Bernard Kerr

Three thoughts on the Pivot video:

1. 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.
2. That video is really boring. Not "Grubby in the Kootenays" boring, but still really boring.
3. 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."