The original family behind Litespeed, Lynskey have been building titanium frames for over two decades. There’s no shortage of experience or performance in the deceptively simple but instinctively ‘right’ feeling T230 aero frame.
Ride & handling: Explosively responsive with a real sustain to its speed gain and spot-on handling
Two decades of custom and production bike-making for some of the most successful athletes in the world puts Lynskey in an enviable development environment. They’ve also adopted the proven FIST geometry developed by Dan Empield, including a full triathlon-style 78° seat angle. The result is that we dropped into an optimum aero position over the T230's short ring reinforced head tube straight away.
Handling is spot on too. Despite a tight rear end and steep seat angle, the steady head angle and relatively long front centre (front wheel to bottom bracket) stabilise responses beautifully so you’ll never worry about relaxing on a descent or reaching for a gel.
Even in gusty crosswind conditions we never felt nervous on the 45mm wheels and there’s no sail effect from the subtle frame shaping either. Impressive tracking accuracy makes it a breeze to slot gaps between potholes or slingshot through mini roundabouts without your heart skipping a beat.
In short, we felt confident and relaxed on the T230 immediately, letting us get on with whatever power interval, hilly heart popper or steady spin mission was on the menu.
Where the T230 really shines, though, is the way it seems to accentuate and flatter whatever speed you can supply. It’s not anvil rigid, nosebleed fast like some carbon and alloy bikes, and neither does it feel 20psi softer than the tyres actually are, like some super-noodle rides.
What it does do is flow and float along the road – however rough – in style; efficient, eager and uniquely calm in comfort and road connection terms .
The Lynskey glides more and more smoothly the further you click down the rear block, providing the ultimate incitement for you to keep the revs and heart rate high, however far you want to go on your ride.
It’s not a hammock and it’s not a flat-tubed hammerhead. However, the glove-like fit, stress-free handling and super-efficient, floated ride of the Lynskey will calmly carve you a whole new string of best times.
The further and longer you ride this bike for, the more you’ll appreciate the Lynskey experience and we also think it’s an amazing price for its quality too.
Chassis: Impressive value, good attention to detail and plenty of options
Talking to Mark Lynskey, he’s keen to point out that it’s a very simple design and it's meant to be that way, because they wanted to provide a simple, easy to maintain, great value and durable frame.
A slightly ovalised down tube rather than a ‘mega aero’ in is used for cost reasons and because any aero advantages are questionable as soon as crosswinds start gusting.
External cable routing is used for simple and easy-to-tune shifting, and the frame also takes a conventional headset and standard round seatpost for maximum component choice.
It’s certainly no Plain Jane though: the main tubes are double-butted, shaped and tapered, welding is immaculate throughout and the seatstays are curved and aero profiled.
The crisp laser-cut horizontal dropouts get screw adjusters for perfect wheel alignment too. A stainless-steel style ‘brushed’ finish is also available for £1,749 as well as a full custom programme and more aero-tweaked T330 and T430 options if you’re minted.
Equipment: Quality stuff, but none of the carbon kit is particularly light and saddle is painful long-haul
While the frame is impressive value, UK distributors Hotlines have gone all-out in component terms. They also handle the Control Tech brand so the Lynskey is loaded. We’ll be reviewing these items separately soon, but here’s a quick run down of first impressions.
The full-carbon wheels are impressively light with tubular compatible rims, dropping weight further as well as smoothing out chatter and buzz from rougher road surfaces.
The Mantra cockpit combo is undoubtedly catching thanks to its duck-billed construction and it’s stiffer than we expected too. It’s not particularly light or adjustable compared to conventional setups though.
The carbon fibre chainset isn’t particularly light either, but it looks great and works as well as conventional options. Finally, the Module saddle with its carbon nose window is definitely feathery, but its less-than-duvet-like padding makes it a short course sufferance rather than long-haul lovely.
