Pivot Shuttle AM Review | The All-Mountain Gold Standard?

The Shuttle AM keeps things as clean and uncluttered as possible with e-bikes. It uses the Mini Remote on the left side to adjust the motor power. The bike also uses the Smart System Top Tube Control Center. This color-coded system will give you the essentials, like your assist level and remaining battery.

The lights of the top color correspond with your riding mode; green means Sport, blue means eMTB, purple means Turbo, and finally, red for Race.

The five LED bars have a thoughtful trick built in, too. Instead of dropping off one at a time, the color of the bar will change when that increment is half spent. This means you can see in increments of 10% instead of 20% just by using five bars. You can pick up the whole light show system pretty quickly in just a ride or two.

The Bosch Flow app is where you get the ability to customize the motor output to your riding preferences. Here, you can set preferences on the sensitivity at the pedals, amount of power, torque, etc.

The app also contains a much broader menu of information about the bike, including the ability to turn your phone into a detailed display showing speed, trip odometer, battery remaining, and more.

The app also includes enhanced ride statistics, such as the ability to see which power mode you favor the most, maps, and firmware enhancements as they come via OTA updates.

The ecosystem is super-detailed if you fiddle with it, but that’s not required either. You can download the app for settings updates, tailor power to your liking, then keep your phone in your pocket or bag and not touch it if you don’t need to use it.

In addition to the Bosch app, the SRAM AXS shifter has an app as well. There is further controls you can tune to make the shifting gel with your preferences, and you can invert the buttons on the pod shifter. It’s also great for keeping track of the battery life remaining too.

Dozens of variables can affect the range of e-bikes: how much you weigh, how much elevation you climb, how technical the terrain is, the temperature outside, how much PSI you’re running in your tires if Mercury is in retrograde—you get the point. We can’t control them all.

We try not to let perfection be the enemy of good and control what we can to help deliver range estimates. Our team includes riders of similar weights and skill levels who head out to a standardized testing area with a mix of green, blue, and black singletrack. We make the common denominator a bike’s highest power setting to help establish a floor value for how many miles the bike can run.

The Pivot Shuttle AM had solid results. It ran 23.98 miles while climbing 2406 feet in elevation. It ran for an hour and 46 minutes, with an average speed of 13.6 mph.

That result puts it just a hair under the 25-mile average we’ve seen from eMTBs we’ve tested this year, but that’s not bad with the context that this is Bosch’s most powerful motor with that 400% power multiplier. That showed up with its average speed. It’s not only the fastest pace we’ve recorded so far but also outpaced the class average by 1.25 mph. It earned that “Race Edition” title, alright.

Remember, these numbers reflect the highest level of motor usage, and you’d rarely need to be in that mode exclusively. Mixed power usage would add on plenty of miles, and conservative usage would likely more than satisfy your average eMTB ride.

While we didn’t test this setup with the Bosch Powermore 250 range extender, the math would suggest you could get another eight miles or so on that Turbo effort should you choose to spring for the extra juice.

We took the Pivot Shuttle AM to two different hill test locations. The first one is where we test every e-bike we review from eMTBs to electric cargo bikes. It’s a ⅓ mile-long stretch of paved road with a 12% average grade. Then, we took it to our second test location we reserve just for eMTBs, a dirt trail that’s 0.86 miles long with an average grade of 5.5%.

Both tests went very well for the Shuttle AM. On the paved trail, the bike made it to the top in 1:19 for a 13.7 mph average. That’s a top-3 mark for an eMTB. When we switched over to the dirt location the result was similar. It finished there in 3:22 which comes out as a 15.4 mph average. The second best result of similar eMTBs. Clearly, it’s got climbing chops.

Help in the hill climb department is a major factor of an eMTB, and to put it simply, few do it better than the Pivot Shuttle AM. Bosch’s race motor can blaze trails with the best of them, but the overrun that’ll navigate you through technical climbs with challenging terrain is where you’ll appreciate it the most (at least, that’s what I did).

The Pivot Shuttle AM looks, and more importantly, feels like a premium ride.

The frame is made of carbon, which makes it relatively lightweight with the motor and battery it’s packing. It weighs around 50 lbs, but it feels lighter on its feet than that. It moves easily on technical trails. I was a little surprised carbon wheels didn’t come on our Pro build, but I didn’t find myself needing them, at least regarding weight-related concerns.

The DW-link suspension is known for being supportive on climbs and pliant on the downhill. Sure, some say efficiency in climbing isn’t as big of a deal with an e-bike, but you can still feel the difference since the DW-link largely staves off pedal kickback. Overall, it’s just a smooth and comfortable ride.

The Fox Factory 36 and Float X shock are great-quality components with earned reputations. They keep things comfortable, and the 148/160mm of travel they provide helps you tackle a wide variety of trails and terrain in relative comfort. Overall, you will want to steer clear of the most extreme chunky stuff if you’re flying downhill, but if that’s your appetite anyway, then the Shuttle AM LT with its Fox 38 and 170mm travel is likely more up your alley.

The bike has a slack head tube angle (64.1°) and a steep seat tube angle (76.4°). These added to the stable feel for descending, but it still puts you in a solid position for climbing well. The stack height (651mm)felt taller than similar-sized frames we’ve ridden, too, which helps you feel a bit more upright and comfortable. There is a flip chip for low or high settings. I largely kept it in the low setting, but the chip will help should you opt for a mullet setup.

The Shuttle AM shines in corners. The bike has shorter chainstays (444mm) than I expected, which gives it nice maneuverability around tighter tracks and berms. I also liked the traction and feel of the 29″ Maxxis tires through the turns—great traction from start to finish.

The Shimano XT 4-piston brakes have wonderful stopping power. They keep the ride under control when navigating winding switchback-filled descents, and with a tight squeeze of the trigger, they can also bring you to a halt in a hurry.

The cockpit is inviting. It’s clean and uncluttered, and I’m a fan of a wide 800mm bar, long reach (480mm), and higher stack height (647mm). It makes me feel like I can control my weight distribution pretty well throughout the ride, which further reinforces a planted feel on trails.

To neatly wrap this up, let’s focus on three words: agility, performance, and power.

The Pivot Shuttle AM feels lighter than it is – a wonderful surprise on a full-power rig. It feels more maneuverable than you’d expect. You can bunny hop your heart out and just enjoy the bike’s playful, nimble feel. The Fox suspension and DW-link system help the ride feel stable on rocky, technical descents. The bike moves well in corners thanks to its overall combo of agility and balance.

The Shuttle AM climbs well thanks to the Bosch motor working in tandem with the SRAM Eagle wireless shifting. You get smooth power delivery that has enough muscle to help you get to the top of climbs, and it’s expertly guided by a system that times things right so you get the most efficient shift possible.

And let’s not undersell how fun the ride is when at a sprint. With a compliant link system and a race motor, you can get up to speed and sail into jumps with a plush landing awaiting you.

If you have an appetite for backcountry XC experiences, some fun downhill, and hitting some technical sections but don’t want to “settle” for a bike that hyper-focuses on one of those segments, the Shuttle AM is a true jack-of-all-trades that excels at many. The price is a bit high, but this is where you’ll get what you pay for.

Happy Riding! Make sure to let us know if you have any questions or if you think we left anything out in this review of the Pivot Shuttle AM down in our comments section.