It’s no secret that Pivot has been working on a new downhill bike, thanks in part to a tour of their in-house R&D facility we published earlier this year. That tour revealed the aluminum-lugged carbon construction that was being used for the new bike, a method that Pivot says reduces the time required to make a rideable prototype. It also makes it easier to adjust the frame design, whether that’s via a different tube or lug, without starting over completely.
With the first DH World Cup of the season finally about to get underway, Bernard Kerr hasn’t been shy about sharing images of the new bike. We’re working on getting some better shots now that it’s out in the open, but in the meantime it’s still worth digging into what Pivot has been cooking up.
The bike appears to be using a high-pivot version of Dave Weagle’s DW6 suspension design. There’s a rocker link connecting the seatstays to the frame and then the shock, and two short links connecting the elevated chainstays to the seat tube. Compared to the DW4 design, which uses two short links to connect a swingarm to the front triangle, the DW6 configuration is easier to adapt to different frame geometries and chainstay lengths.
The bike also uses a dual chain setup, also likely another Dave Weagle design – Seb Stott went over the specifics of the patent here. The benefits of this configuration include improved chain wrap compared to other idler pulley setups, and the ability to run a smaller chainring at the cranks, increasing ground clearance.
We’ll see if all of the off-season testing pays off when racing begins in Lenzerheide next week. Qualification takes place on Friday, June 9th, and then semi-finals and finals are on Saturday, June 10th.
We’ve reached out to Pivot for comment, and will update this article if any more details are revealed.
