Sojourner -
The 'gotta is just slang, hence the apostrophe to signify. Yes, a Litespeed Ghisallo (likely your dream mountain bike) is very expensive: frame around $3,500 with full bikes north of 7K with DA10 or Record. The recent King of the Mountains (Richard Virrenque - sp?) won his first 4 Tour moutain stages polka-dot jerseys on a Ghisallo. I love the “feel” of titanium over Carbone fiber, but some don’t. I’ve never felt even a 3/2.5 ti bike (quality one anyway) to be “noodley.”
A medium frame is certified by Litespeed to be under 1.99 lbs (like 950g or so)! Also, there is no weight limit like the “other” so called thin walled aluminum Tour de France ONLY bikes (around 160 lbs.) and they have a lifetime warranty. Litespeed 6/4 ti and their expert welding is very stiff. I can not say enough about their tier 1 bikes (Vortex, Ghisallo, Ultimate). Like I said, I have over 10K on my Vortex and love it. I have only ridden a Ghisallo a few times, but it was unreal how smooth, light and still stiff it felt. I’m just not sure I like the whole compact frame thing. I purposely stood hard on a long hill in a too big gear and wobbled the bike to and fro (Reynolds Ouzo Pro front fork if I remember correctly with Ksyrium SL wheels) and it felt very stiff. I can feel some flex doing this maneuvering in other bikes (my Guru for example and a Trek 5500 that we were “testing” on the same hill).
Hey, its only money - See if you can score a long test ride from your LBS. Hey, for that kind of coin …
