The frame is very solid - certainly not a candidate for a weight weenie build. The XL frame with shock, axle, seat clamp, and all bolts weighs 9.5 pounds.

 

The frame is advertised as clearing 2.5" tires. I slid the dropouts all the way back and tested a wheel with a tire measuring 2.5". It looks like there's plenty of clearance, especially since mud isn't much of a concern down here in San Diego. There's close to 10 mm around the tire at both the seatstays and chainstays.

 

The paint was a bit chipped by the rear pivots. Luckily, I had some paint that was a very close match for the color.

 

I'm still trying to decide what pedals to use. I have clipless on my other bikes and am quite comfortable with them, but I am curious about giving flats a try. I'm going to have to mull this over while waiting on the rest of the parts.

 

I switched to flats recently, I went with OneUp pedals and Ride Concept Tallucs for my fit. I have no complaints after being clipped in for 31 years. My feet are thanking me too, quite comfortable. Lots of choices in that area.

 

I pressed the headset cups in this morning. I went with the Wolf Tooth Performance since it was reasonably priced. It was the first time I've done this. I ordered the headset press from MTB Tools - it's a very basic tool consisting of two machined disks and a threaded rod with nuts and washers. It was reasonably priced and made locally though.

The cups went in smoothly and it was actually quite satisfying.

Wolf Tooth was thoughtful enough to put a small line on the inside surface to help line up the logo with the center of the headtube.

 

I'm slowly inching along. I have most of the parts - I just needs a few small bits like cables.

I ran cable liners through the frame to help with the routing. It was pretty easy to get these through. The liner for the dropper popped out on its own when I feed it in. The deraileur and brake were easy to fish out of their holes with tweezers.

I got a pair of Specialized Purgatory T7 Grid 2.6" tires and attempted to set them up tubeless this morning. The front went really easily. I couldn't get the valve to seat properly on the rear rim so I couldn't inflate it. I'm adding valves to the parts list. The front tire measures a hair over 2.5" so clearance will be good.

I got a pair of lightly-used One Up alloy platform pedals off eBay. They are lime green and match the DVO shiny bits.

The next step is to swap some of the parts from my XC bike and replace them with new ones (XT shifter and derailleur, carbon bar). After that I'll be opening up the DVO fork and increasing the travel from 120mm to 140mm. That will be a new one for me.

 

I installed the dropper and saddle today. I had a spare 170 mm dropper, but it looks like there's plenty of room for a 200 mm post. (This is pretty close to my saddle height.)

Cable routing was really easy. I was able to get a cable liner through without any difficulty. I then fed the cable through the liner, removed the liner, and slide the outer over the cable.

I also replaced the quick release seat clamp that came with the frame. I couldn't resist matching the DVO line green.

Tomorrow I will attempt to change the travel on my DVO Sapphire from 120mm to 140mm and then get that installed.

 

That frame looks like it was built to pull farm equipment. Stout.

 

Agreed! Not much danger of breaking this. (Barring unseen welding defects, of course.)

 

I couldn't change the fork travel since I needed a new 22mm socket, but there are a few small things I can do while waiting. I installed the bottom bracket (easy!) And bottle cage tonight. I found some lime green bolts that match the DVO accents. They also save 3 grams!

 

I tackled the fork travel adjust yesterday. I've worked on Rock Shox forks without major issue, but this DVO fork turned into an oily mess. Everything was straightforward, there's just a lot of oil in it. Instead of a pin spanned, I used a DVO-specific lower cap wrench made by BikeWCM and that worked quite well. (He also made the 22 mm socket for the top caps, and it fit perfectly.)

 

I installed the fork and stem. The rest of the build should go pretty smoothly. I have all of the part so i just need to bolt them together.

It's currently at 16.8 pounds - exactly the same as my road bike.

 

It's starting to look like a bike!

I got the tires set up without too much fuss. Specialized Purgatories (29x2.6) on cheap wheels that came with my other bike.

Tire clearance is OK with the dropouts all the way back. The tires measure a hair over 2.5" and there's close to 10 mm all around. I wouldn't try shortening the chainstays with these tires though.

 

I also got the left half of the bars set up. the dropper and front brake are working, although I need to shorten the front brake line by a bit.

 

I mounted the rear brake and ran the brake line and shift cable through the frame. I used a couple chunks of foam tube on each so hopefully it won't rattle too badly.

The brake mount really sticks out - that's a 180mm rotor.

The shift cable was really easy to run. I slid the cable through the plastic guide, removed the guide, and then slid the outer over the cable.

The brake line was a little trickier but not too bad. I jammed a toothpick into the cable guide and the end of the brake line to connect them, and then gently pulled on the cable guide while feeding the line into the port. Luckily it stayed together until i could get it through the other side.

 

I like it. The DVO anodized bits set it off nicely, subtle yet embolden. Looking sweet!

 

Thank you! I may have gotten a bit carried away with the matching lime green bits though...

 

Got it all together! I still need to bleed the brakes and set up the shock, but I was able to take it for a quick spin in front of my house. Can't wait to take it on an actual trail!

It came out to 35.2 pounds with pedals and bottle cage. Not exactly light, but at least it will make my XC bike feel much faster, right?

 

Nice build! Yes you got a bit carried away with matching green bits, but at least 1)the greens actually match and 2)you didn't install a green stem and spacers.

For me just changing the pedals to black ones would be enough to tone it down to my liking, but it's fine as it is.

On weight, most alu builds with reasonable spec end up around that. My carbon-free Privateer 141 is 36lb in size small (DVO Diamond, float X, i35&i30mm rims, 170mm dropper, Maxxis Exo+ tyres)

 

Truly a unique build, I like it! I was wondering what the cranks and pedals would be, I love my One Ups. Well done, sir.

 

I took it out for it's maiden voyage today. It was a very different riding experience from my XC bike even though it only has an extra 20 mm travel in front and 10 mm the rear. As I expected, it's a lot better on the chunky downhills. the climbs will take some getting used to though since the front wheel feels very lightly loaded. It didn't feel like the suspension was sucking up my energy on the climbs, but it didn't have that direct feeling that my XC bike does when pedaling hard.

I did have lots more pedal strikes on this bike than I do on my XC bike on the same trails. According to the geometry charts, the bottom bracket is actually 10 mm higher. I'll double check that I have the right amount of sag. These pedals are much larger than the clipless pedals and that may be contributing to it. Maybe I need to swap the 175mm cranks for 165mm or so.

Everything worked great mechanically, but I do need to make a few minor fit adjustments.

 

Help....
So I'm a firm believer in wider than usual rims and fatter tires. The RSD Wildcat (150) has my attention. However, being a carbon-fiber weenie I'm looking at the Pivot Switchblade as well. I'd love to receive some input about the weight penalty of this bike (RSD's website states the both the shorter and longer travel Wildcat frames have a similar weight). Is the increased weight a drag? Is it substantial?

 

My XL frame with shock, axle, bolts, and chainstay guard came out to 9.4 lbs / 4.26 kg. I didn't see a weight for the Pivot frame, but it's probably at least 2 to 3 pounds lighter, maybe more. (Trek lists the frame weight of the Fuel EX C as 7.5 lbs / 3.40 kg, for example). In the grand scheme of things I doubt you'd notice, assuming you aren't racing or doing insane climbing days.

My Wildcat feels sluggish because I'm used to to an XC bike that weighs 7 pounds less and has really light wheels and fast tires. I don't have any experience on other longer-travel bikes so I can't give a good comparison, unfortunately.

The Wildcat was designed to be a durable and affordable frame, so it probably won't compare favorably to the Pivot in any way other than price.

 

So what's the final weight?

 

34.2 lbs without pedals, 35.2 with pedals, bottle cage, and computer mount. Not exactly lightweight...

 

I am finding that I hit my ankles on the seatstays a lot, and that can be rather painful. The rear triangle is pretty wide and the tubes are square so my ankles tend to scrape them occasionally. Maybe I need pedals with a wider Q factor?

 

Not a bad idea