Third Time's a Charm: Litespeed T3

[RyanH]

I'm going back to my roots and picked up a Litespeed T3. Being Grade 5, it should provide the Ti ride quality while being stiff enough for my needs. It probably won't "carbon stiff" but to be honest, I think that's overrated. On the stiffness side, the only thing I am watching out for is how it handles being thrown around out of the saddle. As long as it handles in a predictable manner, I'll be happy. I was originally going to pickup a T1 or other similar frameset but it seemed the general consensus was that it lost the Ti feel with being so stiff.

Weight should be around 6kg, maybe less. I'm going to throw Campy Super Record on it for the moment to decide if I want to keep SR or settle on eTap.

[KarlC]

So what bike is this replacing ?

[RyanH]

I think I decided that my two bike stable should be a Ti bike and an aero bike. This will replace the Fuji and the Cervelo. I may keep the Foil as the aero bike but if I can sell it for a reasonable amount, I'll get an S5 since the stack is lower and they go for about a grand less. We'll see. I could get 165 cranks for the Foil which will give me enough drop, so that's an option too.

[McGilli]

I'm happy to see another Ti build coming... too rare around here!

[burglarboycie]

Watching this with interest

[RyanH]

Ugh challenges, the frame is in Amsterdam and the post office said the box was too big for them to ship. He's going to stop by FedEx tomorrow but I've quoted international FedEx before and that's exorbitant. Any suggestions getting the frame to Los Angeles from Amsterdam for a reasonable amount?

Sent from my SM-G930V using Tapatalk

[Fixie82]

In Australia if you can alter the box to be an odd shape it will be posted on weight only not volume. I've done this with wheel and bike boxes before, just takes a little skill with some scissors and a lot of tape.

Might be worth a try

Examples

[Exar]

How much is shipping? It should fit PostNL's maximum box size dimensions.

[RyanH]

Thanks everyone, looks like DHL had a reasonable price.

@juanmoretime, we'll see . I've had quite a few carbon bikes since my Xicon so my expectations might have changed. I never really felt the Xicon was lacking in that department, even with it's BSA bb and 34mm HT, so when I went over to the C59 it didn't feel like a night and day difference.

So far on order:
Extralite UltraBottom and UltraTop HD (hopefully the bearing will be thicker and won't wear a ring into the fork)
Fairwheel generic derailleur clamp
Enve 2.0 Tapered fork
Hopefully Cannondale SISL Quarq
New decals

[nobuseri]

Very nice - and welcome back to the Ti family!

[KarlC]

What Bars are you going with ?

[RyanH]

I'm on the fence for bars. I'd like to run my bar/stem combo since it's light and very cush, but I've been running an extra 1.5cm of reach on the Fuji as part of the aero testing. I did a 130 mile ride on Saturday and my shoulders were beginning to ache around mile 100, as was my lower back. On the other hand, my normalized power at that point was 245 watts, so...I guess I was doing fine with that position. I'll see if I can easily swap between two bikes with different reach and whether or not I plan on racing on this bike. If I'm going to race on it, then the Enve SES bars will go on it.

[RyanH]

So, just as soon as I purchased this, I found out a riding buddy of mine has a late production Ghisallo in my size sitting in his garage....hrrrmmm. Maybe I'll need to add that to my collection too.

Part of me wants to make this build a tad heavier on purpose to make it a better training tool...off to a bad start on that front:

Fairwheel FD Clamp @ 8g


Extralite UltraTop HD and UltraBottom @ 64g


Enve 2.0 Tapered Fork cut to 7.5" @ 315g (I should have some more to cut):

[godzuki26]

Get the Ghisallo and build it for your wife

[RyanH]

I still have so much to learn from you before I can successfully embark on that endeavor.