It seems the march of the enduro 29er is showing no signs of slowing with the news that Pivot Cycles has released a big wheeled version of their hard-hitting Firebird, sporting 162mm of travel at the back paired to 170mm up front, all wrapped up in a carbon frame that's said to weight just 3.2kg.

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Pitched as a burly do anything machine for everything from enduro racing to riding park - whatever that is - and it's been tested to the same strength and stiffness standards as their Phoenix downhill bike, despite the low weight. 

The bike has also seen some fairly big geometry tweaks, with much longer reach figures and short offset forks used across the board. A Large frame now gets a reach of 475mm, which certainly sits towards the longer end of the spectrum, though not extreme by any means, while the chainstays are rather dinky at 431mm, which Pivot says gives it "an unerring high-speed stability and a nimble, snappy ride quality in tighter conditions".

As ever, the bike uses the multi-link DW Link suspension system seen on all other bouncy Pivot bikes, with plenty of progression built in for the kind of rough and tumble riding it's likely to see. 

The frame gets plenty iof interesting features. For a start, it uses Super Boost Plus 157 hub spacing (yes, that's a thing) which takes the broader hub flange spacing concept seen on Boost 148 bikes but applies it to downhill-width hubs. It's not the most commonly seen 'standard' is all we'll say about that.

Should you want to tweak the geometry - or even run 27.5" Plus wheels, for which there is plenty of space - there's a flippable chip at the shock pivot that allows you to alter bottom bracket height and head angle that lest you do just that. 

There's also loads of other neat touches including a Shimano Di2 battery storage port in the bottom bracket area and what looks very much like provision for Fox's Live Valve adaptive shock technology, should it ever be released in the wild.

Pivot head honcho Chris Cocalis had this to say about his latest creation: “The Firebird 29 is the perfect bike for an enduro racer or hardcore rider who really wants a long-travel 29er that won’t penalize them in any way for having way more bike than they need.”

There will be eight different builds available - all using Fox suspension - starting off a a mere £5,350 and climbing upwards from there. You can find out more below.

• www.pivotcycles.com

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