Greg LeMond has launched a range of three carbon road bikes celebrating his three Tour de France victories in 1986, 1989 and 1990, built in partnership with French manufacturer Time Sports.
The three limited edition models, TdF86, TdF89 and TdF90, are produced using Time’s NSX front triangle and head tube with a rear triangle designed to Greg’s specifications. Compare the back end of the new LeMond bikes and there’s a clear, if subtle, difference.
On the subject of sharing frame designs with Time, Greg says, “We are not doing this limited-edition production run with Time just to slot into the elite category only for the wealthy. We want to control the manufacturing of our initial top-end bikes in order to bring new, innovative technology into all of our bikes, eventually trickling down to our lower-priced bikes.”
That suggests we can expect a lot more from the LeMond brand in coming years. LeMond has established an in-house team of designers and engineers to develop a range of bikes to be launched early next year, with a targeted availability of August 2014.
More on the new TdF86, TdF89 and TdF90 framesets... Each frame has been painted to reflect the team jerseys for each year Greg LeMond won the Tour. So that’s La Vie Claire, ADR and Z-Tomasso. Head to your favourite search engine to see the jersey designs from those teams.
Working with Time proved to a be an easy decision because LeMond and Time have an association going back years. In 1985 Jean Marc Gueugneaud built a carbon bike for him when he was racing with Bernard Hinault on the La Vie Claire team. The partnership continued: when Gueugneaud left Time he set up TVT, a custom carbon frame company, and provided bikes for LeMond which he rode to his three Tour victories and the World Championships in 1983. TVT was then bought by Time in 1992. You can learn more about Time’s carbon manufacturing in our behind-the-scenes feature.
Greg used Campagnolo during his racing career, and this long-standing relationship is reflected in the fact that LeMond will only offer Campagnolo builds. A Chorus build will be $7,499 and top out at $11,999 with a Campagnolo EPS build. They’ll be offering Campagnolo’s 80th anniversary Record bike for US$10,999. Framesets will cost $4,449.
LeMond carbon fibre stems and handlebars, also made by Time, will also be available as optional upgrades, prices at $435 and $379 respectively.
Six frame sizes will be offered, from 49 to 59cm. LeMond measure the frames centre-to-centre. We’ll have more details on geometry soon.
LeMond willl be selling the bikes through select dealers and direct, but we've had no word on when they’ll be coming to the UK. We’ll keep you updated.
David has worked on the road.cc tech team since July 2012. Previously he was editor of Bikemagic.com and before that staff writer at RCUK. He's a seasoned cyclist of all disciplines, from road to mountain biking, touring to cyclo-cross, he only wishes he had time to ride them all. He's mildly competitive, though he'll never admit it, and is a frequent road racer but is too lazy to do really well. He currently resides in the Cotswolds.
12 comments
Those colours... they are a bit Livestrongy.
Nothing wrong with rubbing a bit of salt in an open wound once in a while...
Be interested in what emerges, £10k is a tad steep for me.
It seem's he may have also hooked up with Bike Pure to run a junior women's team
"Junior Women wanting 2 race in 2014 Bike Pure/LeMond/Aspire Velotech RT now recruiting email karl [at] bikepure.org "
Wish the brand all the best. So pleased Lemond hasn't gone down the mass production route in Asia, offing Campag only to. His association with 'Time'(probably one of the first Pro's to use their pedals) when 'Look' dominated, it all adds up.
..to Trek
Pleased to see this. I won't claim to be an especial fan, but he comes across as a decent enough guy who clearly has a great love for cycling. I've read both sides of the Trek/Armstrong/LeMond story, and suspect the truth lies somewhere in the middle, but either way, think he was likely hard done by to an extent. So it feels like a wrong is being righted to an extent, and we're beginning to move on.
And can he revive the fashion for colour-fade spray-jobs? Used sparingly like that it doesn't look so bad, y'know?
Colnago brought that airbrush look back recently with their Art Decor colour schemes, now available on the C59 as well as the Master. Looks well trick, and so do these.
Those HED logos ruin the look. The Campys look 1000x better.
I guess he's entitled to try and recoup some money with his latest line of bikes - all the best to him. Not sure about VFM with a $7,500 Chorus build though - tough competition out there.
Bring on the first ride review!
Value for money becomes less of an issue when you get into that price range. You think, say, Crumpton customers worry about better specced bikes on the market for the price? If you want it, and you've got the money, you're going to get it regardless.
When I rode Greg's bikes in the 90s they were different to the mass market offerings. For instance, they had more relaxed frame angles for a steadier ride and more secure descending. It'll be interesting to see if his joint effort with Time allows such individualism.
LeMond is LeMan!
He better watch out Trek don't come after him...after all he is using E M O N D....that must be infringing on Treks copyright....