The question: is a 1999 Lynskey Litespeed Collectable?
Answer:
1. Titanium is considered the ultimate material for a hartail mountain bike.
2. It needs no paint and never rusts, so is perfect for the harsh conditions of mountain biking.
3. Mid to late 90's hardtails seem to be the most sought after retro mountain bikes by collectors - they just seem to have got it right then.
4. Lynskey is considered one of the best builders of titanium bikes and builds desirable bikes that are built for function.
5. Lynskey is passionate about his bikes and this is reflected in the high quality of welds and finish, they are almost perfect - which is almost unheard of these days.
6. If you want a 'proper' Litespeed it simply has to be a 1999 or earlier one before it was sold to ABG as they then only produced average frames and thus went on to have many craking problems due to poor quality.
7. In the 1999 Tour de France, Lance Armstrong rode a titanium Litespeed Blade painted and labeled as a Trek during time trials.
8. Litespeed has been a contractor and consultant to NASA for projects that require titanium-intensive subassemblies - COOL!
9. Litespeed sponsored the DFL-Cyclingnews-Litespeed and Calyon/Litespeed Pro Cycling road teams and the Maxxis mountain bike team. The World Cup ITU Triathlon champion Vanessa Fernandes (Portugal) also raced on a Litespeed.
10. Because of the high quality control at Litespeed during the late 90's as many as half the frames were rejected (far higher than any other frame builder) in the name of durability and perfection - thats why they look so beautiful and last so well.
11. Only the finest grades of Titanium were used unlike some other Ti bikes that used lesser grades of tubing to keep to a budget. Lynskey put quality first and the price second - that's why they were so expensive at the time.
So put all that provenance together and I think its one of the best made, finest riding, understated mountain bikes ever made. OK, some say Kleins are the best, but they are harsh and flash. I would not swop mine for any new bike made today as I don't think a better mountain bike has been built since. I do like the new Linskey stuff, but its just not classic enough looking for my tastes.
I am fortunate to have the original receipt, original 1998 Litespeed Catalogue and a genuine full set of spare decals, but if you need a copy of the Litespeed 1999 catalogue, just download the following 32mb pdf to print out:
http://mombat.org/MOMBAT/BikeHistoryPag ... d-1999.pdf
In summary, I have attached a marketing advert from 1992 which states that Litespeed had one aim and that was simply to build 'THE ULTIMATE' and I think personally they did!