05/16/2008

Lapierre Cycles has been producing functional, no-thrills road and cross-country racing bicycles for 60 years, but their designs, styling and overall brand image have always been too conservative to truly arouse the interest of the more gravity-assisted segment of mountain biking. In the late '90s, I had my first ride on a Lapierre: the FR. The FR boasted a full 4” of travel thanks to a unified rear triangle design running on full plastic bushings, proudly armed with an all-elastomer sprung, Ferrari-red, double-crown RST fork.

Although not the best riding bike around, the Lapierre was solid enough and most notably almost half the price of other bikes fitting into the just recently coined freeride genre. Throughout the years, with only small incremental changes in their long-travel offerings, Lapierre retained the same budget-oriented, no-thrills approach that they had been know for amongst the cross-country and road crowd.

In 2003, Lapierre signed a three year R&D contract with 10-time World Champion Nicolas Vouilloz in an effort to finally offer high-performance downhill and freeride bicycles. Lapierre and Vouilloz worked together to produce bikes for the all-mountain segment, already popularized in Europe by the Avalanche Cup and Mega-Avalanche enduro downhill races. After several years of development and victories by Vouilloz at both the Megavalanche of Alpe d’Huez and Reunion Island, Lapierre introduced its flagship enduro bike: the X160 Ultimate.    

The Lapierre X160 taking a rest on some fresh stumps in a Vancouver forest || Photo: Stephen Wilde

The FPS2 floating pivot point suspension situates the pivot point of the rear wheel at the intersection of the linkage plates' axis. This bike and other Lapierres that use this linkage cannot be sold in the U.S. because Lapierre’s floating pivot design infringes on Santa Cruz’s VPP patent. The X160 has a full length seat tube, and offers 160mm / 6.3” of air sprung travel front and rear courtesy of a Rock Shox Lyrik 2-Step air and Fox Float RP23 rear shock.

In terms of component spec, it sports Mavic’s Crossmax SX wheelset, Thomson components throughout, SRAM X.O/X-9 drivetrain, 7” Formula Oro brakes, Easton, Fizik and an integrated headset provided by Ritchey. Weight of the bike without pedals is 30.5lbs, and cost is CDN$5,999.

The Lapierre takes a corner at speed, thanks to the skills of author Arthur Gaillot || Photo: Stephen Wilde

In true all-mountain form, I will be riding the X160 for the next few months in various conditions within and beyond the bike’s intended purpose. Long, smoother epic rides are hard to come by in Vancouver’s Lower Mainland, and although they will most definitely be part of the program, the Lapierre will also be taken out on the Shore’s usual long rainy rides, Squamish’s steeps, Pemberton’s rock mazes and Whistler’s cross-country trails (which are only referred to as cross country if you are from this area of the world). The number of Super D races has grown for 2007 and the Lapierre will be my tool for the job for these events also.  
 
Being a fulfilled Santa Cruz Nomad owner, I am looking forward to finding out how the Lapierre X160 will compare. I don’t doubt that many of you looking for this type of bicycle will also have the Nomad on your list. Hopefully, the reports from extensive riding on both bikes will help potential buyers at time of purchase. Has Lapierre’s 60 years of expertise combined with the input of mountain biking’s most titled downhill racer produced the ideal all-mountain, Super D weapon? We'll have to wait and see.

Spectrum Techwear Words and photos by Cam McRae Brad Walton is living the dream.  An accomplished rider, he decided to follow in Dave Watson's footsteps and launch his own clothing line and Spectrum Techwear was born.  This is a small rider-owned company and they make the stuff they would like to wear. Like his buddies, Kyle and Kevin from Transition Bikes, Brad moved to Washington - just south of the border so he could be near the riding in B.C. A quick check of  his gallery will show you that he spends a lot of time riding up here. The guy has the bug. He even rode in one of Digger's movies a few years back when he was here on vacation from North Carolina.

The Burst Jersey will only lighten your wallet by US$49.  It's anti microbial, bacterial and static.  It won't stink or stick to your nipples at inopportune moments.

Greasemonkey casual shorts - tool pockets and a casual cotton demeanour. Also US$49 online.

Wilson shorts - fully loaded with ball cooling zips, cargo pockets (a must) and a sweet Velcro-cinch belt adorned with punk rivets - designed to ensure a precise fit.  Fully lined for comfort, these can be yours for US$79.  Maybe the dirt jump kids are wearing off on me, but I'm at the point where I prefer riding gear that doesn't look so much like riding gear - and these do not fit that description.

Cane Creek Double Shot rear shock
Words and photo by Scott Pilecki

Anyone who has owned a dirt bike will most likely have heard of Ohlins Racing. Ohlins is a Swedish company established in 1976 that produces World Championship performance suspension products. Their products are very high end, used in Formula One, NASCAR, rally, ATV, snowmobile and motocross applications. An Ohlins motocross shock is the shock to have if you ask an experienced dirt biker. Cane Creek decided that if it wanted to produce the best mountain bike shock available that a partnership with Ohlins would be the best way to pull this off.

From this partnership of ingenuity comes the Cane Creek Double Barrel rear coil shock. The Double Barrel stands out in CNC’d black with large adjusters. The shock flaunts laser-etched logos on a black anodized finish, a sleek chrome shaft, high-end bottom out bumper, and red, blue and brass adjusters. Available with titanium or steel coil springs, this shock looks killer and spares no expense without looking like Liberace. While looks matter, it’s what’s on the inside that counts. Inside or outside, the Double Barrel can be made to fit your bike. Hand-made actually - all shocks are hand made and dyno tested by one person, so every shock is perfect.

The Cane Creek Double Barrel rear shock - it looks similar from this angle, but it's not

Like some, people shocks can be very complex on the inside. Sometimes it can make you angry when you turn one knob the wrong way and get the wrong reaction. That’s the nice thing about this shock: the Double Barrel’s technology is easy to understand. You have only rebound and compression adjustments, aside from spring preload. But the Double Barrel is a little different. It allows for high and low speed adjustment of both rebound and compression. The key to understanding this and therefore tuning the shock properly is that slow and high speed both mean the shaft speed of the shock, not how fast you’re going.

Different adjustments on the shock for both low and high-speed adjustment for compression and rebound

Adjusting the Double Barrel requires a 10mm wrench and a flat-head screw driver. The reason you can get so much adjustment out of this shock is its Double Barrel design. The shaft travels inside the shock body and cycles oil through the shock. On most shocks, the oil just goes back and forth through the ports in one tube. The Double Barrel uses two tubes to separate the damping adjustments and give the shock more range of adjustment.

I will be mounting it on my bike for the next two months to find out just how good this shock is. It’s designed to be a top-end suspension upgrade, and I can’t wait to find out what that feels like.

Anything to say about GS #31? Here's the place to do it.