I may have an oppertunity to partially sponsered, the bike would be a Lemond. I currently have a Klein. I could choose the Lemond Tri, or a road carbon. Any thoughts Thanks.
Lemond bikes deserve a lot more respect than they get. I love my steel/oclv road bike. It’s the smoothest riding frame I’ve ever owned. It’s also very stable and handles well. Team Saturn won a lot of domestic races on the titanium/oclv version.
I haven’t seen one yet, but the new carbon bikes seem to in the same class as the other high end lightweight carbon frames. Apparently a lot of thought went into them.
Here is a good review of the carbon Lemond:
I checked some out last week. IMO, they are very sleek and a sexy looking ride. The ride quality is very nice.
My coach and his wife (pros) both ride the Lemond tri bike and love it. It’s alum/carbon though, not all carbon.
I have a Lemond and I love it. Its a alum/carbon, ultegra, Tourmalet.
All of the bikes are new. Late last year they introduced the Limoges and Rennes Triathlong bikes. Aluminum with carbon forks. This year they offer the Triomphe series of carbon frames, as well as the “stronback” frames which replace the “Spine” Series. They each offer something different. Working for Trek, I have ridden them all. I am really happy with the new Triomphe frames. The min/max design is very comfortable yet very stiff in the right places. Definately check them out.
I ride a LeMond Tete de Course - it’s 3 years old, but the geometry is very similar to the new carbon series. I’ve seen the bikes in person and they are really nice - they are light (under 1000g for the frame) and made by the same engineers who design Trek’s OCLV bikes.
There is a higher-end bike coming out later this fall that will be the top of the line carbon for LeMond
I have not riden the tri bikes - the Dual Zone bikes - but apparently they are pretty light and responsive. I saw Andrea Fisher’s bike at IM Wisco and it looked pretty comfortable.
Why did they get ride of the spine design? I have a 2005 LeMond Victoire, which I absolutely love. With the Ti spine, it’s like butter. I also have a 2005 Giant TCR Advanced Team bike. Light as hell, but, almost brutally stiff. I used to have a 2004 Trek 5500.
The Trek wasn’t stiff enough for me. The Giant is great on climbs and shorter distances. I usually go with the LeMond for the centuries or just long rides.
Fit, comfort, feel, the LeMond is, by far, superior to the other two. So, why did they get rid of the Ti spine series???
“Why did they get ride of the spine design?”
I would suspect the ti/carbon version rides just as good as the steel/carbon version.
I wondered that myself. I thought the spine design was brilliant and few bikes butter the bumps better than these ones do. The carbon version is very nice, but it made no sense to me to stop producing the spine bikes. I hope either Lemond brings them back or somebody else picks up on this concept.
I never tried the steel spine version, but I agree, it is probably a great ride. It looks like they eliminated that line as well. Per the website, your choices are: carbon, aluminum spine, all steel.
I don’t get it. With the Ti (and steel), you got the best of both worlds - the ride of Ti (or steel) and the lighter weight of carbon.
Thanks for the info and the link. I was surprised at the performance of th Ti-Carbon spine. Only knew one guy who rode one (big guy) said it was flexy. Cannot be so with those wins. If I do not get a sponsered by Scheels, instead of going with the all carbon I may pick up the Ti- Carbon combo. They have a ne Tete" for sale with ultegra for 1899. New. Thanks again Kenney
“I was surprised at the performance of th Ti-Carbon spine.”
Danielsen and Horner dominated on those bikes. In fact Horner won the very first race debut of the Tete de Course. Full carbon is way over hyped.
I’d be very curious to see some actual scientific/road testing between the ti/carbon and steel/carbon versions. I doubt 1/3 lb or so makes that much difference.
I had a carbon-ti Tete a few years ago. It was ok, nothing special, but it was very poorly built. Some of the carbon/ti connections were so bad there was actually a gap. It was a major pain dealing with lemond customer service. They would not believe the defect even with many hi-res photos and eye witness from LBS. Finally sent the frame back and waited forever for a replacement. When it came the new frame lasted a few months until I leaned it against the washing machine in my garage. It slipped a few inches but where it was touching the machine it rubbed completely through the clearcoat and somehow crushed the carbon in the seatstay. Bike ruined. Maybe I had bad luck, but IMO Lemonds are overpriced junk.
Sorry,
I smell a hint of B.S. in that story. What the hell kind of washing machine do you own?
I’ve owned a 2005 tete de corse and, have sold many ti/carbon, steel/carbon Lemonds and never seen any issues such as that. We had one come in with a little haze in the clear coat by the stays. The customer mentioned it to me so I called Trek/Lemond about it. Two days later we had a replacement frame for him, no questions asked. Great customer service from Trek.
Some LBS have a reputation for abusing the warranty programs manufacturers offer (trying to warranty things that aren’t a warranty issue). Therefore the manufacturers are not as cooperative with said LBS when the time comes to handle something that may be legitimate. The only reason I mention this is because from time to time I see customers bring in a bike or part that is clearly damaged from a crash or user error and they want me to warranty it for them. Of course if/when I tell them Trek* or* whoever is not going to warranty that. Most of the time the response is “Well, I’m never buying a product from that company ever again.”
Slipped a couple inches and crushed the stay? HUH??? So let me get this straight. Bike slipped a couple inche down the washer, the stay hits the ground and is crushed by the bikes weight??? Thanks for answering my post
I saw the actual bike trisum mentioned and she pretty much described it the way it was. IIRC the bike slid down a few inches and the friction wore through the clear coat. You could clearly see the ‘rub’ marks leading to the damage (like scratches). When you pressed on the exposed carbon it was soft and squishy like it had been crushed or not saturated with resin (not saying that’s what happened, just saying that’s how it felt). I also saw the photos of the screwed up ‘joints’ between the carbon and Ti on the other bike. After seeing that and hearing about the customer service issues I will think twice before I ever get a Lemond. To be fair, other than those issues, the bike looked kinda cool…
I do not doubt your word, but something is really strange about that frame. It would seem if that was common (especially the joint issue) there would have to have some failures where people crashed. Hopefully it was just a freak error.