WT21

Anyone buy a Litespeed or specifically a Litespeed Arenberg (current generation) as a road bike?

shelbyfv

Looks nice! $3K for a legit MUSA Ti bike with full 105 is a good price.Link

shelbyfv

Pay the extra for the T47 BB upgrade. No excuse for a cheap-ass press fit in a metal frame.

spelger

not the Arenberg but...i just got this about a month ago.

New bike day, sort of...

jaxgtr

Agreed...

WT21

What particularly about a threaded BB do you think is worth the upgrade? I almost feel like I'd prefer the wheel upgrade.

spelger

press fit seem to squeak after a while. when i got my LS i got the threaded upgrade. worth it in my opinion.

WT21

--deleted by poster--

jaxgtr

Press Fit has a larger potential for misalignment. T47 or BSA tends to have fewer issues, not always, but fewer, and allows for a little bit of forgiveness for frame variances. If you don't want to spend the cash with them, look into something like BBInfinite or Hambini. They both have very nice BB's. Hambini even has a Ti BSA and DUB to fit 30mm axles.

nomadmax 

64 mm of trail and 19 mm of wheel flop with 28mm tires. Even worse with larger tires. That'd be a big no for me, you'd have to fight the bars to keep the front wheel straight when out of the saddle climbing or sprinting. I'd want something in the mid 50s.

As the others have said, T47 BB over pressfit. Every time.

This guy seems to feel as I do.

Trail Does NOT Make a Bike Stable – Rene Herse Cycles

WT21

Thanks for the read.

I am more wondering about first hand experience, rather than calculations, but based on what your preference for mid-50s, then neither a Giant Defy (58 trail) nor a TCR (59 trail) are for you, both of which I found quite comfortable rides. Nor my current Domane at 61, which hasn't been an issue for me (no fighting the handlebars). Nor is the Canyon Endurance at a trail of 60. All of these are well regarded bikes AFAIK.

I don't do races or large climbs. Just exercise rides. We may be looking for different things.

Sy Reene

Builders like T-Lab advise that PF is better if (like they say they do) frames are precision machined -- stiffer than threaded. Though they do offer T47 if you insist and want to pay for it. I presume easier to ensure alignment working with metal than with CF.

WT21

Thanks Sy. I just got off the phone with Litespeed, and they said both BBs are great, but they said it's easier to work on a T47, so if I am doing my own work (not yet), the T47 is preferred, but either are great. My concern is which will have the most options if a I need a new one in like 7-10 years.

jaxgtr

Yea that's fair, I was thinking more of CF, so good call out.

jaxgtr

The shear amount of PF frames, I don't think you will have a problem finding them if you go that way. You can still find square taper BB's quite easy, so PF should be no problem. However, I do think PF for new bikes is on the way out and being replaced with T47

nomadmax 

I'd test ride ANY long trail machine before buying, it may be a case of "you don't know what you don't know". That said, it sounds like our experiences and expectations are vastly different. I'm a former bike racer who expects certain things from a bike and am turned off (immediately) by anything that doesn't fit/perform the way I expect.

WT21

Okie Dokie

kentpost

This particular point is of interest to me. I believe prevailing wisdom is incorrect. Prevailing wisdom is that PressFit was a nightmare and many manufacturers went back to threaded to reduce warranty claims expense. This is true. However, the cause was that carbon-epoxy manufacturing did not materialize within spec'ed tolerances and so it was simply easier - not better - to switch to threaded to avoid resolving carbon-expoxy cure shrinkage and distortion. However, with a Ti frame, this cylinder is bored out perfectly round and perfectly sized so therefore the cause of the noise around pressfit would be eradicated. Further, there appears to be an advantage in pressfit - and Canyon and others are staying with it still while Specd has reverted to threaded - both in weight and in engineering. Apparently all bearings are pressfit and its just that BSA attaches these to the outside via threads but this is not as elegant as an inline internal bearing design. I'd like to hear intelligent and informed points around these facts.

shelbyfv

Which parts of above are "fact?"

easyupbug 

I am with the T47 folks. as a maintenance engineer for many years I like the larger size bearings and is much simpler and takes just minutes to change out with a cheap wrench as opposed to a press fit which needs a removal tool and then a bearing press. I also don't like a press fit when there are large torsional force as in a BB which if there is any movement can cause the squeaks. The T47 may not be "elegant" but on my Tuscany and Firenze I don't mind the tiny extra watts needed for the additional wind resistance and weight.

sean.hwy

I don't mind pressing in the bb bearings but I hate hammering and extracting the bb. Just does not seem good on the frame. I prefer threaded BB by a wide margin.