injury. I haven't had months and months on the bike or anything like that but from the get-go, so comfy. Didn't even have it really set up as my bike but just out of the box. I was like wow, blown away. Get to the bottom of the trail, fire out. I texted Walker and I was like new Switchy goes good. So yeah, when you're giving instant feedback to your teammates about the new bike it means it's pretty bloody good so couldn't be more happy.
And I think the love affair that I've got with the Switchblade will continue for a bit longer. That's awesome. Yeah. Chris, you mentioned it. The team rider mostly is most vocal about stuff that he doesn't like. And it's nice thing to actually hear so much praise as a first feedback, I guess, right? Yeah. I mean, when there's something wrong with a bike, even the last, when we were developing the Firebird through its iterations for the team, the last generation of the Firebird...
When I asked him what we could change to make better, he's like, Oh no, it's, it's pretty much perfect. You know, it's kind of our job to look at both things that happen with the mechanics and the team during the season and us not being riders, the level of Eddie of what could make everyone go faster. And if it helps me go faster at my limit, everybody knows Eddie, you kind of ride at the hairy edge some of the time or a lot of the time.
You know if we can kind of bring that edge in a little bit for you or move it out actually then we're doing the job Totally. It's always funny when you ask us for feedback I always feel like I'm like the worst person at giving feedback because I'm like glass half full with With most things and I remember that conversation we had with the with the Firebird and I was like And still to this day the old iteration of the Firebird is I reckon one of the best bikes
that you can get. I just couldn't see how you could make it better because you get so comfortable on something and then you go and make it better. And I'm like, how? It's hard to put it into words because not having the engineering background or, you know, I don't have a super solid understanding of suspension kinematics. I just say what I feel and you go, yeah, it feels good. And then you get the new one and you're like, yeah, it feels better.
Yeah, it's like, again, you guys seem to nail it year in, year out. It's very impressive and we're pretty lucky to have that kind of stuff. So thanks. Yeah. When you talk about the old Firebird and the new Firebird and making it better in the old Switchblade and the new Switchblade, when we kind of look back at the entire evolution of Pivot and this all mountain...
aggressive trail and enduro category of bikes that Firebird that you rode the previous generation was really a double duty bike. It worked almost in the switchblade realm, but then had to handle the world's toughest EWS courses. And you liked that bike probably because of some of the ride characteristics that it had of the switchblade, but that didn't necessarily make it.
the fastest, most purposeful enduro bike on the planet. So we evolved that bike. Yeah, that does make sense. Yeah, and gave you something more that could go faster and take hits better and had a little bit more travel and just advance that bike. The Switchblade was great in its own right for what we were riding, but it actually, in some ways, we kind of had an opening now to, hate to say, make the Switchblade a little bit more enduro, but make it...
more capable of the things that the previous generation Firebird were capable of. But in a lighter package with a little bit less travel and that's kind of what we achieved with that and we'll go more into the details of that and everything. But yeah, it's basically in a short sentence taking everything that was great about the old switchblade and just making the bike more capable.
in higher speed and more technical situations and honestly in climbing as well. I got that when I initially rode it as well. I mean the first ride I did was 20 minute descent that went through like flow trail, some rough like downhill stuff back into some flow trail and then into like a bit more of a technical kind of jump track. Without knowing what you've changed, it felt a lot more comfortable at speed. All those things you said.
you could kind of like tick the box on what I was feeling as well. So that's pretty cool. Nice. One thing is noticeable about this new model in the lineup. It has not only the regular two colors, the pivot blue, we always will have, and the black one, which the Germans want. And we also have a hot neon pink version and then hot neon pink version also has... Which Eddie wants. Ah, that's fine too.
Yeah, yeah. It has not Eddie written on it, but Talon and Talon goes a little bit back in history, not to the start of Pivot in 2007, but all the way 35 years back. So Chris enlightened us about 35th anniversary edition switchblade because this bike didn't exist back then. Pivot didn't exist, my previous company Titus didn't exist. Before that, me and a couple of friends had a small company called
Sun Eagle Bicycle Works. This year marks 35 years since I brazed my first frame and it was a fully brazed chromoly frame with elevated chainstays and had some pretty innovative ideas for the time frame. There was something called a height right that was the precursor to a dropper post, little spring-loaded mechanism that went on the back of your seat post.
because we had more full-size pumps. It fit two water bottle cages and inside of a fairly complex front triangle and just had a lot of cool things going on it. It was truly a hand-built backyard project. I fit all the tubes by hand using hand files. I drew up the blueprints on a one-to-one drawing and laid each tube on it while we were fitting everything up. And yeah, it was just a cool project. I think there's probably...
I don't think we got to a dozen frames out there in the world. I took that bike to Mountain Bike Action. It was featured in a Bikes of the Future article, I believe in 1988 or 1999, alongside several Mantis bikes. Richard Cunningham, formerly of Mountain Bike Action and Pink Bike, was the founder of Mantis Bikes and he invented the elevated chainstay design. So it's pretty cool to have a Bikes of the Future article with my bike and then his bike there as well.
limited edition Talon version of the new Switchblade. It has the same colorway and graphic design as my original Talon and we thought the Switchblade would be a perfect bike to pay tribute to the original Talon. Back then it was really designed to be the ultimate all-mountain bike in 1988 but we didn't even have suspension back then. There was Rockshox but that bike didn't even have a suspension fork on it. Can I dare you into riding
one of those old bikes down National Trail? No, no freaking way. I'd bet Eddie to do it, but I don't want to... I would love to. There is still one alive in your R&D department sitting, right? Yeah, my original frame, I believe I took it apart to build one of my first Titus frames.
around 1989, 1990. And that frame has just been sitting in my garage and now here at Pivot for all that time. And in this last year, when we're working on this project, I was able to pull together all the period correct parts and reassemble the entire bike. And then I rode it around the parking lot. And honestly, I don't know how the hell I rode that thing on trails that are still considered to be highly technical trails today.
Even just dropping off a curb or trying to do a wheelie, it's just terrifying. And back then I couldn't find 150 millimeter stems. So I think I have a 135 on it, but back then I wrote it with 150 millimeter stem. Think about that. That's insane. That's almost the travel of the suspension fork on the new switchblade. Was it hard to source the parts? You know, one of our dealers, Absolute Bikes in Colorado,
He has a pretty much a museum in his shop of the history of mountain biking and he'll take trade-ins from people and he had a brand new Fuji that I don't think ever really got even ridden a little nubs on the tires. Tires were totally dry rotted, but it was a bike from around 1990 1991 that looked like it rolled off the showroom floor and he gave me that bike and all the parts.
mostly all the parts just transferred right over. My bike still had a one inch tier and that bike had an inch and an eighth. So I think the bike was maybe two years newer than the original Talon. But everything else, other than sourcing that stem, I was able to just take from one bike to the other and move it all over. If you go fast forward to 16 out of the 80s, in 2016, we introduced the pivot Switchblade. It was the first iteration. It had...
135 mil of travel had the option to run two different wheel sizes. 650 plus was a thing. We introduced super boost plus on it. It was a game changer also for rear triangles and the overall bike, it contains so much technology in it. In 2016, even mountain bike action said it's the bike that almost every rider need. This is the switchblade. Bicycling gave it the editor's choice award. So today.
35 years of bike development later, and the bike doesn't look that much different. There's a lot of small details that add up to big changes overall. And sometimes it's just best not to mess too much with a good thing. And we've always been an evolutionary company. So even when you saw the first version of the Switchblade go from the shock mounted underneath the top tube to a vertical shock and...
from the outside world that looks like, oh, radical new suspension design. But we moved some linkages around, but kinematically, it wasn't all that different. It was an evolution of what we had been doing. And same thing with this bike. You know, the design difference doesn't look as radical, but when you add it all up, the new bike is a substantial improvement over the last generation. So the biggest visual difference of the new Switchblade
is certainly the flatter top tube. We kind of introduced that a little bit with the Shuttle SL and the new Switchblade gets that same type of look. It gives a little bit more standover clearance on the bike and a little bit more water bottle clearance and just gives a nice sleaker line from front to back of the bike. But it's the details that aren't quite so obvious that makes for such big performance gain overall on the bike. We've got the typical things. When the last
the next evolution of our geometry, but since then, other bikes in our line, the Mach 6, obviously the Firebird, even the Trail 429 have grown in reach measurements that were beyond what the last generation Switchblade was. So those have all been updated. So they are in line with the other bikes in our lineup. And that along with that goes certainly a steeper seat angle, longer reach measurements, and the head tube is slightly slacker. All things you would expect.
march forward from a geometry standpoint, but relatively minor nonetheless. And even the chainstay lengths are variable on this bike, not to the extent of what we've done on the Firebird, but there are basically two different lengths of chainstays among the different sizes in the bike to get that correct per rider size without making such a big difference in the bike's ability to...
pop up and over stuff. Those small changes add up to a more capable bike. But we also didn't want to mess with what the Switchblade really did well. We wanted to keep that nimbleness and that snappy climbing ability that makes the Switchblade so awesome overall and push that capability even further. So travel hasn't changed, but it feels like it has. We've continued to evolve the suspension design in a way that gives the bike even more traction on climbs and
makes it even a lot more capable on descent. So the bike's got better square edge bump performance. And that's really where that Firebird DNA comes into the bike. And that as we go up and travel towards the Firebird, towards the Phoenix DH, you get a more rearward wheel travel path and better square edge bump performance. And we've brought some of that down to the Switchblade as well. And it just makes for a bike that in a lot of ways feels similar to the current
or when you're climbing something loose and technical on both ends of the spectrum, the bike is just flat out better. So when it moves closer to the Firebird, as you stated, is it the enduro bike for some people? I reckon it would be. For some people, an outgoing switchblade, I would occasionally take it to a bike park to do testing at the limits of what the bike was designed for. But it wasn't always the most pleasant experience. We were testing to the limits. So you're not in a comfortable...
situation you're just trying to get the suspension and everything to work in a way where it's like okay it can handle it. Now on a lot of places where I would sometimes take the Firebird and it felt like a little bit too much bike the Switchblade can handle a lot more bike park type stuff comfortably and a lot more fun than the other one but again it still doesn't give up anything on the more nimble more calm trails you know short steep punchy climbs actually got better.
which was already a hallmark of the bike and that it just really pedaled and climbed well. Because that's what you want in an all-around mountain bike. It's not all about taking a chairlift up and just going down. You're pedaling at long distances or short distances, but pedaling is an important part of all Pivot's DNA. And on this one, it maintains and improves on what the bike already did really well. I think that's why I lean towards the switchblade so often as well.
You know, when we're training and preparing for the season, sometimes we're doing big rides across lots of different, different trails, but also a lot of climbing. And we're also, we're like, I also will rally the bike park. We're so we're like lucky where we have a gondola. You can, you know, chop and change between doing a gondola lap and doing a pedal lap. And the switchblade just hits the mark to a high standard across like every type of trail that you might take it on. If I take my Firebird to a
quite a tame trail center or, you know, not such a gravity orientated type of riding. You know, that's not quite the bike for it, but I think that's why the Switchblade really is just an all mountain bike because it's designed, obviously, like what Chris has said, to hit the marks across every type of genre of mountain bike riding, which is, man, I just love jumping it. Going to like the jump park and just ripping laps.
It's an easy pedal back up on the Switch E and then you can just throw it around. It's super fun. It's just the kind of bike that you can just whip out of the garage and it'll put a smile on your face. Would you actually consider it taking it on the EWS stop? It would depend. When we first got the last version of the Switchblade, I raced it at the Crankworx Enduro in Rotorua and won on it. So we were off to a pretty good start, me and the Switchie.
But so like, that's a pretty good start. Yeah. You know, that was built up the day before never ridden did practice raced one, so you're like, this is a good bike. I like this bike. So the bar is set for the new one. I see. Yeah. So if you knew, if you knew like Rotorua, which has hosted EWS is before and maybe Tasmania like Derby, I would even.
say you could depending on what stages if it was the racely race last year in finale like this the smaller travel bike could be pretty good on a lot of those stages and this year a few guys did like travel down and they like went down from the bigger enduro bikes to a more of an all mountain one but we're pretty lucky in the sense that Chris was alluding to pedaling is such a big part of the
And I think that's kind of something that you need to take into account when picking your enduro bike. And so I would, I would just pick the, pick the switchblade if I had the choice at a destination where it's, it's not so rough. And if the trails are burly and you know, a lot of loose rock moving around things that could catch you out, then I would probably take the firebird. But I'm pretty lucky to.
to have that choice. And if we didn't have the Firebird, I'd be totally okay with racing a whole season on a switchblade. I wouldn't feel like, you know, if you didn't know what you could have, then it wouldn't be an issue. It would be a purpose-built race bike. I mean, Eddie, you rode a lot of those same courses back, you know, two generations ago of the Firebird was a 27.5 bike that didn't have a reach as long or a head angle as slack.
is what we run today on our trail bikes. Yeah. And the and the 27.5 Firebird was like this is the this just keeps coming back to had you asked me because I loved that bike. I thought it was awesome. And, you know, only have fond memories of it. But that's where my feedback kind of hits the end of the road, because I would have said, yeah, no it's mint.
And we probably wouldn't have got to this point. So yeah, only listen to my praises. Don't listen to me. Like, you know, yeah, it's funny. As long as you keep telling me that it's better than the last one when I send you the first one to test. Yeah. That's good enough. Yeah, deal. Keep sending them. Original Switchblade, it had the opportunity to...
go mixed wheel sizes or full 27.5. How versatile is the new one? Yeah, we maintain that same versatility. It was interesting when we launched that first Switchblade. 27.5 plus or 650 plus in Europe was a pretty big deal and it accounted for like 35% of the original Switchblade sales. And it is actually amazing even though we don't necessarily offer...
a build anymore that comes with 27.5 plus wheels, how many customers still run 27.5 plus and they will buy the new switchblade and immediately put it to 27.5 plus. So we've had the flip chip idea since the original switchblade and that basically allows you to either change just simply change geometry with the same size wheels so you can raise the bottom bracket steepen the head and
basically just have a quicker handling bike or Putting it in that same high position You can change out the rear wheel to a 27.5 and maintain with a mixed wheel bike the same Geometry that you would have with 29 inch wheel bike for those who want to run 27.5 plus front and rear We also have a headset cup that adds a little bit of stack to take up that difference on the front and also maintain that same geometry, so it's super versatile for what people want to do and
Especially with smaller riders that really love the switchblade, but when they get into steep technical stuff, having a 29 inch wheel at bottom out on real steep stuff, they just would like to have a little bit more room. And having a mixed wheel setup is a great way to go and really easy to accommodate it with changing two bolts and flipping the chip around and having it ready to go. All the three of us can rock like nothing in the front.
and party in the back haircut. Yeah, whatever you want to say to him. Eddie, you mentioned your love for the full on 27.5 Firebird. Will we see you maybe also putting a tiny rear wheel on a switchblade? Oh, I would love to try it. It's funny. The only bike that I've really ridden as a mullet is the new Phoenix DH. I'm kind of just starting to scratch the surface with
the benefits or just trying what running a mixed wheel bike is all about. So 100% you'll see. You can't spoiler the Phoenix here. Okay. Um, yeah, everybody knows it's out there being raced Um, shh, shh. I've only ever ridden one bike. I can't remember what it was, but, uh, it had a mixed wheel and it, and it rode really good, um, but yeah, no, I'd be pretty keen to try it because, you know, you see a lot of people.
experimenting with the mullet. I do really enjoy the consistency across like as you know, tires, wheels, being able to... that's one thing I love about the pivot range is how you can bang, you know, if I got a flat tire and the boys were going out riding and I was running late I could just whip the wheel off my Firebird and chuck it on to the switchblade. So that's something that's pretty cool. But yeah, I'll definitely be trying. I'll definitely be trying.
the mix wheel on the Switchblade, because it sounds really fun. Business up front, party in the back, I'm all about it. Funny thing also is the days of Ed putting a bottle in the back of his pants are long gone. Water bottle mounts are standard and plenty on Pivot bikes. Additionally, we have some more features nicely hidden in the frame. Chris, you are all about the details, so give us a little overview of them.
A lot of people have different solutions, obviously, for how to accommodate tools and your stuff on the bike. And for us, really, the goal is to not only take them off your body and allow storage on the bike, but also to make those easily accessible. So we've got our pivot tube strap, and then we've got our line of pivot dock tools. And there's mounts underneath the top tube. There's a recessed mount underneath the bottom bracket.
We offer a whole range of different types of tools with CO2s, with tire plugs, with bags and things that can go on any one of basically four mount locations on the bike, give the rider a lot of versatility so they can access their multi-tool real quick. Or the newest one we have has a combination of CO2, multi-tool, tire plug. A lot of people mount that one under the top tube and mount things that they...
don't necessarily need quite as often underneath the bottom bracket. Um, keep that weight low and out of the way. But yeah, we want to make sure that if you want to run nothing on your body and still be fully equipped for battle or any mechanical that you might may encounter, that stuff is super accessible. Ed, I never saw you riding with a pack. No, that is correct, Hens. Yeah, I don't, I don't need to cause honestly.
Loads of people see the dock tool under the bottom bracket and I mean the dock tool that goes underneath The top tube is really clean and stuff But a lot of people think that you would smash it off probably four years of running the dock tools now I have yet to lose one from anything and That's so good. Like no offense to some of the top cat ones, but
When you've got your tools in the top cap and if your hands are cold, if you're out on like a winter's day, it like hurts to get them out. Whereas with the dock tool, you just like turn it, whip open a hat, like a little flap, and you've got all the tools you need. And especially putting the CO2 and stuff under the under the top tube. And then you've got your tube strap. It does make everything look pretty clean. And that is why you never see me wearing a bag because I don't need to.
Chris, you scratched the surface of the overall changes on the bike, like a slightly steeper seat angle, a slightly slacker head angle, increased reaches, minor adjustments on the rear length in regards of the different sizes. Do you want to toss out some numbers here? Yeah, so in the low setting, the head angle goes to 65.2 degrees. It's not insanely slack. But with the changes in reach, which...
We're pretty progressive in reach. We're not like some of the crazy Geomotron pole type numbers, but we're, we're pretty aggressive in how we get there. But at the same time, we don't also take head angles generally to 63, 62 degrees on our, on our trail bikes. So you get this balance of, you get the wheelbase length with a relatively short chain stay and that balance of being able to keep
The front end biting and a little bit of weight on the front end really makes for excellent stability and also the ability to turn in and carve the bike even at lower speeds where the bike won't push in flatter, looser turns. So we continue to kind of evolve what that is. Fortunately, we're in a time now where things don't need to change radically. We've got really good chassis balance and feel. And
We're really fine-tuning to make it the absolute best that it can be. Yeah, and then you know, you mentioned the chainstay lengths We have some pretty huge differences between The small and the extra-large as they progress on the Firebird But with this bike we want to keep those chainstays short, but at the same time not make the largest rider feel like That wheel is completely tucked underneath them and that they don't have any stability from it. So
three smallest sizes extra small and medium Maintain the same 431 as the current switchblade and then when you go to a large it goes to 432 and an extra large is that? 436 so these are all numbers that work really well for that range of riders and Keeps that bike nimble so the largest rider still feels like the bikes poppy and that the front end still comes up as Easily for them as it would for somebody on a medium frame
Eddie, you are running a medium firebird. Am I correct? Yeah. How tall are you? Good day, just over 180 centimeters, like roughly 5'11", 6 foot. The good part on pivot bikes is that you can actually choose your frame size, not only on your body height, but also on your riding style. So while
I could be on an extra large on a Firebird, I can also happily run a large. The same maybe is for you, Eddy, with a large Firebird, but you're running in a race setting a medium. So which size you're running on a Switchblade then? I rode the medium. The medium is what I'll go with. Yeah, it was quite cool because I hadn't ridden my old Switchblade in quite a while. Coming off my medium Firebird straight onto the medium Switchblade, the new version, it felt quite consistent. And I don't think...
Yeah, like you said, you can pick the size for your riding style, but I think for me, I'm pretty happy staying on a medium. And I have a lot of people message me about the pivot sizing, asking what I ride. But yeah, so to clarify, I'm about just under six foot and riding a medium. And I think maybe if you're riding loads of park and stuff, you could size up to a large, but
for a bike size that's going to work across the board, across a wide variety of trails, then the medium at my height is really good. And that goes for the Firebird and the new Switchblade. If you could put that in a short words, how would you describe the differences between a Firebird and a Switchblade? The Switchblade is an all mountain bike. It's designed to ride any
kind of a purebred race bike for Enduro. So I always say that my Switchblade is my daily driver. You might have a race car that you take to the track on the weekends, but your Switchblade is the car that you drive to work, go around to your friend's house, do everything on. That analogy kind of fits true with the Firebird and the Switchblade, whereas you pull the Firebird out when things get serious, but you...
You don't need to be driving the race car to work every day. May I put out the statement that the Firebird, sometimes if you're going on a flow trail setting, that it's maybe too easy on a Firebird that you get bored and the switchblade bringing in some fun again? Yeah, that's what I was saying in the beginning. Like the switchblade puts an exclamation mark on whatever type of riding you're doing and that goes really true with flow trails because the adding more travel.
maybe a slacker head angle, stiffer chassis that you get with the Firebird. You've really got to ride the bike to get the most out of it. And sometimes on easier terrain, because the Firebird does make things easy. It almost makes it like a bit too mundane. So that's why I really enjoy it. And I really enjoy riding the Switchblade on outside of its capabilities, because it forces you to get creative. You know, like if you're going into.
a lot of roots and rocks and stuff. You might have to jump in, jump out. You can't just drop your heels and plow like you can on the firebird. You've got to get a bit more, put a bit of salt and pepper on it. Besides that, Chris, people have different tastes on parts and components. We are addressing this by following again, our reputation of the most available builds on the markets. What are we covering?
Well, we're pretty consistent in what we do across our range in that we have three levels of builds.
what we call the ride, the pro and the team level builds.
And then we offer each of those in either SRAM or Shimano. And the SRAM options are all wireless with the new transmission system. So we've got a lot of different options presented in a pretty simple way. Our ride builds give you all the performance at the best price. And our team builds at the other end of the spectrum give the rider the best of the best where price is really no object.
And then we have our Pro Builds, which is really the most popular thing that we do in our lineup. It gives you all the technology, the performance, the lightweight, carbon bars, Kashima coatings, all the good stuff, and the option of either aluminum or carbon wheels. I enjoy riding any of these build options, but for most riders, the XT-XTR Pro Build or the XO Pro Builds with the carbon wheels really hit that sweet spot for maximum performance.
and an awesome overall value. So with all the bells and whistles but still like the Swiss army knife? Yeah, you know what, you get to the highest end and there's more carbon fiber, there's carbon fiber derailleur cages and you start to get to a point where weight maybe starts to outweigh durability, where that pro level where you get some of the best parts
but you also get a super high durability level and you're not just paying that huge amount, dollar amount or euro amount per gram to get that last little ounce of performance or grams of weight out of the bike. That pro level build just gives you everything you'd want and nothing you don't. At the end of our podcast, I always like to ask two questions. Yeah. Why should you ride
a new sophisticated refined switchblade and which rider can enjoy it the most? Another tough question. Putting us on the spot, Jens. Why should you ride it? Because you deserve it. Yeah, everyone deserves to ride a bike like the switchblade because it actually brings out the best attributes in mountain biking. You know how far mountain biking has come.
You think of Pivot, we've come 35 years from developing the Talon of this new Switchblade. That yeah, you may as well take full advantage of everything on offer. So if you are thinking about getting a new bike, then I'll put my words in my mouth if you don't like riding this bike. And who's the ideal candidate for this bike? It kind of hits across the board. It could be someone who's wanting to step up.
from a lower travel 120 130 and get into a bit more Burley style riding. Or it could be someone who's finding that they're feeling a bit stale on their higher travel Enduro bike and they want to add a bit of, like I said, salt and pepper to their riding. So, yeah, I think it's either someone who wants they wants to fill the void between their downhill bike and the cross country bike that's in the middle.
Or it might be someone who only has one bike and their previous bike was short travel. They want to go up or it might be a person who was longer. Travel wants to go down. But yeah, I think anyone's going to everyone who rides it's going to enjoy it. And yeah, like I said, I'll eat my words if it if they don't. Chris, anything to add? You know, Ed said it really well, but I like what he said because you deserve it. And yeah, I mean, you all.
You only live once. So yeah, it'll make your experience better. You'll have more fun on mountain bike. It'll, for most people, take their riding to a higher level and ultimately just have a better time doing the sport that they love. So that's the biggest thing. And yeah, as Eddie said on the bikes and the type of riders, if you love mountain biking and you have only one or even only two bikes.
This one is the one you can't ever go wrong with. If your friends are gonna drag you on something that, you know, resembles an endurance cross-country ride, some epic adventure, the bike pedal's well enough and is light enough, you're not gonna be left hung out. And then if you get to drug into stuff that is EWS territory, you're also still gonna have a good time. So it kind of covers the entire spectrum. And...
There's a reason the Switchblade and bikes like our trail 429 are the best selling bikes in their lineup because when people look at mountain biking, what mountain biking means to them, the majority of the people aren't just bike park people or just cross country race people. They like the entire span of mountain biking. Some of them maybe like climbing or go towards that end of the spectrum more than descending. And then the other half is.
in the switchblade category where they'll take the climbs but they like to party a little bit more on the downhills and having a bike that can handle that all really is what makes the switchblade special. It is the bike to do it all and life is too short to ride crappy bikes. That is correct. Yeah, life's short switchblade it. Yeah, perfect. I think that's a wrap.
That's the rep. Yeah. Mic drop, we're out of here. Yeah, how do you top that statement? You just don't.