Fezzari La Sal Peak Initial Unboxing Review

I took my Salsa Woodsmoke out to the Maryland Mountain trail system, and even with the 27.5+ tires, I could tell I was underbiked, and it was making the whole experience harder than it needed to be. This inspired me to start looking at full suspension mountain bikes, with a wary eye towards geometry numbers.

You see, I'd owned a 2019 Jamis Portal A2 before. It was awful. It was slow and uninspiring going uphill or on the flats, and it wasn't terribly confidence inspiring on the descents. The long reach and slack seat tube angle gave me nerve pain in the hands, even with ergo grips, 50mm riser bars, and a 35mm stem. The long wheelbase made it hard to steer and corner.

I hated it, and decided that I must hate mountain bikes in general.

Then I got on the Woodsmoke, which I loved riding, and that changed everything. The bike was comfortable, efficient, and fast. It was far more fun on climbs and descents, and the shorter chainstays really helped with cornering. Setup as a comfort/touring/XC/bikepacking rig, it really shines - it's perfect in the role.

However, a "comfort/touring/XC/bikepacking" rig isn't really suitable for the mountain bike trails in Colorado. We've got so much fun trail and enduro-style riding that I consistently feel the need for a more capable bike. I've learned a lot more about bike geometry and fit, and realized that a bigger travel bike with a steeper seat tube angle would have solved a lot of the problems I experienced.

I began by looking at the OutdoorGearLab's Best Trail Mountain Bikes of 2021 review set, which confidently listed the Ripmo as the best overall bike. The Fezzari Delano Peak was listed as the best budget pick, and I was intrigued. The travel was a bit shorter than I wanted. I clicked through to their website and saw the La Sal Peak - more travel! and the steepest seat tube angle I've ever seen! Perfection.

I combed the internet for reviews, and they're all pretty positive. Lots of folks love them. The only common negative theme was "I'd rather have the Delano Peak," but I've got the Woodsmoke to cover my faster riding. And the 30 day ride-and-return policy is confidence inspiring - even local bike shops won't take a return after a single trail ride, and it's nearly impossible to find a demo or rental program in Denver.

I placed an order for the GX Eagle build, and it arrived a week later. I'd requested 165mm cranks and Shimano brakes - they were unable to do the Shimano brakes (lead time is 6-7 months), but they were able to put 170mm cranks (instead of the 175mm they'd usually spec). They advised a size Large, but based on my perennial trouble with bikes that are too big, we agreed on a Medium as an appropriate fit.

Over the weekend, I rented an Ibis Ripmo in Medium out of Fruita. I spent a lot of time at the Kokopelli Trail System. It was everything I hoped for - comfortable, fun, and didn't feel like a pig going up hill. Climbing definitely wasn't the point of the experience, and the Woodsmoke would have been nicer on all the connecting doubletrack, but the Ripmo absolutely crushed it on technical climbs and any descents. So, while reviewing the La Sal Peak, I'll be using three main points of comparison: Jamis Portal, Salsa Woodsmoke, and Ibis Ripmo.

The bike looks great and feels awesome right out of the box. In my initial test ride around the neighborhood (including a very short, steep dirt descent at the neighborhood park), it feels promising. Snappy going up, surprisingly efficient while pedaling, and quite confident going down.

The big deal with Fezzari is how cheap their bikes are. The La Sal Peak that I ordered costs $4,699 and comes with a full GX Eagle build kit, nice Stan's EX3 wheelset, and a top-of-the-line RockShox suspension. At this price point, you can get the Ibis Ripmo AF in GX Eagle kit (with DVO suspension), or you pay another $600 for the carbon fiber Ripmo in a Deore build (with top-grade Fox suspension). $1000 over the Fezzari gets you the NX/GX.

Oh, yeah, and room for two bottle cages. Unfortunately, it's only room for two cages - you can't fit two bottles in the medium frame. The website marketing is pretty intensely "hell yeah two bottle cages were a core design constraint." It's mentioned multiple times, "two bottle cages!" Then at the bottom of the page, there's an FAQ - "How many bottles can I put on the frame?" If this were a pop quiz in class, you'd say "two" - it's obvious right! But no, it's just one on Small and Medium frames. Two bottle cages only works on the Large and XL frames. There's interference between the bottom of the downtube bottle and the middle of the seattube bottle.

What's especially frustrating is that you can't fit a 26oz Purist bottle in either, or a 22oz insulated Camelback Podium in either spot on the Medium. The only bottle that fits is my tiny 20oz bottle. If the downtube bottle cage bolts were moved down slightly, then you could easily fit a 26oz bottle in there. But it seems like the cage mounts were just shrunk down from the large frame, without any thought to how that would work - resulting in "only one bottle, sorry," and it's not even a full size bottle.

Well, the irritation with the bottles aside, let's give it a spin. I went out to Green Mountain in Denver to try it out. I went up Box-o-rocks, circled the Summit Loop Trail, and finally descended Rooney. The bike climbs remarkably well. I set a PR on the ascent, taking off 45s on a 2 mile climb with 608ft of elevation gain. That previous run was on the Woodsmoke, and before I'd lost a lot of fitness this year.

I don't have any comparison data on the flowy Summit Loop Trail, because I went the other way than I usually do. It was fun and capable. I kinda figured out the HSC and LSC knobs. Then the ride was much smoother and more fun.

Descending Rooney is always annoying. Despite being the most fun descent on the mountain, it's also apparently the most fun ascent. So a PR on Rooney really just means that you didn't have to stop for any climbers. The descent was a ton of fun, though I could definitely tell the bike was more powerful than I needed by a good bit. I ended up washing out and crashing on a dusty section.

I noticed a few times that I'd pedal strike or hit the bottom bracket when I wasn't expecting to. The bottom bracket is certainly a lot lower than the Woodsmoke.

Evidently, my bike had a QC and manufacturing issue. There are supposed to be three bottle cage bolts, as well as a hole for routing a Fox Live Valve. But it looks like the Fox Live Valve hole and the bottle cage bolt were swapped, meaning that you can't use a 3-bolt carrier or put a cage in the lower spot. The cage in the lower spot would work great for a full size water bottle. We'll see how Fezzari handles this.