Based in the Surrey Hills of southern England, Bernard Kerr splits his time between training for the World Cup DH circuit and planning the moving and shaking of the Pivot Factory downhill and enduro teams, which he also runs. Slaving away through the long winter nights and packing in as much riding as possible in the short daylight hours, his off-season is anything but chill.
We asked Bernard to talk us through the fleet of training tools that get him ready for the World Cup season and Hardline. Bernard stands at 178cm and weighs 79kg. He runs a large downhill bike and ebike, but a medium trail bike as he is aiming for the reaches across all his bikes to be similar to his downhill race bike
From a steel dirt jump hardtail to his custom downhill bike from the World Championships, let’s take a look through Bernard’s quiver of Pivots.
Pivot Phoenix 29Bernard’s race bike doesn’t get used that much in the winter as the small bumps that make up the Surrey Hills are not really suited to a downhill bike. In fact, this bike hasn't been touched since Bernard crossed the line at Hardline in first place. He will start to shuttle some UK trails with it in the spring and will then take it to New Zealand, where he stays to finish his pre-season training before Crankworx Rotorua.
The details
Tyre Pressure (front): 25 psi
Tyre pressure (rear) 28 psi
Fork pressure: 82psi (6 tokens)
Shock pressure: 225psi (6 tokens)
Bar width: 768mm
Stem length: 50mm
Weight: 37 lbs
The bike is pretty much stock (aside from the Fat Creations paint job) and he doesn’t have any Fox gubbins in the fork or shocks either; effectively you could by this bike off the shelf and go and race a World Cup on it, the only alteration Bernard has made is a headset cup that slackens the head angle by 0.75°. He also has a custom link that raises the bottom bracket by 9mm, but said that Pivot will add this to their production Phoenix bikes this year.
This bike has survived some pretty brutal tracks this year.
Pivot Firebird 29Bernard uses the Firebird for his main trail bike as he felt it was as close to his downhill bike as possible while still being pedalable up the hills that surround his home. Bernard has toyed with the idea of using the Switchblade or one of the Mach models, but always gravitates back to this 162mm travel monster. Bernard explained that the longer travel means he can get away with doing stupid stuff more, something that apparently happens a lot when you regularly ride with fellow Surrey Hills pinners like Olly Wilkins and Brendan Fairclough.
The details
Tyre Pressure (front): 25 psi
Tyre pressure (rear) 30psi
Fork pressure: 88psi (6 tokens)
Shock pressure: 185psi (6 tokens)
Bar width: 760mm
Stem length: 40mm
This is the only medium-sized bike in Bernard's collection. He sizes down on his enduro bike so that the reach feels similar to his downhill bike - 454.7mm on the Firebird vs 460mm on the Phoenix.
Pivot ShuttleBernard says he uses his ebike more than any other bike in his collection, in fact, he rode it 4 days in a row before our visit. He was anti-emtb when they were first gaining popularity but has been a convert for a few years now. He mainly uses the bike as a training tool and says that a 1.5 hour ride is enough to tire him out, mainly from the amount of descending he can bag in that time.
The details
Tyre Pressure (front): 24 psi
Tyre pressure (rear) 28 psi
Fork pressure: 88psi (6 tokens)
Shock pressure: 225psi (6 tokens)
Bar width: 760mm
Stem length: 33mm
Weight: 20.5kgs
This is a large frame although Bernard says he probably would have preferred a medium. He has put a super short 33mm stem on the front to keep the reach in line with what he's used to.
Pivot PointA steel hardtail is the final bike in Brenard’s quiver and he describes it as his favourite of the bunch. It doesn’t get much park use but instead plenty of pump / BMX tracks and dirt jumping.
The details
Tyre Pressure (front): 50 psi
Tyre pressure (rear) 55 psi
Fork pressure: 125psi
Bar width: 750mm
Stem length: 40mm
Pivot are best known for their carbon bikes so the Point is designed in collaboration with DMR and mainly for its athletes (although you can buy the frame if you wish). Bernard rides it roughly twice a week and says it’s really good for training precision, especially when it comes to dirt jumps.
He says: “The more I ride this, the better I feel on my downhill bike so I try and ride it as much as I can.”
The chromoly comes from DMR who are based near Bernard in Hampshire and are distributed by Upgrade who also distribute Pivot and Reynolds Wheels.
The pros are riding bikes relative to their size because the demands of the bike are different and they don't need or want a stretched limo to lumber round races. Notice there are no next-gen loooong bikes in the top 10 or even 30 for that matter? They're not present because the riders are good enough to handle speeds on a normal sized bike but can then move it around when they need to. Maes(465), Rude(460), Hill (450) (off the top of my head) all ride bikes that would be normal in DH so I think we're arriving at balanced numbers for both stability and maneuverability.
@WAKIdesigns:
The "industry" isn't pushing longer bikes what they are pushing is longer bikes by n+1 every year rather than actually testing the limits and then selling that to the end user e.g. like Pole and Nicolai/Geometron have done.
If you think long bikes don't turn and/or only work for average riders then you have obviously never spent any time riding one...
for the short reach and the short chainstay , maybe it's more convenient when you have to do 360's , tight turn , or pump a lip that is wine bottle tall ?
DJ and BMX have not the same environnement as trail bikes ...
it's honnestly an open question , cause i had a trek 2016 TicketS for example , and these have a pretty long reach (can't compare cause geo is not available , but it's as long as my enduro)and open head angle , compare to my DJ who have the shortest geo of all bike i have had.
the ticket S was much , MUCH more fun. but, not as rewarding when it come to train things like raw bike control.
but what geometry is better to throw all thoses tricks when you're a slopestyle/park/bowl half-god ? im honnestly curious.
same goes for what geometry is better when juste training for dh season ?
Funny indeed that back in the days other riders definitely did get modified geometries to suit them, but for production it was toned down. Sam Hill on Iron Horse (don't know about Specialized), Fabien Barel on Kona and the Athertons on Commencal definitely got their bikes modified to their preferences. Commencal was actually quite transparent about this, but only tuned it down to what their Andorran staff would ride. And they were probably still much better than most of their customers. Not sure of ACC also got custom geometry, but she did get a slackset to slacken the head tube angle.
Que the haters
LOL
Or my teeth.
Maybe this is a nice setup on smooth flow trails with lots of big jump/drops?
- He rides in the Surrey hills, where at this time of the year it's really muddy.
- He's running Shorties.
Riding a regular mtb through this slop is hardly good training for WCDH. Adding a motor and being able to cover some distance, and double the number of descents probably is good training... His results show that he's clearly doing something right.
Obviously not far enough, as that chain is pretty slack tbh.
Jokes aside, lovely bikes
Bernard: Yes.
or are they??? My Aurum is a dh machine and I love it, but it is loud.
stfubike.com
looks like a nice bit of kit but $30? Seems expensive, plus international shipping, f*ck that
No NZ trip this year then?
Do people bitch when they get past on the ups by Bernard on his ebike? Or start to the realize it’s Bernard?
Pivot Phoenix 29 - "effectively you could by this bike off the shelf and go and race a World Cup on it"
m.vitalmtb.com/news/news/FINAL-RESULTS-2019-Red-Bull-Hardline,1289
The Point has a reach of 39.88
www.pivotcycles.com/en/bike-point-1#geometry-link
Bernard - Yes.
Shock Size Maximum Spacer Pair Quantity
250, 70 6
250, 75 6
taken from the Fox page.
www.ridefox.com/fox17/help.php?m=bike&id=1036#tuningwithairvolumespacers