Originally Posted by
himespau
OK, as long as they're providing the info for people when needed, that's good enough. I didn't know if you were trying to maintain a database and wanted the Ti exemplars as reference points. Mine has the 1996 decals and the EM engraving on the rear dropouts. My mechanic says that the first batch of Ti bikes that Litespeed did for Merckx didn't have the dropout markings, but the 2nd batch did. If that's accurate, that'd date it to late 1996, which is more precise than I really need as being able to find other images from 1996 with the exact same decal set on the internet was enough for me.
Your guesstimate for the age sounds about right. I've got one of those ti EX frames.....
...like yours mine has the EM logo stamped on the stays, which I think are described as 'bullet' stays because of their shape. I love the deep 3d decals too on this model. Mine came as just a frame and fork and I built it up from there. It came with an old Kestral fork alu fork with a carbon wrap and a steel steerer, and so the fork you see above is a Columbus Max one I bought and added ay a later date.
Its been a few years since I contacted Litespeed to get it dated, so don't know if they still do it this way, but then the service was not free. I think I had to pay $10-15 for the info, but all that money went to some fund for injured cyclists or something I think, so it seemed a worthy cause so I stumped up the cash.
The serial numbers are printed very small on the BB shell. Mine is marked with what looks like 2760 2, and according to Litespeed this means it was built in November 1996.