Litespeed Sewanee

project description

I was dreaming a lot about titanium mountain bike and this one has come true. It`s opened me the doors to a conservative and an incredible world of hand-built and welded titanium frames and the cutting edge titanium components. After long time of searching I`ve decided for the company with a long history. Litespeed Sewanee.

frame and fork

What to say about the frame. It`s a hand-built titanium full-suspension frame from the USA with a FOX FLOAT RP23 Bootsvalve shock (originally used DT Swiss XR Carbon shock I swapped to FOX one). The frame concept has been updated by Litespeed factory in 2010 at least and this is the model I have. A place of fork has been occupied by a reliable product by FOX Racing Shox - F100RLC Disc version.

components

For this project I`ve selected light disc brakes by Italian`s Formula R1 in custom black&white edition, with carbon levers, carbon lever clamps and titanium bolts. Hydraulic hoses were made by Goodridge.

Other bike components came from Extralite (stem, handlebar, grips and seatpost clamp), Thomson (Masterpiece series seatpost with "off-set"), legendary ChrisKing (NoThreadSet) headset and, naturally, top-line Shimano XTR and SRAM X.0 groups (shifters and gearing). Gearshift cables and inner nylon liners were made by PowerCordz. I tuned the SRAM X.0 rear derailleur with KCNC pulleys (inc. ceramic bearings) and custom inner carbon cage.

The Hollowtech Shimano XTR crank set has been completed with a set of full titanium X-Ring MTB Full-Ti chainrings by Italian`s CarbonTi. The original chainring bolts have been replaced by CarbonTi (X-Fix MTB series) as well. The Shimano XTR bottom bracket has been upgraded with Enduro`s Zero Ceramic Hybrid bearings.

Titanium got more opportunities to cover some other bike components, such as titanium water bottle cage by MT Zoom/Titec or carbon/titanium quick releases by tune. Naturally, all bolts have been replaced with their titanium versions.

First I used tune Speedneedle saddle on my Trek and I was pretty sure the saddle has to come on Litespeed too. From my point of view this lightweight saddle is very comfortable for riding either on hardtail or fully (I feel better than on SLR TT), though.
For change I chose tune classic - Speedneedle Leather saddle. The saddle is a bit narrower than the Marathon version, but the shape of the saddle is balanced by bike`s rear suspension.

Together with the saddle I tuned a Thomson Masterpiece seatpost too. I`ve replaced the lower cradle by its carbon version (smud carbon), while the upper cradle has been replaced by Parts Of Passion (POP) yokes. Titanium bolts screwed as usual.

wheels and tyres

A specific chapter of this project is a set of custom-built wheels. They`ve been built on well-known and time-proven DT Swiss hubs (the 240s International Standard Series), with DT Swiss Aerolite black spokes and SAPIM aluminium nipples.
The rims have been managed by Stan from NoTubes, an older ZTR Olympic edition. I used NoTubes yellow rim tape and valve stems, too. A complete set of the wheels weights 1425 grams.
The wheels run on Schwalbe Racing Ralph tyres in a UST 26x2.1" version with NoTubes sealant.

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photogallery

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black&white edition

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specification