The Revised Pivot Firebird Grew a Little, Now with Space for a Water Bottle Holster

The latest Pivot Firebird enduro bike features a new vertical shock orientation, longer reach, slacker head tube, and a steeper seat tube.
By Gerow
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Morgane Charre sliding into 4th overall at this year’s EWS double-header in La Thuile, Italy.

We had a chance to dance with the previous Pivot Firebird model, and the bike certainly didn’t disappoint. Firebird fans have likely seen this latest update piloted by EWS athletes ahead of its official launch date, and now it’s available for public consumption.

The most notable update on the frame is that the shock moved from a horizontal to vertical orientation, providing space for a water bottle and spare tube inside the front triangle on all four sizes. It’s not a high-pivot like many of the latest enduro race machines, and it rolls on whatever mix of wheels you prefer. Also, it’s really orange. The frame is also available in “Galactic Green Metalic,” but the paint that we’ve seen raced so far matches the Fox fork lowers quite well.

Mounting hardware and a port for Fox Live Valve under the top tube are looking nice and clean. Those two bolts can also be used with Pivot’s Tool Dock system.

While the Firebird grew a touch, it will still fit into some of last year’s school clothes. Reach on a size medium is 468mm in the low position, where it was 454.7mm on the previous frame model. The chainstays on that same size are now 3mm longer, and the BB height has come up 2mm to clear a few more rocks at 350mm. Tall folks who love steep trails will be stoked on the smidge higher stack height, and we call can appreciate the 1° slacker head tube that leans into an industry standard 64°. Finally, your cries on the climbs are being heard, and the Pivot team steepened this bike’s seat tube angle to 76° on the size small in the low position, steepening across the size run to 77° for the XL bikes.

Pivot is sticking with the beloved DW Link rear suspension system for the 165mm of coil-compatible squish, and the new shock orientation keeps all the dials at the ready for easy adjustment. It also still has the flip chip, though the low position will likely be a mainstay for most folks. Paired with a 170mm fork, Pivot says that they have maximized the bike’s rearward axle path for ample smoothy-ness.

That rear axle is a Super Boost one, and Pivot says that “Some of our designers and engineers at Pivot have abnormally large feet, and we all know what they say about large feet. Yep…bad heel clearance. So, with that in mind, we made sure that our heel clearance is best in class.  If it clears our abnormally large clown feet (which it does), it will clear yours.”

Tube in tube internal routing for a quiet and quick-swap setup. Despite its 1.5″ head tube the Firebird is not rated for a dual-crown fork.

All that fast technology comes with a cost, with builds starting at $7,299 and climbing to $13,099 for the full AXS/Live Valve build. Get more info and specs at the Pivot website.