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Lapierre gets weight back and down for the new trail-riding Overvolt AM e-MTB

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Lapierre-Overvolt-AM-700-Carbon_carbon-full-suspension-trail-e-mountain-bike_rock-drop_photo-by-Damien-McArthur

We already took a look at Lapierre’s all-new XR cross country rig earlier today, but at the same time as they rolled out that new flagship carbon full suspension mountain bike, they went in the opposite direction with a new trail slaying e-mountain bike as well. Also based on the same OST+ virtual pivot suspension design developed on Lapierre’s enduro Zesty, this new Overvolt AM is a rather unique take on e-bike design. Rather than slapping a motor and battery onto a beefed up trail riding frame like has been done many times before, Lapierre reworked how to get the weight of the drive system back and down to build an all-carbon, all-mountain bike with a low center-of-gravity that their e-Enduro team led by legend Nico Vouilloz could shred down the mountain. Take a look at the Overvolt AM in both carbon and alloy after the break, plus the shorter travel Overvolt XC…

 

Lapierre-Overvolt-AM-700-Carbon_carbon-full-suspension-trail-e-mountain-bike_complete-rack

Lapierre is in the unique position of recognizing and acknowledging that e-bikes aren’t an additional market. Lapierre has been one of the first big European companies to develop performance off-road e-MTB bikes and the clearly see that buyers who purchase an e-MTB are buying it instead of another bike, not in addition to another bike. Sure, a lot of e-bike customers are purchasing a second bike, but they are not really adding funds to their budget that wouldn’t perhaps already have been spent on a regular bike purchase.

So to address that concern, Lapierre has put a big investment of time, money, and engineering into developing the kind of e-bike that active mountain bikers will want to ride. That is the over-arching concept behind their Overvolt e-bike range, and it now gets a new top-end bike offering next-level handling, modern trail geometry, and Plus-sized flexibility.

Lapierre-Overvolt-AM-700-Carbon_carbon-full-suspension-trail-e-mountain-bike_complete-muddy Lapierre-Overvolt-AM-700-Carbon_carbon-full-suspension-trail-e-mountain-bike_battery-muddy

Lapierre-Overvolt-AM-900-Carbon_carbon-full-suspension-trail-e-mountain-bike_battery-compartment

The new e-MTB is the 100% carbon Overvolt AM Carbon. Since pretty much the entire industry is using the same battery and motor suppliers, in order to innovate Lapierre decided to think a bit out of the box on how to incorporate that fixed technology in their bike. The design goal was to try and lower the center of gravity to make the Overvolt bikes as playful and maneuverable as a normal bike. When you realize that 3kg of the 20-25kg of an e-bike is just the battery, there is a lot of rationale to try to get that lower, instead of slapping it on a normal downtube, which makes most e-bikes very front and top heavy and much harder to manage off-road than a regular bike.

Lapierre-Overvolt-Carbon-AM700-Damian-McArthur-(15)

So Lapierre moved the battery back 70mm and down another 74mm with their new carbon frame design that cradles the standard Bosch battery. The resulting frame creates a wide two spar, split downtube design that gets a cover that both creates something of an integrated front fender and a semi-enclosed area at the top of the battery that we started calling a croissant pocket (yes, let’s make #croissantpocket trend!), but seriously could be utilized to carry something like a tube and tool pouch with a little SWAT-like integration.

Lapierre-Overvolt-AM-Carbon_carbon-full-suspension-trail-e-mountain-bike_croissant-pocket Lapierre-Overvolt-Carbon-AM800-Damian-McArthur-downtube

The new carbon frame is also 3400g total, maybe 15-25% less than the previous alloy version and around 600g. But the move to carbon was more about the flexibility of being able to design around a revised center of mass than anything else, and losing weight was really just a benefit.

Lapierre-Overvolt-AM-Carbon_carbon-full-suspension-trail-e-mountain-bike_275+-dropout Lapierre-Overvolt-AM-Carbon_carbon-full-suspension-trail-e-mountain-bike_275-dropout

The new Overvolt AM Carbon can be built up with either 27.5″ or 27.5+ wheels with Lapierre’s new Dual Wheel System of quick swap dropouts that move the rear axle position. In addition to selling the bike in either variant, Lapierre plans to offer a second 275+ eAM wheel kit for just 300€ so buyers can get both setups and choose what they ride based on the trail destination, style, or conditions.

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Like the very different new XR cross-country bike, the Overvolt AM Carbon gets Boost spacing, new metric shocks, and the updated OST+ suspension design, this time with 140mm of travel. All bikes ship with 27.5+ forks with 150mm of travel, and all feature a newly developed, stealth-routed Lapierre dropper seatpost and new e-bike specific Lapierre wheels that use wider rims at the front for better tire spread and grip.

Lapierre-Overvolt-Carbon-AM900-Damian-McArthur

The Overvolt AM Carbon will be available in 3 carbon frame models – 900, 800, 700, all with the Bosch CX 500Wh drive unit. The carbon bikes are being produced at Laiperre’s production facility in Dijon, and will be available in three sizes, with the M ready to ship to customers in September, and the S & L in October.

Lapierre-Overvolt-Carbon-AM800-Damian-McArthur Lapierre-Overvolt-Carbon-AM700-Damian-McArthur

The 6500€ Overvolt AM Carbon 900+ uses SRAM’s new e-bike specific EX1 group with its wide-range 11-48 8-speed cassette and derailleur, and Guide brakes. Suspension is handled by a Rock Shox Pike RC and a Deluxe RT shock. The 6000€ Overvolt AM 800 Carbon gets a 11-speed Shimano rear derailleur and an 11-42T cassette, plus the same suspension and brakes as the 900. The most affordable 5300€ Overvolt AM Carbon is the 700 which uses SRAM’s new low-cost 1×11 NX drivetrain and an 11-42 cassette. It keeps the same shock and brakes as the others, but swaps in a lower-priced Yari RC fork.

Lapierre-Overvolt-AM-500-Alloy_aluminum-full-suspension-trail-e-mountain-bike_berming_photo-by-Damien-McArthur

On the aluminum front, Lapierre is offering an Overvolt AM Alloy range that shares the same OST+ 140mm/150mm frame/fork travel, 27.5″/27.5+ swappable dropouts and other tech in a more affordable platform that unfortunately use the standard downtube battery placement. For now Lapierre hadn’t been able to get their same back and down battery location sorted in aluminum, but we’re hoping that’s just something temporary.

Lapierre-Overvolt-AM500-Alu-Damian-McArthur-(5)

Lapierre-Overvolt-XC-500-Damian-McArthur_Bosch-CX

The AM Alloy will come in 4 complete bikes – the 700, 600 & 500 use the 500Wh Bosch CX motor, get dropper posts and eAM wheels, while the 400 goes with a 400Wh Yamaha and a more budget build.

Lapierre-Overvolt-XC500-Damian-McArthur-(29)

Lapierre-Overvolt-XC400-Damian-McArthur Lapierre-Overvolt-XC300-Damian-McArthur

A new cross-country oriented Overvolt XC Alloy is also on the way offering 27.5″/27.5+ tire flexibility. The OST+ 120/120mm travel bike uses a lot of the same tech as the AM, just pared down for general trail riding. The Overvolt XC Alloy will come in three versions, the 500 with a Bosch CX, and the 400 & 300 with the Yamaha motor.

Lapierre-Overvolt-XC300W-Damian-McArthur

Lapierre has also added a women specific version of the 120mm travel Overvolt XC 300 W and hardtail HT500 W powered by Yamaha motors. The smaller women’s frames feature shorter seattubes and toptubes for riders down to 155cm tall, plus slightly slacker seat angles, narrower bars, and women-specific saddles, plus special paint schemes.

Lapierre-Bikes.co.uk

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Adam
Adam
7 years ago

Is Lapierre even available in America? The shop I was at sold them last year and they pulled out of the market.

bearCol
bearCol
7 years ago

Cool Moped but I much prefer mountain biking.

craig
craig
7 years ago

a lot of impressive design work going on there

2pacfan187
7 years ago

What’s up with that tiny chainring? Is there an overdrive on top of the crank cadence?

TomM
TomM
7 years ago

An e “bike” passed me on my local paved bike path yesterday morning at around 25 MPH without its driver pedaling. These things are motorcycles, not bikes.

Johnson
Johnson
7 years ago
Reply to  TomM

Um, no.

Motorcycles are not 1/2 a HP. The least-powerful adult motorcycle that you can buy is about 40 hp – or 80x as powerful.

Tamas
Tamas
7 years ago

These are pedal assist bikes “pedelec” not mopeds. No throttle and they don’t go anywhere without pedaling… There are other places in the world not just the US and already over 2 million e-bikes have been sold in Germany only. Like it or not they have a big future.

bearCol
bearCol
7 years ago
Reply to  Tamas

Tamas, don’t kid yourself, this is a Moped. Just because the throttle is actuated by turning the pedals don’t mean there isn’t a motor kicking in just as it would if you pedaled a Moped then actuated a throttle on the grip. It’s all the same just a different iteration. The definition of a Moped: Low Powered, motorized bicycle.

Have fun Mopeding! Enjoy all the motorized permitted trails because most places are banning Mopeds from single track. If you ride extra hardcore you could probably start your own Moped gang and be the leader of the pack!

Nico
Nico
7 years ago
Reply to  bearCol

Except that these e-BIKES requires you to actually put effort in yourself. You actually have to put in wattage to get help. All the european systems use torque sensors to control the pedal assist, and you adjust the helping power based on a percentage of your own input.

Dinger
Dinger
7 years ago

Funny how so many in the MTB community have become the uninformed whiners that used to be the ones keeping them from getting trail access.

Ride one and you’ll see that they are bicycles that help their rider climb hills and nothing more. They cannot do anything more than a capably ridden conventional MTB beyond that.

Marc
Marc
7 years ago
Reply to  Dinger

Having ridden one (and having worked as a land manager), I can say that nearly quadrupling a rider’s output (100% + 275% = 375%) is not nothing. And that’s the baseline- the Euros are already dealing with ‘chipped’ e-bikes whose output is no longer limited to the legally-established speed and power limits.

As cool or as fun as MORBs or E-peds may be, they’re hardly nonmotorized vehicles. In fact, even the lowest-output category is up to 73% motorized. Keep in mind that it’s difficult for even cyclists to tell at a glance into which category a given E-ped falls- it’s unrealistic to expect public lands personnel to be able to distinguish level one from three and stock from unmodified. Ultimately, in a country where access is delineated between motorized and nonmotorized use, there’s no question as to where these devices fall. It’s not a reactionary position or an ageist one- recreational resources are and should be managed for uses with which they are compatible.

As a community, we need to reinforce our association in land managers’ and fellow users’ minds with low-impact, muscle-powered activity. That’s the only way that we will maintain the access which we have and what will eventually allow capital-w Wilderness access as appropriate. If you’re tempted by one, great (quiet, low-emission motos will be a great thing) – but for all of our sakes, please keep to trails that have been approved for motorized use.

bearCol
bearCol
7 years ago
Reply to  Dinger

The ironic thing is a skilled rider would school a Moped on the DH because of the weight advantage a mountain bike has over Mopeds.

Personally I can’t imagine wanting a motor to help me to the top but I guess some people don’t really like mountain biking. That’s cool. It’s not for everyone. I have nothing against someone wanting to ride Mopeds instead of mountain bikes assuming they stay on motorized permitted trails. Moab banned them a while ago. Can’t wait to see that trend spread across the whole country. Euro’s can ride mopeds all they want. They’ve always loved Mopeds. Makes sense they would love off road mopeds. Motopeds if you will.

radsportfreund
7 years ago

They do not really ride like Mountainbikes. Ultra heavy at more than 20Kg. No sport, no real mountainbiking.

chasejj
chasejj
7 years ago

If you listen closely you can hear the heads exploding in the elitist MTB community.
To them Ebikes are less desirable than a visit from ISIS to their favorite coffee shop.

Fred
Fred
7 years ago

475mm chainstays and 437mm reach on a Large! Seriously Lapierre you need to shorten those chainstays by at least 25mm and add 50mm of reach! Slackening out the headangle as well would be good too.
Having said that the top of the range do look good.

bearCol
bearCol
7 years ago
Reply to  Fred

I’m assuming the target demographic isn’t riders looking to get gnarly on the downs. Makes sense they would gear the geo for general riding around. Would you really want to ride this thing like you would a modern aggressive AM bike? It doesn’t matter if they keep the weight low, it’s still there and there’s no way it’s going to feel snappy, agile and ready to rip. Add a ten pound weight to your BB and see how well it rides. For me, when gravity takes over is when that weight penalty would be the worst. Just because the motor drags you to the top doesn’t mean you get to rip a mountain bike on the downs. It’s still a moped even when gravity takes over.

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