Building off they say is the world’s lightest titanium road bike frame at a production level, the Litespeed T1SL Disc adds a mere 175g to the rim brake model to come in at a claimed 1,175g. With many rim-brake ti road frames topping 1,400g on a good day, the attention to detail throughout the frame paid dividends in creating an ultra lightweight disc brake road frame.
Litespeed introduced the latest T1SL road bike in 2015, showing off their chiseled dropouts and bottom bracket shell, and top-shelf tubeset that gets every piece weighed before assembly to ensure they’re using the best (lightest) pieces available. At Sea Otter 2017, they showed off a prototype disc brake version built with most of the same parts but pulling an early rear dropout into duty to make the show’s early spring dates. Now, the production model is shipping, and it gets the same streamlined flat-mount disc brake dropouts as their Gravel model.
The frames are all handmade in Tennessee at their own factory and come ready for wired or mechanical drivetrains, everything running internally.
Up front, the headtube is butted internally and gets an engraved logo rather than a head badge to save more grams. Inside it is their own carbon fork, and both it and the frame get 12mm thru axles. All frames use a 3/2.5 downtube, and custom made 6/4 top tube that’s formed from a single sheet of titanium, and all get size-specific tubing to keep ride characteristics uniform across the size range. Retail is $4,899 for the frameset, complete bikes start at $8,399 for Ultegra Di2 and $14,899 for the latest Dura-Ace Di2.
