The Pivot Cycles Mach 5 was made to perform during long days in the saddle. With a full 5.3" of travel, the Mach 5 is positioned right between our Mach 4 and Mach 5.7, making it the ultimate trail bike with the soul of a cross country rig. It's meant to cover the spectrum of 24 hour racing and all-day in-the-saddle rides, with the ability to devour technical descents.
Submitted by
nts550
a Racer
from Cardiff, Wales UK
Date Reviewed: December 2, 2011
Strengths: solid...and I got a rippin' deal: 800 quid.
Weaknesses: short head-tube, requires spacers on fork tube...who cares though
Bottom Line:
This is my favorite bike ever!!! and I've ridden a lot of them.
Climbs great, descends better. I ride in muddy Welsh environments and this bike eats it up. Especially techy downhill...and even uphill. My build is a little heavy, so it's a fun bike, not a race bike. That said I could throw some lighter tires/wheels, parts and have an XC and Super D machine.
Submitted by
pominoz
a Weekend Warrior
from ACT Australia
Date Reviewed: September 14, 2011
Strengths: I wanted an all-day bike that would take some abuse, let me have some mild DH fun and be light enough to make it easy to climb back to the top of the hill. The ability to adjust to varied trails and needed to keep me smiling. The Mach 5 does all that with no worries.
Weaknesses: I honestly haven't found any.
Bottom Line:
I've had the bike for a year having moved from the Scott Genius. First impression was the additional bottom bracket/crank clearance which was welcome. Feels to me like I sit higher on the bike but makes for faster turning. Minimal bob with the DW link even when standing and quick acceleration.
I paid a great new price and it's a great bike!
Similar Products Used: Scott Genius MC30, Trek Y22!
Bike Setup: Standard Pivot Mach 5 with full XT and DT Swiss X430 wheels
Overall Rating:
Value Rating:
Submitted by
Tim Rowse
a Cross Country Rider
from Steamboat, CO USA
Date Reviewed: August 29, 2011
Strengths: Ok, I'm not one to submit reviews, but the Pivot Mach 5 was worthy of taking the time. I came from a Titus RacerX that I also loved. The Mach 5 is the logical step from the Racerx for those that want to step towards a longer travel trail bike. It's two bikes in one if you get an adjustable shock. Climbs really well when suspension is locked down and downhills with the slight feel of a DH bike when you open her up.
I highly recommend an adjustable front fork as the reviews that site "a wandering front tire" are accurate with the front shock fully opened. When I dial it down, the issue disappears.
Weaknesses: Haven't really found any yet, just make sure to order an adjustable front shock.
Bottom Line:
I ride a lot in Steamboat Colorado, Lots of climbing, singletrack and all kinds of descents. I'm 5'9" 180 pounds and love the medium size.
Similar Products Used: Titus Racer x
Ellsworth Epiphany
Bike Setup: details...details...$'s for grams...all the upper end technology works pretty well.
Overall Rating:
Value Rating:
Submitted by
Jorge
a Cross Country Rider
from Queretaro
Date Reviewed: August 17, 2011
Strengths: Frame, Suspension, Design
Weaknesses: Oversize bike. You have to ride it before purchase it. Painting; mine is a white/Grey and even a fly can make a scratch on it. I will recomend the anodized colors
Bottom Line:
The Pivot Mach 5 has all the good stuff that all the others have. The basic instinct of the Titus. The quickness response of the Yeti ASR5. The sharp and maneuverability of the Specialized Epic. But also the price include all the others and is too high. Does it worth? Once you are riding this beauty you forgot about it!
Similar Products Used: Titus Racer X 2008, Yeti ASR5 2009, Specialized Epic 2010
Bike Setup: XT, XTR, Fox RP23, Carbon components
Overall Rating:
Value Rating:
Submitted by
Linda
a Weekend Warrior
from Traverse City, MI, USA
Date Reviewed: May 10, 2011
Strengths: Climbs like a monster; NO bob, keeps a beautiful line, eats up ugly stuff with no complaint.
Weaknesses: Maybe a less flimsy seat (see below)
Bottom Line:
Oh what a ride! I can't seem to wipe this goofy grin off my face! I ride my usual trails and when I reach the end, I'm just not ready to be done. Even the first time out, I discovered I could ride rugged descents so much more aggressively. If you get bored, just ride it faster. It only gets better.
I've gone over stumps,rocks, roots, stairs and train tracks and this bike has bumps for dessert. The bike just seems to stick, which I attribute to the rear suspension. I was constantly bouncing around in rock gardens, on my old bike, no matter how well I tuned it.
Climbing is amazing. I read previous reviews about how this bike climbs and have to admit I was skeptical that any full suspension bike could deliver as described. Unbelievable. The suspension on this bike gives when needed and stays as stiff as a hard tail up hills. The front end is a little light and I've pulled it off the ground on steep ascents, but it's more a matter of sloppy riding and the need to position myself a little differently on the bike.
I was originally looking at the Mach 4, but am glad to have that extra inch and a half of travel up front on the Mach 5. As I read in another review, it inspires confidence on the downhill, and I found that really to be true, especially after being accustomed to worrying about ending up over the handlebars on my old bike. I feel my riding position on the bike overall is part of the reason. The other thing I read was that this was a nicer ride for long days in the saddle, and I completely agree.
I'm 5.5 and went with the small frame, but was concerned after I read other reviews that suggested the frame size ran large. At first I was indeed worried it was a bit big, but as I ride it, it feels absolutely perfect. I think my first impression that it was large was because I wasn't used to a front fork with that much travel (the old bike having less than 4 inches of travel)
I do see a few modifications in the cards...
I got the XT build and am pretty happy with it, although I think in time I will upgrade the drive train to deliver a crisper shift. I did manage to pull the seat off the brackets the second time out (bailed on some spooky terrain that this bike could have easily taken!). I've never had that happen on a bike before. The seat has a flimsy plastic frame which attaches to the seat bracket; it flexed just right and popped off when I jumped off.
Finally, I'll take a couple of inches off the handlebars. The bars on my old bike measured 22 inches and I got used to being able to take tight squeezes between trees. I find the 26-inch bars that came on it to be far longer than needed, and I've already misjudged my margin for error a couple of times and scuffed bar ends.
All in all, I say it's a phenomenal bike. I would happily make the same choice again. You can't go wrong with this one! Great job, Pivot!
Strengths: Incredible rear suspension that works wonders. Solid feeling, great climber. RP23 shock works great.
Weaknesses: none that I can think of..
Bottom Line:
This bike has made me a better rider from climbing to downhill. The best part about the Mach 5 for me is that it holds the line where you want to go, very confidence inspiring. It's a solid ride. Climbing on the Mach 5 is a treat. I've read where others say that the front end is pretty light in technical sections, that's true for me aswell but I don't think it's a big deal and doesn't effect the way I climb. I have a small water bottle that fits fine in my Medium frame. For value, I have to give it 5 chilis because you can buy the frames for $1400 new and for what you get that's a smokin' deal. 5 chilis for my overall, it is truly an outstanding bike...
Submitted by
shawnstar
a Cross Country Rider
from Asheville, NC
Date Reviewed: April 18, 2011
Strengths: Very Stiff suspension on the climb, The adjusdtable rp23 onthe rear makes any downhill doable. Very stiff rear triangle, stock build responds beautifully.
Weaknesses: I will never be as good as this bike
Bottom Line:
This bike is sweet, much better than my last bike. The people over at Pivot Cycles are great, they build exceptional quality bikes. I also recommend Motion Makers, they have exceptional knowledge of the bikes and offer great service!
Similar Products Used: Cannondale Rize 4, Cannondale Caffeine 29er
Bike Setup: MACH 5 XT/SLX
FOX Float 140 RL TAPERED 15mm QR
XT Dynasys 10Spd
SLX Dynasys E-TYPE
SLX Dynasys 10Spd
SLX Dynasys
HAYES STROKER TRAIL
SLX Dynasys 24/32/42
FSA XC300 Alloy Riser 680mm
PHOENIX Lock On
FSA OS 150
FSA XC250 Alloy
WTB VIGO SPORT
SLX Dynasys 11-36 10Spd
MAVIC CROSSRIDE
KENDA NEVEGAL
Overall Rating:
Value Rating:
Submitted by
playplay350
a Weekend Warrior
from Canberra, ACT,Australia
Date Reviewed: March 23, 2011
Strengths: too many to list, this is just a fantastic bike. Fun Fun Fun
Weaknesses: little hard to clean, not really a weakness
Bottom Line:
I would recommend this bike to anybody looking for a bike that does just about anything you throw at it. The DW Link works a treat, it's like sitting in a lounge chair.
Submitted by
woodsrider300
a Weekend Warrior
from Winchester, KY
Date Reviewed: February 15, 2011
Strengths: The best do-it-all bike I have ridden yet!!!!
Weaknesses: A little hard to clean in the rear suspension linkage. Well, I had to come up with something.
Bottom Line:
I will keep it short because there is only one way to describe this bike. AWESOME!!!!!!!!!!! I rode the Motolite for 5 years before the Pivot and thought you could not get better. WRONG!!! I am a 50+ year old rider and ride everything from fast smooth trail to very technical single track and this bike is at home on it all. The rear suspension is amazing!!! You won't be sorry if you buy one. BOTTOM LINE.
Similar Products Used: Titus Motolite, Mongoose Team Cannan
Bike Setup: Fox float fit 140mm on front. Sram XO 3X9 drivetrain. Stans ZTR rims w/American Classic hubs. Running Specialized Fast Track LK tires. All Titanium hardware. Magura Marta SL brakes. Carbon stem, seatpost and handlebars. Truvativ crank. 25.5 LBS
Overall Rating:
Value Rating:
Submitted by
Bejo Agung
a Cross Country Rider
from Jakarta, Indonesia
Date Reviewed: December 3, 2010
Strengths: Amazing DW Link System, No Doubt
Weaknesses: No weakness, a great bike
Bottom Line:
I used Specialized XC Com then XC Pro, later Giant Trance XO and Norco Fluid LT1 before.....but when I bought Pivot Mach 5.0 and buildkit with a new XT dynasis groupset and the other all parts are a used from my previous Norco, I feel a big difference between Pivot and my previous bikes. Mach 5.0 is a such perfect bike, your confidence will be upgraded totally when using this bike.Having no problems for climbing and descending. What a great bike....I just bought another Pivot Mach 5.0 today, a bike for my kid. I will upgrade my prev 5.0 to 5.7
Similar Products Used: Norco Fluid LT1, Giant Trance X0, Specialized XC Pro
Bike Setup: Groupset XT Dynasis 30speed, Front fork Rockshox Lyric Solo 170mm, Wheel&tyres Mavic Crossride SX & Panaracer 26x2.0, handlebar Trutativ, Seatpost Trutativ, Saddle Selle Max Flite GL
Overall Rating:
Value Rating:
Submitted by
momills
a Weekend Warrior
from Auckland, New Zealand
Date Reviewed: October 26, 2010
Strengths: Great climber, predictable, best front derailleur changing on any bike ever riden.
Weaknesses: I have the anodized cobalt blue frame which is already fading and almost impossible to get clean after a muddy ride, the rear suspension linkage is also hard to clean.
Bottom Line:
Great all round bike, has definitely made me a better rider. Had an Anthem before this and would never go back to a 4" travle bike again. This is definitely a long travel trail bike and not an all mountain bike. I notice most people run a Fox fork but and very happy with the revelation fork (cheaper too). I'm just over 6" and demo'ed a medium frame and ended up buying the large. Was suprised how big the medium was and could have gone either way. Initially had a few problems keeping the front end under control but changed to a 0 degree stem and moving the saddle forward sorted it out.
Similar Products Used: Marin Mount Vision. Giant Anthem
Bike Setup: XTR shifters and derailleurs, XT drive chain, Formula brakes, Rockshox Revelation fork
Overall Rating:
Value Rating:
Submitted by
WheelerDog29
a Cross Country Rider
from Missoula, MT
Date Reviewed: September 16, 2010
Strengths: The frame is stiff and strong. The rear end sucks up rocks and roots without stalling. The head tube angle is very confident without slowing down the handling. All this while sitting on 5.5" of travel. LIGHT!
Weaknesses: can't think if a thing
Bottom Line:
This bike can handle anything you can throw at it. The uphill performance is flawless, easy to accelerate and move the front end up and around. The rear end follows through without any signs of the suspension wasting my energy or slowing my forward motion. The shifting with XX is unbeatable. Brakes stop on a dime. The Tricons don't need truing. Couldn't ask for more from this bike. Get you one!
Similar Products Used: Specialized SJ FSR Pro and Expert. Kona Kikapu, GT Marathon
Bike Setup: XX all over with the DT Tricons, Fox Float suspension and carbon what not. 25lbs!
Overall Rating:
Value Rating:
Submitted by
Rstyle
a Weekend Warrior
from Salt Lake City
Date Reviewed: August 16, 2010
Strengths: It climbs fast, it just plain climbs fast. Climbs like an XC race bike, but descends much better. I can't think of a better bike for epic rides.
Weaknesses: Front end wander on really steep climbs, not the lightest frame in the world. Any bike that costs $2600 (nearly 40% off still) is ridiculous, a decent used motorcycle cost the same amount.
Bottom Line:
I narrowed my choices down to the IBIS MOJO and the PIVOT MACH 5. I ended up liking the IBIS just a little bit better, but by very little. I was faster on the PIVOT though. It is just that simple. IBIS felt better, but the PIVOT is simply faster. It out climbs the IBIS (along with everything else), but is not as plush in the decent. To give an idea of what a great climber it is, I rode the White Rim trail outside Moab in June. One of the riders was a former cross country racer for the University of Wyoming, at the end of day 1, we found a very steep, technical climb. Nobody was able to get up it (28 of us tried). This former racer tried around 20 times to clean this section of the trail on his TREK OCLV XC race bike (3" travel full suspension), He never made it. I offered him my bike, his first attempt he went straight up it.
Submitted by
richmtb
a Cross Country Rider
from Rancho Santa Margarita, CA
Date Reviewed: July 31, 2010
Strengths: Wow! This bike has changed everything I've known a mountain bike to be. Climbs very well, great descending and the frame is very stiff. seems to be endless travel
Weaknesses: Only one weakness: how do you clean all that linkage?
Bottom Line:
I got lucky and got a limited edition Black Mach 5. After much inspection, this bike frame is very well built. The Bottom bracket, head tube and linkage is a work of art. Great overall craftsmanship. All of the hype of the oversize bottom bracket and the inset headset is now understood with riding it
CLIMBING: This bike can climb. I'm the type of rider who will rather climb a hill than descend. Either with the RP23 locked out or not, this bike puts some serious power to the rear wheel with very minimal "bob" or "squat". I've got mine built up with quality parts with no emphasis on low weight parts. As it is stated above it's 28.5 pounds and has no issue with the steepest of climbs.
DESCENDING: The first thing I noticed was how stiff the frame was. The rear end, with my Hope Pro II's and a 9mm through axle, is very stiff. Almost too stiff to where the back end skips over some lateral ruts. The RP23 is awesome and seems to have endless travel. Having ridden a 2009 RP23 with no Boost Valve and now riding this with the valve, I noticed no difference. The linkage is very stiff and now after 3 months of hard riding, there is no noise coming from the many parts. I am slowly becoming a fan of descending with this bike. It seems as though every ride, I descend a section and think, "wow, that was cool" I am beginning to pick more direct routes when descending now rather than picking the "well" traveled line that may be smoother.
ALL THE OTHER PARTS: This was a frame switch over, but 100 % of the parts came off of a bike that was heavily upgraded over the past 9 months. I did replace the entire drivetrain, seatpost, BB and Headset with the purchase of the frame. My only issue with the parts are the Juicy 7's. They are horrible. I've tried everything to quiet these things down, but they squeal, "turkey gobble", and seem to fade. I've tried the metallic and the organic pads and still major noise. The Pike 454 is a great match to the Mach 5. I'm still playing with the suspension sag as it seems to be overdriving the fork with the 30% sag in the RP23..
Bike Setup: 2010 Pivot Mach 5 in limited edition anodized Black
RP23 with Boost Valve
Rock Shox Pike 454 coil uturn, 20mm TA
Full XT drivetrain
Avid Juicy 7's
Thomson stem/seatpost
Easton Monkeylite Carbon riser w/Odi Ruffian lock on's
Hope Pro II hubs on 819's w 9mm rear TA
2.35 Nevegal front, 2.35 SB8 rear
Selle Italia Gel Flow saddle
Cane Creek ZS-3
XT Pedals
Overall Rating:
Value Rating:
Submitted by
Funky Fenders
a Cross Country Rider
from Triad area, NC, USA
Date Reviewed: July 4, 2010
Strengths: Pedaling efficiency; Good-looks; Climbing; Downhilling; Reliability; Sizing: I'm 5'8 1/2" tall, 155lbs.; 32" inseam and the more agile Small frame was chosen after demo'ing it and the medium which felt cumbersome & wandered on the tight-turney-rooty trail. My other bikes were Mediums.
Plushness as compared to the Mach 4, & Stumpy with minimal SAG.
Weaknesses: High Cost. Granny ring is noticeably less-efficient: unable to clean a gnarly switchback (sometimes stalling) as well on this bike in this ring as I could on other bikes as suspension gets too active & granny is less efficient.
Occasionally upon downhill g-outs the suspension will compress and the chain will jump off the middle ring onto granny.
Handling is just ok on tight-turney-rooty trails.
Bottle cage under downtube....but whaddya gonna do.
Bottom Line:
44 yrs. old; ~5'8"; ~155lbs; 32" inseam; 9 yrs. experience; fast & fit: RP23 shock at 122psi for ~28% SAG, 2-3 clicks from fast rebound; fork at ~72psi for ~12% SAG at 140mm. Tires at ~26psi.
Even though I listed a few weaknesses, I still consider this 2008 model to be an overall great bike. Does most everything very well. Excels on point and shoot straight-a-ways. Best to stay in bigger rings. Use Propedal (3) with granny. Handles great on everything except the tight gnarly stuff. Really fun downhilling! Great climber too.
Consider adding a saddle-mounted TACX bottle holder/cage to avoid cow-dung on your mouthpiece.
I would buy again but 'used' and with more SRAM.
Anyone have any opinions/ experience on the DT Swiss TRICON 1700 wheel-set? I've never heard anything good about DT Swiss rims. I know their higher end hubs are solid. Read More »
I've done a decent amount of research and I've come to the conclusion that I want to purchase a Pivot Mach 5 for my new xc full suspension bike (I am currently still riding a Trek Read More »
After owning a Mach 4, going to a Jet 9 for a year... I am looking at going back to a Pivot. I don't race XC anymore, but enjoy going for a squirt on the trails and am thinking abo Read More »
I am having a few issues with the seatpost in my M5. I am using a 30.9 thomson and it will only go into the frame about 4" it is hitting something (top tobe weld?) at that point a Read More »
