This Is ALMOST The Perfect Trail Bike! | PIVOT SWITCHBLADE Review
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- čas přidán 28. 05. 2024
- After a few weeks of riding the Pivot Switchblade and putting it through its paces, we present our full in-depth review on this incredible bike. It really is ALMOST the Perfect Trail Bike!
PIVOT SWITCHBLADE more info:
Pivot Website: bit.ly/41ukBQL
Pivot NZ Instagram: bit.ly/429CCUr
FULL SPEC:
Frame: 2020 Pivot Switchblade Large Horizon-Blue
Fork: 2022 Fox 36 Factory 160mm
Shock: 2020 Fox DPX2 Factory - Pivot’s Custom Tune
Drivetrain: Sram XO1 Eagle
Brakes: Sram Code RSC
Wheels: Stans Flow 29”
F Tire: Maxxis DHF
R Tire: Maxxis DHR II
Dropper: Fox Transfer Factory 170mm
Cockpit: Stock Pivot stem and Pivot carbon handlebar
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Had mine over a year with with Float X and custom NOBL wheels and it crushes bike park laps and all day adventures. If I wanna go all out speed, I'll buy a 165-170 bike. But I don't race, just out there for the grins, so I love this bike.
Nice! Yeah, that's a very good point, this bike definitely produces a lot of grins!
You've got some of the most gnarly footage of the SB on youtube, great riding
Cheers mate! Appreciate it
Great review and top footage. Totally up there with the best bike vids out there! Always a pleasure to watch
Cheers Grant! Really appreciate the kind words mate! More to come soon.
Indeed props to the Blue Sky Boys. I had just from another reviewers video of the '23 switchblade(much more quiet!), I couldn't make it more than halfway before moving on...
Entirely agree with your verdict, riding a 2021 Switchblade the 3rd season now. Just did a 2 day Trip in my mountainous home region with altogether 130 km und 3500 m of elevation mostly XC trails however some black trail sections. Just a great allrounder giving so much confidence to the rider
That's epic! Yeah it is a fantastic allrounder. When we got back on our own bikes we noticed they take a lot more work to ride. The Switchblade has such a natural riding position you don't really have to think about where your body weight goes.
Massive love for the intro
Thanks J.leopold818
Love the artistic style y'all got going on in this channel!
Cheers mate! Appreciate it!
Best video yet! 👌🏼
Cheers mate!! Appreciate it!
that looks like a dope all rounder
Yeah man it’s epic if you’re just looking for something that does a bit of everything. But also like jumping!
great review
Thank you!
Great review thanks for doing pro’s and con’s, I ride a Ibis ripmo AF and it also has the DW link which definitely makes it a great climber and a little more chattering in the rear on the downs depending on the shock psi. If you get a chance to ride a Ripmo carbon or AF I think you guys would enjoy one.
Cheers mate! I would absolutely love to try one of those aye. Not sure who supplies them in NZ though. I’ll do some looking around…
Great video
Thanks man!
Great review! I’m looking for a new bike, I’m between the Switchblade & the Shadowcat. You called the shadowcat a full blown party machine, could you elaborate? I ride 27.5 now and not sure about 29ers yet.
Great intro! I appreciate the time and skill of your riding filming and editing! Is it too chattery? How much does it weigh?
Cheers mate! Yeah this one was a mission to make hahaha. It wouldn’t say it’s too chattery, but you just need to remember it’s a trail bike not an enduro bike. (Assuming you’re talking about chattery feel not chattery sound, it is a little bit noisy.) and we haven’t been able to weigh it yet as I lost my scale, will update the description when we do. But it’s light. I would say around 15kg
Fantastic content as usual, boys. Keep up the good work. I’m wondering if Finn has any updated thoughts on the Spectral 29 AL… I’m about three months into my own Spectral 29 AL so I’m curious for more thoughts if there are any.
Thank you mate! Funny you should say that, I’m actually just writing up a ‘3 months after the review’ video on my spectral. I do have some thoughts.
I have nearly the exact bike, but with an X2 and I9 wheels, I love it!
Nice! How does the X2 compare to the original shock?
@@BlueSkyBoys I swapped out the shock for a Float X2 also and I have to say it's absolutely amazing, it stabilizes the bike very much and took away all the fidgety aspects it had descending with the original shock. I also put a head tube angle adjuster to make it 65 and it's overall a much more stable bike, but still super fun and playful and nimble where it needs to be. Here in Southern California where I ride it's a lot of like cobbles and rocks everywhere, so that X2 really helps out in absorbing those.
Note - I also discovered that the DW link really needs a stiffer sag and faster Low Speed Compression (LSC). At lower sag and squishier LSC, the pedaling suffers, but as I made the rear suspension overall stiffer, it pedals like a rocket even more. Absolutely enjoy it. My previous bike was a Scott Spark and this was the expansion in travel and stability I was looking for without going full Enduro bike. Cheers! Greetings from California!
There are two sizes on "grommets". one for holding brakes, and the other for shifting cable. My Mach 4 SL came with a bag of covers with the wrong ones installed so i just switched them around which quited things down.
Boys please more content like this cos it was sick!!!
Thank you man!! Definitely planning on it. Next one won’t be far away 🤟
I have the flip chip in the high setting and I personally wouldn't use the low setting unless I was riding bikepark stuff which I never do. I pedal a lot of uphill for every ride so I just want the better geometry for that, and I haven't noticed that big of a difference while going down. The other important factor is how much less pedal strikes as well as BB from traversing technical bits you get when you set the flip chip in the high setting. I got a bashguard on mine that I feel is mandatory, and just rubbed on most every rock when I used the low setting.
Personally I use flat pedals and that's another good reason to raise the BB, because you also need to counter for it's extra width.
If it was up to me I'd like the seat tube to be at least 0.5 degree steeper, but you can't win them all. The bike itself is very good, I just feel the rear end is too slack and droopy that you do feel when it's getting steep.
Fair enough! We are used to very slack and low enduro style bikes so the low setting felt pretty good. Completely agree about the seat tube angle. That’s probably the main thing I want to see changed in the next version of the switchblade.
Was sliding the seat forward on the rails not enough to compensate? for what some folks feel may be a slack seat tube angle? I personally like a bit more cockpit room the slacker ST angle affords. I think the trick to this would be to develop a dual axis adjustable post. Slide it forward for climbs, back a bit for dh. It would make adjustment of the overall height a bit exciting but for those that like to earn their runs it could be great🤨🤫😜
@@hjacobsen9306 The seat adjustment is maxed. As I stated, I would never mainly use low setting unless I primarily were riding down and swopped the cranks for 165 or 160mm length.
Thanks, informative and entertaining, were you riding with the flip chip up or down and noticed any difference? Cheers to NZ.
Cheers! We ran it in low the whole time. Not really keen to try the high.
My small has a major design flaw- seat buzz on even small drops and jumps. Switched the 150 dropper it came with to 125. Thought it was fixed til yesterday in Fayetville on a 2-3 foot drop with a perfectly engineered landing I crashed when the seat hit the tire. I’m pissed. I’m not bottoming out the rear travel and the bike is set to their specs. So I spent $8k on a bike I can’t drop or jump safely? I thought I bought 140 rear travel, but if I can’t use it, why have it? Pivot engineers knew about this- it can’t be that I discovered it. I’m 130 lb woman and I think pivot decided well- pretty much only women ride smalls and they just pedal bikes so no biggie.
Awesome review! Sounds like you've ridden the Shadowcat too. Curious how you think the Switchblade & Shadowcat compare in terms of capability and fun factor? Thinking of going back to 27.5 (or mullet a Shadowcat) after being on an SB130 LR (which is fast but not very playful IMO). Thanks!
Hey mate cheers! I actually haven’t ridden the shadowcat unfortunately. I was just being hypothetical about their uses but I want to ride one so bad! I do think heading back to 27.5 might be on the cards in the future. That being said I think you should try a switchblade (or wait for a new version of it) before settling for 27.5 to get playfulness cause this thing is a lot of fun!
@@BlueSkyBoys Right on! Will see if I can get on both when my trails dry out.
I love mine
At 6’3 was Finn okay with the Size large frame? Was it too cramped for him? Cheers!
It was definitely on the small side for me but not too cramped. It’s such a playful bike so being smaller adds to that. I would probably buy an XL though.
Question: I tend to be a "Heavy" rider, probably from learning to NOT go for big air, but staying closer to the ground, while racing BMX, and MX. But I do like to have "fun" looking for moderate obstacles to jump off of, on or at the side of a given trail compared to the "normal" line. (On my Current INTENSE 275, or on my FEFT Surplus 30 hard tail), So would this be a good bike for a guy who wants to have more "Pop" time? Would this bike encourage me to rail the turns and have fun poping and being more Dare I say "@Stylish" over/off of elements not found in the middle of the trail? Or just make things more "scary"?
I don’t think you could choose a better bike if you want more pop time. This thing is really unlike any other bike I’ve ridden. It just wants to fly off every root and side line on the trail. If that’s what you’re after, definitely try test ride one of these. I think you will love it
I have a '22 pivot switchblade in blue with white letters. Your bike is a '21 and and earlier with the black letters. Love how the switchblade blade handles. You can really send it and climbs better than any bike except probably the pivot trail 429 because of the lower suspension.
Similar to the Ibis ripmo v2, I would have to give the pivot the edge on looks, not a fan of the bent top tube. You are in New Zealand? Cheers
Nice one! Yeah completely agree about the looks, this thing is gorgeous and I'm also not a fan of the bent top tube of the IBIS. Yeah we are! This is filmed In Rotorua where Crankworx is.
I would have gone with the switch blade but I refuse to mess with super boost spacing
Yeah that is quite a big thing to consider with this bike. If I was just happy with the stock wheels on the bike, that would be fine. But if you want to buy or sell superboost you’re going to have a hard time.
How would you feel about turning this into a mullet with a 27.5 in the back?
I don’t think it would need it to be honest! The chain-stay feels so short anyway it doesn’t really handle like a 29r. Would be an interesting experiment though…
Great video , but disagree with the lateral stiffness of the rear end not being predominantly due to the super boost… agree to disagree 🍻
Cheers mate! That’s fair enough. Upon comparing with our other bikes I just don’t feel it’s worth it for the incompatibility with so many wheel sets. But it also wouldn’t stop me buying the bike so yeah haha
This is my dream bike. Unfortunately its too small for me.
Too small in terms of travel? Or sizing. If you mean travel I think it rides like it has more. It’s extremely capable.
They don’t make an xxl
Awesome bike but super expensive.
66 HTA - oof.
hahaha yeah, pros and cons on that one. Depends hugely on the trail weather or not it's an issue.
Nothing wrong with a 66 HA
@@matthewserna7475 Definitely not a deal breaker, but on steep gnarly stuff it's less confidence inspiring. But there are benefits too.
@@BlueSkyBoys depends where you ride. In the Midwest, it's perfect. The 66 is better in the twists and turns, rarely out here is anything steep enough to warrant more. I have a 64HA bike, old school 69Ha and 66/66.5 so I have both ends of the spectrum
@@matthewserna7475 completely agree! Where we live in New Zealand there are a lot of steep trails, which is where we noticed the downsides. But this thing was an absolutely beast in the tight corners. That shorter wheelbase really helps the fun factor!
Exposed bearings and no tube-in-tube internal routing on such an expensive bike...is that a joke?
Yeah definitely an interesting choice. At least the cables don’t go through the headset haha.
@@BlueSkyBoys I would say it as it is: very poor. Bikers, reviewers & magazines need to be more critical with the bike companies and their dumb choices/cheap compromises.
I agree about the headset routing 🤕
My 2022 has foam sleeves on the internal cable housings. Doesn't make noise on my bike. Just need to wrap the one's on the outside so they won't flap and slap about and bump into eachother.
@@a8f235 I know. The point is I don't want foam sleeves on such an expensive bike. I want tube-in-tube. My "cheap" YT Capra from 2018 has that...
Your build is incomplete/not done right -- cable rattle does not exist on a properly built bike. Maybe sort your build before you count it as a criticism. This was a nice review, but the "negatives" were based purely on opinion. Again -- we are talking about negatives that could very well be chalked up to your thrown together build. And apparently we now live in a world where 142mm of rear travel on a trail bike is not enough. Sure. OK. But comparing a Pivot to a Canyon shows where your heads are at, so this entire review needs to be taken with a grain of salt.
All reviews are based on opinions mate. other bikes come with the cable rattle sorted. Not something you should have to do yourself on such an expensive frame. Obviously we were sent this bike built by the supplier so it’s not our problem to fix things.