Pivot

Vault Carbon Ultegra Complete Bike - 2015

When Pivot first built the frameset at the heart of the Vault Carbon Ultegra Complete Bike, it did so with efficiency, versatility, and easy wheel changes in mind. The Vault's geometry, tube shapes, and intuitive features perfectly illustrate these attributes, as the new bike serves to redefine what's possible in the world of gravel and cyclocross racing.

Our favorite feature of the 2015 Vault is, admittedly, less of a feature and more of an ideology — placing the power in your hands by providing a multitude of brake configuration options. Namely, the Vault has the ability for both disc and cantilever configurations, a complicated feat achieved through a few simple steps. The frame's carbon fiber dropouts are spaced at 135mm while set-up for disc brakes, but an interchangeable alloy hanger is available to switch to 130mm spacing if you choose to run standard cantilever arms. The frame and fork posts are fully-removable without altering the integrity of the frame, and proprietary plugs stuff the gaps left behind. Given these features, you're free to — ahem — pivot between disc and cantilever as you see fit.

The frame is anchored by the BB386EVO bottom bracket. This standard is a competitor-dwarfing 86.5mm wide and has a diameter of 46mm — a design that's estimated to increase rigidity by 30% and reduce power dispersion to almost zero. To accommodate the massive bottom bracket shell, you'll immediately notice that the new frame design features an oversized juncture where the down and seat tubes meet, which nets obvious boosts to rigidity.

The Vault uses a full-carbon, tapered head tube and fork. Not only is the design a weight saver, but it adds to overall lateral stiffness while improving handling characteristics. Vibration is properly absorbed, chatter is reduced, and the handling is both nimble and precise. Ultimately, these design innovations amount to the Vault being able to resist bar torque on punching hills and drop the hammer when the hammer needs dropping.

Pivot builds the Vault with Shimano's new Ultegra 6800 11-speed drivetrain. Some call it a workhorse group, but we'd challenge anyone to describe the difference between it and Dura-Ace in terms of shifting feel and responsiveness. The Ultegra bits are supplemented with an FSA crank, and TRP's cable-actuated hydraulic disc brakes finish the build with stopping power to ensure that (most of) your rides end the right way: with you putting on the brakes.