TOMMY GORDON'S BEAUTIFUL CUSTOM LITESPEED TOSCANO
Behold! I have seen a lot of amazing custom Toscanos in my time at Litespeed, but this unique example might take the cake as the best that I have ever laid eyes on. This beauty belongs to Tommy Gordon, and one of the most impressive parts of his immpecably blinged out build is that he tackled all of the custom titanium anodizing himself. His bike is full of amazing little details, so let's take a closer look.
A Custom Finish for the World's Lightest Titanium Gravel Bike
The foundation of Tommy's build is the world's lightest titanium gravel bike: the Litespeed Toscano FI. Built on Litespeed's most advanced Superform SL6/4 tubeset, the Toscano utilizes an innovative top tube that is formed from a single sheet of 6AL/4V titanium. This design sheds grams, increases torsional stiffness, and gives the Toscano its distinctive silhouette. With an aero-shaped Superform SL downtube, the Toscano is our highest-performing gravel race bike, while still retaining titanium's legendary ride quality.
Tommy's Toscano is finished in one of Litespeed's latest Cerakote finishes, but Tommy wasn't content with an off-the-shelf scheme. Instead, he requested a custom Cerakote color, and then anodized his own frame logos, along with several titanium components, giving his bike a truly one-of-a-kind look.
"I did all the anodizing throughout the bike at home using a DC Power Supply," he explained. "The levers and headset spacers are CNC’d titanium made by Sturdy Cycles out of the UK, so I anodized them to match the rest of the pieces. The oil slick hardware was purchased from various sources, though. I tried coloring my own hardware initially but wasn’t happy with getting a repeatable oil slick pattern."
Tommy's ENVE one-piece cockpit was Cerakoted locally to match his Cerakote frame, and Slik Graphics made decals to match his Enve G SES 4.5 Pro wheelset. Besides the cockpit and wheels, the frame is built up with top-of-the-line components, including a matching anodized Cane Creek eeWings crankset and a SRAM RED XPLR AXS rear derailleur upgraded with the CeramicSpeed X Alpha OSPW.
"The 3D-printed titanium computer mount and headset cap were purchased from S-PARTS," Tommy said. "I did the anodized finish on them. Not pictured are some 3D-printed titanium center lock rotor locks that have the same anodizing pattern. They were purchased from Ti-Parts Titanium."
"I chose the Toscano FI due to the unique design," Tommy explained. "I’ve had traditional tube titanium frames in the past and wanted to go with something different this time that had internal routing. I built this bike to be a do-it-all, from riding around near the house with my kids to stretching out on the many gravel back roads in my area.
"I could have went a much cheaper route for this, but enjoy the building process and putting my own twist on it. I’m certainly grateful Chris (Litespeed's VP of Sales) was okay with a Cerakote color not currently offered on the website to really make it stand out."
The team at Litespeed loves working with customers to make their dream bikes a reality, and while we can't do everything, we do our best to accommodate custom requests. In this instance, getting Tommy a custom Cerakote color was the key to creating a truly special bike. If you have your own custom requests, don't hesitate to reach out and ask. We certainly hope Tommy experiences endless miles of joy on his new custom rig. I will certainly be looking on with envy...
Photos courtesy of Tommy Gordon.
