Crumby weather today so I thought I would post my newest toy. It's not as light as my Vortex, the new bike is sub 15 lbs. but it's very sweet and a great back up to my Vortex. The frame is a custom Litespeed. The front Triangle is a Litespeed Classic although the cable stops are welded to the headtube for no cable rub and no braze on for the front derailleur or the seatpost plus a 1/2 centemeter longer toptube. The rear traingle is from a 2005 Litespeed Vortex with the foil shaped stays with slightly longer chain stays 41.1 instead of 40.6. It's more vetically compliant while being very stiff rear for power transfer and climbing. Being 1/2 Vortex and half Classic, I call it the Vlassic, like the pickle. I added a shot of Litespeed's awesome titanium welding. The frame came in at 3.21 lbs.

I stripped down another bike for most of the parts.

Here is the build list:

Frame: 2005 Classic/ Vortex custom
Fork: 2005 Easton EC-90SLX
Headset: Chris King 1” 1/8 Mango headset
Headset Spacers: None
Stem: Ritchey WCS
Computer: Cateye Micro.
Handlebar: Kestrel EMS Pro S
Handlebar Tape: Cinelli black
Handlebar plugs: Zipp carbonfiber.
Cables: Campagnolo
Saddle: Selle Iltalia SLR Carbonio
Seatpost: Thomson Masterpiece
Skewers: Rolf titanium
Front Derailleur: 2005 Campagnolo Chorus tuned with titanium bolts.
Rear Derailleur: 2003 Campagnolo Record 10
Shift & Brake Levers: 2004 Campagnolo Record 10 Ultra
Crank Set: FSA Superlight 53/39
Bottom Bracket: FSA Platinum Pro titanium
Crank bolts: FSA M14 Alloy
Cassette: Campagnolo Record 10, Titanium/steel 11-23
Chain: Campagnolo Record C-10
Brakes: Zero Gravity
Wheelset: Rolf Prima Elan Aero
Tires: Vittoria Diamonte Pro Lights
Tubes: Maxxis Flylights
Bottle: Cages: Token 16 gram carbon with Alloy bolts X 2
Pedals: Speedplay X-1 with BTP alloy butterflies

_________________
-For my next trick I will set myself on fire!
-This board and the world in general would be a much nicer place if everyone could just take themselves a little less seriously.
-Sticky Fingers John Rockefeller
-First one over the cliff wins!

Did you piece the frame together yourself or did Litespeed do that for you. You must be one tall MoFo, cuz man that bike is HUGE

I put the bike together. It's a size 59 and I'm 6'2" or 188 centimeters tall.

_________________
-For my next trick I will set myself on fire!
-This board and the world in general would be a much nicer place if everyone could just take themselves a little less seriously.
-Sticky Fingers John Rockefeller
-First one over the cliff wins!

Wow. SO you weld? I wish I could do stuff like that. Nice looking ride though. Very nice keeping it under 15 lbs with such a large frame.

nice bike you got there!
Maybe you could 'tune' it a bit with some more gold bolts etc. to complement the golden headset in the future? I think it looks a little lonely as the only golden component
I like it you took off the stickers on your wheels.
Are the bottlecages so low on purpose? I have this on one of my bike's and always have to adjust to it when switching bikes, for me it is pretty anoying, but hopefully it won't bother you.

My bike is a 63 C-T

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Whow! That's a pretty damn nice garage door!

Here is a picture of a frame I had that was a mixture of Litespeed tubes.

Top tube- Vortex
Down tube- Ultimate
Head tube- Ghisallo
Seat tube- Butted and ten sided Vortex
Chainstays- Vortex
Seatstays- 04 bladed Vortex
Dropouts- Ghisallo
BB shell- Ghisallo
Weight- 2.88 lbs.

Actually the cages are in the same position as my Vortex. I also have pretty long arms. Thanks for the compliments!

_________________
-For my next trick I will set myself on fire!
-This board and the world in general would be a much nicer place if everyone could just take themselves a little less seriously.
-Sticky Fingers John Rockefeller
-First one over the cliff wins!

Oh man THAT IS A NICE BIKE........I envy you ...........

Great looking bike there and yes that is one large frame. I agree that you should throw on some more "mango" somewhere on the frame.....if you're bored.

bikemesenger,
I never knew litespeed would make a frame with such an eclectic set of tubes. What percent slope is that on your frame? It looks like 4%. It looks great.....I like how the stem flows with the TT.

Not many people know that Litespeed will make anything you want for a price. I had that frame made while I worked there but I saw some crazy frames go through the custom shop. Most of them were cool but there were a few that you just wondered what were they thinking.

The stem is a section of Vortex top tube welded into a stem.

Sweet bike. You're "Backup" is 10x nicer than my good bike.

I misread your post. I can weld but Litespeed did the welding on this. I thought you meant the assembly of the bike. I've never worked with welding titanium and wish I could lay down beads like those guys from Tennessee do.

_________________
-For my next trick I will set myself on fire!
-This board and the world in general would be a much nicer place if everyone could just take themselves a little less seriously.
-Sticky Fingers John Rockefeller
-First one over the cliff wins!