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Litespeed Gravel 2020

Gravel bike. What is a 'gravel bike'? It's lots of things. And I already had a pretty great one in the Salsa Cutthroat. The Cutthroat is at the hardcore adventure end of the gravel scene, bordering on a drop bar MTB. In fact, if you look at the bottom of the down tube, you'll see a map of the Tour Divide for which it was designed. Over the couple of years I've had it, I've set it up to do anything short of full MTB riding (including an hour-long bomb run descent down at the Grizzly Gravel). It wears mountain bike 2.25" race tires some of the time. But for other rides, I've had a set of 38m, gentle knobby tires for more champaign gravel, sporty, or touring use.  But there's the trick:. I've also evolved the setup as a whole for good performance on rugged trails with a Redshift suspension stem and an PNW Coast suspension/dropper post and those MTB tires at the expense of a more nimble configuration. It is a great setup that can be used for so much. Competent and comfortable on some pretty chunky stuff. 

But, it's a bit overkill on mellower, less challenging route (yeah, getting picky). While it can undergo a personality shift with a wheel swap to lighter hoops running the smaller Taravail Washburn 38mm (36 mounted) tires, it's still an overkill bike for lighter weight, sporty (I'm not a racer but that kind of ride) gravel duty. I know, picky picky.

Then a used 2020 Litespeed Gravel frameset appeared for sale on FBM. Ooooh. Full titanium, good geometry for a sportier gravel ride. And at a fantastic price (I'm amazed (and delighted) how many people use gear for a couple of years and move on). But even a cheap frame can get to be an expensive bike by the time you make it rideable. But I got to thinking. With the upgrades and experiments on the Cutthroat and other bikes, along with the existing second wheelset, I actually already had all of the parts to build it out already sitting in my garage. So it found its way home....

Building it up was the easiest, fastest setup I've had. Nearly all just plug/bolt and play. There was only one hiccup. I was using the LTWOO group that (unfortunately) had to have the battery mounted externally on the Cutthroat due to the lack of access ports. But the Litespeed frame has routing for the power wires and storage for the shifter battery internally. However it was not possible to actually route the wire through the bottom bracket while the BB was installed (tiny space between the internal and external BB shells). So I had to remove the press-fit cup and remove the sleeve. Out is a pain withough a blind bearing puller and I had to drive it out with a headset tool. But back in is easy with a press that I do have. And it was possible to push on the cups for the BB30 configuration not the bearings and thus not destroy them. After that, it was easy. A couple of hours to clean, prep, bolt parts on, hook up hydraulics and, ta da!

So what it is, is a relatively light (10.5kg for an XL gravel bike, ready to go), rugged, sporty gravel bike for flatter, faster rides. It also has the mounts to easily bolt on racks for touring/travel. Speaking of travel, it makes for less concern for packing for air travel (metal frame, not more fragile CF). All in all a perfect spectrum-filler between a road bike and adventure-gravel bike.

After riding it a bit, it pans out well. Comfortable and efficient on the pavement and yet remarkably competent even when pushed a bit on dirt.

Build

  • Frame: XL Litespeed Gravel frame model year 2020
  • Wheels: Ibis 928 'MTB' wheels, CF rims 28mm, 22mm internal (Alt from Cutthroat)
  • Tires: Tarravail Washburn 38mm
  • Cassette: Garbaruk xD 10-50t 11 speed
  • Cranks: Rival 40t (later swapped for a 34t for better hill climbing)
  • Groupset: LTWOO eGR (previously on the Cutthroat)
  • Brake calipers: Wheeltop (not used on the Cutthroat)
  • Stem: Salsa 110mm 6 deg
  • Bars: Zipp Service Course SL-70 XPLR (a less flared, narrower gravel bar)
  • Pedals: PD-530 'platform' SPD
  • Tape: Lizard Skins in black and grey camo (perfect for a Ti bike with black parts)
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