Lapierre Zesty XM 527

I’ve been fortunate enough to ride and review three of Lapierre’s ‘Zesty’ bikes over the last handful of years, and they’ve never failed to impress. It’s also been interesting to see them evolve given the fairly rapid rate of changing geometry, not to mention wheel sizes, over that time. Last year I rode the Zesty TR and really liked it; I thought it was one of the best 29ers I’d ridden. For 2016 Lapierre has evolved again and 29-inch wheels have been given the flick from the Zesty line-up—they’re all 27.5-inch now. Our Zesty XM527 also sports a newer and more refined version of the e:i electronic suspension control, so I was keen to see what had changed since I last rode it on a 26-inch Zesty a few years back.

For clarity’s sake, it’s worth knowing that the Zesty range is divided into two sub-categories; the Zesty AM with 150mm of travel front and back and a 66.5-degree head angle, and the Zesty XM, with 120mm at the back and 130mm up front and a 67-degree head angle. Both are available in three spec levels with the 527 being the piggy in the middle, and the only one available either with or without the e:i system. The base level XM327 can’t be ordered with the electronic suspension while it is standard fare on the top-end XM827.

With a 500g weight penalty the i:e system doesn’t add a lot of weight but it certainly impacts on the price. The basic analogue version goes for $5,999 while the fully electrified setup will lighten your wallet by $6,999. Our large size XM527 frame weighed 2,822g, and that included all of the e:i controls and battery—quite an impressive figure really. All up the Shimano XT equipped bike was 13.0kg without pedals.

As you’d expect at this price the frame is carbon fibre, and that includes the entire rear triangle and rocker link too, unlike the alloy many other bikes use. There’s a metal scuff plate to protect from chain suck, and a natty carbon fibre derailleur guard attached to the chainstay too. You’ll find mountains of room inside the rear triangle for fat rubber, and in terms of stiffness it’s definitely at the upper end of the spectrum. It’s a good looking frame too, with clean lines and not-too-bright graphics. I like the fact that there’s no ugly derailleur mounting tab left hanging if you decide to go 1X at some point, and ISCG chainguide tabs are always nice to see.

I’m not the biggest fan of press-fit bottom brackets, but the one on our Shimano XT 2X cranks remained quiet and creak free. Everything from the brakes to the clutch equipped rear derailleur comes from the new M8000 XT range; it’s really nice stuff and provides totally flawless performance. The cables are routed internally through the substantial down tube for a clean look and mechanics will be happy to see a large exit port to make cable changes relatively easy. Last but not least, there’s room for a drink bottle within the main triangle; something we appreciate on a trail bike.

The chainstays are 430mm long, which I think is just about right for balancing stability and manoeuvrability; it’s easy to get off the back if you want, but you don’t feel stuck there and unable to weight the front wheel. The rear triangle has also been made a tad narrower; previously, those with big feet sometimes had issues with heel rub on the seat stays. Combined with a long 459mm reach and a 15mm bottom bracket drop, and the Zesty is just about the epitome of the long, low, slack ethos. In keeping with that mentality, it also has a steep seat angle to keep your seated weight forward on climbs, and to ease the transition to standing pedalling; the long reach still allows plenty of space to move around the cockpit and I never felt cramped aboard the Zesty.

Short stem and wide bar combo is in place from the outset, the KS LEV Integra is my personal dropper of choice. I even got on well with the SDG saddle; a good thing as it’d be hard to find a colour-matched replacement! The Race Face Aeffect wheels are still holding up fine, although the freehub pickup is quite slow, and the inner rim width of 23mm is pretty much XC race fare these days, offering little lateral support to tyres under cornering loads. The venerable Revelation fork might not be quite as stout as its Pike cousin, but up until a few years ago it was probably the trail fork of choice. With 130mm of travel it remains stiff enough to go where you point it, even in deep ruts and baby-head rocks. The Motion Control damper is well proven and the fork is very easy to setup. Dial in your sag (around 20%), set the rebound speed, maybe add a few clicks of low speed compression damping and you’re done. It’ll use all its travel without feeling like it has and it also rides fairly high in the travel most of the time.

E:I Technology
The shock is, in essence, a RockShox Monarch; a great performer with an excellent record of reliability. What makes it special, however, is the little servo motor attached where you’d normally find the compression adjuster. There are accelerometers mounted on the stem and fork, as well as a little cadence sensor inside the cranks.

Information about impacts from these sensors gets fed to a small computer mounted on the side of the stem, and it determines whether the rear shock should be in open, medium or firm mode. Functionally it’s no different to manually adjusting the lever on your traditional shock, except that the e:i can do it every 0.1sec. That’s fast enough that unless you’re travelling at over 36km/h (i.e. a pro downhiller or riding on the road), the shock will always react before the rear wheel reaches any impact.

There are a few ways you can use e:i system. You can manually select to leave the shock in open, medium or firm mode by repeatedly pressing the one and only button on the computer, or you can select the ‘auto’ mode, where the system works as described above to automatically and constantly adjust your damper settings. In auto, you can also select one of three sensitivity levels, which determines how large an impact is required to trigger the e:i mechanism. There’s a single LED light which clearly shows the mode you’re in; green for open, amber for medium and red for firm. In the interests of de-cluttering, this new version of e:i doesn’t have a bar-mounted remote nor the display screen of the previous version. Toggling between modes is intuitive and it’s much easier than reaching down between your knees to flip a traditional compression adjuster.

The minimalist design of the new e:i control unit is, in my mind, a huge success. Yes, your suspension may be operated by electronics, but it doesn’t look like you decided to festoon your bike with left over Christmas lights like the previous incarnation. Apart from the small servo on the shock and the small cylindrical battery, the e:i system is virtually invisible.

Lapierre claim a battery life of 25 hours in auto mode which seems quite reasonable and accurate to us. Most people will only need to charge the battery once a month and the recharge interval will be longer again if you use the manual settings. If the battery does go flat, the shock will remain in its previous mode or revert to being fully open if you were in auto mode. You can also manually adjust the compression setting with an allen key if required.

You might be thinking, ‘you’ve got a perfectly functional suspension bike—why add unnecessary complexity to solve a bunch of non-existent problems?’ Well cool your heels for a sec and hear me out! The biggest issue faced by mountain bike shocks is the contradictory needs of being able to move under impact, but remain stable under highly variable pedalling loads. Instead of using chain growth and anti-squat to control unwanted movement like a mechanical system, e:i solves this problem with a battery, some circuits and a motor. As we’ve said many times before, when it comes to MTB suspension, everything is a trade-off. With a mechanical system, that trade-off comes with pedal kickback versus efficiency. In the case of e:i, that trade-off is primarily one of weight and complexity.

Now here’s another e:i shock; many of you may be shocked to hear that overall, the system works flawlessly and attempts to confuse it completely failed. It really is a matter of finding the correct sensitivity setting for the auto mode, and then just leaving it alone to do its thing; which it does very well.

If you’re not pedalling, or the fork senses a larger impact, the shock switches to the open mode, so descending is supple and smooth. Smaller bumps will push it to the medium setting, and if the trail is smooth, the shock will remain impressively firm. It’s worth noting that because e:i looks after pedal bob, Lapierre recommend running at least 35% sag. That makes for a very ground-hugging rear end, however the updated suspension kinematics provide significant progression at the end of the travel, so even on intermediate downhill runs I never quite used full travel. That’s quite remarkable for a bike with only 120mm on offer. It had me seriously considering 40% sag and also wondering just how much travel a bike actually needs for all but full blown DH use.

It’s worth noting, however, that we did have an issue with the crank sensor on our test bike. It relies on an expanding collet design to hold it in place within the crank spindle. Ours was a little loose, so occasionally it got knocked out of place and the auto function didn’t detect pedalling input and stayed in the default open position. If this should happen, your Lapierre dealer should have the special tool required to tighten it up properly; as it was, I either pushed it back into place with my finger, or just kept riding with the shock in open mode. There’s an XC track that I rode couple of times with the Zesty; it’s a punishingly relentless 9km of rocks, roots and sandy corners. The e:i system managed it all perfectly, however the constant whirring of the servo was a little too distracting for a friend of mine who also rode the Zesty. The sound didn’t faze me, but if you find little noises particularly annoying, you can always switch to a manual mode or possibly consider the non e:i Zesty instead.

Simply a Good Bike
I’ve spent a lot of time talking about how well the new e:i system works, but no matter how sorted it is, bolting it to a crappy bike isn’t going to help much; as an old work colleague of mine used to say, you can’t put brains in statues.

The aforementioned sensor issue meant that I spent some time riding the Zesty XM in manual mode, where e:i doesn’t affect the ride at all. Even without electronic intervention, I’m happy to report that this is the best Zesty yet from Lapierre, and one of the best all-round trail bikes on the market. The geometry just feels right, and whatever I asked of the Zesty, it was willing and able to comply. It’s fast both up and down the hill, comfortable on the flats, lively through berms and rollers, and just plain fun; eager and enthusiastic to be your partner in crime no matter what riding style you prefer. With a longer and stiffer fork and burlier tyres, it could easily be set up as a light enduro bike, and as supplied it’s a great technical mile muncher.

Just before writing this review, I took the Zesty out for a short bash of my local trail loop; up and down what most people consider to be DH tracks. The e:i sensor issue was sorted, and I kept finding myself surprised at just how fast I was going on the descents. On the way up I almost cleaned two pinch climbs which I’ve never even come close to making before. For the first time in several years, I was seriously considering if it was time to buy a new bike. Based on my experience with the Zesty XM, I’d even contemplate buying the longer legged and burlier Zesty AM without ever riding it; the shared DNA would surely make it an absolute ripper for those who focus more on the descents.

Would I be persuaded to go to the dark side and own a mountain bike that needs charging periodically? In honesty, I’d have to say yes. I already charge my phone every day, so plugging in a battery for my bike every few weeks is hardly an issue, and even if you did run flat, the Zesty XM will still out ride just about anything else on the trail. Like it or not, electronics are a big part of the future for mountain biking, and in the case of Lapierre’s e:i, it’s a bright future indeed. Without e:i the Zesty XM527 is a fantastic aggro trail bike; the addition of e:i turns it into an absolutely stellar one.

Thumbs Up
Fun and playful handling
Light yet solid carbon frame
Electronic suspension adds efficiency with little compromise

Thumbs Down
Not a cheap proposition, especially with the e:i system
Needs the occasional battery charge
Some added complexity

Specifications
Frame:  Full Carbon OST+
Shock:  RockShox Monarch RT3, 120mm Travel
Fork:  RockShox Revelation RL Solo Air 130mm Travel
Headset:  FSA Orbit sealed cartridge
Handlebars:  Lapierre Nico Vouilloz Alloy 740mm
Stem:  Easton EA70 alloy 60mm
Shifters:  Shimano XT i-Spec
Front Derailleur:  Shimano XT
Rear Derailleur:  Shimano XT
Cassette:  Shimano XT, 11/40 11-speed
Chain:  Shimano XT 11-speed
Cranks:  Shimano XT 26/36
Bottom Bracket:  Shimano Press-Fit
Pedals:  N/A
Brakes:  Shimano XT
Wheels:  RaceFace Aeffect
Tyres:  Maxxis Ardent & Ardent Race 2.25
Saddle:  SDG Duster LP
Seatpost:  KS Lev Integra 31.6mm
Weight:  13.0kg without pedals (large frame 2,822g)
Available Sizes:  S, M, L (tested) and XL
Price:  $6,999
Distributor:  Advance Traders 1300 361 686 / www.lapierrebikes.com.au