Gravel Locos test: Litespeed Ultimate G2 with Spinergy GX wheels 

Ben is my favorite presenter because he doesn’t present. He just talks.

Thanks for having us along + I always look forward to your insights. I'm right on the search for my first Ti bike > choices... choices...

Love the honesty of your reviews. Much appreciated Ben.

Thanks for taking your time interweaving comments about the bike and the ride and the event makes it much less a sales pitch for the latest anything

As always great stuff with insightful feed back thanks man

Ben, excellent point about the rear triangle flex and how it impacts acceleration. The bigger the rider, the more pronounced the flex becomes under power and for smaller riders it is less noticeable. That's been one of the complaints I've heard even from riders back when 26er Ti hardtails were all the rage in the '90s. Great review and overall ride impressions as always.

I think it is worth mentioning Spinergy wheels reached their global zenith by being featured on the TV show Pacific Blue.

So Ti is for adventure gravels. Not for racing due to soft bottom bracket and lack of acceleration. Nice to know it. Thanks for very informative review 👍

Consistently producing quality videos that I want to watch ,,,,how do you do it !

I love my early 2000s litespeed tri bike, smooth as butter even on 25mm tires, wish they could fit 32mm.

Great and entertaining vid man as always! You tell the truth and between the lines I can tell you hate that litespeed bike..haha I tried one once and my ass hurt for days, in gravel??? Holy crap, that was a punishing ride man. Carbon always is the way to go

Nice Review and Coverage of the race..

👍 great breakdown

Great new channel! Would love to hear what your favorite bike (that you have reviewed) for the year is and which event you attended you enjoyed the most. Cheers, Tim

OK, you made me subscribe with your "elephants" gaff. I love your videos for your presenting style and the level of detail you provide.

Hi Ben, the bottle cage can be extended by attaching an extender. I had to use one because I had the same issue except I didn’t have a framebag installed! 😂 small frames 😅

Want to point out that a set up with Spinergy wheels and anything Di2 appears to be in the upper $6k range, even though the overall starting point is under $5k. I have a Watia with the same Ultegra/GRX drivetrain set up you showed, it's an incredible all--road bike for the CO Front Range. Titanium is a supremely enjoyable ride!

A B-rad base from Wolf Tooth would give additional flexibility for the bottle mount locations as well.

Excellent overview. Glad I got the Ultimate Gravel last year instead of the G2. Don't like those seat stays at all. Keep it classic.

Nice coverage Ben, thanks to have you there to taste a slice of an original gravel race. Ti was always on my list for a new bike. But what a disappointed when I bought a (Dutch) Van Nicholas road frame! OK, the spring-like compliance is at the rendez-vous but sluggish acceleration too... To my eyes you need much more power to move fast. Today's carbon bikes have tremendous comfort WITH stiffness. So you don't have to choose. So -as you noted- Ti is better choice for long/careless(reg. the rocks!) gravel rides/races. Something I dislike in this bike is the "comfort' triangle there, in the seat post/seatstays joint, something that hit me upside the head on GT & Lapierre bikes. Probably it helps somewhere but it's definitely ugly. So, disappointed to see Litespeed to follow this way. Hope in the future they will correct it.... P.S.1: I was shocked to see evidence 1 (13:23) & 2(13:29) reg. rear triangle stiffness. WOW, I mean WOW! Thank you. P.S.2: I warn you, I'm a SRAM-head, but separate/interchangable batteries and lack of these small cables around front & rear derailleurs -like those I saw in this bike- make SRAM groupsets a must for gravel.

Nice video, what frame size was this bike? thanks

I wonder how much additional vertical compliance you would have gotten with a carbon seatpost, or even the ti one they offer with the 20mm offset. It also seems like you could have gone down a size, which would probably give you a stiffer frame laterally but with more compliance in the seatpost.

If the seat tube is not shimmed to accept a 27.2 post as many good titanium bikes normally are, and is left at 31.6, the ride will most certainly be harsh at the saddle.

I wonder if the stiffness is any better on the litespeed toscano or the same

Tires look bit skinny, 38mm?

columbus xcr or titanium? And perhaps those super cool hunt aluminum aero wheels for el gravel.

I wonder how the new litespeed toscano feels according to litespeed its a bit stiffer

Hi Ben, great channel, love the honesty and humbleness of your videos! Had a couple of questions after catching up on a few of your videos.. for someone that isn't racing (and will never race competitively), a roadie that likes his bars almost saddle level (probably because I'm not in the best shape), and not looking to spend much over $5k, what bikes would you suggest? You seem to (at least in this video) like the Giant Revolt, any feedback on the open-mold Obed Boundary? Others? Guess I'm stuck between do I need/want a gravel race bike or just a gravel bike? Would love to hear your thoughts, maybe a future video? Thanks and I look forward to your videos, they are a refreshing change from most of the other stuff on YT.. :)

He should have been throwing up the horns with his hand for a true DIO metal salute. 🤘

Is it fair to say that you liked the bike more for casual rides around Boulder vs. the race environment where speed and acceleration were of more importance?

Tyre set up? Tubes or tubeless and pressure?

Curious how might compare to Watia for speed and comfort?

So I'm not the only one severing Di2 wires, I did mine in when I first got my Giant Revolt while trying to insert the seat post, which is a bit of a fiddly nightmare with that shim. $1200 upcharge for custom geo sounds a bit pricey, aren't they just cutting some of the tubes to a different length?

Think the custom price is now $600

No elephants!?

Not a fan of the seatstay design, that wide section rubs on the thighs, unless you've got bow-legs lol

Wow internal wiring sounds a bitch unless I win the lottery dont need to worry 😁

Video was at 666 likes, so I had to change that. 🤣

Out and back courses.........

I feel if Pros are going to do races like these they should not qualify to win anything if they are currently signed to a team. But it isn't done that way which is why I don't do events like these.

5 thou? WOW...that will never happen. How do people afford these bikes.

One question. Are you related to John Cena? 🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔