Finally got my Litespeed T6 back from a LBS for a rivnut repair. I bought the bike off ebay from a seller who claimed he bought the bike 6 months ago and road it twice. While I couldn't verify that for sure, the bike did look mint when I got it. I am not sure if I over tightened or cross threaded the rivnut myself or it was just like that but the seller refunded me the repair cost. From what I can tell the only thing the original owner changed was the tape which he switched to white and switched the black and red Prologo saddle to a black and white one. The bike came with come metal cages and I added my Topeak saddle bag, QuadLock mount, and some cheap platform pedals off Amazon that match the bikes black and white theme. Personally I am not a huge fan of the white tape and it will probably be the first thing I change. While I prefer this generations logos over the older yellow Litespeed ones I still think the logos look cheap and I wish there were just black or just looked more premium.
My last bike was a 2017 Scott Addict 20 Disc and on paper it was an awesome bike, Shimano Ultegra groupset, hydraulic disc brakes, 28mm tires, 18.2lbs stock, it was fast and killed hills, but after a crash and another small spill I became paranoid about every scratch or chip on the bike. The last straw was when I found quarter inch of paint missing from the the chain stay which was caused from the chain popping off after a crash and getting jammed between the metal chain plate. I could never quite tell if the chain damaged the carbon fibers or if it was cracked, or if it was totally fine. Not wanting to worry as much I sold the bike to someone while disclosing the damage, I guess to them the damage wasn't a big deal but that same guy hauled bike away on a car bike rack that used straps and he didn't secure the front wheel. I tried telling him to not clamp carbon and to find something to tie down the from wheel from moving and bashing into his car, but they didn't seem to care.
So downgrading to 105 from Ultegra hasn't been a problem, quite frankly 105 is so close to Ultegra I couldn't even notice most of the time while riding. Aesthetically 105 isn't as fancy and uses reinforced fiberglass instead of carbon fiber, however while 105 does weigh more than Ultegra I couldn't really notice any weight difference since the Litspeed T6 uses rim brakes while the Scott Adict 20 has discs. I will say the performance difference between rim brakes and hydraulic disc brakes is very noticeable. Obviously any high end bike with hydraulic disc brakes costs hundreds more than a rim brake version, maintaining hydraulics is more complicated and costly, and replacing them is more money as well. By no means was my Scott Addict slammed and was left stock however geometry wise it was considered by Scott as race oriented bike while the Litespeed T6 was endurance focused. I am not trying oversell the titanium folklore but a Ti frame simply is smoother than any carbon frame I have ever ridden. Bumps and imperfections that would have jolted me and stung my wrists on carbon were smooth on Ti while being stiff and by no means floaty like steel. Simply the T6 with 25mm tires rides smoother than my Addict with 28mm tires while being roughly the same speed. I will say there is some toe tap on the Litespeed while the Scott didn't have that. I am 5'5' and have a 29" stand over and I think the T6 in a size small fits great. For Scott I normally ride a 49cm XS and that bike fit me very well too.
While some of these things are subjective carbon without a doubt to me is sexier since you get more aero shapes, have internal cable routing, and can be painted to any desire. I will say raw Titanium is pretty awesome looking though and having the ability to lightly polish out light scratches is huge. Carbon is a very strong and light material but simply is not a great crash resilient material and damage and defects sometimes can be hidden by paint, so detecting cracks can be very difficult compared to raw metal frames. Carbon can be very stiff and is great for racing but for a great combination of speed, comfort, reliability, and low maintenance I think Ti is king. Overall the T6 is a great bike and stock it weighted 18.5lbs which was only .3lbs heavier than a stock Addict 20 Disc. The thing I miss the most are the disc brakes but more than likely my next bike will be a Litespeed with dics. Titanium is by no means cheap and frankly isn't lighter than carbon so for many people it's a hard sell but after going to Ti I am hooked and I am not sure if I could ever bike a carbon bike again unless it was just for racing.
