Fat bike or mountain bike? Why not both? LaMere seems to offer just that with a full suspension, full carbon e-Fat bike with 5″ wide tyres and 27.5″ wheels that also doubles as a true mountain bike with 27.5″ or 29″ wheels for the summer months. However, this isn’t just the typical spare set of wheels built to the same hubs…
LaMere eSummit full suspension eFat Bike
Is it a truck or is it a bike? Hard to say really. Despite its obvious heft, LaMere say the eSummit still rides with the feel and handling of a nimble XC race bike. A bold claim to slap on a bike with a claimed weight of almost 22 kgs. That said, a motor can transform a bike’s feel on the climbs and the descents. The 27.5″ eFat Bike has 120mm of rear wheel travel serviced by a 185x50mm metric shock. Up front is a Manitou Mastodon 120mm fork, at 150mm axle spacing, sat at a head angle of 67°. The seat angle sits at a 74°.
The full carbon frame is a layup of Toray T700 carbon fiber, but what makes this build truly unique is the ability to switch out the rear end. The carbon rear triangle can be swapped out to change things up between summer (dust) and winter (snow) conditions.
For winter, the rear end axle spacing sits at 197mm for the eFat Bike, giving tyre clearance for up to a 5″ wide tyre on 26″ rims, or a 4.5″ tyre on 27.5″ rims. In summer, you can switch out the back end for 148mm boost spacing, allowing you to run the bike as a more standard XC/Trail bike. In its boost form, you also have the option to switch out the 27.5″ wheels for some faster rolling 29″ wheels, with clearance for up to a 2.3″ wide tyre.
Granted, this wouldn’t be a quick swap as at least the rear derailleur cable is routed internally, you may have to make an adjustment for the difference in chainline, and the bike is shown with a different fork as well. You’d also have to swap out the custom offset cranks for standard shimano ones. But if you wanted one bike for year ’round shredding, this could be interesting.
For a bike of this weight 200mm brake rotors would have been easily justifiable, but LaMere have opted for 180mm, front and back. Clamping those rotors are powerful 4-piston Magura MT7 brakes. For winter, the recommended wheel spec is 27.5″ with 80mm internal width rims, to seat 4.0″ Light Terrene Cake Eater tyres.
There is so much going on with this beast it can be easy to forget that it also has a motor! Updated: LaMere spec the eSummit with a Shimano E8000 mid-drive motor, giving a snow conditions range of 10-15 miles in boost mode (depth dependent), 20 miles in trail mode, and up to 35 miles in ECO mode. In summer, with the boost spacing rear end, 29″ wheels and 2.6″ tyres, the range increases to 45 miles on ECO mode, 35 miles in Trail mode, and 15 miles in boost mode.
Pricing & Availability
The LaMere eSummit eFat Bike is available in 4 sizes; Small through to XL (16″ to 22″). With the winter mode spec mentioned above, and with a Darfon E4COC Li-ion battery, a Shimano XT 11s cassette, and PNW Coast dropper post, and a Rockshox Deluxe shock, the eSummit will cost you a whopping $8900, but folk can pre-order now for $8,000. LaMere are offering custom builds of their eFat Bike, so check in with them directly to see what your spec options are.
