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SOC13: Pivot Cycles’ Firebird 27.5 – Tech Details & Actual Weight

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2014 Pivot Firebird 27-5 650B trail mountain bike details and actual weights

Announced just as Sea Otter was kicking off, the new Pivot Cycles Firebird 27.5 will all but replace the existing 26″ model.

In fact, it’s built on the same frame with only minor modifications, plus a few new parts, to make it work with the middle wheel size.

The original frame already had massive tire clearance, so getting a 27.5×2.35 tire works fine. And it already had a straight 1.5″ headtube. So Chris Cocalis developed their own version of an angle adjustable headset, except that it’s fixed at -1.5°, with upper cups that are different for each size frame. This slackens the head angle from 67.1 (with a 170mm 26″ fork) to 66° (with a 160mm 27.5″ fork) across all frame sizes. The only reason he went with a shorter travel fork is because no one’s making a 170mm 27.5″ fork.

2014 Pivot Firebird 27-5 650B trail mountain bike details and actual weights

The new headset also has a shorter stack lower cup. Combined with the 100mm drop in front travel, the BB height only grew from 14″ to 14.1″.

2014 Pivot Firebird 27-5 650B trail mountain bike details and actual weights

On the frame, the only change is moving the rear brace between the uprights a bit forward. That’s the piece just above the front derailleur on the rear triangle in the pic above.

2014 Pivot Firebird 27-5 650B trail mountain bike details and actual weights

The Firebird’s front derailleur is mounted on a floating arm that stays in it’s normal position until the suspension moves through about 2/3 of it’s travel. At that point, a roller makes contact with the arm and pushes the derailleur upward so it won’t make contact with the chainstay. This allows them to maintain crisp shifting during normal riding without having to drop the driveside chainstay really low for proper derailleur cage clearance under compression. It saves weight and makes the frame stiffer.

2014 Pivot Firebird 27-5 650B trail mountain bike details and actual weights

Weight came in at 31lb 12oz (14.4kg) for a complete bike sans pedals. That’s with a KS dropper post, Fox fork and DHX Air shock, Stan’s Flow EX wheels with Kenda tires and tubes and Shimano XT build.

The XT build is $5,599 including the KS LEV dropper post. The X0 build is $6,199, and the first hundred bikes will get a free upgrade to a Fox DHX Air shock. Normally it comes with a CTD shock and the DHX is a $179 upgrade. The white bikes come with three sets of graphics (red, blue and green). Black is anodized and stays that way.

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Steven
Steven
10 years ago

“The new headset also has a shorter stack lower cup. Combined with the 100mm drop in front travel, the BB height only grew from 14? to 14.1?.”

I think this is supposed to say 10mm drop

Tim
Tim
10 years ago

Still a damn weird looking bike.

Must just be a functional thing.

gee
gee
10 years ago

So this is just the stock 26″ frame, with some fancy headset cups? Meaning you could buy it, run a standard headset with 26″ wheels, or the cups with 27.5?

Not that I’d really consider it – there’s an awful lot of complication and compromise on the bike to accommodate a front derailleur, but most AM/enduro riders will want a 1×10/11 setup on it anyhow.

Would love to see Pivot produce a carbon 160mm bike – a beefier Mach 5.7. Still, there’s always the Mojo HD.

Ol' Shel'
Ol' Shel'
10 years ago

That seat tube is a thing of beauty…

Designers need to understand that you don;t want to tension and compress curved elements, especially ones with as many stress risers as that welded ST arrangement. Turner had to reinforce their STs and just ask Niner about the lovely curves in their rear suspension.

Matt
Matt
10 years ago

I am a big fan of Pivot, but this bike feels like a stop gap until they really figure out how they want to handle the inevitable move to 275s.

Steve M
Steve M
10 years ago

Interesting to see that frame makers are coming to terms with the fact that the shapes required to fit components, suspension travel, and a rider result in some pretty tortured geometry.

ccolagio
ccolagio
10 years ago

i test rode a firebird when i was looking for a new FR/light DH frame. i have never in my life ridden a bike that had so much pedal feedback from the granny ring – so much so, that i was shocked that the bike actually came stock with a granny ring – its terrible and completely turned me off of that frame/brand

Bayard
Bayard
10 years ago

So same frame?

bin judgin
bin judgin
10 years ago

interesting bike but a truly terrible brand to deal with from a dealer point of view.

Eric Y
Eric Y
9 years ago

I hear you bin judgin, its even worse from a customer standpoint as I have dealt with them on several occasions for a few different issues and received disinformation and outright lies. Sad when their competitor, Ventana bikes was able to resolve one of my issues when the manufacturer couldn’t.

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