Lemond Ti spine bikes - what's the skinny?

[bargainguy]

I recently picked up this '05 Victoire, ti spine w/carbon. Components have wear but frame is in nice shape.

Supposedly these were made in the Trek Waterloo factory by a Gary Helfrich (Merlin, Ibis) led team of welders & fabricators.

Is there a consensus on the Lemond ti spine bikes? Anything I should watch for?

[spacemen3]

I haven't heard a bad thing about them. My friend's LeMond Zurich spine design remains his go-to bike. Enjoy.

[d_douglas]

If I recall a recent thread on VS, I think Mr Crumpton built those. Pretty cool!

I've heard good things about them.

[Idris Icabod]

My friend had the Tete de Course and loved it. It cracked at the bottle bosses (almost all the way around) and was replaced under warranty with a Trek Madone. Funnily enough the crack was discovered when he popped in to the local shop and they were applying for a warrant for another with a crack in exact the same place. So not sure if that is a place to look for cracks or this was pure dumb luck.

[weisan]

I used to have the TeteLeCourse...courtesy of Steve-pal. :p
http://forums.thepaceline.net/showthread.php?t=37282

It was okay, ended up passing along the savings to a local newbie. I think he paid something like $600 for the whole bike...daylight robbery, sheesh. :eek:

[Cat3roadracer]

I bet it rides nice, not sure about the stem though.

[bargainguy]

Right, this bike borrows heavily from the Trek/Bontrager parts bin.

One thing the original owner did, though, is swap out the stock Bontrager RaceLites for Ksyrium Elites - he claimed they developed dangerous shimmies on screaming downhills and couldn't stand them. I've not had this experience with RaceLites myself but I'm a lightweight.

[Ti_on_Steel]

I had a Lemond full Ti Arrivee and worked for a Lemond dealer when these bikes were being sold. The full Ti were hand made in Colorado as I remember, but not sure about the Spline bikes. They were offered in both Ti and Al splines. The carbon is OCLV off the Madone (5200 prob). They had all the life of a Ti bike, with the weight savings of Carbon. I think people at the time didn't trust the bonding of the Ti to Carbon enough to make them really successful, but they are awesome riding.

[lemondvictoire]

Been riding a 04 Lemond Victoire splined for the last 6 years and been a great with approx 18,000 miles logged in so far. Been problem free and super comfortable on double centuries. Also I have a spare 06 Victoire frameset as a backup and a few newer bikes in the stable just waiting to dethrone the 04 Victoire as the main long distance bike...................:bike: