About Lapierre

The name Lapierre is synonymous with cycling tradition in France. A surname that gives its name, Cycles Lapierre, to one of the European brands with a deep history, with more than seventy years of work from the cradle of modern cycling. Despite its family roots, Cycles Lapierre anticipated phenomena before they emerged. In fact, in the 1980s, it was one of the first brands to detect the new phenomenon that was coming with the emergence of mountain biking. With this advance in time, it had more time and scope to innovate in its mountain bike models, incorporating highly evolved suspension systems that balanced the bike at the ideal point of comfort and performance. This allowed it to become a market leader quickly.
One of Lapierre's milestones came in 2001, when the company launched its X-Control MTB model. This bike featured an innovative suspension system called FPS with an upright shock absorber. That year, Jerome Chiotti won the French Cross Country Championship on a Lapierre X-Control, which was a milestone for a rear suspension bike. The following year the brand decided to extend its presence in the world of competition by sponsoring the La Française des Jeux team.
by sponsoring the La Française des Jeux team, which meant nothing less than introducing Lapierre bikes to the Tour de France. Bradley McGee's victory in the individual time trial World Cup helped to reinforce Lapierre's image as a builder of high-performance bikes. Lapierre would become the bike of many of the big French names of the world's elite in all disciplines. Podium finishes in MTB competitions or the World Cup won by Bradley McGee were joined by the successes of Francis Mourey in cyclo-cross and Greg Doucende and Loic Bruni in downhill. Another great French cyclist, Jean Christophe Péraud, won the European cross-country championship for Cycles Lapierre in 2005. And Pauline Ferrand-Prévot won the World Cup at the age of 19. Sabrina Enaux (French XC Marathon champion) and triathlete Audrey Cleau (runner-up in the long-distance triathlon World Cup) are other female athletes who have achieved success on a Lapierre bike.
One of the special features of the bikes that leave Lapierre's Dijon factory is the manual assembly process. Each employee who assembles the bicycles fills in an assembly sheet which allows traceability of how each bicycle has been assembled. This is a common practice in the automotive industry in order to permanently control the quality of this stage of production. In 2006, to coincide with the company's 60th anniversary, Lapierre presented a new innovation. It was a folding travel MTB. It also became the first manufacturer to offer its customers the possibility of configuring a road bike à la carte via its website, selecting the different components and assemblies in a customised way. In recent years Lapierre has developed new lines aimed at improving the suspension of its mountain bikes, such as the alliance with RockShox in 2012 which gave birth to the e:i Shock system. This electronic shock absorber detects uneven terrain and, depending on the rider's pedalling cadence, automatically adjusts the suspension in milliseconds. Another of Lapierre's innovative lines of business is the development of electric bikes through its Overvolt range.