Pivot Mach 4 XTR (2013)

The Mach 4 is the ultimate lightweight cross country and marathon race bike. With a 24 hour endurance world championship and multiple MTBR best XC full suspension awards it’s easy to see why the Mach 4 has garnered such an incredible reputation. With Superior pedaling performance, light weight, and unrivaled stiffness, this Mach 4 is designed to go fast.

Using the cutting-edge dw-link® suspension design, the Mach 4 accelerates instantly during hard, out of the saddle efforts and gives amazing traction while climbing and accelerating out of corners. It’s downright snappy! The suspension soaks up the bumps in a smooth controlled manner that lets you go faster. The 92mm BB shell, carbon reinforced double row bearing lower dw-link®, high-modulus carbon fiber upper link and one-piece rear triangle make for a zero-flex frame. Mountain Bike Action said it best: “It gives riders all the benefits of a shorter-stroke XC racer, like sharp acceleration and a dizzying rate of climb…and it delivers the downhill handling of a longer-stroke trail bike.” We couldn’t have said it better ourselves.

• dw-link® suspension design with position-sensitive anti-squat makes for the most efficient pedaling and best performing race bike on the market. With a true 4” (100mm) of travel, incredible square edge bump performance and unrivaled climbing traction, the Mach 4 is the most well rounded race bike as well.

• New Pivot specific, custom tuned Fox CTD shock technology: Increased performance and adjustment range allows riders to quickly and easily adjust for changing course or ride conditions.

• Ultra-lightweight, with a stiffness to weight ratio that puts all other premium XC frames to shame. Race team bikes are being built as light as 20lbs (9kg)-Jason English’s World Championship winning Mach 4 and we offer a 21.8 lbs (9.8kg) XX1 equipped Mach 4 as well. How will you build yours?

• Press Fit 92mm wide bottom bracket, direct mount front derailleur, double row bearing carbon dw-link®, and high-modulus carbon rocker add to the Mach 4’s lightweight and superior frame stiffness.

Beyond the Boundaries
Just like all of our suspension bikes, the Mach 4 is all about striking the perfect balance. In this case that perfect balance is providing the rider with World Cup winning cross country performance, without the narrow focus. It’s a race bike that shatters the boundaries between the single purpose, race day-only machine and a bike that can be ridden anywhere and everywhere. The Mach 4 has been to the top of the podium in Pro and Expert class cross country races across the country. It has proven itself in the world’s toughest endurance and 24 hour events including the 24 hours of Old Pueblo, the 24 hours of Moab, the TransRockies, the Leadville 100, and even South Africa’s grueling Cape Epic. It also has a 24 hour World Championship title under its belt.

The Mach 4 is a bike we (and many happy customers) have had the pleasure of riding all across the country on every type of terrain imaginable. It’s been ridden hard on our own National Trail, traversed the technical rock- and root-strewn trails of western Pennsylvania, powered through the forests of Northern Wisconsin and Minnesota, and has tackled Fruita, Colorado as well as just about everything Moab has to offer…including Porcupine Rim—right alongside riders with 6” travel bikes.

For those not buying into the notion that more travel is always better, the Mach 4 could be considered your ultimate trail bike as well as being one of the fastest, most efficient race bikes on the planet.

Low Down on the High Tech
So what is it that gives the Mach 4 this amazing combination of pure race performance while also being a fantastic all around bike?

There are more than a few things that go into the Pivot Mach 4 that sets it apart, making it truly unique in the 4” travel class. First and foremost, we designed a bike that is firm and responsive under pedaling, in or out of the saddle. The dw-link® suspension design, custom shock tuning, and Pivot suspension rates all combine to make a bike that is a rocket in or out of the saddle, and when climbing or sprinting.

One of the primary benefits of the dw-link® suspension design is position-sensitive anti-squat. Put simply, the dw-link® is the first and only suspension design that takes into account the rider’s weight and position on the bike (i.e. the rider’s center of mass). When you stand up to sprint or shift your weight back to climb, your weight along with the force on the pedals is the dominant force on the suspension. This bob or “squat” caused by the rider’s mass shift is a good part of the reason why ProPedal, SPV, Brain, lockouts, and a host of various other “platform damping” solutions exist: to resist suspension bob and squat. With the dw-link®’s anti-squat design, the dual suspension links are positioned in such a way that your weight shifts do not result in unwanted suspension movement or “squat” under power. This allows us to tune the rear shock with lighter valving, making the bike free to absorb bumps and follow the terrain better.

We combine this with a slightly rearward travel path through the beginning 1/3rd of the travel to give the Mach 4 incredible square edge bump performance and increased traction on climbs. The combination of Pivot’s suspension rates and the dw-link®’s anti-squat properties give the Mach 4 incredible pedaling performance, zero hesitation on acceleration, and that lively snappy feel a discriminating cross country racer demands.

At the same time, there are very few if any true pro-level XC bikes that actually get 4” of travel at the rear wheel. For most XC race bikes, “4 inches” is a number at the brochure, not at the rear wheel. This is certainly not the case with the Mach 4. Real, usable, controlled travel is another reason why the Mach 4 can go fast and maintain control in technical terrain that will completely overwhelm the suspension on other cross country bikes.

Raising the Bar
While we were busy designing the best performing suspension in the world, we decided the rest of the frame needed to set a new bar as well. The Mach 4 is a well thought out machine from tip to tail. This is not a bike where new technology has been used simply for the sake of technology. Better stiffness, better shifting, easier set up, longevity, and a host of other performance criteria were addressed.

A lot has been said in the press about our 92mm wide bottom bracket, double row cartridge bearing dw-link®, direct mount front derailleur, and obsession with frame stiffness. All these things add up to a better bike that will last longer and perform at a higher level. Most riders don’t realize the amount of flex that occurs in other bikes. This flex translates immediately into lost energy and high wear on the suspension pivots. With all the work we put into the suspension to make sure that none of your power is lost to suspension bob, or squat, we certainly want to make sure that it isn’t wasted on flex either.
The Mach 4 relies on large, thin wall hydro-formed tubes, hollow 3D forgings, wide oversize pivots, and the highest quality suspension bearing pivot design to make sure every last bit of your energy goes into helping you go faster, ride more efficiently, and have more fun.

Weight
Having a light bike is certainly one of the most important details when deciding how to build your next cross country race bike. We believe the number one goal a racer should consider is getting the bike that you can go fastest on. A rider shopping purely by the scale is overlooking the balance of stiffness, efficiency, and lightweight that will result in the fastest lap times.

In the case of the Mach 4, this frame was designed with the finished product in mind. Every extra gram of material has been shaved through optimizing the entire frame design and not at the expense of durability or stiffness. In fact, the Mach 4 is designed to be one of the lightest bikes in the world with an XX1 equipped bike coming in at 21.8lbs. That’s lighter than most complete full suspension carbon bikes (even ones with carbon rims), all in a package that packs a true 100mm of rear wheel travel, and the most efficient pedaling suspension design on the planet.