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74 Main Street Middlebury Vermont (802) 388-6666

    

We guarantee your fit

Your Perfect Bike

We guarantee your fit.  This includes a pre-purchase fit evaluation, and a pick-up assessment of you and your bike that takes place on the road, not on a trainer.
We tailor our builds to your specifications, with no limits on brands offered
You don't need to buy everything from us.  In fact, we are more than happy to help you locate a mail order dealer who can help you meet your budget for components where we can't offer competitive pricing.  This is true with most (but not all) Italian manufacturers, especially Campagnolo.
We are BB30 specialists -- the BB30 bottom bracket is standard equipment on the Lynskey Helix OS, Pro 29- Lefty, and Pro 26.  For an additional $500, it is an ideal custom option for enhancing the performance of an R230 or R340, or a standard Helix.  Since we are Cannondale and Specialized dealers, we offer the two finest (and lightest) BB30 cranks available:
Alloy -- Cannondale Hollowgram SL*
Carbon -- Specialized S-Works*
Personal touch assembly by one of our three custom bike specialists, all of whom own and ride Lynskeys themselves.  We pay special attention to details, from proper torque to cutting your fork steerer the right way to making your bike look just the way you want it to.  We know this is your dream bike, so we add touches like coordinating tire and bar tape color.  We want to be certain you have the nicest riding bike in your group, and the nicest looking bike as well

Worksheet

Click here for a worksheet you can use to conceive your dream bike.  You can generate your own build list with Microsoft Word, and then e-mail us your list for a quote.  If you are considering a purchase from Moots, Serotta, Seven, IF, Guru, or other titanium frame builders, you will be pleasantly surprised by what we can offer.  Our price may allow you to order a better wheelset, or to go for a better component group.  

See our photo gallery for a look at what your new Lynskey can look like.

Priorities

  1. Frame:  The frame is the heart of your bike.  The right combination of fit, stiffness, and comfort are essential to your enjoyment of your new bike.  There is an ideal Lynskey frame for every rider.
  2. Wheels:  Wheels have more effect on performance than any other component on your bike.  Before you continue, we suggest you visit our page on Choosing Wheels
  3. Fork:  Don't compromise here:  the fork is the heart of your steering mechanism.  It should be strong, stable, and durable. ENVE Composites forks provide the ultimate in all these areas.  We highly recommend the ENVE fork with all of our road builds, not just for performance, but for safety.  
  4. Cranks:  Check out this comparison of many of the top cranks in the bike industry.  If you want to take advantage of the performance enhancement BB30 offers to a metal frame, keep in mind we are a Cannondale and Specialized dealers; we can outfit your BB30 Lynskey with a Cannondale Hollowgram SL alloy crank or a Specialized S-Works carbon crank, the two most advanced BB30 designs on the market.
  5. Group:  SRAM, Shimano, and Campy all make outstanding groups at top, second, third, and even fourth level, with a weight penalty each time you go to a lower group.  Performance of the lower groups for each brand is close to top-of-the-line.  We advise you not to compromise on frame, fork, or wheels, just so you can have Red, Dura-Ace, or Super Record.
  6. Cockpit:  Bar, stem, saddle, post -- the cockpit is another good place to control costs.  An ENVE Composites seatpost, bar, and stem combined with an all-carbon Fizik saddle will look awesome and won't weight much, but just these four components will set you back $1200.  Unless the sky is the limit for budget, you will realize more performance benefit if you invest this money in better wheels.  For the cockpit brands we most commonly use, see our gear page.

Picking your group:  SRAM 

If you're looking for performance, light weight, great ergonomics, and reasonable prices, SRAM gives you the biggest bang for the buck.  Here are the SRAM gruppos at a glance:

SRAM Red  
BB30 and standard versions
One of the stiffest production cranks available
Incredibly light all-steel cassette lasts longer than cassettes that use titanium cogs
Advanced materials include carbon, titanium, and hybrid ceramic bearings
Lightest group on the market
$300 less than Shimano Dura-Ace 7900
To reduce cost on the Red group, with almost no gain in weight, substitute the following Force components:
Front and rear derailleurs
Bottom bracket
SRAM Force -- See cyclingnews.com review and roadbikeaction.com reviews of of 2010 Force 
BB30 and standard versions
Improved -- 2010 Force is essentially a Red group with standard bearings instead of ceramic
Lighter than Shimano Dura-Ace 7900
$1000 less than Shimano Dura-Ace 7900, $100 less than Shimano Ultegra 6700
Smooth-shifting Rival cassette (there is no Force cassette)
Elegant gun-metal polished finish
SRAM Rival
Elite-level performance 
Lighter than Shimano Ultegra 6700
$400 less than Shimano Ultegra 6700
Black anodized finish 
Apex -- See bikeradar.com, Velonews, and Road Bike Action reviews of the new SRAM Apex economy gruppo
SRAM's newest, most economical road group
Offers a medium cage rear derailleur and 11-23 through 11-32 cassettes
Super Low Gears -- for extreme hillclimb events like Burke, Equinox, Ascutney, and Mount Washington, or for customers who want a gear lower than 34-28 or 34-32.  We do this by substituting components in SRAM's new 10spd mountain group:
10spd SRAM MTB rear derailleur
10spd Cassette, 11-32, 11-34, or 11-36.  Shimano 10spd mountain cassettes work great with SRAM mountain rear derailleurs, so although SRAM only offers 11-32 and 11-36, we find that a Shimano 11-34 offers the most logical spacing for a long-distance wide-range rear cassette:  11-13-15-17-19-21-24-27-30-34.

Best values for SRAM?  Force and Apex.  Apex is the best value for the rider on a budget, period.  Force is a very elegant looking and functioning group that costs $350 more than Rival and is within a few grams of the top groups for lightness.  

Force is an especially effective group when used with Cannondale Hollowgram or Specialized S-Works cranks -- with the crank upgrade, Force weighs just a little over 1900 grams.  SRAM Force as our number one BB30 build choice.

Picking your group:  Shimano

See cyclingnews.com reviews of Ultegra 6700, Dura-Ace 7900, and 105 5600   The ergonomics of the new shift levers are a dramatic improvement over first-generation 10spd Shimano.  Our own experience with the new groups has been very positive to date:

Shimano Dura-Ace 7900 -- cranks continue to set the industry standard for stiffness, the brakes for stopping power, and the front derailleur for smoothest shift.  You can take some of the bite out the high cost of 7900 by substituting Ultegra 6700 brake calipers and cassette.
Shimano Ultegra 6700 -- For riders who are on a budget that precludes 7900, the "new Dura-Ace" may very well be Ultegra 6700, which replaces Ultegra 6500 and Ultegra SL 6600 and offers almost identical functionality to 7900 at a significant savings.
Shimano 105 5600 -- the best 105 yet, offering the ergonomic and performance advantages of 7900 and 6700, but at a lower price.
Super Low Gears -- we are sorry to say that with 10spd Shimano, the biggest cog you can use is a 28.  Shimano 10spd mountain derailleurs are not compatible with Shimano 10spd shifters.  In this respect, Shimano is not as versatile as SRAM.  Shimano is taking steps to correct this for '12, when their 105 rear derailleur will have a capacity of 30 teeth in the back, and will offer a 12-30 cassette.  Shimano 10spd mountain cassettes work great with SRAM mountain derailleurs, however -- nice, because Shimano offers an 11-34 (which SRAM does not), in addition to 11-32 and 11-36.

7900, 6700, and 5600 are lighter than their predecessors.  The new Dura-Ace cranks are available in standard (7900) and compact (7950) configurations.  The new Ultegra cranks come in standard (6700), triple (6703), and compact (6750) versions.

Best values for Shimano?  Ultegra and 105.

Picking your group:  Campagnolo 

By all reports, Campy's new 11-speed groups offer the finest performance ever, for a name that has been associated with performance for over 50 years.  A Chorus build is similar in price to SRAM Red, and Campy Super Record costs almost as much as Shimano's electronic Di2, but the Campy aficionado will very rarely consider switching to another brand.

Best value for Campy?  11spd Chorus.

Chris King

Chris King isn't just about quality headsets:

Enhance the durability of your SRAM or Shimano cranks by using Chris King's new external bearing bottom bracket
Chris Kings Swift™ Road hubs with Edge rims, for an incredibly rugged and light wheelset

Equipment Research Links

United Bicycle Institute -- comprehensive listing of bicycle and component manufacturers' web sites
MtbREVIEW -- customer reviews of mountain bike equipment
RoadBikeREVIEW -- customer reviews of road bike equipment
weightweenies.com -- forum for riders interested in high-end equipment

* Please note, Specialized and Cannondale components are only available to you if you can pick up your new Lynskey at the shop.  Our contracts with these companies do not allow direct sales over the web.