Lapierre’s Spicy range has been a staple long-travel trail bike for years. But with the help of development rider, multiple world champion downhiller and Enduro World Series racer Nico Vouilloz, the 2016 bikes are even more firmly focused on being race-ready enduro machines – and Lapierre has made a huge number of tweaks to try and achieve that.
What’s changed?
- It’s more progressive and there’s more travel. By tweaking the pivot points, Lapierre has boosted travel by 15mm up to 165mm at the rear, and there’s much more support at the end of the stroke to improve control on really rough terrain.
- It’s got longer. The reach has been lengthened and it’s now 444mm for a medium sized frame, but if you want to go even longer the seat tubes have been shortened to allow for up-sizing.
- The cockpit kit has been beefed-up. You now get a seriously wide 780mm bar paired to a 45mm stem.
- It’s got slacker too. The head angle has been slackened slightly from 66.5 degrees to 66.0 degrees, and the seat angle has been steepened by 1.5 degrees to 75 degrees.
- You can now fit a piggyback shock and water bottle. That humpbacked top tube might not be the prettiest but there’s now enough space for a shock that will cope with longer and rougher descents without overheating. As more enduro racers ditch backpacks, enough space for a water bottle inside the frame is an important touch too.
- There’s more tyre and heel clearance. The old Spicy had notoriously widely spaced seatstays, leading to many riders hitting their heels when pedalling. Despite them being slimmed down to correct this, Lapierre has also boosted mud clearance by 10mm.
There are going to be three bikes in the range, with the top Spicy Team coming as a complete bike for £5,500 / €6999 / $8599 and fitted with Lapierre’s E:I automatically adjusting shock technology.
ADVERTISEMENT
This is a true fit-for-purpose enduro bike. Enduro-specific eyewear sold separately
The midrange Spicy 527 bike uses the same frame, but E:I is an option that’ll cost you an extra £300 on top of the base price of £3500 / €TBC / $TBC (we'll add prices as soon as we have them). If you're on a stricter budget, the entry to the range is the all-alloy Spicy 327 at £2500 / €TBC / $TBC with no E:I shock model available.
So how does it ride?
Fresh (or not so fresh) from racing the Finale Ligure round EWS, I got my hands on the top-line Spicy Team to test on the demanding and rocky trails that surround this seaside rider’s paradise. To make the most of the suspension Vouilloz himself recommended I set it up with a generous 35 percent of sag at the rear. He reckons more sag creates more control and traction in the rough, and the progressive rear suspension allows for this without excessive wallow or bottom-out.
Beating about the bushing?
At the end of the stage…
You can read more at BikeRadar.com
via BikeRadar All the latest from BikeRadar.com http://ift.tt/1NBJa2C
No comments:
Post a Comment