Two Cats and an XC Bike Walk into a Shop

Mach 4 SL

This is the XC race bike. 110-120mm of travel, 66-degree head angle, super light fork and a focus on pure efficiency. It exists to go uphill fast and make you feel bad about your own fitness. Pivot gave it in-frame storage so you don’t have to wear a backpack and can put down hot laps fast.

Pivot focused their DW-Link for uphill pedaling performance, while tuning the shock to still allow big hits to be swallowed easily. If you love the La Tierra Torture or the Zia Ride series, this bike is worth a look.

Trailcat SL

Next up in capability is the Trailcat SL. Same frame as the LT below, different personality entirely: upper link and shock get swapped and suddenly it’s a different animal. 120mm rear, 140mm fork. This is the “I only want to own one bike” bike. It climbs like it’s still a little bit an XC bike and only remembers it’s not when the trail gets mean, at which point it handles that too.

This is the bike for people who are lying when they say they don’t care about weight but also lying when they say they don’t want to have fun. Speaking for myself, this is my personal bike that I use from Galisteo Basin, to Dale Ball, to Alamos Vista. I get most of the fast performance of the Mach 4, but more trail capability to not leave me fatigued on big days.

Trailcat LT

Same bones as the SL, bigger shock, bigger fork, slacker head angle, and an attitude adjustment. 135mm rear, 150mm fork. This is what happens when the SL gives up on being efficient and decides to just be fun instead. It still pedals great, it’s still a DW-link bike, it just stopped apologizing for side hits and rock rolls.

Buy this one if you’ve made peace with carrying a slightly burlier bike uphill so it can misbehave properly on the way down.