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Moots unveiled their new 69er Gristle with a 29″ front wheel and 26″ rear wheel.  It’s a sub-6lb Ti full suspension frame with 4″ of rear wheel travel.  The video gives you the run down of the bike that started life as nothing more than an idea on a blog post that made its way to the big city, I mean Moots catalog.  They had some other sweet new Ti components and some changes to their bikes, and I rode the Gristle at the demo days.  Wrote a post about, like to read it? Here it goes… (read “more”)
I had to jack the seatpost way up (I probably needed the next frame size up, but fortunately, Moots makes a 380mm seatpost for just such occasions), so it wouldn’t normally look so tall.  They also offer the Gristle in their YBB “softtail” and a hardtail, all with the 29″ front/26″ rear wheel combo.  Like any Moots, you can also get them customized.
This angle exaggerates the difference between the front and rear wheel, but helps show the way the frame accommodates the disparity.  Below, the Gristle is all shined up for the indoor show:
In addition to the bikes (which are further down), Moots had a few new Ti components to show off:
The newest addition to their stem family is the one in the foreground.  It’s the “Open Trail”, which is their first 31.8mm mountain stem, and it features a bi-ovalized construction.  Weight is 157g and runs $395 for stock sizes or $450 for custom.
Next up was their new-ish “Cinch Post” seat posts.  As far as seatposts go, this is a pretty cool adjustment scheme (and the reason why I was confounded trying to adjust the seat position during my demo ride!).  You insert different size hex wrenches into the bolt holes depending on whether you want to adjust fore/aft position or seat angle.  Why is this cool?  Well, you no longer have to worry about keeping the angle the same while you knock your seat forward or backward, and vice versa.  In fact, it’s pretty much a one-handed operation with this fine piece of ti engineering.  They come in 280mm, 340mm and 380mm lengths, weigh between 192g and 237g and retail for $285 to $305.
So, let me use this bike to throw this prediction out there:  Commuters/cruisers will be the next single speeds.  Seems everyone that was cool had single speeds back when they were a fringe bike.  Now, the real early adopters will be sliding up to their coffee house with $8,570 ti commuters like this.  The CoMOOTer is Moot’s foray into the growing commuter segment, and it enters with style.  Check out the close ups below.
It has integrated blinky taillights built into the Ti pannier racks, shiny metal fenders, a 14 speed internal gear hub, disc brakes and snazzy water bottle cages.  Want more?  How ’bout an integrated headlamp that’s attached directly to the front plate of the Ti stem:
The detail work on the dropouts are just some of the little touches that make this bike scream “high end”.  The wheelbase is slightly adjustable and also lets you get the chain tension just right.
Their traditional road bike, the VaMoots, is relatively unchanged for 2009.  Sure is pretty.
The Psyclo-X is their cyclocross bike.  The big change for 2009 is a revised chainstay to allow for a bigger front ring for gear mashers.  $2,950 for the frame.
No pics, but their other news for 2009 is the Zirkel full suspension mountain bike’s travel has been bumped up to 4″ rear with a 100mm fork, and their Mootour long-distance road bike is now available in stock sizes from 53.5cm to 58cm.
