User Guide

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MIXED MATERIALS: TITANIUM AND CARBON
Towards the end of his career, looking for
a competitive advantage, Greg rode both car-
bon fiber and titanium frames built to his
specifications. He liked the ride of the tita-
nium bike, but he used the carbon bike for
its low weight.
Not everyone can own two great frames.
Now, with the LeMond Tete de Course, you
don’t need to. We’ve combined into one frame
the low weight of carbon and with the feel
of titanium in a unique way that makes one
bike that offers the best of both worlds.
The goal
Create the ultimate Titanium bike by
reducing weight, increasing lateral stiffness,
maintaining the “Ti feel”, and staying true to
Greg LeMond’s vision of how a Professional
road racing bike should perform.
The design
This is a bike meant to ride and feel like
a Ti bike, but utilize the benefits of our vast
array of materials science to improve the
classic Ti bike where appropriate.
Titanium is known for its durability. The
most heavily stressed part of a a bike frame
is its head tube area, in particular the joints
between the head tube and its top tube and
down tube. We used titanium here for its
high fatigue strength.
Probably the most abused area of a bike
frame is the bottom bracket and chainstays.
This part of the bike gets pummeled by the
chain, even in normal riding. Occasionally
through accident the moving chain grinds
directly on the chainstays, like in a mis-shift
or chain suck. We used titanium here for it
hardness and resistance to wear.
The area around the bottom bracket, espe-
cially between the tire and chainrings, is very
tight. There is not a lot of room for large
diameter tubing. At the same time, this is a
high stress area. We used titanium in this
area for its high strength.
The top tube, seat tube, and seat stays
of a bike are under low stress so can be
made very light. We used carbon here for its
extremely low density.
The sensations at the saddle, like normal
road vibrations, have a lot to do with way we
perceive comfort on a bike. The seat lug is
surrounded by the top tube, seat tube, and
seat stays. We used carbon in all these tubes
for it vibration damping qualities.
Besides the saddle, the other weight-bear-
ing contact point on the bike is your hands.
They, too, will get a silky ride on the carbon
composite fork. Titanium 6/4 is extremely
hard, stiffer than aluminum, and incredibly
strong. We built the rear dropouts of 6/4 tita-
nium.
Geometry
Greg’s geometry has withstood the test of
time, and gets consistent rave revues for
precise high-speed handling and all-day ride
comfort. Why mess with a winner; we used
Greg’s geometry on the Tete de Course, but
with a nod to style plus a few small modifica-
tions to squeeze even more performance out
of the ride. To optimize the weight and stiff-
ness, we slightly dropped the seat cluster
along with the rear of the top tube. This
‘sloping’ design does not change the fit or the
handling LeMond bikes are know for. It sim-
ply changes the look, and produces a little
more standover clearance so the sizing may
be more versatile. While we were at it, we
also tweaked the chainstay length and bot-
tom bracket height of each frame size to give
every size of rider the same outstanding ride.
Ride
The way this bike feels is nothing short
of dreamy. Stomp the pedals and the bike
responds like a titanium LeMond Victoire.
Throw it into a corner and the Tete de Course
steers like any other LeMond; smooth and
predictable. Finish a century and you won’t
believe how fresh you feel. There is just noth-
ing to compare to. This bike will definitely
bring on a big smile (and a touch of envy
from your friends.