While Lapierre’s Zesty and Spicy trail bikes have tended to hog the limelight, the brand has always had solid cross-country offerings in the ProRace hardtail and XR full-suspension ranges, so this 2018 Lapierre XR729 has landed with us for a spot of long-term testing.
- First Ride: Lapierre’s ProRace SAT race hardtail with clever vibration damping tech
- Buyer’s guide to mountain bikes: everything you need to get the best bike for you
- First Ride: Lapierre’s new Overvolt iShimano electric mountain bike
There are three bikes in the XR range and they all have 100mm of travel via a four-bar suspension design, 29″ wheels and a full carbon fibre frame with all mod cons such as Boost hub spacing and Metric sized shock. Our XR729 sits in the middle of the range, though as you might have guessed, it’s still not exactly cheap at a wallet-spanking £3,999.
Of course, for that money, you do get quite a bit of shiny kit. Up front, a matching 100mm of travel is dished out by a RockShox SID RL, which uses the highly refined Charger sealed damper. We’ve been mightily impressed with it in the past, delivering control you simply don’t expect from such a short travel figure as well as an impressively low all-in weight. That’s paired with a RockShox Monarch RL with high-volume Debonair air can for extra sensitivity and both shocks can be locked out on the fly via a bar mounted remote.
The rest of the bike digs heavily into the SRAM catalogue also, with a single ring, 12spd drivetrain made from a mix of X01 and GX Eagle bits and offering a very respectable 500% gear range. You can fit a front mech if you like, though all of the complete bikes come with a single ring setup, and the frame has a rather neat hatch in it for a Shimano Di2 battery if you ever fancy electric shifting instead. There are carbon fibre armed X1 cranks with a 32T ring, though we’re less keen to see that it spins on a Press Fit bottom bracket rather than a threaded item.
The stoppers are SRAM’s Level TL brakes and pleasingly enough they come with a larger diameter 180mm rotor up front with a smaller 160mm at the back. The Mavic Crossmax Elite wheels are another welcome sight and they’re shod in a mixture of tubeless ready Maxxis Ikon 2.2″ rubber at the rear and a more aggressive Ardent 2.25″ at the front. Okay, for natural winter riding in the UK that’s going to get a bit drifty, but when it comes to the flat-out cross-country racing the bike is made for, they should be spot on.
When it comes to the rather conservative world of cross-country race bikes, the XR has pretty progressive geometry. Our Large frame has a reach of 452mm with a respectably steep 74.5º seat angle and 69º head angle. The cockpit is impressive too – yes, the stem is inverted and the bars are flat, but at 70mm long and 720mm wide respectively, there’s some decent leverage to play with.
There’s a pretty low bottom bracket with a 40mm drop, while the chainstay is pretty long at 441mm. Okay, it’s still pretty sharp compared to your average trail bike, it’s not quite as scarily steep and short as many more traditional rival and hopefully, that’ll translate into competent descending abilities without losing any uphill punch – and at 11.6kg, it’s respectably lightweight too.
Anyway, we’re looking forward to getting out and covering the top tube in sweat, snot and sick – the holy trinity of cross-country racing – so check back for some in-depth thoughts and a full review once we’ve recovered from all that.
