Review: Euro Road Bikes: Lapierre Xelius 400 FDJ

Lapierre Xelius 400 FDJ – $4,799

Most people won’t have the opportunity to ride a $10,000 dream bike, but Lapierre, a French company founded in 1946, is making its ProTour-level road frames available to average riders.

While you may not get to ride the full team build of the Lapierre-backed Française des Jeux squad, the same frame is available in a Xelius 400 FDJ team replica spec for under $5,000. When you start out with a frame that weighs just 860 grams, you’re bound to get a lightweight road bike, almost regardless of the components attached to it.

Though the Xelius name is new for 2010, it’s the next generation of the X-Lite II monocoque carbon frame the company has had for a few years. The X-Lite was a successful line for the brand, but after getting feedback from its team riders in 2008, the frame was redesigned to address complaints that the frame that wasn’t stiff enough and needed to get lighter.

The 2010 version of the top-end racing frame from Lapierre is the company’s lightest and stiffest offering, fixing the mentioned issues and creating a bike that not only looks like a ProTour ride, but performs like one, as well. A new carbon construction process creates a stronger frame, despite less carbon being used.

The Xelius 400 FDJ is a stiff frame, but it’s comfortable over long distances thanks to some built-in vertical flex. The frame has carbon headset cups, carbon dropouts, a tapered headtube and internal cable routing. The fork is a Ritchey WCS carbon model colour-matched to the stunning team graphics on the frame.

As tested, the Xelius 400 FDJ is spec’d with a full Shimano Ultegra drivetrain with Mavic Ksyrium Equipe wheels and FDJ-edition Hutchison Fusion 2 tires. The build also includes a Ritchey WCS stem, bar and seat post with a Fi’zi:k Pave saddle.

The bike weighs in at 7.4 kg (16.5 lb), which is impressive considering the second-tier drivetrain, but that speaks to the low weight of the new Ultegra lineup. Overall, the Xelius displays its Tour de France heritage. We found steering to be quick and responsive and, although this isn’t a bike designed with criteriums or short circuit races in mind, it would be more than comfortable in any racing situation.

The Xelius 400 FDJ is a great racing platform. It would be a good bike to upgrade to when getting into racing and could grow with you as you get more serious. Throw on some lighter-weight wheels or a Dura-Ace drivetrain and you’ve got a serious racer that would likely barely meet the UCI’s 6.8 kg (15 lb) weight limit.