In the later part of 2018, the mountain bike industry was impacted by the arrival of a bold new arrival. Utah-based Fezzari Bicycles (now Ari Bikes), a relatively small, direct-to-comsumer brand, swung for the fences with its new La Sal Peak, a 160/150mm travel 29er enduro bike with radically progressive geometry for the time. That bike single-handedly vaulted Fezzari forward and upward on the trajectory that took it to where the brand is today. The first generation La Sal Peak garnered a lot of attention and became very popular. Among those drawn to Fezzari’s quality and pricing, as well as the bike’s amazing performance, was the guy who’d soon become known as MinerBiker. I got my first La Sal Peak in the Fall of 2018, and in the first year put 2,000 miles on it now and put it through its paces on a huge variety of rides on everything from St. George and Hurricane’s rocky mesas to epic desert excursions in the San Rafael Swell, from Moab’s classic gnar to 11,600 ft high in the mountains at Fish Lake, from Ely’s Fears, Tears, and Beers Enduro to winning the pro category at the Eagle Point Enduro, from bike parks to wild wilderness adventures.
After having ridden a lot of bikes from a lot of other brands before getting that bike (Santa Cruz, Evil, Ibis, Transition, and Rocky Mountain, to name a few), I can verify that the first La Sal not only held its own but, in many ways, exceeded the performance of pretty much any other bike I’d ridden. The thing about this bike that suited my riding perfectly and that I absolutely loved is how incredibly all-around capable it was for a long travel bike with aggressive geometry. It pedaled amazingly well and could climb right along with shorter travel, lighter trail and XC bikes, largely thanks to the steep 78-degree seat tube angle. In general, a long travel enduro bike is not ideal for 30 plus mile rides with over 5,000 feet of climbing, but I did several incredible rides like that on the La Sal and thanks to its comfortable pedaling and efficiency, I rarely found myself wanting a different bike under me. When it was time to point this bike downhill, you were in for a treat. It was not an absolute monster truck like some long travel 29ers are, but usually I was the limiting factor, not the bike. The travel was nice and plush but ramped up to take big hits well. It was stable and planted, as a bike with a long wheelbase and slack head angle should be. But like I said it didn’t just monster truck everything. It maintained a good level of playfulness, still let you feel the trail, and was pretty easy to throw around and maneuver. There were times when the long wheelbase was noticeable when trying to maneuver through tight tech, but overall this enduro bike made a pretty awesome aggressive trail bike too, as it maneuvered well and pedaled extremely well, and also had the long travel when things got wild. For my wide variety of riding, I also greatly appreciated the ability to run 27.5-plus tires, as well as fit two water bottles inside the front triangle, which is rare on big travel bikes.
There were a few minor issues that came up with that first generation La Sal, such as some early rocker links that had to be upgraded and shock mount bolts that were easy to break heads off of even at low torque. However, Fezzari took care of those issues with the second year of the bike, which offered new colors, including a black raw carbon that prompted me to retire my original grey La Sal with just under 2,000 miles on it and get the new black frame in early 2020. Over the next 2-1/2 years, that black La Sal got worked hard to the tune of over 3,000 miles, riding everywhere from the Abajo Enduro to Big Sky, Montana, from Moab to Las Vegas, from the high Tushar Mountains to Richfield’s new Pahvant Trails, from the epic Grandview Trail to the San Rafael Swell. Various components came and went, and I added some red vinyl wrap custom accents the frame. That bike’s been retired for a year and a half now, but as I look at that raw black frame hanging on the wall in my garage, I can say that it is probably my overall favorite bike I’ve ever had to this point.
In early 2022, Fezzari released the second generation La Sal Peak. It packs a super enduro amount of rear travel at 170mm, with stock fork options of 170 or 180mm. If that wasn’t enough, Fezzari officially okayed it for running dual crown downhill forks, so it could be built into a park or freeride shredding machine. The frame was completely re-designed with a slacker head angle and much lower stand over height, as well as many other improvements. But amazingly it was also said that this new beast of a bike could pedal and climb as well, if not even a little better, than the first generation La Sal. I’ll admit when I first heard that I was pretty skeptical. It was hard to imagine that adding 20mm more travel wouldn’t have some negative effect on it’s climbing and pedaling ability. So when Fezzari offered me the opportunity to bring a demo La Sal home and test it out on my own trails and my type of riding, I jumped at the chance to see what this bike could really do. I knew it would be amazing on the descents, although I wasn’t quite sure what to expect since it would be the longest travel bike I had ever ridden. My main question was could this thing really climb and pedal as well as my old La Sal? Could it be the main full suspension bike for someone like me who rarely shuttles anything and often pedals long distances with thousands of feet of elevation gain to get to rough backcountry descents that were never built with bikes in mind? Could this bike do a normal trail ride or twist and turn and punch through tech without feeling big, slow, and cumbersome? Trying to keep as open minded and free of pre-conceptions as possible, I brought this super bike home and planned how I was going to test it out as thoroughly as I could.
By the time I was 5 minutes into the first ride on the Richfield trails, I was already thinking that the claims about how this bike could climb might actually be true. The new La Sal really was climbing trails just as well as my old La Sal had dozens of times. Flowy smooth trail, switchbacks, and a handful of techy and steep sections all rolled away under this big bike’s wheels as it steadily cruised upward. Now it’s certainly no XC or shorter travel trail bike on the climbs, but for what it is, I was blown away by how well it handled over 2000 ft of elevation gain on that first ride. I was especially impressed how responsive the bike was to power input. There was no feeling of the long travel trying to absorb the energy I applied to the pedals. Instead it efficiently transferred the energy through to the wheel and drove onward and upward. If anything, the pedaling platform felt a bit more efficient than the old La Sal and even more than some other bikes I’ve ridden with much shorter rear travel. Then I pointed the bike downhill. The first bit was flowy and fairly smooth, and the bike just cruised along almost lazily. Then came the first rock garden with a series of fast chucky drops, and it flew down them so composed and smooth that I could hardly believe what I just felt. On down we went, with the bike railing turns, popping quite happily into the air, demolishing rock gardens with ease, flying off drops with silky smoothness, and begging me to let go of the brakes more so it could go faster. On a few occasions I knew a spot was coming that was a big harsh hit, and I’d brace for impact, only to be left wondering, “wait was that it?” as the harshness never came. It was as incredible or more than I expected a bike like this to be. There were times when the descent smoothed out for a bit and the bike almost seemed bored as it cruised along, waiting for its next chance to punish a rock for getting in its way. That said, it felt great on the smooth and flowy stuff too, pumping and rolling happily along.
After that first ride, I wanted to really see what it could climb to make sure I wasn’t just in the new bike honeymoon phase where everything seems perfect. A 3,000 ft in only about 6 miles steep grinding road climb to a wild sketchy old horse trail descent seemed like a good testing ground. While climbing West Willow Creek, which I’ve done many times on at least four different bikes, the new La Sal once again felt like it was pedaling along with the efficiency of a much shorter travel bike. I wasn’t pushing hard and just climbed at the pace my body and the bike felt like they wanted to go. Arriving at the top, I was impressed by how well the bike had done, and I then looked forward to the descent down Red Canyon. The big bike handled the tight twisting old horse and hiking trail with its many rocky wash crossings with ease. It actually felt like it turned around the couple very tight steep switchbacks easier than my old La Sal, which I attribute to my being on a size medium new La Sal vs my size large old one, so the wheelbase is slightly shorter. After making easy work of the Red Canyon descent, I synced my Strava at the end of the ride and was absolutely blown away to see that I had got my best time up the West Willow Creek climb! If someone had told me before, during, or even after getting to the top that I would PR that tough road climb on a 170mm travel enduro bike, I’d have said they were crazy! That one ride pretty decisively answered my question of does this bike climb as well or better than my old one. Short answer, yes it does. And the other rides I’ve done on it, as well as riding it back-to-back with my old La Sal, only confirmed that. And of course it does what these modern “super enduro” bikes we’re seeing these days do on the descents. From bike parks to race stages to techy rock smashing to backcountry epic descents, this big machine loves to point downhill.
So if this bike can descend almost like a small DH bike, yet can still handle pedal and climb well enough to earn those descents the proper way, should just anyone buy this big of a bike? If your riding would not be utilizing at least close to the full capability of this bike on a somewhat regular basis, I don’t see the point in getting a bike this big. As good as the La Sal is, there’s no denying that a shorter travel bike like the Delano Peak or Signal Peak will be even more efficient, lighter weight, more responsive and playful, and better for climbing and the vast majority of trail riding. There is no point in having 170mm of travel if your riding is such that you’ll never actually use it fully, especially when there will always be at least some penalty to be paid as far as efficiency and weight are concerned. I’m one who would prefer to be overbiked than underbiked in most cases, but it always makes me wonder when I see someone riding a longer travel bike without ever actually using the whole travel, and being too overbiked all the time is not a good thing in my opinion. That said, if the riding you do on it would utilize the full capability of this bike at least a regular portion of the time, I do think it is all-round capable enough to justify having it. Or obviously if you already have a shorter travel bike and are just looking for add big hitter, then this bike is definitely up your alley. After all the test rides I did on it, I’ve concluded that the new La Sal could be my main full suspension, replacing my old La Sal. Obviously it descends amazingly, my riding would make use of the full travel regularly enough to justify having it, and it pedals and climbs well enough to handle the huge variety of riding that I would do on it. I debated back and forth for a while on, if I were to replace my old La Sal, would I do it with the new La Sal or with a long-shocked Delano? (In a perfect world, I’d have the stock mid travel Delano and the new La Sal but since when is this world perfect). For a lot of my riding, I think the Delano would be slightly better and the Delano can hold two water bottle cages, which the new La Sal cannot, which is a point of consideration for me. But as I rode the new La Sal more, my thought now is that having that extra travel for the say 20% of the time I’d actually use it all would be more beneficial to me and my riding than the marginal gains the Delano would provide at the other end of the spectrum over the La Sal. But that’s me and my riding, and for the majority of average riders, I do not think a bike like this makes sense. Overall I was seriously blown away and impressed with the new La Sal Peak, and my faithful old black La Sal got replaced in the summer of 2022!
Since that time, the new super enduro La Sal has proven itself to be incredibly capable and versitile for such a big bike. It’s been all around from Richfield to Grand Targhee, from Las Vegas to Colorado’s Mt. Elbert, and many more, with no sign of stopping any time soon! Thanks for reading and keep digging up new places to ride and aventure in the great outdoors, under your own power is always the best!
-MinerBiker