In this episode we sit down with Pivot’s Founder and CEO/President, Chris Cocalis, and Pivot rider, Ryan Coreless, to get first impressions of the recently redesigned Pivot Trail 429. We launched this bike at the beginning of 2021; however, it has a history much older.
In this episode we sit down with Pivot’s Founder and CEO/President, Chris Cocalis, and Pivot rider, Ryan Coreless, to get first impressions of the recently redesigned Pivot Trail 429. We launched this bike at the beginning of 2021; however, it has a history much older.
Welcome back to All About Bikes presented by Pivot Cycles. In this episode we sit down with CEO and President of Pivot Cycles, Chris Cocalis, and a South Mountain local rider, Ryan Corless, to discuss the recently redesigned Trail 429. This is a previously recorded episode from when we launched this bike in February 2021 and we wanted to upload this episode for all our new listeners on this podcast. The Trail 429 has a rich history for Pivot Cycles which can be traced back to Pivot's flagship bike, the Mach 4. The Trail 429 quickly became our most popular bike when the first modern version launched in 2018. Beloved by so many riders, Chris and the Pivot team set out to improve the already amazing capabilities of this bike for what is now the current and newly redesigned version of the Trail 429. So, lets jump in and hear about what Chris and the Pivot team changed on this model and get some first ride impressions from Ryan Corless. Enjoy.
Chris Cocalis:Hi, I'm Chris Cocalis with Pivot Cycles, and this is Ryan Corless. Ryan does some videos for Pivot and also is a hell of a rider and does a video series of his own shredding South Mountain and showing off some of the gnarliest trails that we have to offer here.
Ryan Corless:I do my best, yeah.
Chris Cocalis:Ryan is here because he's spent some, some good amount of time on the new Trail 429. So we're going to talk a little bit about that today. So actually, we can start off talking about the size of the bike. So one of the things on the new bike is we wanted to make the new Trail 429 a better balanced bike for more aggressive trail riders. So this bike actually has slightly longer reaches than the Switchblade, steeper seat angle and yeah, you noticed that immediately when you were out on the bike and I wouldn't tell you what any of the geometry was.
Ryan Corless:Parking lot test, you notice straightaway.
Chris Cocalis:So yeah, we kept the chainstay short, but definitely have pushed the reaches out there. So it's really as if we've almost jumped a size in bikes. So I believe the medium is at 460mm, the large is at 475mm. Like I mentioned, Ryan's pretty aggressive rider, and you have been pushing this bike on trails that I would say are normally be beyond the limits of a 120mm travel bike.
Ryan Corless:You would think so yeah. But that wasn't the case at all.
Chris Cocalis:Yeah. So it's designed to be fine and be able to handle that sort of thing, all of that stuff. I was doing a lot of testing with both the medium and the large, if I was riding a lot of the more aggressive trails and that's where my preference lied on the end of the spectrum, I would definitely be on a large. But if you own a lot of bikes, I have a Switchblade as well, and that is the bike I'll use for more aggressive rides. And then all the way on the other end of the spectrum, something like 24 hour racing, more aggressive endurance racing, this bike is still very, very capable. And there's a lot of other changes that make it really preferable for that end of the spectrum as well. And for that I like to go on to a medium bike. So it's a long bike for you at 5' 8", I'm 5' 11.5". And I'm on a medium with a longer stem. So I'm running a 55 millimeter stem, I think you we're either on a 35 or 45 millimeter stem.
Ryan Corless:Yep.
Chris Cocalis:So we also have the steeper seat angle on the bike. It allows the bike to be really versatile for a lot of different riders. So if you're looking at the Trail 429, it's really important to look at that sizing chart and know that for a lot of riders, they can jump between two sizes. Frames are super compact and you can really pick it based on a reach that's comfortable for you. So if you're more XC trail, then maybe one size smaller. If you're wanting to go more aggressive, have something more towards your enduro bike then you can do that as well.
Ryan Corless:Yeah.
Chris Cocalis:Both of us last couple of days been riding with the standard trail build, which is a DPS rear shock. And 130mm travel 34 on the front. Tell me about what you think about that setup.
Ryan Corless:Well, I was going into it being a gravity orientated rider thinking I'm going to enduro build 100%. But after riding this and like taking it down, all my favorite greatest hit trails on the west side. I'd probably stick with the current trail build, to be honest, it's more than capable, super stable at high speed. And I think I'm like you, I'd go the Switchblade as my more aggressive bike, keep this trail build orientated for sure.
Chris Cocalis:So we do have multiple builds in this. So there's the trail build with this setup. If you do tend towards the more aggressive, if you really only have one bike to do at all, which is the case with a lot of people. And it is more towards the aggressive end of the spectrum then the Enduro build comes with the DPX2. The DPX2 is a reservoir shock that the latest version of it that we developed for the Switchblade has new pistons, new valving, really a rework of the all the internals of the shock and that same setup technology style of valving makes it over to the new Trail 429. And then we match that up with a 36 140mm travel fork, so a 10 millimeter increase there and that gets the GRIP2 damper as well. So it's kind of the full enduro setup. That'll give the bike a little bit plusher feel overall, and of course, more oil volume and the ability to smack stuff harder for a longer amount of time. Just really the oil volume and the suspension makes that change.
Ryan Corless:I think the confidence inspiring feeling on this bike, you can definitely push the current trail setup to its limits for sure. Because you're just not holding back whatsoever. And that's what I was finding on that. But it held its own for sure on some of the stuff that I'd class as all-mountain to downhill, sort of west side riding.
Chris Cocalis:One of the cool things when testing the bike, and we are working on the flip chip setup for this bike, we have it classified as low and lower. So the BB is lower, in general, allows you to feel more settled in on the bike. What I'm finding when I'm riding the large, in stuff that is a less aggressive terrain, is that unless you're riding aggressively, always over the front, you do have that nature of a longer bike, that you have to keep weight over the front end and ride more aggressively all the time. But if you flip the chip to the low setting, or the the higher of the two settings, that puts more weight on the front end, kind of does that for you and you can relax a little bit more on the bike. So you have that versatility even if you are going to the slightly more aggressive end of still having something that can handle more neutral and more XC-ish. Really take still maintaining the nature of what the Trail 429 has always been in the rider that it's always been there for. So just opens up the spectrum, much greater on the new design.
Ryan Corless:Yeah, I was running it in the lower setting the entire time just kept it lower. And yeah, I felt like the power transfer, standing sitting like the platform was amazing. So even in the lower setting, it was a climb like a dream, to be honest.
Chris Cocalis:So everybody, when we when we ship the bike, or frames, it'll, it'll be always in the lowest setting. So, always feel free to experiment with that and like said if you're going a little bit more aggressive, and your bigger terrain that you're always riding in is not so aggressive, that shift in the in the steepening of the head angle and the raising of the BB a little bit. Again, it's just a half a degree, but it does make a difference on putting more traction on the front end.
Ryan Corless:Yep.
Chris Cocalis:So yeah, I mean, if you're in the Pacific Northwest, Canada, BC area, definitely going longer and having the lower aggressive setup makes the bike fantastic in that type of terrain as well.
Ryan Corless:Yep.
Chris Cocalis:So a couple other things on the bike, because not only did we want to make it a more capable bike in the one direction, we also wanted to make it more capable in the other direction. So big thing is a huge focus on weight reduction on this bike. The the XTR build shown here is 26.5 pounds for a medium bike. Really lightweight for a trail bike, the new set of Reynolds carbon wheels, it's made with the same composite material that Reynolds used on Bernard Kerr's signature DH wheel set and our DH team raced on those rims for two seasons without any rim failures. So bringing that material into this wheel set with a much lower profile wheel, it's really nice trail bike wheel set. I believe it's right around 1450 grams for the complete wheel set. And you feel that weight when or the lack of it, accelerating up on the bike.
Ryan Corless:Yeah. Yeah, that's one of the things you notice right away is the weight, or lack thereof, to the point where you comparing it to the Mach 4 SL, in a lot of ways, and it's so lightweight.
Chris Cocalis:Yeah. And that was the goal with some of the original prototypes when we were doing the layups. We actually had some frames that came in slightly lighter than the Mach 4 SL
Ryan Corless:That's impressive.
Chris Cocalis:They didn't meet the stiffness requirements. But it was kind of neat to ride a trail bike that light.
Ryan Corless:Yeah, that's so capable.
Chris Cocalis:So yeah, when it was all said and done you know, we're talking weights of about.3 pounds difference between the Mach 4 SL frame and the Trail 429 frame and complete bike weights. Obviously you've got bigger tires, superboost, wider wheel sets, everything's still burly enough to handle everything you can throw at it. But right in there with some of the lightest weight XC on the market.
Ryan Corless:Yep, super impressive.
Chris Cocalis:And then for those type of riders that are really looking in that direction, spent a large amount of time tuning on the Live Valve system for this bike. So, on something like a Mach 4 SL, the focus is really cross country performance all the time. So even when the Live Valve is turned on, turning on or off on bumps, the the overall suspension firmness is still on the firm to super firm set up. And on this, even compared to the Mach 6, the Switchblade, any other bike in the line, the difference between open and closed is quite radical. So if you're racing, a 24 hour race or a faster shorter XC race, when Live Valve is activated, you have really the same pedaling performance as a Mach 4 SL, when you hit bumps, you actually have a suspension system that is more open than even the DPS is normally valved and running. So it's instantaneous and seamless. So for those running the Live Valve system that really gives you everything, the ability to really attack stuff, yep, aggressive technical, and have that pure snap XC performance out of the bike. We just kept kind of bracketing and testing wider variations, so it was driving the Fox guys a little bit crazy because it's not the way we've typically valved our Live Valve setup. So I'm super excited about how that works on this bike. And and people probably noticed the biggest difference between the versions of suspension on a Mach 5.5, on a Switchblade, we don't want that change so radical so it's kind of like having a DW Link that already pedals great, but then pedals a little bit better. And on a downhill opens up and gets a little bit plusher. On this one the variation is pretty huge.
Ryan Corless:Yep.
Chris Cocalis:Yeah, so along those lines, the vertical shock.
Ryan Corless:Yep, the new trunnion mount shock.
Chris Cocalis:It's really nice to have that, we've got several bikes with it. The trunnion shortens the length overall, makes things more compact, you can see the bike is got really clean lines, low, low stand over on the bike. The upper linkage is almost as compact as the Mach 4 SL linkage. Again, that big focus on shaving weight and then all the other things are there that we've been doing on the latest generation of Pivot bikes. That frame protection underneath, great frame protection all the way around on the chainstay, seatstay so the bikes kept quiet, on top of the DW Link so rocks don't get in there.
Ryan Corless:That's one of the things I absolutely love about the Pivot bikes is the attention to detail. Like the laser etching on the hardware and the integrated frame protection. The internal cable routing system is like just makes it a perfect build.
Chris Cocalis:Thanks, appreciate it.
Ryan Corless:No worries, sometimes you don't see that on a lot of manufacturers bikes.
Chris Cocalis:Yeah, I and the other guys that work on this a lot of people in the company came up as bike mechanics and race mechanics and being able from the shop side or the customer side, there's nothing more frustrating than when it comes time to have to replace your cable housing and it's a five hour swear fest.
Ryan Corless:Yeah.
Chris Cocalis:Because originally some little piece of plastic was fed through the frame. Some times I wonder how they even got it through the first time. And now you have to replace some cables or
Ryan Corless:Yep. housing and you're just totally screwed. I've been there.
Chris Cocalis:So the whole Pivot Cable Port system was really designed to be able to have it be rattle free.
Ryan Corless:Yep.
Chris Cocalis:Just about as quick as in the old days when we had external routing and the ability to get everything tight, secure everything easily with big enough ports so you can see the housing coming through. We also on the underside just like we did with the new Mach 6, there's a new cover that accesses the downtube allows you to get the dropper post up in there, but the new covers buried up even further and features the mount for our new Dock Tool system. So we have those mounts available underneath the bottom bracket and underneath the top tube as well. So you have access to tools in several different places and have to carry less or really nothing on you. Every size bike also can fit a large water bottle cage too.
Ryan Corless:Large water bottle, tube, tool, all fits in there. And I love that you've got the cable ports on both sides for us moto riders.
Chris Cocalis:Yeah, I forget it actually might have been this model in its previous generation where we didn't put it on the one side, and yeah, the moto style, the Aussies, the UK.
Ryan Corless:The cables were a mess.
Chris Cocalis:They were furious for one bike model for not having that. So that's back on and has been back since the new Switchblade.
Ryan Corless:Yep.
Chris Cocalis:So yeah, just some other little details on this bike. The Mach 6 came out just before the Trail 429 and that marked a change to a 31.6mm seat post with the shorter seat tubes and much deeper insertion depth. We actually can have more space inside the seat posts themselves have a little bit more material around the air cartridge in the 31.6mm size. So this gets that change and update to the 31.6mm. It also goes to the universal derailleur hanger. The universal derailleur hanger is, is exactly like it sounds. It's a universal derailleur hanger. I believe it was developed by SRAM, although obviously Shimano derailleur fits on it just fine because it does fit all the normal derailleur standards. But it was developed by SRAM as an idea of a universal piece that if somebody breaks or damages their derailleur hanger, they could go to any bike shop, bike park, whatever, and the same derailleur hanger will fit a lot of bikes. And they got such a good up take on it I believe there's within the next year there'll be about 450 models in the marketplace from a lot of different manufacturers that will use the UDH hanger.
Ryan Corless:Yeah.
Chris Cocalis:So that's really cool. Some of the other spec on the bike. What do you think of the Dissector tires?
Ryan Corless:I actually love them. I love the setup. I think it's perfect for this bike. Yeah, low rolling resistance where you need it and corner knobs, side knobs where you need them for gripping those turns. I never really stray far from DHF and have been running an Assegai and I've definitely run the Dissector on the rear. But the front and rear combo i think is perfect for this bike in 2.4.
Chris Cocalis:Yeah, it's a great evolution of everything Maxxis it takes kind of a combination of what they do very well. So it's fast. It's definitely a fast tire in our terrain, dryer stuff and even on the rare occasion if it rains here the the climbing traction is phenomenal. Even though it's a fast rolling tire, it maintains those great side knobs as you said, and then they've got nice spacing too. So it's a decent tire and in the roots and mud it's not like a Forecast or something like that that's a pure mud tire but, it'll get the job done pretty much anywhere you're riding.
Ryan Corless:Yep, yep. And I think it was a perfect choice for this bike that tends to want to rip down hills I think so, it's not an XC tire.
Chris Cocalis:So yeah, other things on the spec, it follows essentially what we do with all of our builds. We have builds available in both SRAM and Shimano. We have our race level builds that come with performance level suspension, and then we go to the pro level builds that have the kashima stuff. And so in the pro level, we have the standard, the enduro and the Live and that's also in the team leve. Then the team level, carbon wheels come standard. You have full XTR, or full AXS SRAM builds. And so we've got kind of three different price levels. And whether you prefer SRAM or Shimano, we got you covered. Came out with our new handle grips a little while ago.
Ryan Corless:I love the lock on, the lock on grips are fantastic.
Chris Cocalis:Super comfortable, super grippy, good control, and then good protection on the end. And yeah, we just try super hard to make sure every part of the spec is dialed and that no matter what build you choose on the Trail 429 it's all stuff I would personally love to ride and be happy with. So really black or gold in the price point and then those those wheels are just freakin fast.
Ryan Corless:Yep, and the color. You've got a blue one.
Chris Cocalis:We got a blue one. Love the blue. We've got the new silver. We've never done that before. And yeah, it's a hard choice.
Ryan Corless:Yeah, I was convinced on the blue. And then I saw your silver one. And I'm like, I think I prefer the
Chris Cocalis:Yeah, I was looking back at your blue going, silver. ah, I'm wanting blue bike.
Ryan Corless:Yeah but if the colors your hardest decision then, you're doing something right.
Chris Cocalis:And if they're both good, you'd be happy with either one.
Ryan Corless:Yeah.
Chris Cocalis:Then that's a good, good problem to have. So anyway, that's all the details on the new Trail 429. And Ryan, thanks for taking the time to go over this with me. And yeah, it's a bike that'll handle really a huge range of riding capabilities. If your preference is something a little less travel than the Switchblade. But you're scared if it's going to handle pushing the limits, it'll handle pushing the limits.
Ryan Corless:I think the previous one was blurring the lines and this one obliterates the lines between XC, trail and even up into that all mountain stuff.
Chris Cocalis:Yep, lighter, faster, more capable, I mean that's kind of how we want every model to progress.
Ryan Corless:If you could only have one bike this would be the one to have.
Chris Cocalis:Yeah so, awesome. Thanks again.
Ryan Corless:Thanks for having me.