Litespeed Celebrates Three Decades of Innovation and Craftsmanship.
Litespeed Bicycles Continues to Lead the Titanium Market Thirty Years Later.
Chattanooga, TN (January 14, 2016) – Litespeed road, mountain and adventure bikes manufactured by Tennessee-based American Bicycle Group (ABG), using globally sourced premium materials, is launching a full year of activities, events and rebates to celebrate 30 years as the technologically innovative leader in titanium and carbon bicycles.
“Litespeed started a revolution in handmade titanium frames that vastly improved performance for serious cyclists,” Peter Hurley, president/CEO of ABG said. “Thirty years later we continue to lead the way with innovative bikes like our 2016 T1sl that combine shape, lightweight and high performance that only Litespeed can provide.”
Litespeed was a celebrated frame builder within two years of its launch in 1986 receiving Bicycle Guide’s “Best of Cycling Award.” The company’s leadership in the use of titanium in bike design was acknowledged in 2009 when NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory asked Litespeed to collaborate to produce the framework for the Mars rover ‘Curiosity.’ Litespeed bikes have also been acknowledged for their design and performance by many industry publications and most notably, earned the coveted Eurobike design award. In 2010, Litespeed introduced its first carbon aero road bike, one of the first aero bikes on the road bike market, and earned the editor's pick for the aero road category in the 2011 Velo News Buyer's Guide. In 2015, the company introduced its first gravel adventure bike continuing the expansion of the company’s product line categories. Now in 2016, Litespeed’s growth prompts a move to a larger production facility to manage future expansion of its titanium manufacturing and to continue its pursuit of the highest quality craftsmanship.
Today, Litespeed’s innovation and expertise can be seen in the 2016 T1sl with characteristics that demonstrate the company’s leadership in handmade titanium frames. No other manufacturer has perfected the techniques of using cold worked, shape-specific strengthening, wall thickness manipulation and geometrically-enhanced tubing seen in the T1sl and throughout the Ti product line. Each tube is crafted with attention to shape, diameter, weight, functionality and stiffness, which is carried over to the carbon line up of bikes.
In its 30 year history, Litespeed bikes have been tested and ridden by a “who’s who” of the competitive cycling and triathlon world: Tour de France cyclists Greg Lemond, Robbie McEwen and Lance Armstrong; wheel innovator Steve Hed; IRONMAN competitors Tim DeBoom and Cameron Brown; Olympians Simon Whitefield, Jeff Kabush and Vanessa Fernandez; and 59-time French champion and 13-time world champion Jeannie Longo. Litespeed also has sponsored teams including Team Maxxis, Lotto-Addecc and Astellas, to name a few, and Bob Roll competed on a Litespeed mountain bike.
About American Bicycle Group
Based in Chattanooga, Tennessee, American Bicycle Group manufactures leading-edge, high performance bikes under two brands: Litespeed (road, mountain and adventure bikes) and Quintana Roo (triathlon-specific bikes). Litespeed’s titanium technology makes it the leading manufacturer of cold-worked, cycling-specific tubesets in the world, which led to a partnership with the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) to fabricate the wheels’ framework of the Mars Land Rover. Quintana Roo is the only company in the world entirely devoted to triathlon bikes and its PRfive model was recently designated as LAVA magazine’s Editor’s Pick Gear-of-the-Year for Bike Technology, an award Quintana Roo also won in 2015 with the PRsix.www.americanbicyclegroup.com
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