Fezzari La Sal Peak - Final Review
According to Strava, I've put about 56 miles on the Fezzari La Sal Peak (initial review here). I've had the chance to try it out twice at Green Mountain (a popular Denver trail system) as well as Maryland Mountain (with the relatively new downhill-only mountain bike trail, Fast Money). These are some of my favorite trails in the area, and Fast Money is the trail that inspired me to get a full suspension bike in the first place.
tl;dr: I'm returning the bike.
Marketing Claims
This is my main beef with the Fezzari, and it came out in my initial unboxing review.
Water Bottles
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| 2 water bottles |
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| "Holds Two Bottles" again without disclaimer |
Almost all reviews talk up "two water bottles," as well. Pinkbike's review says "Two water bottle cages will fit inside the front triangle, and there are additional mounting bolts on the underside of the downtube." Bikemag.com says "So it’s no wonder that we were surprised when we threw a leg over the La Sal Peak and found ourselves aboard a progressively shaped bike with superlative suspension and the ability to fit not one, but two water bottles inside the front triangle of its full-carbon frame."
"Two water bottles! Two water bottles!" Doing your research on the bike, you may find it funny that they even put this in the FAQ.
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| Pop Quiz! How many water bottle cages will it hold? Were you paying attention? |
When you click on it to open the answer, though, you get this:
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| Lol hope you're tall enough to get two water bottles |
So the small and medium frames are just out of luck. This is literally buried on the page - it's the last thing on the page before the footer, and the text literally isn't there for searching until you open the question up.
Hell, even Google is mistaken here:
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| Sorry buddy, I was tricked too. |
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| The 26oz bottle interferes with the shock, and the two bottles obviously interfere with each other |
Being promised ~44-52oz of hydration and actually receiving (stock) 22oz of hydration really sucks. I'm really not exaggerating when I say that this was a killer feature of the bike for me - I do not like wearing a pack (even a hip pack) and being able to do extended rides without needing one was a huge deal.
23 Point Fit Process and Customization
I don't know, maybe it isn't fair to rag on Fezzari about this. It's COVID times, after all, and part availability is really messed up. But still, you're not saying "Hey we can't do our custom fit process right now, but we're getting stock bikes out the door ASAP, so whatever." The marketing talk is all about how they'll definitely be taking all your measurements into account for the components on the bike.
As far as I can tell, they didn't do any of that with me. They took my measurements and recommended a size Large. I requested a Medium instead, since I've had trouble fitting larger bikes. I also requested 165mm cranks. They didn't have 165mm cranks (170mm at smallest), but were fine shipping the Medium to me. I had my bike that weekend.
I'd guessed they'd put a longer stem on and wider bars to account for the difference, but nope - they put a 40mm stem and 780mm bars with a modest 15mm rise. They were right - it did feel a bit small. Reviewing my geometry charts and spreadsheets, the La Sal Peak runs a bit small, so a Large is about the same numbers as a Ripmo in Medium.
I put a 60mm stem and 800mm bars with a 30mm rise, and it felt like a good fit, though I'm still getting a bit of knee knock when pedaling. Shorter cranks would help with that. Alas.
They also took my weight numbers, and said they'd use that to tune the suspension. I'm not sure they did. The fork and shock are not setup right for the numbers I gave them - I've got too little air in the shock and too much air in the fork. I didn't figure that out until my last test ride, and it may be better to get this tuned right before actually returning it, but getting a proper tune is definitely one of the reasons you'd want to buy from a local bike shop.
2.6" Tire Clearance
I haven't tested this directly, but I seriously doubt that you can safely run a 2.6" tire on this bike. It comes stock with a 2.4" Maxxis Dissector tire on an i29 Stan's Flow EX3 rim, and there's barely any clearance.
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| It's super tight with a 2.4" - can a 2.6" really safely fit? |
Bike companies claiming amazing tire clearances has always been a bit dicey. The Salsa Cutthroat claims to accept a 2.4" tire in the rear, but it barely clears a true 2.25" tire. Maxxis always over-reports their tire size, and even the Maxxis 2.4" barely fits.
Rear Shock ???
The website lists a RockShox Super Deluxe RC3 for the bike, but it came with a Super Deluxe Select+. It is difficult to identify what exactly is different here, but the RC3 is typically listed as higher than the Select+, and is supposed to come with three modes - lockout, pedal, open. The shock on the bike only has open/closed. This is a step down in quality, which is disappointing to see. Obviously COVID blah blah blah but if you're going to downgrade the bike, say so.
Beyond Expectations - The Bike Itself
Alright, that's enough about how the marketing oversells the bike. So what if it can't clear two bottles - no long travel bikes do, and many can't even clear one. So what if it can't do 2.6" rubber - 2.4" is fine. So what if it isn't customized to my body - I didn't pay for a fitting, what do I expect?
How is the bike itself?
a e s t h e t i c s
Looks are always subjective, but I like the way the bike looks.
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| boring living room picture |
The bike has an understated black/silver look going on, which looks great with whatever kit you happen to have on. The kink in the top tube is polarizing, but I don't mind it. The SRAM componentry all has neat oil slick finish on the bolts, which looks fantastic. Aesthetically, I really like the bike.
Build Kit + Price
The La Sal Peak Elite comes in at $4,699 before tax+shipping, and it's just absurdly well equipped. The Canyon Spectral (as a consumer-direct bike) and the Ibis Ripmo (as a store bike) are the competitors I care about, and they aren't anywhere close.
The Elite build is full GX - there's no NX anywhere on this bike. The fork is the Lyrik Ultimate, which kicks ass. The shock is also supposed to be very good (but I did not receive the advertised shock).
The Ripmo's NGX build is not full GX and it costs $900 more. The Deore build is $600 more. If you look at the aluminum Ripmo AF, then you can get Shimano SLX for about $400 less - I'd personally prefer Shimano over SRAM, but SLX is somewhere between NX and GX in my experience. Ibis offers these bikes with DVO suspension, which has less name brand recognition than RockShox or Fox, but is reportedly quite good. Is it Ultimate good? I don't know!
Canyon comes closer, offering an XT build kit for $500 more, and an NX Eagle build kit for $400 less. But in both of these cases, the suspension is much lower quality.
So the Fezzari simply kicks ass on this point. It's delivering an incredible component spec for the price.
The Ride
Alright, that's enough about shit that doesn't matter. Let's talk about how the bike actually rides. But before we jump into my opinions, let's talk about my perspective and comparison points. tl;dr: I don't have much!
I got a Salsa Mukluk and used that as a mountain/fat/adventure/bikepacking bike. I liked it a lot, and it was a great complement to my gravel bike. Even with a suspension fork, I could tell it wasn't what I really wanted.
I owned a Jamis Portal and I hated it. It sucked to climb, and it wasn't very good at rowdy descents. I sold it after ~200 miles of nerve pain and annoyance. That was my first full suspension bike, and my first proper mountain bike. I hated it so much I thought I just didn't like mountain biking.
Then I got a Salsa Woodsmoke (on an insanely good deal). I love it and it rules. I figured out a fit that works great, and it's now my favorite bike. I tried it out on the Fast Money trail, and that convinced me I needed a full suspension bike.
I tried the Ibis Ripmo in Fruita for a weekend and really loved it. It climbed much better than the Jamis, and was taller and more comfortable to ride for extended periods of time.
And then I got the Fezzari. I do think it's important to note that the Fezzari was probably not tuned at all to my weight, and a good suspension tune may dramatically improve my idea of how it rides.
Climbing
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| the sole action shot i have on the bike (yes i am a dirt roadie) |
The bike climbs a lot better than I would expect a bike to climb. With the shock in the lockout mode, it is efficient enough. It's no where near as efficient as my Woodsmoke, but the extra traction and confidence from a rear suspension allows me to set PRs even on ascents, provided they've got enough technical difficulty to make it worthwhile.
The bike does not climb better than the Ripmo. I never locked out the shock on the Ripmo, and the climbing was more efficient in the Ripmo than the La Sal Peak locked out. The Ripmo's suspension was far more useful for clearing technical climbs, while the La Sal Peak would sag into obstacles, resulting in chainring and pedal strikes relatively often.
The La Sal Peak does climb much better than the Jamis Portal did, despite having far more suspension travel on tap. So it's not a bad climber by any means. It just can't come close to the Ripmo - though that is reportedly one of the best climbing bikes available, beaten only by the far more expensive Yeti.
Flowy Rides
I love flow. It may be my favorite part of riding a bike. The La Sal Peak is okay on flow, but it doesn't seem to want to carry speed on level terrain all that well. It seems that the suspension is just eager to gobble up anything in the terrain, and that makes it feel significantly less fast than either the Ripmo or the Woodsmoke.
When I think about taking the Fezzari out to Buffalo Creek (flow heaven), I just feel bogged down - I'd clearly prefer the Woodsmoke for that area. The Ripmo feels more like a conflict - I'd have the same amount of fun as the Woodsmoke, but a different kind of fun. The Fezzari would be a drag for almost all of it.
The Ripmo would immediately punch forward with some gas, while the Fezzari takes a bit longer to really get going. Neither are as punchy or good at acceleration as the Woodsmoke, but it's a hardtail, so what do you expect.
What you've been waiting for - The Descent
The Fezzari comes with 170mm of front suspension, 10mm more than the 160mm of the Ripmo and a whopping 50mm more than the 120mm SID on my Woodsmoke. So clearly it descends significantly better, right?
Well, yeah, it descends better than the Woodsmoke. No surprise there. But it doesn't feel nearly as confident while descending as the Ripmo did. The Ripmo felt like rails, it never felt like it was going to wash out or crash or lose traction, and it always felt planted. The Fezzari by comparison feels sketchy sometimes. I don't mind occasionally losing traction - especially in dry and dusty Colorado - but I never had that feeling on the Ripmo.
Playful Riding
The Woodsmoke is the king of playful riding. Short chainstays and 27.5+ tires make it more fun than is really reasonable.
Likewise, the Ripmo is a surprisingly fun time. The bike just wants to leap into the air.
Unfortunately, the Fezzari just doesn't have that same pop, or responsiveness. It feels sluggish and heavy, despite being lighter than the Ripmo that I tested.
Verdict
Well, you read the tl;dr - I'm returning the Fezzari.
The bike is fantastic, and the price point is exceptionally good. Given a good suspension setup, I bet you could fix a lot of the problems I'm mentioning above in the riding notes.
However, the Fezzari sales process claims to obviate the need for this - they were supposed to fit the bike to me (they did not). They were supposed to tune the bike for me (they did not). They were supposed to obviate the need for the local bike shop, and that's why they can offer such a great price. But ultimately, they didn't deliver on this promise.
If the bike were considerably and obviously better at descending than the Ripmo, then the La Sal Peak would be a worthwhile choice. Unfortunately, my testing didn't show this. Even then, if I'm going to have thousands of dollars of my bike budget tied up in a full suspension rig, it needs to be fun on my favorite trails, not just the handful of downhill-only trails that are close enough to Denver to do on a weekend.
I'll be buying a Ripmo from my local bike shop, and they'll help me get setup and happy on it, and the bike will ride great. If I have a warranty concern, they'll handle it for me. And if I run into any other problems, they'll be right there to help.
The Ripmo Deore build, at $5,299, is going to cost $600 more. However, I prefer Shimano - so getting the 165mm Shimano cranks will be easier, and plugging in the nicer XT 12 speed shifter will also be very easy.
Or, I can get the Ripmo AF SLX build and invest in some nice carbon wheels. We'll see what's available.
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