Pivot Les Fat: XC Hardtail, Fat Bike, and Plus Bike
The all carbon Les Fat from Pivot looks like a pretty standard fat bike at first glance, but a closer look reveals some neat tricks that help it to kill categories.
Pivot advertises that it can run tires sized from 26×3.8/4.8 up to 29+ and “everything in between.” While a number of fat bikes can technically do this, the Les Fat goes a step further by offering adjustable rear geometry and chainstay length. Set the indexed adjustment arc for 27.5+ and shorten the chainstays for a playful trail bike. Swap in some 26×4.8s and lengthen the chainstay for a stable snow machine, again with the indexed arc keeping the bottom bracket perfectly aligned with the intended tire size.
Up front Pivot has designed a rigid carbon fork that will fit any width tire while offering the same axle spec as a Rockshox Bluto. Swapping rigid for squish need not require separate wheels. They also offer two headset bearing cups to facilitate the fork height difference.
With no limit on fat and plus-sized tire setups, Pivot has created the Les Fat to be a true all around, all season bike that isn’t content with one single category.
Bottom Line
As nifty as all of these bikes are, with advancements in material design and computer-aided geometry calculations, hopefully these category-killing bikes are just the beginning. Who knows, perhaps the “one bike quiver killer” will actually happen someday!
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Sep 6, 2016
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