_mf tested: In Search of a Great Small Bike
Pivot Mach 4
Editor’s Note: This is the first in a series of
reviews conducted by our vertically challenged
managing editor Trina Ortega in her effort to
find the best-fitting small bike out there.
Before you can start choosing a bike for
its suspension platform, angles or build, you
need a bike that fits. For riders on the fringe
sizes (say, 6’4” and taller or 5’3” and smaller),
that leaves few quality options from which
to choose. Some manufacturers say it costs
too much to make the odd sizes for so few
buyers. Other manufacturers might make
frames that fit but don’t offer their top-end
builds for those sizes. Custom framebuilders
say: We welcome the masses no matter your
size. That may work if you’re in the market
for a hardtail, but very few independent
framebuilders offer full-suspension bikes.
Pivot Cycles is different. Pivot President/
CEO Chris Cocalis doesn’t want to exclude
any riders and will even go so far as designing
an entirely “new” frame of the same model
bike in order to keep the front triangle
compact enough for extra small riders — both
female and male. Pivot’s focus isn’t on making
small bikes just for women; it aims to make a
good extra small bike for all. (The extra small
Switchblade, for example, has a differently
shaped top tube to accommodate the barrel of
the shock and a different shock mount point
along the down tube.)
Cocalis says accommodating riders on
the extreme ends of the height spectrum is a
big commitment because those numbers are
low, but the company wouldn’t do business
any other way.
“Covering the cost and R&D time is
something we are committed to as a brand,”
he says. “Plus, the smallest frames always
pose the biggest engineering challenge, and
we love the challenges and figuring things
out where others have not been able to find
solutions.”
Working with short riders is nothing new
for Cocalis. He started making custom bikes
with Titus in 1990. The company debuted
full-suspension bikes in 1992 and from the
beginning started fabricating custom bikes for
riders as small as 4’10”. For 17 years, Cocalis
worked on all the fittings and produced
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the drawings for every custom Titus frame
for riders of all heights. He estimates that it
amounted to more than 3,000 “truly custom
built” frames.
“The magic is really in the experience of
working with so many riders. Our extra small
frames back then and today never took on
a shrink and pink philosophy,” he explains.
“We needed to make sure that an extra small
frame handles just as well and is just as stable
for the smaller rider as the medium is for the
average rider.”
That translates to geometries with front
centers that provide the same high level of
stability, while making sure the top tube
length and controls are in the right position
for a smaller rider. According to Cocalis,
it’s expensive to make molds that don’t
share parts like seat tube angle mandrels
and different tooling between sizes. Some
companies opt not to invest, resulting in
limited bike sizes. Cocalis admits Pivot would
be more profitable on certain models if it
didn’t offer the extra small, but adds: “That’s
Photos by Carl Zoch
not the big picture for us. I don’t want to leave
riders out.”
I’m 5’2” with a 28-inch inseam, and I’ve
long thought a custom-built bike was the only
way to get what I needed. Even with the old
26ers, I struggled to find a higher-end bike
that I could ride without having to at least
change out stems and push the saddle all
the way forward. In 2011, I got a Specialized
S-Works Era, a shorter travel carbon XC racer.
To that point, it was the best-fitting stock fullsuspension bike I had ridden in my 25 years
of mountain biking.
During the big wheel rage, I couldn’t find
a small enough 29er with good handling. I
was told by many average-height people I
just needed to give them a chance; I needed
to change my riding style; and even, “You
need to learn how to ride a 29er.” Then 27.5
inch circled back around, and it came on
hot and fast with some manufacturers not
thinking through their geometries for shorter
folks. With 26-inch wheels, I at least had
a fighting chance, but those have gone the
way of the Atari. Plus, I want what everyone
else is offered: the rolling advantage of the
bigger wheel. Along with that, I want a fullsuspension, light weight, superior handling
bike with high-quality parts (or at least the
option to click and buy the top end build).
It got me wondering: Does such a bike
exist in my size?
Pivot’s extra small Mach 4 erased all my
doubts. The 115 mm travel bike with a 130
mm fork has a 1,720 mm (27 inch) standover,
378 mm reach, and 560 mm stack. (Standover
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_mf tested
clearance is even an inch better with a 100
mm or 120 mm fork.) The geometry has been
carefully thought out, and the bike is offered
in a range of build options, including the
top-end Shimano Di2 option. In fact, it was
one of the first full-suspension bikes with Di2
routing.
You see someone like 5’2” Olympic
athlete Chloe Woodruff ripping the World
Cup XC courses on the Mach 4, and there’s
no questioning this bike’s aptitude. Woodruff
is a Pivot athlete and can choose from among
a number of bikes, including the extra small
Les 27.5 hardtail or even the Mach429SL
(which goes down to only a small size but
has a low standover height of 27.7 inches).
In its Trail/Enduro family, Pivot additionally
offers extra small sizes of the Switchblade
27.5+/29er and the Mach 6.
But her go-to race bike — and the bike
she took to the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympic
Games — is not a hardtail 29er, as many
would assume. It is the Mach 4.
“I think I’m in the minority in that I get
to choose. But as a smaller rider I think the
27.5 wheel is just more of a natural fit. With
the smaller wheels, I can get that smaller
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frame. The whole bike is more maneuverable,
especially with that ultra low standover,”
Woodruff says.
Woodruff, whose inseam measures 29
inches, told Mountain Flyer finding the right
fit in a mountain bike always has been a
struggle, but the ample standover, DW-link
suspension and 27.5 wheels of the XS Mach
4 allow her the maneuverability needed on
increasingly technical World Cup courses.
The Mach 4 has changed her idea of what an
XC race bike should be.
“The Mach 4 has changed my perception
about what I think of a full-suspension bike.
You are used to thinking that you are trading
off pedaling efficiency for a little bit of an
edge descending, but on the flip side I’ve
realized this year, especially with DW-link
and Pivot’s suspension design, it’s incredibly
efficient climbing on mountain bike terrain.”
The first generation Mach 4 had 26-inch
wheels and was one of two models with
which Pivot launched at Interbike 2007. (The
other was the Mach 5 trail bike.) The Mach
4 was not only offered in an XS, but also in a
2XS.
In 2015, Pivot introduced the carbon
Mach 4 redesigned around the 27.5-inch
wheel. The geometry was more progressive
with longer reach measurements and more
relaxed angles. The original Mach 4 was
a versatile bike, but the new Mach 4 took
that to new levels, with Cocalis and team
redefining the XC racer with trail geometry.
I do love that they didn’t sacrifice this
bike’s pedaling performance; it’ll get up and
go when you mash the pedals, and that’s
emotionally and physically empowering. To
achieve that characteristic, Pivot purposefully
kept the rear travel at 115 mm (100 mm on
the XS), which I’m OK with so long as the
suspension design works and I can run a
trail-worthy fork. I tested the Team XTR Di2
1x model with a Fox 34 Factory 130 mm
Kashima fork and like the added travel and
chassis stiffness for confidence and control.
Whether I was climbing the steppy red
rocks on the trails in my high-desert backyard
or trying to keep up with the fitness freakies
on the smoother switchback-laden climbs of
the weekly group ride, this pedaling efficiency
was pure energy saved. In special cases —
such as my sleep-deprived sunrise lap at the
24 Hours in the Old Pueblo — it was energy
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_mf tested
gained and stored. The RaceFace NEXT SL
(30 tooth) cranks, along with the Shimano
XTR drivetrain and DT Swiss Spline hub
complement the bike, and I never felt any
slippage or play.
In terms of the DW-link platform, it’s
both scary and impressive how it can “read”
your mind, your body and the terrain and
react in the right way. It’s not stubborn and
doesn’t fight you; it knows when to give and
take without ever being wishy-washy. If you
were at a bicycle trade show or if you geek
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out on this stuff, we’d be using terms like
“position-sensitive anti-squat” right now. If
I keep it simple, my words are: Traction and
pedaling power under pressure are excellent,
and I don’t suffer from pedal bob or hit the
cranks when climbing or rallying the flats.
When descending, my legs don’t get strained
or pinged around when braking or picking
my way down a tough line. It behaves on
the fast, rough stuff, and it doesn’t take
much effort to keep it in line. The Mach 4 is
designed to get max value out of the 115 mm
shock in concert with the DW-link, so run the
right pressure and you’ll benefit from a plush,
full-depth feel.
But none of that matters if the fit’s not
right. And for that, I’m grateful for the XS.
It’s well-balanced, and the body position feels
right whether out of the saddle, pushing
through contouring terrain or gaining speed
on the downhills. Because I have proper
standover clearance, I can get the bike-body
separation needed to maneuver around
technical corners or pump in and out of
bermed turns. The XS carbon Mach 4 frame is
reasonably light (5.1 lbs) with carbon lay-ups
where needed for stiffness but not too much
that it rides uncomfortably. It’s compact and
manageable, so I can give it flight easily.
All this together makes for a fun bike,
which is why we’re here in the first place.
#werideuptogodown
More companies are paying attention
to the fringe sizes, and whether or not I’m
on board with the whole “women’s specific”
thing, I think it at least puts smaller riders
in the picture. It seems others are aiming
to figure out what Pivot — led by Cocalis’
design integrity, instinct and skill — has been
doing all along when it comes to geometries:
offering proper fit and true XS sizes.
Cocalis has relied on Pivot athletes
for feedback. Although Pivot refers to its
geometries as “rider size specific,” there are
not that many male riders between 4’10” and
5’5”, so the geometry of the smaller sizes is
really driven by females. But he considers the
women’s specific arena a “can of worms.”
“Some others have branded an entirely
new company based on the same models
that they sell to everyone but with more
‘female specific’ graphics, but still don’t have
offerings that have bikes that fit female riders
in the 4’10” to 5’5” range. You can only go
so short with a stem, and smaller handle
grips hardly makes a bike women’s specific,”
Cocalis said.
I hear that, but I also personally don’t
care how the bike is branded if the fit is right
and the offerings respect the rider. I think
it’s a reflection of how a company views its
clients — are they discerning riders first,
worthy of every design effort possible? Or
are they just people with money to spend?
That’s about respect. At the end of the day,
I want the bike I want: a lightweight trail
bike with an efficient suspension platform,
precise handling, standover clearance, and a
respectable build. From my very first ride on
the Mach 4, Pivot won me over on all fronts.
–T. Ortega