High-pivot bikes are generally thought of as super planted, smashy, gravity-oriented bikes, but that isn’t inherently true, as some shorter-travel high-pivot Trail bikes have demonstrated in recent years. But isolating the main reason for going high-pivot — a more rearward axle path than can realistically be achieved with a more conventional suspension layout — from all the other variables that go into designing a bike is hard to do in practice.

Cascade Components wanted to learn more about what a more rearward axle path does while changing as few other variables as possible, and their new high-pivot conversion kit for the Specialized Stumpjumper is the result. They’re also offering a limited run of 20 of the kits, so we sat down with founder and engineer, Jimmy Davis, to hear all about the project, including why Cascade chose to take it on; why they used the Stumpjumper as the basis for it; what they learned; and more.

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TOPICS & TIMES:

The Stumpjumper 15 High-Pivot Conversion Kit (1:53)

Why make a high-pivot conversion? And how? (3:01)

What goes into the kit? (7:12)

Ride characteristics vs. the stock bike (15:48)

Chassis stability & the Genie shock (18:49)

Leverage curves & suspension tuning (25:29)

Relating different kinematic variables (30:06)

Why use the Stumpjumper as the basis for the kit? (33:48)

Versatility & tradeoffs of the conversion (37:30)

Pricing (40:22)

Who’s it for? (40:54)

Generating anti-squat from the axle path vs. chain growth (44:49)

Data acquisition & lessons learned (46:18)

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