Pivot Trailcat LT Pro X0 review: a ripper of a bike that's versatile, fun and very expensive

Pivot Trailcat LT Pro X0 ride impressions

To try to get to grips with the Trailcat LT, I mixed up the types of trails and locations in a bid to work out how versatile (or not) this machine might be.

I’ve managed to lap rough-and-ready trail centres, rip around my local woods, which are littled with short, natural trails covered in rocks and roots, and taken in some chunkier, steeper tracks I’d normally ride an enduro bike on.

Pivot Trailcat LT Pro X0 setup

In full kit, I weigh 68kg and ran the shock with 30%. That equates to 136psi and I backed off both the rebound and low-speed compression damping dials fully.

Up front, I settled on 89.5psi in the fork, with all damping dials fully opened up.

I’ve made very little in the way of setup changes during testing.

While sag has remained the same, as the trails dried out and speed crept up, I added three clicks of low-speed compression damping to help keep the back of the bike propped up a little more.

Otherwise, I’ve left it very much the same.

Pivot Trailcat LT Pro X0 climbing performance

The first thing I noticed about the Trailcat was how similar it felt to my old Firebird long-term bike when it came to the seated position.

While the Firebird has a slightly shorter top-tube length, the longer stem used on the Trailcat (45mm versus the 40mm I’ve got on the Firebird) more or less evens things out.

Compared to many medium bikes, the seated position is a little more stretched-out, which I like and helps keep you weighting the front end when climbing steeper pitches.

The seat tube angle feels sufficiently steep to perch you in a decent position over the bottom bracket.

As you spin up the trail, the Trailcat LT feels calm, with little movement from the shock as you turn the cranks.

Pile on the power and it’ll get moving eagerly enough.

We’re not talking cross-country bike sprightliness here – this bike weighs close to 15kg, after all and uses considerably slower-rolling rubber – but it’s an efficient little bike that doesn't feel as though it will drain excess energy unnecessarily.

Pivot Trailcat LT Pro X0 descending performance

Drop into a fast, flowing section of singletrack and the Trailcat LT feels comfortable at just about any speed.

The suspension feels well-balanced from the off. While the shock sinks into its stroke eagerly, there’s still masses of support deeper into the travel.

That means the rear tyre can track trail imperfections, but when you want to drive your weight down through your feet, load the bike up and quickly change direction, pump or pop through a section, you can.

There’s a tautness to the frame that enables it to feel incredibly responsive to your every move, yet clatter into anything rough and the feedback through your hands and feet remains muted rather than harsh.

Unsurprisingly, there’s a ceiling to what the 135mm of rear-wheel travel can soak up, so don’t expect the Trailcat LT to hoover up everything.

But, when the hits start coming thick and fast, there’s still an impressive level of control thanks to how well that travel is managed, through to the very last millimetre.

As your confidence creeps up, you can start to make the most of the Trailcat LT’s agility, chucking it this way and that, dancing it across the trail with relative ease.

Exiting turns on the back wheel or manualling through rollers is made easier thanks to the short rear centre, which makes lofting the front wheel up into the air a doddle.

While compact rear centres have some drawbacks (think rider weight balance between the wheels), in this case, I found it really played into the Trailcat LT's favour, adding an element of playfulness that can be lost on some 29in trail bikes.

OK, It might not be the longest or slackest bike going, but I never struggled with a lack of stability either. In fact, riding the Trailcat LT at pace feels impressive.

It’ll silently dispose of ragged sections of trail with more poise and grace than bikes that have a chunk more travel on tap, all the while maintaining its poise and composure.

As such, I found myself eager to push it harder.

Of course, if you get too cocky and really tickle the limits of what’s possible, it’ll be the spec that's the limiting factor, putting one of the Trailcat LT’s nine lives at risk.

A stickier front tyre (MaxxGrip rather than MaxxTerra) would help matters in situations such as this, although it may dull that easy-to-achieve top-end speed somewhat.

Of course, you could increase the brake rotor size to provide a little more punch if you’re keen on tackling steeper trails. That, to me, would be no bad thing.

However, I didn’t massively struggle with the smaller 180mm rotors in place, with a lot of the testing happening on drier trails.

As it stands, aside from switching up the tyres from stock, the spec is pretty much sorted – as you’d hope for this sort of cash.

This helps make the Trailcat LT a blast to ride and seriously capable.

Want to play around, roost turns and float over roots? Sure thing. Fancy putting the hammer down and challenging those KOMs? It’ll do that, too.

Or, if you’re keen on just clocking up the miles, the Trailcat LT feels like a comfortable bike to do that on.

It’s a properly well-rounded bike that feels as happy playing about on short, hand-dug downhill tracks as it does ticking off the singletrack miles.