Lapierre Xelius 2019 | Improved
Since its creation in 2013, our Xelius has never stopped evolving, becoming the flagship model of our road bike range. This is a bike capable of being champion of France several times in the sprint or winning mountain stages in the hands of the best riders.
We have nourished ourselves on this DNA to design and improve this new version. While maintaining its iconic design, we have worked in the minutest detail so that it can better support riders on every demanding course.
KEEP THE ESSENTIALS, ELIMINATE THE SUPERFLUOUS
Our belief: a typical mountain bike should not only be an excellent climber. This would ignore the requirements regarding long descents and the importance of inclines on hilly roads. Based on this premise, we have taken great care with the details of this new generation of Xelius: to be an excellent climber, to be more aggressive in
downhill curves and to have extraordinary climbing ability and, why not, win the sprint!
All the differences come down to the details of the development synergy with the Groupama-FDJ cycling team. Never has a brand gone so far in working with a team to develop the best product.
WEIGHT IMPROVEMENT / STIFFNESS
We started by trying to loose weight. Thanks to the use of five different UD carbon fibres - from HR 24T fibre of THM 80T fibre - and our new manufacturing process, we have managed to save as much as 10%, a gain of 80 g over the bare frame compared to the first generation Xelius SL.
While maintaining the same stiffness levels as the previous frame, which fully satisfied the riders of the Groupama-FDJ and customers, we simply improved the stiffness/weight ratio of the bike to have the ideal compromise: more character without being too exclusive in terms of stiffness.
NEW CONSTRUCTION TECHNIQUE
We have improved the manufacturing process in several aspects. Some are invisible but very important for improving performance. We have retained the monocoque construction of the front triangle, yet we have chosen a new manufacturing process for the entire frame for the sole purpose of improving the bike’s performance.
The 300 or so UD carbon folds and parts that make up our new Xelius SL frame are arranged around a new latex mandrel before passing through the mould.
This first phase of construction guarantees better application and precision in the arrangement of the tissues and the folds of carbon around the mandrel. The perfectly smooth surface of the latex mandrel provides a more constant pressure on all parts of the frame. This reduces the amount of excess resin and residual resin folds inside the frame for a higher quality of manufacture and weight loss.
ALWAYS MORE AERO
Our collaboration with the Groupama-FDJ cycling team and our wind tunnel tests allowed us to optimise the profile of the tubes to improve aerodynamics. Inspired by the NACA and KAMMTAIL aerodynamic profiles of our aero road model, the Aircode SL, the new Xelius SL is designed to be faster on downhill runs.
The aerodynamics also comes down to the finer details, such as the semi-integration of the upper bearing cover of the headset, the integration of tangent pad saddle clamp in the upper tube and in the realigning of the cable entries on the upper part of the top tube.
Thanks to the 1.5-inch lower bearing race and the fork’s aerodynamic profile, it gains precision in fast bends with a more stable and precise handling.
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