LAPIERRE XR 929 ULTIMATE
£6,499.99 Premium-equipped, super-rapid French fancy
Lapierre’s hyper-fast XC race machine has been tweaked for better technical trail handling, as long as you can get the ‘upsidedown’ RS-1 fork to play nicely.
The frame
The XR gets a totally new frame for this year, with a humped top tube, S-curved down tube and a bend in the seat tube for improved rear wheel clearance. Travel is still 100mm but the punctured-seattube shock arrangement of the previous XR has been replaced with a top-tube-mounted damper (in this case, a metric-length RockShox Deluxe) and hanging linkage. Two dropped reinforcing struts create a distinctive sti!ening ‘basket’ in the top corner of the frame, but it still comes in at a claimed 2.1kg (with shock and rear axle).
The chainstays are 5mm shorter than on last year’s bike and the rear pivots sit ahead of Boost-width dropouts. Lapierre have also stretched the top tube by 20mm to allow for shorter stems and slackened the head tube by a degree, to 70 degrees. It’s a shame that their unique ‘E:I’ load-sensing, self-tuning suspension isn’t available in the UK though.
The kit
As you’d hope for £6.5k, Lapierre haven’t spared the kit budget. SRAM’s 12-speed XX1 Eagle is the pinnacle of performance transmissions, with faster, widerrange shifts, a uniquely clean driving feel and impressive wear life even in filthy conditions. Their Level Ultimate brakes are aptly named too, in terms of precision braking control. DT Swiss’s XR 1501 wheels are some of our favourite 29er hoops and the front comes with oversize ‘Predictive Steering’ hub ends to match RockShox’s radical RS-1 fork. The skinwall Maxxis Ardent Race and Ikon tyres are very light, very fast and very stylish. Race Face provide an appropriately light cockpit and fixed seatpost.
The ride
With semi-slick tyres, tight wheels and a super-e"cient drivetrain, the Lapierre leaps forwards with minimal e!ort. There’s a definite sense of twist and some torque loss through the narrow asymmetric seat tube/main pivot/chainstay-head area if you’re straining through a high gear though, so you need to spin rather than stomp for best results. The soft start/firmer centre/ ramped finish rear suspension character means great traction without obvious bob though, so we rarely touched the compression damping lever on the shock, even when mate hurting or PB hunting on the climbs.
While the featherweight frame is unsurprisingly flexy along its length, the XR has got a more stable 455mm reach (large size) and 69-degree head angle than most XC race bikes. The 720mm bar is tight tree and crowded start line friendly, and the relatively short stem potentially gives fast, slide-saving reactions too. Unfortunately, front end trust is seriously undermined by the startlingly vague steering of the hard-to-tune RS-1 fork. The ‘upside-down’ independent lower leg design also creates time-wasting wheel refit frustration if you puncture, marring an otherwise excellent race-focused bike and kit package.