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IB14: Moots Routt 45 Ups the Gravel Bike Game, Plus Updates Across the Range

Moots Routt 45 titanium adventure gravel road bike for light touring
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Moots has switched things up a bit with their cyclocross bikes, turning some of them into adventure/gravel bikes. Last fall, they split the ‘cross line into a standard Psychlo-X and the racier Psychlo-X RSL, giving racers a snappier bike while relaxing the other one to fit wider tires and have a bit more universal appeal.

Somewhere between then and now, they decided to simply rename the standard Psychlo X as the Routt, and for Interbike 2014, they introduced the Routt 45, a longer, lower version perfect for light touring, bike packing and the freshly popular adventure/gravel bike segment…

Moots Routt 45 titanium adventure gravel road bike for light touring

The Routt 45’s numerical suffix refers to its 45cm chainstay, which is about 2.7mm longer than their cross bikes and allows for wider tires, up to a 700×41. The standard Routt’s good for up to 35-38mm wide tires depending on the rim.

Geometry for both is pretty versatile, updated from their Psychlo-X to have a longer wheel base, slacker head angle, taller headtube and shorter top tube. All of that makes it more stable with a bit more upright riding position.

Moots Routt 45 titanium adventure gravel road bike for light touring

Frame weight is about 1450g. It also rings in a new 12×142 thru axle option for thru axle road, ‘cross and mountain bikes. It’s an option that runs $260, which will automatically upgrades the Routt to post mount rear brake mounts.

Complete bikes will get Ultegra Di2 with hydraulic brakes for $8,049. That includes a Moots cockpit and salsa wood chipper bar. They’ll also offer a mechanical Ultegra version with hydro brakes, $TBD. Frameset with frame and ENVE disc fork will be $3,895.

Not shown, the Vamoots road disc bikes get a thru axle option, but they already come with post mount brakes on all models.

Moots-titanium-mountain-bikes-di2-sideswing-routing-update02

Mountain bikes get new routing options for the 2015 XTR.

Moots-titanium-mountain-bikes-di2-sideswing-routing-update02

Di2 will get the internal ports placement shown here, and mechanical gets external routing on the topside of the downtube for the new side swing front mech.

Not shown, the soft tail Mooto X and Rogue YBB bikes get upgraded with 12×142 rear thru axles and 160mm post mount brake mounts as standard equipment.

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ObligatedToSay
ObligatedToSay
10 years ago

I love my Moots. I rode a few other Ti frames, but it was the time on a Vamoots that sold me. I just wish I could source parts in orange – it contrasts nicer than red or gold with the grey finish.

Ajax
Ajax
10 years ago

I have a friend with a Moots. He has, I think it is either a PF30 or BB30 BB shell. Its creaks like crazy. He has tried everything and gotten some new collet expanding BB something or another. It didn’t do squat. He raves about the ride quality, but laments the BB creakyness. He has actually called Moots and is planning on ordering another Ti frame, but with a threaded BB shell. He said that the girl on the phone told him that most people getting custom frames are now requesting the threaded BB shells.

Long story short. Moots = super awesome superb ti frames, but get the threaded BB shell.

Andrew
Andrew
10 years ago

I have a Moots Road Disc and a Psyclo X RSL. I know it is contentious, but both run standard QR (DT RWS), and I really don’t see the need for thru-axles other than market forces. Both have perfectly silent PF30 bottom brackets.

I don’t understand the down tube cables exit for the XTR front mech though. Moots aren’t the only ones. I have seen a few Di2-ready MTB’s with that exit point. On road bikes the exit point is on the seat tube near the front mech so it is hidden. Why couldn’t this be the case on a hardtail? I get it for some GS bikes where there isn’t an internal route between the down tube, bb and seat tube, but not on a hardtail.

JoeLee
JoeLee
10 years ago

@Obligatedtosay … https://chrisking.com/hubs – Orange!

Andrew
Andrew
10 years ago

That should be FS, not GS! Fat thumbs and an iPhone don’t mix well!

badbikemechanicx
badbikemechanicx
10 years ago

@Ajax you can thank Cannondale for the bb30 standard. The word is that at best you can expect a 5%increase in strength if the creaking doesn’t ruin your motivation.

John
John
10 years ago

Thru axle is stiffer and the rotors reposition to the exact same place after a wheel change. I like QR just fine for rim brakes on a road bike, but they’re too fussy for the tolerances of good disc brakes.

And the PF30 BB on a Moots baffles me. Why does a handbuilt Ti bike of that caliber get a BB designed to shave costs and speed up up production lines?

Hotep
Hotep
10 years ago

Love the fact they are really differentiating their cross bike from a gravel grinder bike. I can’t think of a better material. Wow….Love this thing. Oh, and thru axles on the disc road? Love that too.

Matt
Matt
10 years ago

Now all we need is ENVE to step up and come out with a thru-axle fork for CX/Gravel/Road and this bike is perfect.

Andre
Andre
10 years ago

Ajax- I had a few creaking BB issues with my Vamoots RSL as well and in the end all it took was a cheap ($50) TriPeak PF30 adapter to solve it. It has done thousands of miles since without a day’s crap.

Andre
Andre
10 years ago

John- The PF30 BB shell provides a bigger surface area to weld oversized tubes to without having to shape them.

michael
michael
10 years ago

All these complaints about creaking pressfit BBs.
I think people aren’t installing things correctly. (use lost of grease, no threadlock. The BB isn’t going to work itself out, the crank holds it in)
My last two mtn bikes were BB92 & my road bike is BB30.
I have never had a creaking problem with pressfit.
But the threaded titanium BBs on my two Litespeeds were always creaking.

Mark
Mark
10 years ago

Why are there no tabs for fenders and/or a small bike rack on that gravel bike?

JBikes
JBikes
10 years ago

John,
Thru axles are stiffer in that they keep two largely independent suspension arms moving together, minimizing bind. This isn’t needed on the rear of a rigid road style frame.
Axle location, what actually affects disc rotor to frame alignment, is provided in a very similar way between thru-axle and QR (both clamp the frame against the hub) The only downside to QR is increased user error if the axles stub is not completely bottomed in the drop out or the QR is tightened properly.

Granted, the tolerances required to achieve proper wheel alignment are more easily achieved at the larger diameter of thru axles.

I have no issue with thru axles, and think they are needed at the front on disc bikes. But the reasons why they work at the rear on full suspension bikes don’t translate to rigid road frames. Put them on, fine. Just don’t act like they are actually doing anything different in this application.

Brad
Brad
10 years ago

Mark- The disc caliper should be on the chain stay/inside the rear traingle to best allow for fender/rack mounts (see Paragon’s low mount dropouts). Moots has stuck with their hooded dropouts exclusively and I don’t see them offering dropouts for alternate caliper mounting anytime soon.

In my area and for my riding I’d never dream of going back to fenderless.

Robbie Mubbledutt
Robbie Mubbledutt
10 years ago

To add to the debate about QR vs. thru axle on road bikes, the forces put on the frame are much higher with disks (load/distance) and the extra clamping power/surface area of the thru axle dropouts help distribute the load and also allow for lighter tubing to be used. So it’ll be especislly helpful on those loght-ass carbon frames we all love so much…

JBikes
JBikes
10 years ago

Robbie – I’l agree with that.

ObligatedToSay
ObligatedToSay
10 years ago

@JoeLee: Weight > Colour currently for me, especially considering price. I plan to get a Chris King BB in mango, whenever mine gives out.

This is entering the 3rd year of cross for me, and I’m still on the original BB. And I ride it year round, it’s currently not just the winter bike. So I’d have to agree with some sentiment that the BB issues people have experienced is due to poor installation.

@Mark: Depends on the model, eyelets for fenders cost extra. At least for the RSL it did, understandably most wouldn’t put them on a race bike. I don’t care, I did. I don’t remember how much, you’d have to ask your dealer but IIRC it wasn’t enough to cover someones time for an hour… Trivial when you think about what the frames cost.

michaelpath
michaelpath
10 years ago

I have this bike (even if it still has the “Psychlo X” decals) and it’s incredible. I ride it daily and it’s met or exceeded all expectations. I have fender eyelets and run 35c tires with PDW Full Metal Fenders – a perfect setup for the near constant wetness that is life in Portland, OR. I have the quick release version and while I’d gladly upgrade to thru-axle given the choice (perfect rotor alignment is a nice bonus) I’ve done fine with DT RWS skewers. I would imagine the thru axle would be more important for adventure touring, as the additional load on the bike will further stress the braking system. Cheers to Moots for building the finest ti bikes around!

Ajax
Ajax
10 years ago

There is no obvious advantage that quick release offers to anybody regardless of whether or not they are riding road or mtn bike or even a motorcycle for that matter, which by the way uses thru axle.

No advantage at all of quick release over thru axle. None. Speed? Nope. None of you guys are riding the Tour de France. So, that’s about all the quick release pundits can say. I’m even a dyed in the wool traditionalist myself and I enjoy rim brakes, but they offer no advantage at all to thru axle discs.

Ajax
Ajax
10 years ago

And about threaded BBs. They are better than non-threaded BBs like BB30 and PF30. The creaky issue is huge. Do a search on google. There are pages upon pages of people with creaky probs with BB30 and PF30. Don’t try to convince others that you got some super glue mixed in with extra strength loctite bonded with space age polymer epoxies and that was the trick along with fancy adapter bottom brackets that try to mimic what a real threaded bottom bracket does with a simple dab of grease.

Bob
Bob
10 years ago

With the moots machined PF30 BB and a Chris King PF30, creaking is a non issue on mountain or road bikes from Moots.

Issues arise when:
1)You use a SRAM or Campy BB that has either crappy bearings or bad tolerances
2)You/your shop installs the PF30 improperly(It is easy to do, check out the King PF30 instructions for steps you probably skipped)
3)You are using a non Moots frame with a PF30 not produced to tight tolerances.

And BB30 is completely different interface than the PF30, so not sure you can extrapolate strengths/weaknesses of PF30 from creaking BB30 frames.

Threaded BBs can creak like mad for exactly the same reasons – poor installation, shitty bottom brackets, lack of maintenance. I am skeptical that any anonymous commenters on here have enough industry experience to make a declaration that one type of BB is inherently worse than the other.

Styn
Styn
10 years ago

Listen to @Bob. I’ve 15,000+ miles on a Psychlo-X RSL with PF30 Chris King BB and creaking is a non-issue. 5,000 miles on my Mooto-x RSL with the same BB. No creaking. Don’t use inferior BBs and you’ll be fine.

bri fari
bri fari
10 years ago

Creaking issues with non threaded bb varies i think its how savage the rider is and how much lsd you dropped then the creaking is the frame saying kill me. I have destroyed many bb and frames in the last 3 decades.

Greg
Greg
9 years ago

Have a BB30 in my high end CF road race bike. Have had it back to the shop annually to fix the creaking which inevitably occurs. I’m a big guy and beat up equipment. This bike gets very limited use (maybe 1k miles per year?).

My training and commute bikes get many times more miles than the race bike. Both have threaded bottom brackets which have lasted more years than I can remember – definitely over 15k miles on both bikes.

I buy good gear, don’t ride much in wet conditions, but I’m big and am more of a diesel (read: spinning looks painful).

For a race bike, sure I’d consider a BB30. For a bike I’m going to log long miles day in and day out? No way!

As for the new thru axles, the wife’s new MTB has this and I hate it simply because it is incompatible with our the bicycle rack on the car. Ugh!!!

With each year the bicycle components become increasingly incompatible with existing components and other companies. I suppose the one redeeming virtue of 11spd is that the 10spd stuff is now much more affordable! 🙂

Joe
Joe
9 years ago

One doesn’t need industry experience to relate the fact that there are literally hundreds if not thousands of horror stories with creaking BB30 and PF30 BB’s. Just like one does not need industry experience to comment on Toyota’s ignition switch issues. 🙂

Joe
Joe
9 years ago

Many people assume that all Moots BB30 BB’s are manufactured to the same correctness. All manufacturing has variances in end results, despite how tight you claim tolerances are. I seriously doubt that all those with creaking issues with BB30 have poor installation issues or poor BB’s installed. More likely the BB shell itself was not fabricated by Moots to the correct tolerance. The typical Moots owner is not going to go cheap on a BB or a shop that doesn’t do top notch work. Sorry, but that isn’t their customer base.

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