I finally got it today. It came available last August, I thought about it since October, told the seller I was interested in January, began making payments in April, and today the seller dropped it off.


It's a 1996 Litespeed Classic frame with a Time carbon fork.

The seller is a guy in my club who has had to switch to recumbents. The Litespeed was the last of his DFs. He was as interested in finding it a good home as I was in giving it one.


Headbadge


Built and signed by one of the Lynskeys


Made in the USA


Time carbon fork


Soon to be riding off into the sunset…

It will go to the LBS soon for a bottom bracket. I have to pick up a quill to 1-1/8" stem adapter, and a braze-on FD. Then for the rest of this season, it will share components with Blue Steel. I figure that's the best way to learn about the differences between steel and Ti, while minimizing any differences in wheels, tires and components. By spring it will be built out with its own components.

Nice bicycle frame good luck on the building and have a lot of fun with it.

Looks nice. We'll all be waiting for pics of the final build.

You'll probably get a speeding ticket on that thing!

Welcome to the world of Ti. You're headed into some pretty interesting times. How closely does the new frame match the one with which you'll be sharing parts?

Sweet! Can't wait to hear what you think of it when you ride it.

I'm curious about one thing. Why a quill to 1-1/8" stem adapter instead of a quill stem?

As with many of these classic quality frames they can be rather tricky to tune for the proper ride. I have had lots of experience with this so if you ship it to me I will make sure to make all the final adjustments over the course of the summer. It should only take about 2000 miles or so. Since you are such a good friend I will be more than happy to help you out with this.

I am sure you love the ride. My riding buddy switched from steel to ti - he still likes the feel of steel but like the responsiveness of his moots Ti even better.

Sadly, like the rest of my bikes, it will be saddled with a tired old motor.

Frighteningly close. The numbers are all the same, and holding the bottom brackets together, one shadows the other. They're both of mid-to-late-90s vintage, so I could even swap forks if I wanted to. For that matter, Yellow Bike's Wound Up fork is also 1" (albeit carbon threadless). I could swap that (and the headsets) around to learn about the different forks too.

Perhaps the final build with be a quill stem. For now, since Blue Steel has a quill adapter, I'll get one for the Litespeed too in order to make changeovers easier. I intend to swap the parts back and forth a few times before winter.

That's what I'm hoping to discern. Interestingly, Blue Steel rides just as nice as the Portland, which is a high-quality aluminum frame. I know it's heresy to say an AL bike rides as nice as a steel one. They feel different--no doubt--but I can't say one rides any better than the other.

There's another school of thought that says it's not so much the material as the build--geometry, tubing thickness, diameters and butting--that makes the difference.

Since ultimately, all this leads to at least one, perhaps more, custom frames, I want to learn for myself--though my own experience--what's what WRT materials and builds before I commission a custom frame. Meanwhile, I already have my eye on a carbon frame that's very similar geometry to these two.

Awesome. I know exactly how you feel. Enjoy.

That's a Tuscany, isn't it?

It won't happen until it has its own set of bars, but I'm thinking yellow bar tape too. Or yellow/blue splash, which is shown on the Classic in the 1996 catalog.

All that money and it has no components?

Look at what I today got for free......



...of course I'll have to go out and buy some vintage air for the tires!!

All joking aside, it looks like you've got a beautiful bike there. It almost looks like it wants to float away out that window! I know know you'll keep us posted on the build and comparison progress and I'm anxious to read the reports.

I learn a lot about diferent components, materials, and geometries by following projects such as the one you have planned and I'm sure others here do also. (Only trouble is, I forget most of it within a couple of weeks)

Congrats on the addition to your already respectable stable.

Correct!!

We just sold my wife's 98 Litespeed Classic to a friend and as expected, she loves it. It's a great all around frame. While not the stiffest frame it has an all day ride quality that most guys our age would covet. I also had a 98 Classic until I bought my IF CJ.

Good things take time. An astute purchase! Has really stoked my envy - I've been able to resist N+1 so far, but if I saw one of these, things would've changed quickly...
arthritic knees or not.

Awesome! A titanium bike is on my wish list - it has been for years. Looking forward to built-up pictures.

Thanks. Actually, I did pay a little too much for it. It's one of those times when a "friend's rate" isn't the seller selling too low, but the buyer buying too high.

Something off Scam-Bay would have been cheaper, but I wouldn't already know the history of the frame, and wouldn't already know the reputation of the seller. Heck, I know and ride with the seller and his wife. That said, I did my due diligence and found the asking price was at the high end of the appropriate range. I was okay with that and bought it without any haggling.

It wasn't a sympathy thing (poor guy has to ride recumbents now), but that knowing the bike, its history, and its owner had value to me. On his side, he turned away several other offers between the time I told him I wanted it, and the time I was able to start making payments.

That's the sort of thing I'm using this project to discover. I already have two bikes I consider to be all-day comfortable. Why not a third? Plus, since I'm trying to cut through all the hype, smoke and mirrors about bikes, it seems a sensible purchase.

My current crop of bikes seem all to have waited for me to buy them. Serendipitous, I suppose. In each case it was a matter of "when the student is ready, the teacher appears". Can't wait to start this set of lessons!

(It'll be at least two weeks before I start the build-up because I promised Blue I'd take it to the GFLBT/50+ ride weekend.)

That's a good looking bike. I know a guy that has one and he loves it. Waiting for pictures of the completed bike.