Problem with Lapierre EI system

Richtea42

Just a quick warning to be careful of Lapierre's fancy smancy EI system.
Mine refused to work properly from the start and it has taken no less than three months to get it sorted.
The process wasn't helped by the fact I bought the bike off Wheelies Direct who are a nightmare when it comes to aftersales - I mean a complete nightmare.
Evans ended up dealing with the distributors and fixing it. Now I'm chasing Wheelies for the cost.
My learnings would be, go for a simple and burley bike - given it's for riding on mountains.
Avoid places like Wheelies who are as far from a proper bike shop as you can get. Again, the chances of something going wrong if you ride your bike on rough terrain are high so make sure you buy it from a shop that has the will to sort out problems.
Rant over - going to enjoy riding it in the Lakes on sunday.
Cheers Rich

paul.skibum

Never thought that electric suspension was a sensible idea - unnecessary complication of the process of riding a bike and guaranteed to go wrong leading to expensive repairs.

And Wheelies? I thought they were more of an insurance replacement supplier rather than somewhere to actually buy bikes if you are spending your own cash.

Glad its sorted, now flog it before it goes wrong again.

rockmonkeysc

I really don't like the idea of electronics on a bike designed to be used in fairly harsh conditions.

Festerfeet

Glad to hear you got it sorted in the end. I have the same system on my Ghost and touch wood it has been trouble free despite what it gets put through.

Did you find out what the problem was and how it was fixed?
The reason I ask is that there are no service agents in my part of the world so my choice when it does go wrong (and it will eventually) is find a fix myself or just strip all out and do without.

Richtea42

i'm tempted to flog it as suggested.
I did my research as we were replacing three bikes on insurance, all 2k to 3k. Got Evans to build up and tested a couple. I thought the Norco Sight carbon 650b was spot on. Simple and burly. I just let ego get the better of me and didn't buy it when Evans refused to give me any discount for buying the three bikes. Wifey then pushed me towards Wheelies and tempting discounts. My mistake. I'm going to try and learn to love it in the alps in a couple of weeks time. Had a Zesty before and it was a good bike. This 314 is quite heavy but maybe just need time to learn to love it. It certainly goes down hill better than I do.
Maybe Lapierre are a bit like Citroen - they love making clever tech things that no-one actually wants.
The problem with the bike was where the battery connector attached into the frame. That needed stripping out, damaging the bottom bracket and then a new one supplied by the distributor was fitted. Not a DIY job in my garage.

Long_Time_Lurker

I have an issue with bespoke suspension systems and will avoid them like the plague. To me that just means more maintenance and higher servicing costs.
Remote lock-out or a CTD switch is more than adequate.

Festerfeet

Richtea42 wrote:

i'm tempted to flog it as suggested.
I did my research as we were replacing three bikes on insurance, all 2k to 3k. Got Evans to build up and tested a couple. I thought the Norco Sight carbon 650b was spot on. Simple and burly. I just let ego get the better of me and didn't buy it when Evans refused to give me any discount for buying the three bikes. Wifey then pushed me towards Wheelies and tempting discounts. My mistake. I'm going to try and learn to love it in the alps in a couple of weeks time. Had a Zesty before and it was a good bike. This 314 is quite heavy but maybe just need time to learn to love it. It certainly goes down hill better than I do.
Maybe Lapierre are a bit like Citroen - they love making clever tech things that no-one actually wants.
The problem with the bike was where the battery connector attached into the frame. That needed stripping out, damaging the bottom bracket and then a new one supplied by the distributor was fitted. Not a DIY job in my garage.

Sounds like a simple(ish) job was botched by the service agent, there is a sensor which wraps around the bb but it was a connector on the battery unit, they must have 'yanked' it to knacker the sensor or the bb, as this is connected to the battery internally but there is a fair bit of slack (on mine anyway).

The difference is for me is I am really pleased with my bike as is. Having taken my bike away for weekend (and leaving the battery on the charger at home like an idiot) I had to do without the E:i system. I just switched the shock into trail setting manually and left it there. I think the system is a nice to have and is effective but I accepted that it would be harder to service and will just strip it out when it fails and I can't do anything with it. That will drop the weight by 6/700 grams and I will still have a bike I really enjoy.

Maybe the Zesty just isn't the right bike for you.

stubs

I think electronic suspension and gears will come to be common eventually but like all new technology dont be an early adopter. Let some other poor sod be the unpaid development tester.