What if I told you that you could get four bikes out of the same frameset? To Lapierre that sounded like a challenge, and a way to keep costs low while offering riders a lot of options. The secret to Lapierre’s new trail bikes is a single frameset with a flip chip at the main pivot, plus spec’ing variable rear shock travels within the same shock length.
2019 Lapierre Zesty & Spicy, 2-in-1 all-mountain + enduro
Together you get an all mountain 27.5″ wheeled Zesty with 150mm of travel, an all mountain 29er Zesty with 140mm of travel, an enduro 27.5″ wheeled Spicy with 170mm of travel, or an enduro 29er Zesty rolling 160mm of travel – all out of the same frameset. And all you would really need to swap between them yourself would be the appropriate wheels, tires & fork.
Shared Frame Tech Details
Together the bikes all share the same carbon frame (and alloy version is expected to follow this autumn as well). Shown here as Fit full carbon Ultimate models, the bikes share Lapierre’s top-end HM high modulus carbon layup. The bikes do have the option for a small fender to protect the rear shock, and include a Box under the bottom bracket that doubles as hollow, bash guard frame protection and a place to stash a spare tube and/or tool (presumably more securely than on these prototype frames.)
The heart of the bike is a new suspension design built around a similar Horst-link four-bar layout, but with a new floating lower shock mount on an extended section of the chainstay (dropping Lapierre’s previous OST+ four-bar with a horizontal shock placement). Up top the new rocker link rotates on big bearings for smooth action, while bushings look to handle the rest of the pivots. The new design looks to move the frame’s weight a bit lower, and presumably offered Lapierre engineers more control over suspension kinematics. It also keeps room for a set of water bottle bosses in front of the piggy back shocks.
The flip chip at the main pivot does double duty shortening the chainstays in 27.5″ mode, but also allowing for more rear wheel travel with the same shock stroke. (Stroke remains the same for both wheel sizes of Zesty, and again stroke stays the same between shocks in Spicy mode for either of its wheel sizes.)
The new trunnion mount metric shocks make a big portion of the functional aspect of the versatile 4-in-1 bike, sharing the same eye-to-eye length in every variant. On the shorter travel Zesty build a shorter stroke air shock like the RockShox Deluxe RT can manage the on the all-mountain builds, while a longer stroke and more aggressive shock like the coil Fox DHX2 handles the enduro side of things.
The bikes are 1x specific, but do include a custom bolt-on chainguide, plus share a Boost 148mm thru-axle rear end, and a PressFit bottom bracket. The carbon bikes get mostly internal cable routing, with stealth dropper routing and what appears to be a Fox Live port. Tire clearance seems to be generous with the bikes rated as 27.5+ ready (up to a 2.8″ tire), and up to 2.6″ on the 29er wheels.
Geometry, Spec & Availability
Depending on which build each frame gets, the bikes will match a fork with the same travel as the rear end. No word on the official geometry, but both Zesty & Spicy come spec’ed with an FSA Angleset headset that lets riders adjust the head angle by 0.5° to individualize their setup.
The bikes come in four sizes (S-XL). Although it seems like all sizes can be built up with either wheel size based on the flip chip concept, Lapierre spec only lists complete bikes in S & M with 27.5 wheels and M, L & XL with 29″ wheels. The new Zesty and Spicy will get their official debut later this fall, with actual availability more likely to come at the end of 2018/beginning of 2019.
2019 Lapierre eZesty AM Fazua e-MTB
Not to be entirely overlooked, especially due to it being more stealthy, Lapierre is switching directions a bit with a new e-bike version of the all-mountain Zesty as well. Not to replace their large carry over Overvolt e-MTB lineup, this new e-bike uses a compact Fazua drive system which places weight low in the chassis, uses a smoother torque output, and is small enough that it allowed Lapierre to use the same new suspension design as on the proper trial bikes…. Discuss.
