Pivot Vault

[TheRich]

Picked up my Vault the other day and it's mostly ready to go for an initial ride on Tuesday probably. Some quick observations:

Straight from the dealer the medium 1x GRX build weighed 20.5lbs/9.3kg with the 40mm WTB tires. This thing isn't ever going to be a lightweight, especially considering that I got it to run 50+mm tires.

The medium will fit three 25oz bottles inside the triangle, DT, ST and bottom TT, it has two sets of mounts on the DT if you want to use little/regular bottles and another spot on the bottom of the DT.

The downtube storage won't really fit a MTB tube, I'll probably use the strap setup from my mtb or maybe not worry about stretching a 32-47mm tube inside a mtb tire eventually.

Tire clearance in the fork is massive, 8mm on both sides with a 2.1 Thunder Burt installed. Rear has 6/7mm side clearance and 7mm from the seat tube with a 50mm G-One Overland. Both tires have a hop in them (especially the TB), I slid the front wheel with the TB on it onto the rear axle and it went from fine to 3mm seat tube clearance...so I'm going to consider that the biggest tire that'll fit. I'll check again after I put some miles on the tires, but I'm pretty happy with a 2.1 on the rear, probably try the XC Rick on the front eventually.

I had some Bontrager XXX2 wheels from my previous bike and put the new tires on those, they had DT hubs so the MS driver from the original wheelset slid right on. It should be a net weight gain of 70g, iirc, vs the DT alloy wheelset and 40mm tires.

For some reason the GRX came with smaller cranks and the dealer was nice enough to swap in a set of 172.5s and a 42t chainring. The chain is long enough for a 44t, and it would equal my old bike's lowest gear AND be taller but it almost feels too good to be true.

Fit seems to be half way between my 56 Boone and 56 Emonda, length-wise, and slamming the stem (with the required spacers) gave a similar bar drop to the Boone with the required spacers. CN: 10mm shorter than the Emonda with its 100mm stem and ~40mm of bar drop for my extra average 5'10"/178cm.

The saddle, bars and maybe seatpost could be changed out for a couple ounces each and an XTR cassette would be the major weight savings at 167g lighter so it's probably possible to get even the GRX build with maximum sized tires below 20lbs without sacrificing anything.

[hannawald]

Have you tried MTB TPU tube as a spare? Light and much smaller so it could potentially fit into the storage box.

[RDY]

Such a shame this has such little BB drop in the larger sizes. 73mm vs 80+mm in many bikes with similar geo.

Also still don't get why an MTB brand of all is so afraid of slackening the front end a bit more.

[TheRich]

Have you tried MTB TPU tube as a spare? Light and much smaller so it could potentially fit into the storage box.

I guess I'm an outlier in that I want my last ditch solution to be as reliable as possible because the off road riding here is very remote. I typically carry a butyl tube and a patch kit.

This is my first experience with DT storage, so now I wonder how honest people were about MTBs with it. If nothing else, it makes cable management easier and it'll definitely fit some odds and ends.

Such a shame this has such little BB drop in the larger sizes. 73mm vs 80+mm in many bikes with similar geo.

Also still don't get why an MTB brand of all is so afraid of slackening the front end a bit more.

I think it's in the neighborhood, along with a lot of the newer bikes. BB drop is still BB height, so longer cranks need more ground clearance.

If people's gravel bikes suddenly had 69 degree HT angles, I doubt they'd really notice, but I don't think there'd be much benefit either. They just shouldn't be road bikes. Now they're basically early 90s MTBs with bigger wheels/higher axles.

I've had Pivots in the past, even had a Titus Switchblade, and I like the brand, but there's several similar bikes available. It was just a convenient choice with the drivetrain I wanted.

[SeanOB]

The new Vault is the only frame/bike I'm aware of that gives users a choice of fully internal/integrated or external cables and/or hoses.

I have a frame and fork on order (which I believe is supposed to be available at the end of the year) because, for me, it was a perfect evolution from my current machine, that OG gravel racer, the Salsa Warbird. To the Salsa recipe, it adds more tyre clearance, a UDH and the aforementioned downtube storage. It also usefully subtracts from the excessive (for me) stack measurement that required a 73° stem to fit correctly but looks disharmonious. It also retains the Salsa's multiple bottle mounts inside the main triangle, which keeps options open.

This will be my first Pivot and I hope their reputation for tight tolerances and careful finish is deserved.

[TheRich]

The new Vault is the only frame/bike I'm aware of that gives users a choice of fully internal/integrated or external cables and/or hoses.

I have a frame and fork on order (which I believe is supposed to be available at the end of the year) because, for me, it was a perfect evolution from my current machine, that OG gravel racer, the Salsa Warbird. To the Salsa recipe, it adds more tyre clearance, a UDH and the aforementioned downtube storage. It also usefully subtracts from the excessive (for me) stack measurement that required a 73° stem to fit correctly but looks disharmonious. It also keep the multiple bottle mounts inside the main triangle, which keeps options open.

This will be my first Pivot and I hope their reputation for tight tolerances and careful finish is deserved.

You can probably only do full internal with electronic shifting. The holes in the headset would be super tight with more than two hoses.

Mine was built up with only the front brake hose routed internally and realized that the rear brake and derailleur cable external routing wasn't that bad.

My road bike is full internal and it does look great, but the front brake is what jumps out as ugly. I'm going to run a dropper anyway, so meh.

IIRC, Pivot worked with Shimano developing press-fit BBs. It's a legit company owned by a legit guy.

[Tofast]

How is the ride comfort of the Pivot frame?