A couple more general comments about the Dirt Demo: 1) The Bootleg Canyon trails really bring out the worst in any suspension. If you think you’re suspension is pretty good it will make it feel like crap. If you’re suspension isn’t dialed you will suffer. I’m not talking about the congo line Lakes loops that they funneled everybody onto. I’m talking about up the canyon. West Leg, Mother, Skyline, East Leg, Boy Scout and Girl Scout, etc. These trails have such a great mix of fast flowy, slow techy, rocks, drops, and ledges as to really challenge any suspension. 2) I came to dirt demo hoping to find a new light 5.6-6inch travel trail/am bike that could do it all. I learned that it doesn’t exist… at least not for me. I ended up discovering that I wanted a bigger, beefier, burlier AM mount than I had already not less of one. 3) Dirt Demo is like Disneyland for bike geeks. I felt like a kid in a candy store with a free pass the whole time.

Day 2 started with a climb up the canyon with my buddy beagledadi. He broke free from the shuttle driving duty long enough for us to take out the Pivot 429 and the Niner Rip9 for some thrashing and note comparing.

Day 2:

Pivot 429

Four inch XC 29er

Just like the Mach 5 and Firebird I demoed before this bike is beautifully crafted and feel stiff, solid, and light. I does not feel like a 29er when seated on it. It feels a lot like my HH100x. Quick, sharp, point and shoot accurate, and efficient. It’s a great climber with absolutely no bob or squat on seated or standing efforts. This would make a great xc race bike, 24hour or endurance race bike.

After my Firebird experience I resolved to find some plushness in Pivot’s version of the DW-link. With almost 40-50% sag while seated the 429 felt reasonably compliant over the bootleg rocks while climbing but I was bottoming it out on the smallest g-outs and stiking the pedals on nearly every rock. When I added air to the RP3 to get it more in line with the recommended 33% sag it stiffened up quite a bit and plainly was not made for the bootleg chunk although the big wheels did seem to smooth out a lot of the smaller stuff that would beat you up on a similar design 26er. On buffer, swoopier, singletrack this thing would absolutely rail. I was hoping to fit in a ride on the Ventana El Rey and the RacerX 29er to compare it but they were always checked out when I went by those booths. These appear to be its direct competitors.

Nice bike for the right application.

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