29er full susser frame, intense carbine or pivot mach429 ???

pigglet

I posted a while ago stating that I was going to build up a full susser 29er when my 29er hardtail died. It has!

At the time I was all set on a tallboy frame but someone mentioned a pivot mach429 and since then I've only heard good things about them.

My riding is mainly technical XC on the north York moors with lots of climbing plus I like to hammer the downhills which is ultimately how I've killed the hardtail!

Budget wise I can't afford a carbon Mach429 frame but the alloy 429 frame is doable. Also within my budget is an intense carbine 29 carbon frame.

On paper the 429 carbon looks the ideal bike for the bulk of my riding, more suitable than the intense which I'm thinking may be a bit overkill however I can't afford one so......... would the possible weight advantage of the intense carbon frame outweigh the climbing advantage of the more XC orientated but possibly heavier alloy pivot frame????
Or, is it not something worth worrying about as they are both equally capable and what you lose in one area you gain in the other eg the Pivot will be 20% better at climbing but the intense will be 20% better at downhill???

All info greatfully appreciated but ideally I'm after a comparison from someone who's ridden both

njee20

Test ride both, and decide on the back of that. You'll never quantify how much better one is than the other in any area, it's too personal.

The Pivot looks good, I had a Titus Racer-X when they were owned by Chris Cocalis, and that was a great frame!

The Rookie

I'm no expert on either, but I have test ridden a Mach4 (26") and was blown away by how it felt, it rode just like a hardtail except I could sit down with comfort over sections that had me out the saddle on other bikes (26 and 29 hardtails), it was really the best of both, the precision and snap of a hardtail with the comfort of an FS and no mushiness, there wasn't a decent downhill is section so can't comment on it's descending ability at speed.

Still trying to sell a kidney so I can get a Mach4 frame......

pigglet

Thanks for the replies guys. I haven't been able to test either so gone with my gut and ordered the 429.
Rookie - chain reaction have the alloy frames massively reduced, for what it's costing me to build up using bits from chain reactions sale it's working out cheaper than a lot of inferior used bikes I've been looking at on ebay.
I'll report back when it's all arrived. I'm like a kid on Christmas eve!

The Rookie

Wow good prices, out of what I can justify, but really good!

pigglet

I've had the 429 built up for about 10 days now and done about 50 miles plus a fair bit of tinkering.
In short, despite not riding the carbine I'm pretty confident that the 429 suits my riding perfectly.

I've always tended to go for lightweight hardtails which I've beefed up a bit with uprated brakes and am forks which has seemed to work well for me. I love tough technical climbs and while I also love to hammer down hill I spend more time climbing and on moorland trails and singletrack. After a move to an area with rockier terrain I found I was struggling on my 26er which kept stalling and was throwing me around too much so I bought a cheap 29er to try. The difference between the high end 26er and low end 29er was startling, big wheels made such an improvement, the 26er hasn't been ridden since.

The pivot has blown me away with it's climbing ability, it flies up hill but it's when it gets rough that it amazes me, as rookie says, it rides like a comfy hardtail, no bob, no peddle feedback, just loads of traction and that relates to higher speed over most terrain. You can get out the saddle and stomp too and it doesn't bob and dive like most other sussers I've ridden.

Pivot suggest leaving the rear fox float fully open ie in descent mode and this is how I've been riding it. It's impressive the way it manages to be so stiff, so effective at climbing and yet still very plush on the descents. I guess this the the DW link doing it's thing.

Out of the box the quality of the frame is very pleasing, little touches like a seat post clamp and neoprene swing arm protector are welcome extras too, especially as I ordered the wrong size QR clamp and had to send it back.
Built up it's about the same weight as the GT karakoram it's replaced, not sure what that is exactly but it's not overly burdensome to throw on your back and carry. I would like to know how light the carbon frame would build up though.

The only negatives I've come across so far are firstly, the rear tyre clearance is significantly less than the GT's which has meant that the 2.35 hans dampfs I've been running will not fit in the swingarm. I'm gutted about this as I tried quite a few tyres before discovering they gave me the confidence and traction to push as hard as I could on my 26er. I'm currently running a 2.0 maxxis beaver I already had on the front which is way too skinny and is washing out under hard cornering coupled with a 2.25 ardent on the back. next step is to try an ardent on the front too.
The second negative which isn't tha fault of the bike is that the front 180mm deore brake now seems overwhelmed. Not sure if this is due to me carrying more speed or because descents are now more composed I have noticed it more but an upgrade is definitely needed.

Pics












This is the sort of rock climb that it just flies up, on the hardtail I had to carefully pick a line and shift weight to hop the back wheel over the steps to prevent it spinning or stalling, the pivot just tracks over them with no fuss 8)
It's actually quite a bit steeper than it looks in the pic.

VWsurfbum

Looks Lovely, I run a Covert 29 and i'm starting to look for something a bit lighter in the frame, but also something that will take the 160 pikes that i have. Carbine seems to be the only solution at the moment. (dont like the tallboy purely on looks)
The Pivot you have looks awesome, and like you say i'd be interested in the difference in the carbon version weight?

pigglet

Cheers surf bum

You can get a carbine frame here for £1500
http://www.bromleybike.co.uk/shop/frame ... 35847.html

The carbines look awesome and I've since found a guy I used to be at college with has one, he loves it but he has the luxury of a garage full of bikes, for the bulk of my riding I think it would be overkill.

VWsurfbum

Thanks for the link, I may just purchase that as thats by far the cheapest i've seen one!
Mines a large, and this is a large, so time to compare sizes!