Coming May 31st, according to Pivot website. Any ideas what it is?
My old Titus Switchblade was one of my favorite bikes ever.
My old Titus Switchblade was one of my favorite bikes ever.
Pivot Switchblade
BmanInTheD
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Dpca10,
I agree the 17 mm cup on the 29er messes with the geometry. I bought the bike as 27.5+ and rode it for a few months before I bought the 29er wheel set. I tried it with cup installed for one ride and immediately swapped to the zero stack cup. I rode as a 29er for a couple of months and really liked it better overall as a 29er, better rolling speed, better acceleration, but I really missed the plushness and confidence I had with 27.5+ front end. Hence, the hybrid 27.5+/29. I think the advantages of 27.5+ are 80% front 20% rear. The 27.5+ rear gives monster truck traction and excellent braking but makes the bike sluggish. Not bad as long as you stay on the pedals, but as soon as you stop pedaling the bike loses momentum and it takes a lot of energy to accelerate back up to speed. The bike as a 29er rides like you'd expect, maintains rolling speed and accelerates must easier. Swapping to the 27.5+ on the front didn't seem slow the bike down much, but I got back the plushness and confidence. A best of both worlds option.
I agree the 17 mm cup on the 29er messes with the geometry. I bought the bike as 27.5+ and rode it for a few months before I bought the 29er wheel set. I tried it with cup installed for one ride and immediately swapped to the zero stack cup. I rode as a 29er for a couple of months and really liked it better overall as a 29er, better rolling speed, better acceleration, but I really missed the plushness and confidence I had with 27.5+ front end. Hence, the hybrid 27.5+/29. I think the advantages of 27.5+ are 80% front 20% rear. The 27.5+ rear gives monster truck traction and excellent braking but makes the bike sluggish. Not bad as long as you stay on the pedals, but as soon as you stop pedaling the bike loses momentum and it takes a lot of energy to accelerate back up to speed. The bike as a 29er rides like you'd expect, maintains rolling speed and accelerates must easier. Swapping to the 27.5+ on the front didn't seem slow the bike down much, but I got back the plushness and confidence. A best of both worlds option.
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Another modification: I put a -2 degree angleset in my 29er switchblade last week and after a couple of rides I'm really pleased with the result. The harder I was riding the bike on steep terrain the more I was getting front end tuck issues when turning aggressively. Running a 40mm stem and the 17mm cup helped but at the expense of railability.
At 5,10 on a large I was starting to contemplate up sizing to an XL but the slacker head angle has improved both climbing and front wheel grip as well as steep terrain composure.
It also "seems" to help with the forks ability to deal with trail chatter, the bike definitely rolls over chunk better with the slacker head angle so whether that is due to the fork working better at the slacker angle or my weighting the bike differently now due to the altered geometry I don't know. Whichever, I like it!
A few mates have ridden it now and all say the same thing: It's just made the bike do everything better.
The only downside is as the only member of our riding group with a headset press I now have a bunch of anglesets to fit to friends bikes!
At 5,10 on a large I was starting to contemplate up sizing to an XL but the slacker head angle has improved both climbing and front wheel grip as well as steep terrain composure.
It also "seems" to help with the forks ability to deal with trail chatter, the bike definitely rolls over chunk better with the slacker head angle so whether that is due to the fork working better at the slacker angle or my weighting the bike differently now due to the altered geometry I don't know. Whichever, I like it!
A few mates have ridden it now and all say the same thing: It's just made the bike do everything better.
The only downside is as the only member of our riding group with a headset press I now have a bunch of anglesets to fit to friends bikes!
So do you know what your seat angle is and is the BB too low now?
Not sure what the st angle is. Marginally steeper but not so much I've noticed. Same with bb height it will be marginally lower but by how much I don't know. I think changing between tyres of different dimensions will have as much impact. I'm riding chunkier terrain faster and not getting any more peddle strikes.
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Assuming the before/after scenario is stock zero-stack lower cup versus zero stack -2deg angleset:
1) "effective stack height" of the front end (vertical line from bottom of headset to ground) is lowered by 7.8mm (since length of the hypotenuse is fixed = c-to-a, the vertical edge of the triangle must shorten as the angle decreases).
2) as a consequence of (1) the BB is lowered by 2.75mm
3) the head angle changes from stock 67.25 to 65.65deg (-2deg from angleset and +.4deg from the lowered front end)
4) the seat tube angle also goes up ~ 0.4deg (would be neutralized by ~4mm rearward shift in seat rail position on seatpost).
All of that further assumes that -2deg anglesets are precisely 2 deg, and are not "over spec'd" to say 2.4deg to yield an effective 2 deg change after accommodating for the the lowered front end based on some generic c-to-a length.
1) "effective stack height" of the front end (vertical line from bottom of headset to ground) is lowered by 7.8mm (since length of the hypotenuse is fixed = c-to-a, the vertical edge of the triangle must shorten as the angle decreases).
2) as a consequence of (1) the BB is lowered by 2.75mm
3) the head angle changes from stock 67.25 to 65.65deg (-2deg from angleset and +.4deg from the lowered front end)
4) the seat tube angle also goes up ~ 0.4deg (would be neutralized by ~4mm rearward shift in seat rail position on seatpost).
All of that further assumes that -2deg anglesets are precisely 2 deg, and are not "over spec'd" to say 2.4deg to yield an effective 2 deg change after accommodating for the the lowered front end based on some generic c-to-a length.
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Using the angleset to change your HTA rather than the 17mm lower cup has notably different consequences on the seat tube angle. Per my post above, the angleset results in approx. a +.4deg change to STA, while the 17mm cup would give approx. -.75deg. So a net 1.15deg difference in STA between those two approaches, sufficient I would think to notably move your weight bias toward the front and explain some of the handling characteristics you observed.
If you didn't make any changes to stem spacers, then your front end height also dropped by a full inch, which would also move weight bias forward slightly.
can anyone else followup on this? 170mm dropper do-able on size Large switchblade?
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It's definitely doable and something I'm planning on doing soon. Seems like a lot of wasted seat post sticking up on my size large at a smidge under 6ft tall.
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro
Thanks for taking the time to post the figures.
The problem I was having with handling was in order to get the steep terrain composure I had to raise the front end to prevent OTB issues, even when I was buzzing my butt on the back tyre. This was at the expense of carving and cornering composure due shifting weight up and back.
The angleset has allowed me to lower the front end but by increasing the wheelbase has meant that despite being noticeable lower, my weight is more centred than before and so allows better weighting of the front end without being right over the front axle. I forgot to say in my original post that the fork is running at 160 mm. I have removed 10mm of stem spacers that I was using before fitting the angleset.
I use this bike as a true all round trail bike but the reality is that on most of my regular rides from home there is more flat and climbing work than descending.
I've got another trail bike for fast and steep days that's running a 61.5 degree head angle and that has really shown the benefits of a slack front end for me when coupled with a steep seat tube (actual seat tube angle NOT theoretical!) I think somewhere between 63-64 degrees will probably end up being typical for most "conservative" trail bikes.
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I've been following this thread, but may have missed this discussion if it's been covered.
Would you take the SB on a long, multi day trip like the Kokopelli Trail or the San Juan hut to hut ride? Or would it be no fun in either configuration for rides like that?
Would you take the SB on a long, multi day trip like the Kokopelli Trail or the San Juan hut to hut ride? Or would it be no fun in either configuration for rides like that?
So...just got my Switchblade race 29er and love it.
Only thing I would have done differently is order the bike in 27.5+ configuration, knowing my intent is to build a set of carbon I9 29er hoops.
It would have been nice to have the + option, so any body in the same situation only with a set of the 27.5 wheels they would like to trade?
My bike came with the new Duroc 30's, they are pretty nice for a stock set of sun ringle OEM's.
My wheels have a couple rides on them and still appear as new, looking for like condition 27.5's for trade.
Only thing I would have done differently is order the bike in 27.5+ configuration, knowing my intent is to build a set of carbon I9 29er hoops.
It would have been nice to have the + option, so any body in the same situation only with a set of the 27.5 wheels they would like to trade?
My bike came with the new Duroc 30's, they are pretty nice for a stock set of sun ringle OEM's.
My wheels have a couple rides on them and still appear as new, looking for like condition 27.5's for trade.
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After 7 months and 2,000 miles on my switchblade, I experienced my first issue with my BB-92.
I was going for an easy spin and I noticed a click when I would stand on my pedals. I immediately checked it out and noticed 1mm of lateral play in the cranks. I carefully limped home and inspected further to find that both the drive and non-drive side cranks were able to shift back and forth within the BB.
I am able to push the cranks side to side so one crank arm has a 1mm gap between the BB and the other is flushed and vice versa. Basically, the cranks may be loose within the BB, shifting the Q-factor back and forth.
Any thoughts on the problem? After only 7 months of riding, I did not expect my BB to be shot, but its looking like that's the case. Thanks for the help.
I was going for an easy spin and I noticed a click when I would stand on my pedals. I immediately checked it out and noticed 1mm of lateral play in the cranks. I carefully limped home and inspected further to find that both the drive and non-drive side cranks were able to shift back and forth within the BB.
I am able to push the cranks side to side so one crank arm has a 1mm gap between the BB and the other is flushed and vice versa. Basically, the cranks may be loose within the BB, shifting the Q-factor back and forth.
Any thoughts on the problem? After only 7 months of riding, I did not expect my BB to be shot, but its looking like that's the case. Thanks for the help.
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6,350 Posts
Are the cranks Shimano? The only time I've seen that with any of those it was due to to not getting the cranks fully into the BB when installing (the BB can be a tight fit so I use a rubber mallet to tap them fully in). It could run fine like that for a while until the seals loosen up enough for the spindle to move freely side to side. It could also be a bearing issue but I always look for the simple stuff first. 2k miles is a high number but not out of the expected life for one of those BB's
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rf aeffect crankset; I pulled it apart, cleaned and regreased...There is a spacer in between the chainring and the spindle with a cup on one side of it. When I disassembled it, the cup was facing outwards when it should've been facing inwards, flush with the spindle.
Had a trusted, young mechanic build the bike up; must have been assembled incorrectly and finally came loose. Put it back together and it runs crisp and smooth.
Thanks for the help.
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6,350 Posts
Ahh! Yeah, that spacer is one piece that's a bit to easy to get wrong. On the SB we've had a few get hung up on the spindle so the cranks don't actually get tightened fully onto the splines and you end up with a big gap and lots of side play. Glad to hear you got it sorted out!
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