Mach 4 C review

HoJo · Jan 21, 2016

I have owned a Pivot Mach 4 C for about 6 months ridden it extensively in Arizona, Colorado, Utah and Texas. A recent Pivot Forum post prompted me to jot down my thoughts on the bike. I just spent the last week demoing a Med Pivot 429 Trail (2 Days) and a Med Norco Sight (3 Days) to see if I was missing anything with my short travel Mach 4 C as a compliment to my 2 year old Pivot Mach 6.

Med set up as a trail bike:
Fork: Rock Shox Pike fork at 137mm (don't know why the 140 runs short but it does)
Shock: Cane Creek Inline
Drive train: SRAM X01
Brakes: Hope Race Evo E4
Wheels: Chris King hubs with Nox Farlow rims
Tires: WTB 2.4 Trailboss front, Schwalbe 2.35 Rock Razor rear
Dropper Post: Easton Haven 125mm

Overall: One of the quickest bikes I have ever ridden, accelerates like a jack rabbit, nimble handling, surprisingly plush for 4 1/2" of travel and handles tech without any fuss. Loves to be ridden hard and playful.

Climbing: Loves to climb the loose steep punchy Austin climbs, the instant acceleration really helps when hitting ledges and techy rocks. Takes some body English on the real steeps (probably caused by over forking the front as its makes the seat angle slacker). I find myself climbing in bigger gears than any other bike. Switchbacks are as good or better than anything else I have ridden.

Downhill: This is not a Mach 6 but that being said there are very few things I haven't tried on the Mach 4 that I am willing to do on the Mach 6. It handles drops, rocky chutes, and steeps without any hesitation. My confidence holds me back more than the bike. Fast, loose, rocky, twisty downhills are a hoot, I maybe faster on a Mach 429 Trail but its not noticeable. I do feel more confident on a couple of the real ledgy steep downhills on the 429 Trail and there are a couple of very steep rock walls to rough transitions I ride on a Mach 6 that can't talk myself into trying on either the 429 Trail or the Mach 4.

Airtime: I don't do much hucking but I do like to pop of little kickers. The Mach 4 is so light and playful it just begs to hit all those little extra features for a little air. Again it's that acceleration thing, you see a side ledge a couple of quick strokes and pop off it.

Needs Improvement: The Mach 4 C is miss represented it looks like a race bike but with the right setup it's a great trail bike. The only thing I would change would be a tweak of angles. I would like a degree slacker headtube and 1 ½ degree steeper seattube with a 140mm fork.

Conclusion: After a week on the other bikes I jumped on my Mach 4 C and started hammering, I'm keeping this bike. It's the funnest bike I have ever ridden, it makes me want to ride faster, encourages me to ride more playful. Yes there are trails I ride that I'll take the Mach 6 but even then only a short part of each ride do I really need the Mach 6.

About me: I'm 5'-9" 165 lbs been riding MTB for over 20 years, ride 4-5 days a week. I love techy riding, fast flowy rides but not jeep roads. I've been lucky to ride and own lots of high-end trail bikes.

BmanInTheD · Jan 22, 2016

Awesome review. I think you just convinced me 100% to keep mine. The combination of quick, plush enough, and easy and fun to jump little things make it a fantastic all-around bike. I have a 429SL, 429 Trail, and this Mach 4C and was thinking I had to get rid of one of them. Nah....this bike is just too damn much fun. My LBS owner even says he rides one a lot for fun but races on a Scott. The 27.5 wheels are just more fun, even though they might not eat up terrain as fast as 29'ers. I was hoping that the 429Trail would render the 4C unnecessary (well, aren't they all?), but, even though the Trail is better at some things, the Mach 4 is still the King of Fun.

StumpyElite2010 · Jan 22, 2016

Thank you HoJo
If you could have only one bike - would it be the Mach4C or the 429 Trail ?

I demeo'd both and while the Mach4c was as much as you said, it didn't put a big smile on my face as the Mach 429 Trail did.
Riding the M429T was a complete different and positive experience from any XC/Trail bike I rode to date especially at the DH.

Dirtrider127 · Jan 22, 2016

Great write up HoJo. Thanks for taking the time to do that and now I'm getting the jones for Mach4C again

In my post that you probably were referring to there was a reply about a 130 max length fork but you are running a longer RS on yours. Do you think that helps the handling assuming it "might" have a slacker HA? I went from a 140 to 150 on my Mach5 and it was a great upgrade that affected the handling to a slacker ride
Did you build it up yourself with all the nice bolts ons or order it that way?

HoJo · Jan 22, 2016

Stumpy - only one bike Waah. I just whittled the fleet down to two. That would be a very hard decision, probably looking for a unicorn and not either. I have only ridden the 429T on Austin Tx trails not my usual mix which includes lots of Sedona and Flagstaff Az but unless those trails revealed more benefits for the 429T I would say the Mach4C.

Question how tall are you?
Two riding buds both love the 429T riding the same Austin trails and both like to get a little rowdy. But both are over 6' tall and I'm just under 5-9. I believe it takes more effort for short riders to get 29" bikes to be responsive. I have spend a ton of time on a 429C and I was faster but had to work to make it playful. Shorter riders with lower centers of Gravity need more movement on 29" bikes to un-weight either end.

Dirtrider- I built the bike up myself I knew I wanted a trail vs race type build. Significantly more expensive but I had many of the parts on hand. I started with a 130 Pike and std Fox rear shock. Moved to the CC Inline and the bike became much plusher and bottomless type feel but still was remarkably quick. Then extended the fork to "140" but it really ended up at 137mm to better handle the steeps and drops-ins. Really like it like this, it has made descents very similar to the 429T. Climbing requires a little more body English but I adapted quickly. I think if your shorter this is a heck of a trail bike.

rehammer81 · Jan 24, 2016

I couldn't agree more with HoJo. I'm also about 5'9" running a M4c. I started out with it in a XC race build as I was racing marathon XC stuff building up to the Leadville 100 in August. The day after Leadville I completely reconfigured the bike into a trail build for a stop over in Salida on the way home to practice some of the Monarch Crest Enduro stages. I swapped from a 100mm SID to a 2015 130/100 Fox 34 TALAS. Swapped from the stock Fox Float to the CC Inline. Swapped to DHF/HR2 tires on my Nox AM (pre-Farlow) wheels. I run a SRAM XX1/XO1 mix drivetrain.

The bike rips in this trail configuration. I was impressed with it's technical chops in the XC config and obviously even more impressed in the trail build. I live in AZ and ride a ton of techy, rocky trails both up and down. This bike is a great all-arounder. I was so impressed by how it rode during my Salida/Monarch Crest practice that I chose to take it back up for the actual event instead of my Pivot Firebird.

I'm definitely a bike addict and tend to flow through bikes just because I like trying new bikes but I will be keeping my M4c longer then I have kept any of my other rigs. Love this bike for an all-around good time on any level of trail.

JoePAz · Jan 27, 2016

BmanInTheD said:
Awesome review. I think you just convinced me 100% to keep mine. The combination of quick, plush enough, and easy and fun to jump little things make it a fantastic all-around bike. I have a 429SL, 429 Trail, and this Mach 4C and was thinking I had to get rid of one of them. Nah....this bike is just too damn much fun. My LBS owner even says he rides one a lot for fun but races on a Scott. The 27.5 wheels are just more fun, even though they might not eat up terrain as fast as 29'ers. I was hoping that the 429Trail would render the 4C unnecessary (well, aren't they all?), but, even though the Trail is better at some things, the Mach 4 is still the King of Fun.

Hmm...
I currently ride a 26HT and I am looking at new bike. I demo'ed a Pivot LES and 429SL about a week ago. The trails had access to that day were really tame so I did not wait around for 429 Trail to come back. Overall I found Pivot LES to be a good bike, but nothing special. Slightly faster than my 26"HT, but not so much given the price. The 429SL was slightly slower on the short climb, but I feel would be faster as the trail got rougher. There was one pedally section that was mostly flat, but had some rocky bits where the HT would skip and onthe 429SL I could just pedal straight through.

Overall though I am not sure if the 429 trail would be better. I want bike that will climb as well or nearly as well as my 26HT (25lbs), but descend better on the rocks. I do some races, but most of the ones I do are longer 4 to 8hrs and the HT can just get tiring over that distance. I am not fast enough to race in 90 balls out races, but a 50 mile backcountry race. Sign me up. I don't do much really techy stuff, but still routly handle 6" to 18" drops and try to ride 6"-12" step ups twisty rocky climbs. I am 5'7" and found to 429SL in small to fit me really well. The Medium LES29 was too long the top tube.

Anyway my fear is that the 429 trail will inefficent at climbing and possibly too slack for steep climbs as I hate it when the front tire wanders on steep climbs even with my XC HT.

BmanInTheD · Jan 27, 2016

I'd do the 429SL with a 120 fork. Or maybe even adjust it to 110. I'm your size and my small 429SL is way faster than the 429Trail, particularly on climbs. Mine is set up with a 100mm fork and is fantastic for climbing but sometimes I wish I had a little more when the going gets a little rougher. The Trail is a hoot when it starts going down, especially steep with a bunch of chunk, but after a while, especially in a long race, I think it will wear you out on the climbs. Both the weight and slackness. Put a 120 on the SL and you won't be giving up nearly as much on the downs as you would on the ups with the Trail. Mi dos centos.

JoePAz · Jan 27, 2016

Thanks.... Bman

tiSS'er · Jan 28, 2016

BmanInTheD said:
I'd do the 429SL with a 120 fork. Or maybe even adjust it to 110. I'm your size and my small 429SL is way faster than the 429Trail, particularly on climbs. Mine is set up with a 100mm fork and is fantastic for climbing but sometimes I wish I had a little more when the going gets a little rougher. The Trail is a hoot when it starts going down, especially steep with a bunch of chunk, but after a while, especially in a long race, I think it will wear you out on the climbs. Both the weight and slackness. Put a 120 on the SL and you won't be giving up nearly as much on the downs as you would on the ups with the Trail. Mi dos centos.

The 429SL is now spec'd with a Fox 34 120mm, sweet setup!

Mach 4 C review

HoJo

BmanInTheD

StumpyElite2010

Dirtrider127

HoJo

rehammer81

JoePAz

BmanInTheD

JoePAz

tiSS'er

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