There’s a tangible experience we all seek when riding. And an underlying, unrelenting power that lives quietly beneath a sublime surface.
It’s that pursuit of perfection—a smooth interface with the road, a powerful procession over gravel—that makes for the best ride you’ve ever experienced on two wheels. We’ve developed a machine that brings you to that zenith: The Toscano.
The Inspiration
Compared to other road and gravel races, there’s something quite elegant and special about the Strade Bianche, a rite of spring that takes place in central Italy in Tuscany for a race that hearkens to the golden age of cycling, when events took place on the gravel roads around them. Strade Bianche (or “white roads”) sees over 60 kilometers of the annual race taking place on white gravel roads lined with tall cypress trees, rewarding not just the fittest, but the most skilled on all terrain. In the Toscano region, legend is earned. And we built the Litespeed Toscano in that spirit.
Cutting Edge Titanium Technology
We take some of the finest elements of our flagship road bike—the Spezia—and apply it to a bike built for speed on any surface. That means titanium tube designs that are all primed to provide unsurpassed levels of performance as well as reduced weight. The Toscano’s tubes all get premium treatment; with diameters adjusted and wall thicknesses measured to meet our exacting tolerance and weight standards and adjusted for consistency. The Toscano also features an externally-butted headtube and bottom bracket for weight savings and plenty of performance-focused tube shaping throughout the frame.
The Toscano applies one of Litespeed’s hallmark technical advances: a 6AL/4V titanium sheet-formed top tube. Painstakingly handcrafted from a flat sheet into a multiform tubeset, this special top tube is not just visually striking. The unique mix of our tube construction with one of the highest tensile varietals of titanium is not only lighter than a standard tubeset, but its high tensile properties also yield a high degree of stiffness, for increased rigidity. The toptube is paired with a triaxially aero-shaped 3AL/2.5V downtube, shaped to shroud the downtube bottle for a touch of aero effect when powering solo, on-road, or off.
The Toscano’s rear triangle is sublime in its look, but devious in its performance. Much of the attention can be focused on the seatstay interface with the 6AL/4V top tube; the stays not only connect with one of the stiffest toptubes in titanium, but they also retain a wide stance for new levels of torsional stiffness throughout the rear triangle of the Toscano. A dropped drive-side chainstay provides up to 48mm of tire clearance, providing plenty of footing options on any type of terrain from fast file tread to big lugs for grip on loose or wet terrain. The Toscano also features a UDH (Universal Derailleur Hanger) interface.
The ride is a marked difference from what you’d expect. Experience exceptional power transfer, with confident handling that is consistent in every way—whether on-road or off. Enjoy the confident high-speed handling that comes with an elongated cockpit with a short stem. Navigate switchbacks with unrelenting speed. When you want to move, the Toscano moves with you.
The Result
The Toscano is our lightest, most technically advanced high-performance gravel platform, ever. At 1,335 grams in a size medium frame, the Toscano soars on high-climbing fire roads, and descends on rails with true confidence—the new standard in titanium gravel race performance.
