Let’s be clear: Pivot’s aluminum-alloy Mach 429 is a good bike. It’s stiff, with a robust feel that inspires confidence. The geometry is good, and it’s equipped with the well-regarded DW-Link suspension. But it’s a bit heavy and not especially lively. As a result, the 100mm-travel 429 feels stuck between two worlds—as much as it wants to be an XC race bike, it rides like a trail bike that’s short on travel.
I took the new 429 Carbon on a brief test ride at Interbike’s On Dirt Demo, and found that those drawbacks have been fixed, thanks to a generous portion of carbon and a bit of refinement. The new 429 Carbon is more than a carbon version of the aluminum model: It’s essentially an all-new bike.
The biggest change is, of course, the carbon. The material is used tip to tail—no aluminum swingarm here—resulting in a weight savings of around 125 grams and a 12 percent stiffness improvement (over a bike that’s already quite stiff). All the expected features are here: tapered head tube, 12x142 thru-axle rear end, direct-mount front derailleur, dropper-post routing, tidy cable management, press-fit 92 bottom bracket, and even ISCG ’05 tabs.
Changes to the suspension are relatively minor. The 429 Carbon has 100mm of travel, but a slightly higher leverage ratio and a shorter stroke (lighter) shock. This change particularly benefits lighter riders because the air pressures and damping will be more within the shock’s sweet spot. But heavier riders won’t suffer—I weigh more than 170 pounds wearing a medium-size hydration pack and I used about 140 pounds per square inch (psi) in the shock.
The geometry was tweaked as well. The chainstays have been shortened by 0.3-inch (now 17.65 inches total), which helps shrink the wheelbase to 43.9 inches (size medium, 100mm fork). The bottom bracket is 0.10 inch lower and now sits at 12.75 inches with a 100mm fork or 13.0 with a 120mm fork. (We have found that DW-Link bikes tend to sit up in their travel, so they can use lower bottom brackets with fewer pedal-strike issues than other designs.) The head-tube angle was relaxed slightly (top-tube lengths do not change) and standover height was reduced on all sizes, though the small has the most pronounced improvement: 27.7 inches for the carbon compared with 29.25 for the aluminum.
The changes result in a bike that feels inspired by its aluminum predecessor, but clearly improves it. All the good things about the aluminum 429 are still present—the stiffness, the pedaling efficiency, the well-mannered handling—but the carbon is just “more.” It’s stiffer, it feels quicker and more efficient, and the handling is sharper and more intuitive but no less stable and predictable. But most of all, the 429 Carbon comes alive in a way the aluminum model never did. It’s fun and snappy and flickable and fast, and it feels a lot more like a proper 100mm XC bike. In essence, it feels like the promise of the 429 has been fulfilled, thanks to the healing power of carbon.
The 429 Carbon will be sold as a frameset for $2,799 with complete bikes starting at $4,700 and topping out at $7,600. Three SRAM-equipped bikes are offered—X9, X0 and XX1—and there are four Shimano-equipped options: SLX/XT, XT, XT/XTR, and full XTR. Three color options are offered: Team green, black with blue, and black with red. Pivot starts shipping bikes and frames to dealers in November, but, the company says, the first two deliveries are sold out. So, unless you pre-ordered a Mach 429 Carbon, it might be a while before one finds its way to your garage.