IDLE FANCIES
High-pivot bikes have finally hit the mainstream, with two new trail models from Norco and Cannondale
High-pivot idler bikes have long been the outliers of the mtb world; engineering curios that sparked debates but never gained a foothold in the mainstream market. Lauded for their supposedly superior square-edge performance – thanks to mostly rearward axle paths – but hamstrung by extra complexity, these designs have been a rare sight outside of World Cup downhill racing.
In recent years we’ve seen the emergence of more versatile trail bikes,
CANNONDALE JEKYLL 1 £6,500
such as the Forbidden Druid and Deviate Highlander (both tested on p92), but these are still low-volume models from super-small brands. Until now, no household names have put their weight behind a high-pivot trail bike. All that has changed with the introduction (on two consecutive days, no less) of two new high-pivot trail bikes from genuine High Street marques: the Cannondale Jekyll and the Norco Range.
Cannondale’s Jekyll doesn’t mess around when it comes to talking points.
It has a high virtual pivot, a four-bar linkage, an idler pulley and a split down tube that allows the shock to be tucked as low as possible in the frame. The man behind the new Jekyll is Luis Arraiz, frame design engineer at CSG (Cannondale’s parent company). And if you have a long memory, you may recall
boasts 165mm of travel, it runs 29in wheels and comes in four sizes. It gets a 64° head angle, 77.5° effective seat angle and a reach that extends from 425mm on the size small to 510mm on the XL. Like Forbidden and Norco, there are also size-specific chainstays to help balance weight distribution for different rider heights, and Cannondale goes one step further in this respect, manipulating its pivot points with the aim of homogenising the suspension characteristics, wherever the rider’s centre of gravity happens to be – a feature it calls Proportional Response.
IDLERS GET ACTIVE
If the move to a high-pivot Jekyll is a giant leap for Cannondale, a new highpivot Norco is a more evolutionary step. Seeing as Norco already boasted the Aurum HSP and the Shore high-pivot models (and it’s where Forbidden Cycle’s Owen Pemberton cut his teeth), the release of the new 170mm-travel Range enduro bike feels like a completely natural progression. Look a little closer though, and you’ll discover that all three bikes use variations on the high-pivot theme: the Aurum is a single-pivot bike with a linkage-driven shock; the Shore is a four-bar design with a Horst link, and the new Range flips a conventional fourbar on its head.
While it’s difficult to see from the photos, the low-slung shock on the Range is driven by a rocker link that rotates around the bottom bracket.
This connects to the chainstay, which also happens to be where both the rear wheel and the rear brake are bolted. Then, a short seatstay connects to the seat tube, and it’s here that the idler pulley is mounted.
It’s not a new idea – Antidote released its Darkmatter downhill bike, using a very similar design, back in 2017 – but it’s the first enduro bike to get this layout, and Norco has also done a lot of work around synthesising the ride and handling of four of the frame sizes. Dubbed Ride Aligned, Norco has tuned various parameters on the new Range, such as the head angle, effective seat angle, rear centre, axle path, shock tune, anti-squat and anti-rise, in order to create a bike that, it says, works for all sizes of rider.
For more on the pros and cons of high-pivot bikes, and comprehensive tests of two of the leading options on the market, head to page 92.
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