Litespeed Coll dels Reis

Metal has no right to be this light

- Words James Spender Photography Joseph Branston

'A murderous climber, always the same sustained rhythm, a little machine with a lower gear than the rest, turning his legs at a speed that would break your heart, tick tock, tick tock, tick tock.'

So spake former French champion Raphaël Géminiani of Charly Gaul, winner of the 1958 Tour de France, whose mercurial talent saw him branded the greatest climber of his generation, and beyond. As descriptions go it's a corker (they knew how to talk back then), and although I couldn't be further from that souplesse-tastic truth, there is something about the Litespeed Coll dels Reis that at least lets me feel like I could sniff such greatness downwind.

This is a titanium bike, but it's unlike any titanium bike I've ever ridden. It's lithe, it's punchy, it's just a few hundred grams over the UCI limit. It flies up the hills as if it has a gear lower than the rest.

Performance-wise titanium will never rival carbon, but I wasn't prepared for how much I'd end up loving this bike

Grams and bucks

Titanium has always held a special place in my heart, in part due to its exotic rarity and fabled ride characteristics, but mainly because of its look: classic, metal, timeless. A love of ti is a prerequisite for wanting a bike like the Coll dels Reis because – put a cushion by your feet and prepare your jaw – this bike is £12,973, with a frame alone costing nearly £5,000. Performance-wise titanium will never rival carbon, so from certain perspectives it's tough to justify the price, but I wasn't prepared for how much I'd end up loving this bike.

The Coll dels Reis is billed as 'the world's lightest titanium disc brake frame' at 948g (claimed, medium), which in the context of 'lightweight' ti frames being around 1.4kg is highly impressive. It can even fit 35mm tyres.