I ordered a Lynskey Backroad frame on July 20. It is due to arrive Monday. They had to build the bike, so that seems pretty quick to me. I posted a bunch of questions in the Bike Mechanics forum. Using that info I ordered all the parts. Initially I was torn between drop bars and flats. Ultimately I settled on flats. I am starting off with a true flat bar and bullhorn bar ends. Handlebar changes are pretty easy if I want to try something else in the future.

I am going with Shimano XTR triple 10 speed cranks. The rest of the drive train will be Shimano XT. I have ordered 2 sets of disc brake wheels. One set is fairly light. I will mount Gatorskin 28's on it. The other wheelset is a heavy duty gravel/touring set that will see Schwalbe Marathon 32s. Hopefully moving back and forth between the two wheelsets won't require a whole lot of brake and dearilleur adjusting. I ordered through Bicycle Wheel Warehouse. They are a small business and don't man the phone. They prefer email contact. The first time I emailed them I didn't get a response. The second time I did. They were fairly responsive in getting me answers to my questions. Sometimes there were several days between my questions and the responses. They built the wheels very quickly once I ordered, though they are not showing as shipped yet. I found an online coupon that knocked over $100 off the price of the wheels.

I am going to install TRP Spyre mechanical discs. I have never wrenched on discs, so that will be a new experience for me. Disc brakes seem to be a point of frustration for our resident hobbyist mechanics, so I am a bit apprehensive about it.

At the present I am planning on going with an ISM PR3.0 saddle. I am using its predecessor on a different bike. It's the best saddle I have used to date.

I ordered my drive train and tires through Blue Sky Cycles. They had a 10% off coupon code. That on top of what I considered to be very good prices. The XTR crankset with BB was $199 after the discount. They shipped quickly. I ordered some of the smaller parts through ebay vendors. The handlebars Abaxo sent were not the ones I ordered. They got me a return shipping label quickly. They are supposed to ship the correct ones immediately after they get the return. We'll see how that goes.

I managed to get the very last steel fork in Lynskey's factory. There will be no more.

About Lynskey. During the exploratory phase and after the purchase I used the "Contact Us" feature on their website. In both cases I got an email back saying they had received my request for info. It is auto generated I am guessing. They never responded to my request for information. The Backroad page on their website is missing or unclear on some of the details someone will need to build a bike. I called them to get answers. One time I spoke with Adam who said he'd have Alex call me. Alex never did. Another time I left a message on Alex's voice mail and he never called me back. On my third call I was able to talk to Alex directly. He was VERY good to deal with. They are a small company, so I understand some delays in getting back with a potential customer. The 4 non-responses was a bit of a disappointment. I can't help but wonder if they don't lose business because of that. I know the frame is going to be fantastic. If everything shows up as I ordered it I'll give Lynskey a passing grade. I really wanted them to be an A+ company.

I'll post some pre, during and post build pics.