Pivot’s latest trail bike, the Trailcat, brings two suspension travel options to the fray on a bike that’s set to please those who seek both efficiency and all-out capability. Equipped with all of the mod cons, a very well-sorted rear end, and a diligently considered geometry, Pivot has nailed the formula of trail bike excellence, but a few quirks hold the Trailcat LT Pro X0 back from utter perfection, and of course, it’s not a cheap bike.
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Pivot Trailcat LT Pro X0 - Technical details
The Pivot Trailcat comes in two distinct models, the Trailcat SL and the Trailcat LT, with the former built for efficiency and agility, donning 140mm of squish up front paired with 120mm at the rear. As its name suggests, the LT is the long travel bike that’s equipped with a 150mm fork and 135mm of damping at the rear.
Both bikes are built to bridge the gap between the Switchblade and the Mach 4 SL cross-country bike, but the LT is set for capability. That’s all, while retaining the nimbleness and efficiency of its smaller travelled counterpart. However, thanks to a replaceable rocker link and flippable lower link, cash-rich owners can swap between both models should they already own, or be happy to drop the dollar on a new fork and shock.
The Trailcat LT is nothing if not modern. Its Hollow Core carbon frame is sorted with internally guided internal cable routing with refined ports, and there are three bolts under the top tube for the mounting of accessories. But new for Pivot as a brand is the Toolshed downtube storage. It’s rather neat and comes with small wraps as standard. The lever-actuated door is flippable too, allowing the user to alter the height of a bottle cage in the frame according to whether or not the bike is running a piggyback shock. Speaking of water bottles, a large bottle can fit in all sizes.
Allowing for both geometry adjustment and mullet wheel compatibility is a flip chip. It either retains the geometry when a smaller wheel is fitted to the rear, or it slackens the angles by around 0.3 degrees while lowering the BB by 6mm.
As a modern trail bike, it’s shaped as such with a 65.3-degree head tube angle and a 75.6-degree effective seat tube angle with the flip chip in the low position. The chainstay is rather short at 433mm on this large frame, and the reach measures 475mm.
The Trailcat LT doesn’t go without typical Pivot hallmarks, namely the press fit bottom bracket and Super Boost hub spacing. Neither are world-ending, but the bottom bracket does throw a spanner in the works when it comes to maintenance - you can’t just unscrew a press fit BB. And the Super Boost rear end - a standard usually reserved for downhill bikes - feels a little redundant on a bike of this travel. Granted, there aren’t many real-world issues here; it’s just not as common as good old Boost with fewer Super Boost wheels on the market, and if you’ve got a favourite Boost wheelset you would like to swap into the Trailcat, you’ll have a problem.
Another Pivot hallmark is the dw-link suspension platform. Pivot doesn’t delve too much into the details of that design, but it’s rather special. More on that later.
Pivot Trailcat LT Pro X0 - Componentry
The Trailcat LT Pro X0 is not a cheap bike, but for the £9,600 Pivot does reimburse you with a pretty unarguable specification. Bolted to its well-realised carbon frame are suspension components from Fox. To be specific, there’s the 36 Factory up front with a GRIP X2 damper and the Factory Float X shock.
Shifting is provided by SRAM and the X0 Transmission AXS drivetrain, and SRAM’s Maven Silver brakes take up stopping duties - they’re burly for such a small travel rig. Those are combined with a duo of 180mm rotors as Pivot takes advantage of the Maven’s abundance of power but applies it to achieve a more modulation-rich and trail-friendly delivery. Those are the brand’s HS2 rotors, too, which is great to see.
But for the bulk of my riding, which is a little more winch and plummet rather than trail, I ran a 200mm rotor up front, instead of the 180mm as standard. That’s just for the confidence and the snappier feel of a bigger rotor that lent itself better when riding steeper terrain. It also opened up the potential of the bike a little more. I won’t complain too much because if you’ve got £9,600 to spend on a bike, you’ve likely got another £40 to go on a replacement if that’s the kind of feel and riding you’re looking to do, otherwise, a 180mm rotor is plenty when matched with the Maven.
The Trailcat LT Pro X0 rolls on a set of DT Swiss XM1700 wheels on DT’s 350 hubs. They’re then wrapped with a Maxxis Minion DHR II, 2.5in, 3C, EXO+ at the front and a Dissector 2.4in 3C EXO at the rear. However, on this test bike, Pivot’s UK distributor inflated a DHR II at the rear and a Maxxis DHF at the front to better suit the winter conditions I tested the bike through.
Wrapping up the kit is a mighty lengthy Fox Transfer Factory dropper post with 210mm of travel on this large frame; however, for my 72cm inseam, there’s definitely space for a little more. Pivot then finishes off the bike with its Phoenix handlebar, grips, and stem. Though it must be mentioned that the stem is rather lengthy at 55mm on the medium to XL sizes, and this does affect the bike’s handling. It puts a lot of weight on the front and makes the bike feel nervous and the steering rather weird. For this test, I swapped the stem for a 40mm alternative that I had lying about, which suited the bike much better and noticeably improved handling in general.
All of that weighs 14.6kg, so it isn’t particularly lightweight, but it’s not upsettingly weighty. I struggle to complain, and it poses no negative effect on the ride.
Pivot Trailcat LT Pro X0 - Performance
We can’t talk about the Trailcat without talking about how good it looks. We’ve got the bike in its Doctor Purple colourway and it really does look the part. It comes alive in the sun as the light picks up the metallic fleck in the paint, and the whole bike looks ultra cohesive as the gold matches the Kashima suspension, and the fork logos match the purple of the frame. Great job, Pivot.
It’s a well-built bike too, which you would expect for the money. No corner is cut, everything’s smooth and finished to the highest quality, and that’s really clear. That high build quality directly translates to its ride in the way that it’s super quiet. Nothing rattles, chain slap is effectively damped - there’s only the sound of tyres on dirt, and suspension doing its job.
Speaking of suspension, and more specifically, the rear suspension, Pivot has its grasp on the holy grail here. Under pedalling loads, it’s nearly solid as it transfers pedalling power to the rear wheel while losing incredibly little of that power to movement in the rear shock. With that, the Trailcat LT is superbly efficient and can be made even more so through the right choice of tyres. Pivot offers the bike with Fox’s Live Valve Neo system, but I would go as far as to say that the suspension platform is so good that Fox’s automatic and wireless suspension adjustment is just not necessary.
Where Pivot and Dave Weagle are to be commended for the suspension platform is that it’s far from a one-trick pony. Yes, it pedals well, but it opens up without failure when tackling more technical terrain. Rear wheel grip is abundant, where the bike as a whole is beautifully smooth. The Trailcat’s main pivot is rather high, too and as a result, it manages to iron out square-edged hits, making for a super composed character when descending that begs to be pushed harder. In fact, the Trailcat LT fools the rider into thinking that it’s packing more travel on tap than it suggests.
However, it’s not all about composure - this is a relatively short travel trail bike we’re talking about, and it balances that mega plush feel with a snappy, rowdy and ultimately fun feel. That’s through a rather stiff, Super Boost-equipped frame and the short rear end. Usually, I would say that the Super Boost rear end is a little redundant on a bike of this travel and intention, and it is, but it ups stiffness at the rear wheel, which rewards the Trailcat with a feedback-rich and engaging ride, especially in the corners.
A brand can put as much effort into the suspension as it likes, but a sorted trail bike lives and dies on its geometry, and thankfully, Pivot has done a great job. It’s not flawless, but a trail bike is about balance, and the Trailcat is certainly that.
When jumping on the Trailcat after riding other bikes, I have felt the seat tube to be a little on the slack side. Paired with the longer stem, this is absolutely fine, but with a shorter stem that makes the bike handle so well downhill, the front end can lift during steeper and more strenuous climbs. Of course, this can be fixed by using the standard stem or by lowering the stem’s position on the steerer, but a steeper seat tube still would eliminate compromise. That front wheel uncertainty is during one-in-a-ride occasions, and even then, it’s definitely manageable, despite the fact that it could have been avoided. A longer chainstay would also aid this, but that’ll affect its character when descending.
On the downhills, it’s a very balanced machine with plenty of headroom afforded both by its suspension layout and the brand’s considered geometry choices. The head tube is steep enough to remain responsive when climbing and when hammering flatter trails, but it hits a sweet spot where it’s slack enough to provide support through steeper sections. And that’s a very useful thing given its reserved wheelbase that rustles up loads of agility but can hinder stability when the going gets tough.
While the bike certainly has its quirks, the press-fit bottom bracket is a feature that irks me. In the grand scheme of things, it’s far from the end of the world, but it adds extra steps to what can be easy maintenance. Additionally, the bottom bracket has picked up a bit of a creak or a click, which throws an annoying tang into an otherwise excellently built bike.
Pivot Trailcat LT Pro X0 - Verdict
The Trailcat LT is a premium bike, so it’s not cheap, especially in its Pro X0 build, and its £9,600 puts it into the superbike category. That price puts the Trailcat in close competition with Yeti’s SB140 T3 Lunch Ride. The SB140 gets a very similar build for the price but gets SRAM Code brakes, and its geometry is a little more aggressive with a 65-degree head angle and 480mm reach. What it doesn’t get is that dw-link suspension, which is a real ace up the Trailcat’s sleeve. However, the Yeti SB140 will set you back £9,000.
If you’re in the market for a small travel trail bike, which you likely are if you’re looking at the Trailcat, Norco’s Optic may well be an option. Its C1 build is cheaper still at £8,500, although certainly not cheap. It gets 125mm of suspension, but that’s delivered via a high-pivot layout, which will up its capability to munch square-edged hits. It gets a less burly build kit with a Fox 34 Factory fork, but its intentions remain very similar. It gets a 65-degree head tube angle, a 497.5mm reach on a large-equivalent frame, and there’s a steeper 77-degree seat tube angle.
So with those two bikes as examples, value isn’t quite as attractive, but neither of those bikes gets as dialled a suspension platform as the Pivot, which is the Trailcat’s real pull.
‘Trail’ means many things to different people, and if your definition of a trail bike is one that sits more on the efficiency, responsive and snappy end of the spectrum, that’s the Trailcat LT. However, dw-link rear end adds heaps of potency to an otherwise humble ride. If I were to find fault, a steeper seat tube angle wouldn’t go amiss, a move to a more standard Boost hub spacing would open up wheel options, and the press-fit BB is a bit of a turn-off.
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