francophile 

Good call on the tires. While the bike appears to have little to no significant use - either that, or it was impeccably maintained, which I generally doubt - I was suspicious about the tires still having vent spews intact, you can see them on the rear pic.

It should be really fun trying to find black enamel with rainbow flake, and the blue with metal flake for the couple of chip touchups it needs. Needs new pad inserts for the calipers too.

cycledog1

Francophile-
this comment "squirrely-tweakey responsive ala crit bike based on what I've read about this era of Lemond" really is NOT indicative of the Lemond spine frame, although the aluminum version may have been a little more stiff and rough than the steel version (see my black and grey a few above yours).

these frames were responsive but very forgiving, the CF really added compliance and the geometry fit well with the material. no issues with these frames, actually. I have ridden all the Lemond frame materials from 2001 til 07/08 cf's, they were all diff feeling but the geometry similar. my Ti 01 Victoire may have been the best all around, but the spine the only one I've considered keeping of the bunch. I still have an '01 Maillot Jaunne 853 pro, but I'm keeping my spine frame.

the only diff between your frame and the all CF Victoire was the xx-lite fork, change out the group and wheelset and they are the same frame material and layup. great riding frames. so if you have a 7800 set and wheels you like, there you have it.

francophile 

Yeah, I dunno what to tell you, wasn't paying enough attention to cite specifics. While trying to decide how high I was willing to go on the auction, I was poking around reading up as much data as I could. Most of what I was picking up was '04-'08 across a few different road biking forums. I heard several claims of "twitchy rides", "over responsive on turns", "difficult to ride with no hands in those no-hands moments", but it wasn't clear to me if it was the all-aluminum, alu-cf, ti-cf, or what.

Either way, it was my size, and I'd never ridden one, I'm glad I cashed in. I thought enough of it in the few dozens of miles I've put on it now that I moved over my lights and other baggage. My only gripe is, here in ATL, the intown streets are complete ass, and it's not a very forgiving bike. I'm running 700x25 today, I may end up slapping a pair of 700x28 on to see where it gets me, or try and eek some 30s in.

The 'bigger is better' voice in me would love to upgrade this to a 7803 triple setup, but honestly, the 105 triple on this has been better than I recall experiencing out of anything 105, so I'll stick with it I'm still in the door cheap enough now that I could flip it for double what I'm in, but I'm enjoying it too much to get rid of it right now.