Three thoughts on the Pivot video:
- I'm always paying attention to new downhill bikes, and this is one of them. Boring as the video is, Pivot did some interesting things with this bike and it's cool to hear head man Cocalis drone on about the process. Obviously it's a DW bike, so that's cool. It has a 107mm press fit BB, a standard I haven't even heard of yet. It seems like the 157mm axle is catching on in downhill world, but the bike still has a standard 1.5" headtube top and bottom. It's an interesting grab bag of standards used on this bike. It has an insanely long top tube and an almost 51" wheelbase on the XL, making it even longer than the GT's. At 62.5 degrees in the middle setting it has one of the slackest head angles in production today. 440mm chainstays aren't "super compact" as Cocalis claims, but it's interesting to see where average chainstay length will land over the next few years with 27.5 DH bikes. To top it all off, it's dropper post compatible. Is the dropper post a good thing on a downhill bike? I don't know, but it sure is interesting. Why not, I guess? Does it ride well, will it break in half, is a 482mm reach length too long? I don't know the answers to those questions, but hey, there's a lot of noteworthy stuff regardless.
- That video is really boring. Not "Grubby in the Kootenays" boring, but still really boring.
- Bernard Kerr is the real deal. Most of those shots were practice, but plain and simple the guy looks comfy at speed. He's put up some serious results this year, and I wouldn't be surprised if he's on the way to being a consistent top ten kind of guy. Eliot is deadly fast, and I don't want to take anything away from Eliot's speed, but Bernard is phenomenally talented and clearly the class act at Team Pivot. Whatever they're paying him is not enough.
Bonus screen capture, at 4:05 in the video. Eliot Jackson with his knee pad around his ankle at Fort Bill:
Bonus Bonus screen capture at 3:59 in the video. Eliot riding down on a detonated rim, also at Fort Bill:
It's a hilarious clip for Pivot to use in a promotional video, because including clips of your team cosponsor's equipment clearly broken makes those December and January "hey [insert brand here], can we get another pile of rims and money for our race team" emails a lot harder to write. Please, make my day and reveal your limitless ignorance by blurting out "See! that [insert brand here] rim sucks. He broke it."
8 comments:
Robot. I'm surprised to see you didn't catch Eliot's mismatched shoes at 3:10. Dare I say this had something to do with his fallen kneepad? Inquiring minds want to know...
not to mention he lack of speed slippers he is known for
I'd hope with all the $$ they sank into developing that bike, if they aren't going to to pay the riders more they should at least provide them enough money to keep the van running and some extra jerseys so they don't have to race in dirty kit come july
See!!!?? Elliot's knee sucks and has no place in real dh riding. It can't even keep a kneepad on. Totally not wasting my money on one.
51" wheelbase! That could be an inconvenience at times. New bike racks for some of the bike parks?
Has this video been edited since the Robot passed judgement? When I go to 3:59 the rim seems to be intact and the RF logo on the rider's sock is not visible.
As an owner of a Iron Horse Sunday and having had the pleasure of riding the previous generation Pivot Phoenix, I can admit that the dropper post on these bikes is definitely an advantage. Not for riding DH by any means, but because recently there has been a lot of trails built behind gates and these bikes, despite having 8" of travel, climb up roads pretty damn well and a dropper post is lighter than the damn titec telescoping post on my Sunday.
Yes, the video got edited. Those two clips were getting lit up in the comments section on Pinkbike, and here on the BOT, so they went back in and reused an Eliot clip to cover the clip with his broken wheel.
Post a Comment