LaPierre coming to CA

IH8Rice · Jul 20, 2009

it says the U.S. also

they are proud to announce the distribution of their complete 2010 lineup to Canada and the US.

i saw the DH920 in Morzine during their dealer launch and it looked sick in the PC'd red. great attention to detail. the internal cable routing can be a bitch it seems tho

fluider · Jul 20, 2009

Great! Finally they are spreading over the ocean at least to Canada. Those bikes not only look amazing but ride very well, too. As far as I know, frames are completely manufactured in France which makes me wonder how can they manage to sell them for those prices. Unfortunately, frame kits are bit expensive :-(.

SuspectDevice · Jul 20, 2009

LaPierre has owned Redline for the last 2 years, and I know I see tons of Lapierres around here. You aren't going to see the FSR or parralell link frames in the US any time soon though.

All LaPierre frames are made in Taiwan and China.

norbar · Jul 20, 2009

Sandwich said:
You mean the DH 920 won't come to the US?

dh 920 infringes the vpp patent, the other frames are closer to the fsr if I'm not right.

About the well riding frames - I've got the old dh model dh-230 (06-08 so not that old) and I can't wait to change it. Don't know about the new one but this one feels long yet not really confidence inspiring in anything but long flat turns. Hope the new ones have more dialed geo as this one is a bit funky (and looking at the old pinkbike review i'm not the only one who thinks like that).
Still the bikes look killer and the atention to detail is great. They are also crazy light. DH-230 frame is 4.05 claimed with an air shock (though it's probably a tad more) and it took a lot of serious abuse (I'm a frequent tree hugger)

norbar · Jul 20, 2009

Sandwich said:
Too bad and interesting to hear...I thought they were super awesome frames. I guess I'll hold out for a superbro or something, when it finally comes out in the year 2000.

There was a review in dirt of the new one and Jonsey seemed to like it but said they were bonkers small and even Danny Hart used large. The susp curve on the new dh model looks very nice and maybe they finally refined it a bit. I'd just wait for the first reviews as the lapierres have crazy high prices.

Uncle Cliffy · Jul 20, 2009

I've always thought the 920 looked really nice. It's the geometry on paper that bothers me. (Especially for tall guys.) Only 2 sizes and a 14.5 BB? Come on, it's 2009...

norbar · Jul 20, 2009

Uncle Cliffy said:
I've always thought the 920 looked really nice. It's the geometry on paper that bothers me. (Especially for tall guys.) Only 2 sizes and a 14.5 BB? Come on, it's 2009...

It's 364mm if I remember correctly so it's closer to 14.3'' so it's closer to standard. The old ones were sky high though. I didn't measure mine but it's quite high and I've seen somebody posting here it with ~15''.

BTW. Only 2 sizes are still quite common: orange, commencal, morewood.

Uncle Cliffy · Jul 20, 2009

norbar said:
It's 364mm if I remember correctly so it's closer to 14.3'' so it's closer to standard. The old ones were sky high though. I didn't measure mine but it's quite high and I've seen somebody posting here it with ~15''.

Sure. It seems all the modern 8 inch bikes hover around 14 flat. My Rocky's 14.125...

norbar said:
BTW. Only 2 sizes are still quite common: orange, commencal, morewood.

I know it's still common, but I think they're missing a large segment of people with this strategy. It saves them money, but I think they'd sell more frames and make money with 3 sizes.

norbar · Jul 20, 2009

Yeah, you're right. I may be defending them as it's still a big improvement over my twitchbike. They are a very big company and I think that's what makes them slow.
Still it's only 0.11'' over 951 and m6

(btw. they recently chnaged the bb height on their site for the m6, anybody knows why?)

stiksandstones · Jul 20, 2009

Does that mean Nico will be doing autograph signings here in so cal?

sirbikealot · Jul 20, 2009

Thanks for the great comments everyone, Kempter Marketing (www.kmi.ca) have worked hard to get this amazing brand into Canada. First and foremost the pricing is very competitive. In France where Lapierre is the #1 selling bike shop brand, Lapierre's competition are brands like Specialized, Trek, Kona, Giant etc, therefore their pricing is pegged to be competitive with those brands.
You'll all be very pleasantly surprised by the pricing.

Lapierre will be in dealers throughout Canada this Fall. I suspect some of the dealers in Canada will be selling some bikes to our friends in the states for sure.

As for reviews of the DH920 there are several in magazines (Dirt, WhatMTB, bikeradar.com, descent-world.co.uk, etc) all of which have been tremendous.
We have a top Junior Expert in Canada on the bike right now, at 6'1" he is comfortable on the lrg and has been winning on it so far and comments on its confidence through rough choppy chunder and its ability to carry fantastic speed out of corners.

Lapierre is a big brand with Tour De France Road bike Team, city bikes, MTB, hybrids etc so we will be offering more than just the MTB side of things.

Let me know if you have any questions I'll answer them the best I can without letting a couple cats out of the bag.

Pete
Lapierre National Sales Manager
Canada

norbar · Jul 20, 2009

Pete I really wonder how good price you can get. I have my own angles on the lapierres but the overall euro price for the frame be it france, poland or ireland is crazy.

BTW. I'll need to find that reviews as I've only seen the dirt one. I cheer for them and it's good to see that there will be at lest 2 informed distributors now. The french central and their polish lackeys have been most annoying so far.

Also will the 720 be much cheaper than the 920? As it's price around this parts is almost 1/3 more than the demo or other top of the line bikes.

sirbikealot · Jul 20, 2009

norbar said:
Pete I really wonder how good price you can get. I have my own angles on the lapierres but the overall euro price for the frame be it france, poland or ireland is crazy.

BTW. I'll need to find that reviews as I've only seen the dirt one. I cheer for them and it's good to see that there will be at lest 2 informed distributors now. The french central and their polish lackeys have been most annoying so far.

Also will the 720 be much cheaper than the 920? As it's price around this parts is almost 1/3 more than the demo or other top of the line bikes.

Thanks for the encouragement!
Yes the 720 will be much cheaper than the 920, we want it to be the choice of the everyday DH rider/racer. Its the same frame for both bikes, just a spec change that makes its significantly more affordable.

As far as bike production frames are all done in Taiwan, however all the bikes are assembled/built in France, I've been to the facotry, it is quite impressive watching all those frames being prepped for assembly!

To save you some time here are a couple of the reviews:

http://www.bikeradar.com/gear/category/bikes/mountain/product/dh-920-09-32465

http://www.descent-world.co.uk/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1049&Itemid=82

norbar · Jul 20, 2009

Thanks for the links. Reading about bikes is the only dh related thing I do lately :/ It's so bad that the 720 comes out 2010. One year earlier and who knows... Still knowing my indecisiveness it would be an obstacle in choosing a bike not a help to have even more choice

Intenseman · Jul 20, 2009

fluider said:
As far as I know, frames are completely manufactured in France

shirk007 · Jul 20, 2009

KMI still doing Commencal?

sirbikealot · Jul 20, 2009

shirk007 said:
KMI still doing Commencal?

No, great bikes but massive price increases gave us no choice but to terminate our relationship

shirk007 · Jul 20, 2009

sirbikealot said:
No, great bikes but massive price increases gave us no choice but to terminate our relationship

Remind the web guy to update the KMI site.

sirbikealot · Jul 20, 2009

shirk007 said:
Remind the web guy to update the KMI site.

Commencal is still up at www.kmi.ca as we are going to help all of our retailers liquidate their product and help them with warranty's etc for the rest of the calender year.

frango · Jul 21, 2009

Norbar, did You cancel Your Legend order!? Are You going to get LaPierre 920?! :O
Cheers from Morzine...

Sirbikealot, do You really sell more than A-brands in France!? I am in Morzine, right now, and I don't see many of Your bikes...

norbar · Jul 21, 2009

frango said:
Norbar, did You cancel Your Legend order!? Are You going to get LaPierre 920?! :O
Cheers from Morzine...
Sirbikealot, do You really sell more than A-brands in France!? I am in Morzine, right now, and I don't see many of Your bikes...

No I didn't. I'm just curious about the frame. Even with my good prices I think the frameset has a really steep price and I still from technical point of view like the legend more. I just have a soft spot for lapierre due to their amazing aestetics.

BTW. Even without biking I can injure myself. >> Have a strained back thanks to my new tiles

Somehow I overestimated my strength

Have fun in Morzine. Hope I can finish the damn flat soon and maybe have a trip of my own.

anderwho · Sep 1, 2010

I'm waiting to buy a 2011 Lapierre Froggy but am a bit unsure of what size to buy...

I'm 6'1" tall.

I had a demo ride on a 43cm Froggy (smaller of two sizes) bike, and it's top tube length was the same as my Large sized Ironhorse (6 point 4). It suited me fine but Lapierre recommend me buying the larger 48cm bike. Although they didn't have one for me to demo on that day.

The 48cm frame seems quite a jump and I wouldn't want to loose any of its playfulness. If you've got one can you help me out by recommending a size. I really don't like feeling stretched out on a bike. Thanks

sirbikealot · Sep 2, 2010

anderwho said:
I'm waiting to buy a 2011 Lapierre Froggy but am a bit unsure of what size to buy...

I'm 6'1" tall.

I had a demo ride on a 43cm Froggy (smaller of two sizes) bike, and it's top tube length was the same as my Large sized Ironhorse (6 point 4). It suited me fine but Lapierre recommend me buying the larger 48cm bike. Although they didn't have one for me to demo on that day.

The 48cm frame seems quite a jump and I wouldn't want to loose any of its playfulness. If you've got one can you help me out by recommending a size. I really don't like feeling stretched out on a bike. Thanks

honestly at your size you should really buy the larger of the two and any shop or bike fitter would recommend this size too
however if your primary concern is to have a super flickable bike and proper fit for pedaling, climbing and power transmission are all secondary, get what you want which seems to be the smaller

my question now is who approved that tiny TT length on your old large IH

LaPierre coming to CA

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