Ryan's Disc Bike #4 (Litespeed T1sl)

[RyanH]

I haven't put a ton of time on them since they're on the English at the moment and my mileage across all bikes hasn't been great over the past couple months but they seem solid to me.

[Singlish]

Really curious how the frame rides, how it feels to ride, perhaps compared to your previous Litespeeds? I've only seen one review of their Spezia and it wasn't great.

[RyanH]

Yeah, I saw the review by James Huang that you are talking about. I wish Litespeed didn't wrap the top tube around the head tube like they did, just totally ruins the aesthetic for me. As for his review, I don't know, it's really hard to get a good feel for a bike if you aren't controlling for wheels, tires and cockpit so I'd probably take the review with a grain of salt or at least more so a review of the entire package rather than just the frame.

For the T1sl, there are a few slight differences on the last run than before and it's become my go to bike to the point where I don't really want to ride my other bikes much (hence why most of them have or are being sold). One non performance one is that this particular frame has the top tube junction with the head tube placed meaningfully higher (about 5mm higher), which has a cleaner look to me. The chainstays are maxed out on width placement allowing something like 34mm tires (actual width) to be run and the tube placement on the BB seem to be shaped to maximize width of tubes to shell compared to prior generations. I think chainstays are also slightly longer.

Ride wise, it handles as well as my best descending bikes that I've owned (Crux being the exception) and has a nice responsive feel. It has the right level of stiffness where the bike just disappears under you. All in all, if I could only have one bike, it'd be this one and that's more or less how it's been treated. The other bike that'll stay in the stable is the English, but again, if I had to keep just one, it'd be the T1sl.

[RyanH]

So, not one but two Darimo stems failed on this bike...





I thought I may have over torqued the first one but the second was very carefully installed and torqued to 3.5nm using a new torque wrench that only goes up to 6nm.

[MichaelK]

That sucks. Have you checked the OD of your steerer? I once had a customer crack 3 Zipp stems and when we checked his fork it was significantly tapered smaller towards the top.

How's Darimo treating the warranty?

[RyanH]

I'll caliper it later but that's an interesting idea. I am using a Specialized aethos expander which fully supports the clamping area. Back to Kalloy for now until I hear back from Darimo. May consider trying an Extralite stem again or trying the Darimo HD version.

[Juanmoretime]

Is MFCK an option for you? I have two that are older and one came in at 71 grams and the other 73. They feel plenty stiff enough for me.

[RyanH]

@Juanmoretime I appreciate the offer but my steerer is cut too short and I'd prefer a -10 or -12* stem.

[nickf]

Yikes I have an invoice for a 0° x 50mm MTB stem from Darimo, think I'll pass. No issues ever from my extralight stems.

[RyanH]

My best guess is that the stem wasn't designed to have the steerer cut below the stem top. It doesn't state that on their site but that's all I can guess. I have the same stem on the English and that one hasn't cracked (yet) but Rob left a spacer above the stem. The Litespeed has the steerer cut minimally to get the top cap to not touch the expander, so it can't be more than 2-3mm below the stem.

In the mean time, anyone have a spare Easton EA90 120mm -10 or a Pro Vibe 7s -10 120mm? May just run one of those and call it a day. The bike is at 6.35kg which is in the good enough range. Shame though cause the Darimo stem looks a lot nicer.

[MichaelK]

My best guess is that the stem wasn't designed to have the steerer cut below the stem top. It doesn't state that on their site but that's all I can guess. I have the same stem on the English and that one hasn't cracked (yet) but Rob left a spacer above the stem. The Litespeed has the steerer cut minimally to get the top cap to not touch the expander, so it can't be more than 2-3mm below the stem.

That could also be the case, the top clamp on the stem doesn't have enough support to prevent the bolt shearing the part there. If you can find an expander with a thick lip at the top (I used to run a really cheap M:Part expander with a 3mm lip on my Supersix) a topcap from OCD would work if you wanted to keep running a Darmio stem and make it look presentable.

https://www.instagram.com/p/C0XF7tcOQFg ... mg_index=1

[MayhemSWE]

Shame though cause the Darimo stem looks a lot nicer.

Considering you never seem to have cared about cost ever before, just buy a new fork and don't cut it as aggressively? Then use any combination of a 2 mm spacer, an expander without a lip that can be set slightly lower into the steerer and/or a top cap with a flat bottom.

[RyanH]

Having a small spacer above the stem offends my eyes. I'd rather just run a different stem at that point. I double checked the manual and it states that the minimum steerer height should be 35mm and mine is 36mm. So, I was within specs.

I have an Extralite stem coming next week that I'll probably give a try. If it's noticeably flexible, I'll just run a pro vibe 7s and call it a day.

[Nixster]

The Darimo carbon stems are a better design I think because the clamp is continuous across the depth of the stem.
I've been happy with my IX2, although the stack height is greater than most stems.

[pdlpsher1]

Just use an Uno stem and call it a day.


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