Designed to offer more comfort, more speed, more clearance and even more fun, the Litespeed Ultimate G2 titanium gravel bike uses a completely new tubeset and geometry to give riders everything they wanted. Maybe more.
Starting with the 3/2.5 ti frame, the most obvious difference from the original (which debuted in 2018, read our review here) is the split seatstays that move past the seat tube, joining into the top tube.
They’re welded onto the seat tube, so there’s no gap and they’re not elongated to add compliance. Rather, the wider stance simply made room for bigger tires and eliminate the need for a seatstay bridge.
Those, combined with a new machined titanium chainstay yoke, opens things up to fit 700×48 gravel tires with some tread, or up to 700×50 file-tread and smoother tires.
The yoke also made room for double chainrings, giving you all the options for 1x or 2x setups. Behind that crank is a PF30 BB shell, but you can opt for a T47 threaded bottom bracket, providing easy maintenance and creak-free performance while still fitting modern 30mm spindles.
And that’s just the beginning of the options…
Litespeed is offering new ceramic coat and anodizing graphics treatments, both offering big upgrades from the standard decals and a more colorful option than the etched logos.
They’ll even color-match the headset and other bits with some ceramic and anodized finish options.
Then add top tube bag mounts, rack mounts, or both. If you’re buying the complete bike, you can choose handlebar tape color, upgrade the handlebar itself, choose from standard or adventure carbon forks, Cane Creek or Chris King headsets, six different wheelsets, and seven different drivetrains.
Compared to the original Ultimate, the G2 adds an Extra Small (XS) size, and top tube lengths grows slightly, with Reach increasing by 1-1.5cm. Other measurements are mostly the same, but Small thru M/L frames get a 0.5º slacker head angle.
The extra material adds a bit of weight, with claimed weight for size M being 1,430g (up from 1,341g for the original). Complete bikes start at $4,950 with Shimano GRX mechanical. Frame price is $3,095. Full details and build options available on their website.
