2017 Lapierre Spicy 527 Bike

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I ride the Spicy 527 2017 since August 2017. The geometry suits me very well. At 1.89 m height, I chose L. If you want to race with them and do not value fun on any occasion, you can take the size recommended by Lapierre, which in my case would have been XL. As the seat position would be a bit too stretched for tours.

I do it differently than the usual reviews and do not highlight the good qualities, but rather talk about negative experiences. Nevertheless, it is a great bike with excellent driving characteristics, if you have turned off all the weak points. Whether you ride tours, trails or do racing, you will be happy with it. If you were too slow on one section, it was not on the bike. The rear triangle works very sensitively. If the slight rocking in the Uphill bothers you, it can simply turn off by lever on the rear shock.

I bought the 527 instead of the Team Ultimate, because the more expensive model was no longer available and the 527 was so far reduced in price, that it was still cheaper with my tuning measures than the team Ultimate, which was only available again from October ‘17. Decisive for the purchase was the perfect geometry for me in combination with all the current standards, what was then at this price not offered by any other manufacturer.

The bike weighs about 14.1 kg without pedals.

Wheels:

The wheelset is quite heavy (F: 1051 g, R: 1082 g), on front with a wider rim than at the rear. Together with the 260 g heavy tubes this ensures sluggish acceleration. For this reason, this wheelset is one of the weak points of the bike. I swapped it immediately and put on the Tubeless tires, saving about 1 kg directly. Now the bike can accelerate very well.

Fork:

Another weak point on my bike was the Yari RC, which was not working well at all. With the good rear suspension, it harmonized only when the damper was in the Uphill position. A fork tuning from M-Suspensiontec with a new damping cartridge and dust scrapers from Racing Bros. solved this problem.

Rear Shock:

The RS Super Deluxe Air RC3 always lost some air, which got worse in the winter. This was due to a squeezed built-in seal, which could be remedied by an air chamber service. You should set the rear suspension with a little less than the maximum recommended SAG (after setting mark, about 30%), otherwise you will often spring in to the internal rubber stop limiter. If you like it plush, use only one Volumespacer. There are three inside out of the box.

Seat Post:

The Lapierre Dropper Post lost air after about 50 hours of use and had to be exchanged. Incidentally, this dropper post is almost identical to a Manitou Jack. If it works, it works very well.

Head Set:

Unfortunately, a steering stop limiter is missing on the headset, as the shift lever can hit in the top tube. It may have been omitted, because instead of a 1 ° angle shell was added, so that you can also adjust 65 ° steering angle, if a 66 ° are too steep.

Noise:

For the first few kilometers I had problems with cracking noises. These were at the derailleur hanger. This must be tightened with grease and screw lock. In addition, the thru axle must be greased and tightened very tight. If you take this to heart, the bike rides very softly even the roughest passages. The cables are not particularly fixed in the down tube. Only the shift cable runs fixed in the down tube and can not hit anywhere. Brake line and seat post control are not clamped, but still do not rattle. As the down tube under the carbon cover is open, water that gets in to the top of the cable inlets can run out and collect nowhere.

Grips:

The Lapierre grips feel very strange because their rubber louvers fold away. I immediately swapped them for the highly recommended SQ Lab MX grips.

Saddle:

An SDG, similar to a Circuit Mountain. Lightweight, but very uncomfortable for me. I had to trade it.Brakes:The Sram Guide R are well known. The braking power is sufficient for tours in the low mountain range. For alpine terrain and racing, they are definitely too weak at 90 kg total weight, despite the 200 mm brake discs.

Group Set:

Sram XO1 - GX Mix: Works very well. Of course, the range of the new models with Eagle 1x12 is larger and thus better for long steep climbs. I'm enough 1x11. It was a conscious decision.

Tires:

The Michelin Wild Grip'R Reinforced MagiX works very well in front and has a lot of grip. At the rear wheel, the same tire with GumiX rubber compound was mounted and just slipped around. This should be replaced. The puncture protection of the tires is quite good. But they always weigh about 1070 g.