Lynskey R430 with House Blend Paint Scheme

I've ridden a lot of bikes from Lysnkey. Helix, Cooper, R230, Pro Cross, Cooper CX, Ridgeline, and the Pro29. But, even with all of that saddle time, this bike is different. Titanium is an amazing bicycle material, but just about every bike out there is made out of 3/2.5 titanium (3% Aluminum, 2.5 Vanadium, and 94.5% Titanium), it's the standard material used. What do you get when you move this far up the Lynskey food chain? 6/4 Titanium. 6% Aluminum, 4% Vanadium, 90% Titanium.

What does that mean to the rider? When the bike is sitting still, nothing really. My Helix and R430 are darn close to the same weight, the R430 coming in slightly heavier because of the paint.

What the rider really gets from 6/4 Ti is stiffness, and lot's of it. After a full summer on the Helix I was in love with the ride, and the stiffness was plenty, but the R430 screamed to me to create an all-out race bike out of Titanium.

Lucky for me, Lynskey stock sizing is a dream. The sport geometry leads to a slammed 120mm stem on a Large. The competition geometry leads to 1cm of spacers and a 110mm stem. Can't go wrong either way really, and this bike uses the latter.

The paint is a "Houseblend" scheme, meaning the templates are set and you just pick your colors. The white has a deep pearl, the black is almost a "bass boat" finish.

Equipped with a SRAM Red gruppo, Force cranks, and Zipp 404 Firecrest Carbon Clinchers the bike is hovering at 15.7 lbs. Swap out the clinchers for tubulars and you can easily get sub-15.

The added stiffness of the 6/4 Ti vs 3/2.5 Ti is immediately noticeable on the ride. This can be good or bad, depending on who you ask and what the intent of the bike is. The rider still gets that beautiful titanium ride, but when standing and sprinting or under hard cornering the bike reacts more like a carbon race bike.

The shape of the Zipp SLC2 Short & Shallow works so well for me. Short reach and shallow drop works really well with smaller hands, and makes your drops more usable, or so I have found.

The Chris King headset is a no-brainer on our custom builds.


The ENVE fork used on this bike is a staple and a near-requirement for me at this point. I see no reason to use any other fork on any road bike build, and am using the Cross version on my current race bike.
Here's a great shot of the paint, the stars fit nicely with our uniforms and the black/white scheme is right up my alley. I had debated on a black/orange or white/orange, but the template was already loud enough for me.

The R430 has been overtaken by the new R440 since this bike was built. The new R440 received a 44mm head tube and BB30 bottom bracket to add even more stiffness to the ride. Frame price has also jumped up a hair to $4195. Houseblend Paint is a standard $800 up-charge, not too bad when you consider a brushed finish will cost a few hundred anyway.