We saw a lot of new 2017 bikes from Lapierre this year, from a new TT bike that snuck its way out under FDJ all the way back in January, to new cross country, road, and gravel bikes over the summer, and even a high-end carbon eMTB that rethought how to get the weight balance right to take an e-bike on some proper trail riding. Now to celebrate 70 years of building bikes, the French company is putting out a couple of limited editions at two opposite sides of their spectrum of new bikes. The Xelius SL is the lightweight road bike that the FDJ team takes into the mountains and the Overvolt AM is that new carbon eMTB with 140mm of trail riding travel, both of which get the subdued 70th anniversary treatment. We also had a chance to get another look at the most affordable of Lapierre’s new alloy gravel bikes…
Overvolt AM 70th
The 70th anniversary bikes all get a special low-key paint job in off-white, muted blue-green, and black with sharp orange color accents. Special limited edition 70th anniversary graphics are then interspersed throughout in a dark metallic gold. The limited edition bikes get a pretty high level spec and associated price of 7000€, with this 140mm Overvolt AM 70th getting an 8 speed SRAM EX1 drivetrain, a Pike RCT3 fork, and 27.5+ 2.8″ Nobby Nic tread.
The Overvolt AM is Lapierre’s reimagined eMTB platform, that rather than putting a pre-made motor and battery on a standard mountain bike, was designed from the ground up to get the weight of the drive system back and down. The result of the design with a lot of input from gravity legend Nico Vouilloz, is an all-carbon, all-mountain bike with a low center-of-gravity that Lapierre’s e-Enduro team has been racing across Europe. Take a look back at our First Ride thoughts on the bike to see more of the tech and how it really impacts the ride.
Xelius SL 70th
The Xelius SL 70th gets a similar paint scheme, mixing in orange brake housing with the black Di2 wiring. It also gets a premiere build, going with the current Dura-Ace 9100 Di2 groupset and Mavic Ksyrium Pro carbon clinchers, and the same price tag of 7000€.
The Xelius SL is the same light climbing bike that Thibaut Pinot rode to a win on Alpe d’Huez in the 2015 edition of Le Tour. That bike with its new lighter carbon layup has just made its was to consumers this fall, when it also had its chainstays shortened for even better acceleration.
In addition to the 70th anniversary bikes, Lapierre has a 70th retro kit on offer as well. Including a set of bib shorts, a jersey, socks, gloves, a cap, and a musette, like the bikes it will all be available through your local Lapierre dealer in the coming weeks.
Crosshill 300
We’ve already ridden the Crosshill a bit and thought it does a good job of blending off-road capability with the added speed of a road bike, all in a relatively affordable alloy frame and full carbon fork.
The flat mount disc brake, 12mm thru-axle bike gets a Tiagra 2×10 drivetrain at the entry-level for the Crosshill 300 for 1800€. The bike combines the lower-cost mechanical groupset with the new RS405 hydraulic levers in what looks to become the cheapest way to get into a hydraulic disc brake road group.
