Well, it's been a while since an impulse purchase late last year saw me become the owner of a shiny new Lynskey R330 so I guess it's about time I wrote a bit about it. Oddly for a review, this one is going on the homepage for now - you'll see why later...

Now, regular readers will know that me and impulse purchases are not strangers. Far from it in fact. This one was probably one of the more extreme ones though... actually scratch that, it definitely was the most extreme of the lot - at the time I bought it I was going through a lot of thought processes surrounding a choice of custom frame that were probably driving you and my twitterati quite insane. Cries of "just make a bloody decision will ya!" were no doubt commonplace. And then from leftfield I went and bought something I'd never seen in the flesh, let alone swung a leg over.

Idiot. Or was I?

I had a set of Edge 2.0 forks that I'd picked up on the cheap, originally destined for a (failed) CAAD9 project. Aside from those I had the SRAM Red kit that I was running on my SystemSix, a choice of saddles, a set of brakes and wheels. Oh, and an all-important lightweight seatclamp (detail people, detail...). So along with the frame I needed to get a chainset and rings, stem, seatpost, headset and bottom bracket. My impulsive side has an expensive sting to it. But meticulously thrown together (is that an oxymoron?) this little lot actually produced the best looking bike I've ever built.

(apologies for the cluttered background!)

But would it ride as well as it looks? Well, spoiling the suspense somewhat, yes it does. Better in fact.

Titanium has a reputation. In fact I'd go as far as to say it has been pigeon-holed. Titanium = 'soft and comfy', and therefore generally flexy. Not so, at least not as far as Lynskey are concerned. The R330 takes hints of other bikes in the Lynskey range coupled with a few key highlights of it's own to produce an incredibly smooth and compliant frame, but one that is also as stiff and direct as anyone but the most powerful of riders would need - and frankly even then I don't believe it would flex enough to disregard it as an option. From the ovalising of the down tube (vertically at the head tube junction, horizontally at the bottom bracket) to the Helix seat stays, to the asymmetric ovalising of the chainstays where they meet the bottom bracket (the drive side is vertically ovalised, non-drive side horizontally ovalised) all the necessary tricks are there to make this a frame with the potential to make the Ti detractors sit up and take notice. I like bikes that do that.

The first time I rode this I knew that impulse decision had paid off. Soft? No. But absolutely buttery smooth. Comfy? Yes, but without sacrificing any of the zip and power transfer that I loved so much with my previous CAAD9 and SystemSix. And the handling is just sublime. Verging on dreamy in fact. Damn it, this bike was actually making me smile. Like really ear-to-ear grin, and even chuckle to myself a bit. That's not happened for a while.

One of the reasons I chose this particular frame was that I was about to press the button on a custom build without having tried a bike that had a slightly taller headtube - until this bike everything I had built previously had very race-focused geometry. That could have been an expensive mistake and I wanted to see what effect a more upright position would have on my riding. I struggled to ignore the Lynskey pricing on ChainReactionCycles.com and decided to make the jump on the R330 having checked out the geometry compared to their Helix and R430 which were both still too race-focused for my needs (although going direct to Lynskey would open up the option of full custom should you be keen on these and want to alter the geometry). Ultimately it has allowed me to revert to my preferred setup of a slightly longer and lower stem, and has meant that on the hoods I'm still fairly low (and can readily drop my elbows to lower myself even more) whilst the tops sit me much more upright and relaxed. The drops are also now in an ideal position and I can comfortable spend much more time in them than I have previously been able to.

With the need for new cranks came the opportunity to both try a crank that was fresh to the market and to take the option to try a slightly longer crank. The Rotor 3Ds look fantastic on the bike and they just happen to be as stiff as, well, a very stiff thing (too much opportunity for rude, crude analogies - I had to bail!). As for the length, I wasn't expecting the extra 2.5mm over my previous (and arguably most common) 172.5mm cranks. In reality it may still only be a perceived difference, but there definitely seems to be an improvement - the feeling being one of a much smoother rotation and a complete elimination of any kind of 'flat-spot' or jerkiness in my pedal stroke. There are lighter alternatives out there though, and in fact Rotor now offer the 3D with a lighter Ti axle which shaves a few grams as well as reportedly enhancing the axle stiffness. I might upgrade...

You may notice from the pic of the bike above that my eBay accident Fizik K1 saddle bought a few months back found it's way onto this build, and a great saddle it is too - remarkably comfortable given what it is (i.e. nothing but a piece of carbon with a slither of high density padding on it), and one I'd happily ride all day should the need ever arise. I switched it for a Selle Italia SLR Kit Carbonio that I had from the SystemSix purely because I was racing and feared breaking the saddle through crashing. The K1 will be finding it's way back on shortly though. I also began riding this bike with Speedplays, but I fell out with them thanks to cleat plates which were knackered in far too short a space of time for my liking, and were far too expensive to replace at that kind of regularity. They were switched for the slightly heavier Look Keo Max2, and despite missing the two-sided option of the Speedplays I'm glad I made the change.

Throughout the winter I've been racing the Lynskey, and not without success. In the first couple of races I feared crashing and breaking the bike, my wheels and the K1 - consequently I think I was holding back too much and no points were had. Regardless, the bike performed flawlessly allowing me to respond to surges, attack when the urge arose and eventually - in later races when I began to get into positions that required it - allowing me to turn myself inside out to get points in the sprints. And yes, I even progressed from 4th Cat to 3rd Cat.

One point I conveniently washed over earlier is the factor of weight. If there's one thing you can generalise on for Ti bikes it's that they're not featherweights (although Litespeed and Moots have recently addressed this with the Archon and Vamoots RSL respectively). And so as much as I love the current setup I do have a few changes planned in an effort to get the weight down a bit. Whilst far from heavyweight currently, the first to change will be the stem and seatpost - the classy Thomson kit will be making way for some bits from Italian company Extralite just as soon as they arrive, importantly with no loss of stiffness in the stem and some comparably tasty looking CNC work on both replacement items. The bars are also earmarked for a change with the alu 3T Rotundo Pros making way for their higher end carbon sibling from the 3T 'Ltd' range. Those changes should give me a healthy saving, but the biggest difference will come from a change of wheels. Obviously that's not a cheap change though, and I feel is one I should only address once I've dropped some weight from my own 83kg bulk. A reward if you will.

I mentioned earlier that you'd see why this review is staying on the homepage. Allow me to explain... I am impetuous, impulsive and quite often stupid when it comes to bikes. I get an idea in my head, usually sparked by unhappiness somewhere with my current bike, and before you know it I've changed my frame. If it helps to illustrate, I've been riding road bikes for less than two years - the Lynskey is my sixth frame. Yup, sixth. Except that for the first time since I switched to road bikes I've stopped looking at what my next frame might be. I'd call that a tipping point, although in reality it's not all that far off a miracle!

Sure I'd like to lighten it, and there's no doubt I'll keep trying other things out on it (if SRAM don't announce a 2011 change to Red then I think I'll struggle to ignore the lure of Di2 much longer), but I genuinely think this frame could be around for a fair while.

This bike is good. VERY good. Thanks Lynskey - I reckon you've just saved me another expensive year!

Tags: Lynskey R330, Lynskey Titanium, Edge, Thomson, SRAM Red, 3T, EE Brakes, Rotor 3D, Stronglight CT2, DT Swiss, DT240, Dura-Ace, Tubs, Open Pro Ceramic, Chris King