Jeepers!
If you ever want to create a stir at your LBS, casually walk in carrying a Lynskey-built Litespeed frameset in your hand, like it was a lunchbox or something.
Now, I knew it was a nice frameset. And I knew the Lynskey-built ones are the desirable ones. And I figured it would be a conversation starter. What I didn’t expect is that it would also be a conversation stopper.
I walked in, said hi, and the place went silent.
The customers looked at me, the mechanics looked at me, the sales staff looked at me, the owner looked at me. Well, actually, they all looked at the frameset. So I set it down on the counter, for everyone to see.
I’m glad I had lunch before I walked over there. I was nearly an hour just dropping it off to have a bottom bracket installed, and order a quill adapter and a braze-on front derailleur.
Everyone in the place had to handle it—other customers included. The tapers in the tubing were examined closely, the bullet ends of the seatstays and chainstays were fondled, the welds lovingly traced.
The staff told stories of the old days when Ti was king. Which led to stories about some of the builders, including one who’s on my own shortlist of builders. The owner admitted once having owned one and assured me I’m in for a memorable ride.
After Blue and I return from GFLBT.
