Moots’ Colorado-crafted titanium family of gravel bikes gets a wide tire, wide-range gearing update for 2021, with completely revamped Routt RSL, Routt YBB, and a Routt 45 that maybe needs to get renamed the Routt 50? Moots calls it a more trail-capable gravel bike family. But it looks to me like the natural evolution of versatile bikes for everything from bikepacking fire roads to sneaking in some singletrack on your gravel rides…
2021 Moots Routt titanium gravel bike family updates
The Moots Routt family takes advantage of the smooth ride of their US-made titanium frames to tame all sorts of gravel roads. Now with bigger tire frame clearance, the same short rear centers, and slacker front ends, the Routts are more off-road ready than ever, building on what Moots has been building in ti hardtail XC mountain bikes for decades. With complete bikes builds featuring wide SRAM AXS Wide & Shimano GRX groups, wider gearing will take your ti gravel riders ever further afield.
2021 Moots Routt 45 ti gravel bike
The Routt 45 (or should we call it the Routt 50 now?) is the Moots gravel workhorse. The seamless US 3/2.5 titanium gravel bike gets bumped up to 700c x 50mm tire clearance, while keeping the same shortened 437mm long chainstays. At the same time, this versatile ti bike is able to run gravel double chainring setups with up to a 42T big ring thanks to the subtle chainstay shaping updates.
This updated Routt gets geometry tweaks too, with new slacker 70.25-71° head angles (0.5-1.5° slacker, depending on size) for more stable handling over loose surfaces at speed. It also adds ever so slightly longer front centers – again for a more stable ride, but also for much needed toe clearance on smaller frames, especially when maxing out with large volume gravel tires. With 3-4mm longer frame Reach across all sizes, Moots also brings one size shorter stems to actually bring your bar closer, and with wider bars to improve leverage & control in more technical terrain.
Lastly, all complete bikes get wide-ranging gravel-specific drivetrains that help with better tire clearance and wide gearing to handle steeper climbing without sacrificing top-end cruising speed.
The Routt 45/50 still gets a 44mm headtube for tapered steerer forks, 12mm thru-axles & the 3D printed titanium flat mount disc mount, three standard sets of water bottle bosses, and font & rear full-coverage fender eyelets. It also sticks with the tried & true 68mm threaded bottom bracket, 27.2mm seatpost, seven stock sizes, dozens of finish options, plus the possibility for full geometry & Moots detail customization.
Routt 45 framesets start from $4560 for mechanical groupsets and external routing, or $4885 for electronic groups and internal routing. Complete bikes start from $7500 with GRX and climb to $9215 with SRAM AXS.
2021 Moots Routt RSL ti gravel race bike
Want to go a bit faster, the Routt RSL is still the racier, more all-road fast gravel bet in the family. But like the 45, the RSL gets more tire clearance, now up to 700c x 45mm for the RSL with its even shorter 430mm chainstays.
The internally butted titanium Routt RSL is said to save almost 350g over the standard Routt, while also getting faster-handling geometry – again updated, though. Now the RSL slackens to a 71-72° head angle (0.5-0.75° slacker, depending on size) with minor frame reach updates for more consistent handling across the full 7 size range (50-60cm).
Again, pretty much all of the tech details remain otherwise unchanged, just like they are on the 45.
Routt RSL framesets start from $5560 for mechanical groupsets and external routing, or $5885 for electronic groups and internal routing. Complete bikes start from $8500 with GRX and climb to $10,215 with SRAM AXS.
2021 Moots Routt YBB ti endurance gravel bike
Then lastly is a bigger, badder Routt YBB – delivering classic Moots ‘why be beat’ micro softail rear suspension to smooth out those big gravel hits, now with bigger 50mm tires too. With 20mm of travel in the rear the YBB is about tacking a little more of the edge off of bumpy gravel roads or longer adventure gravel rides.
The YBB gets the same slacker geometry as the updated 45, with slackened head angle and longer front center for improved off-road handling. Just, the Routt YBB leaves out the option for the smallest size, getting six stock sizes (52-60cm).
Routt YBB framesets start from $4710 for mechanical groupsets and external routing, or $5035 for electronic groups and internal routing. Complete bikes start from $7650 with GRX and climb to $9365 with SRAM AXS.
New 2021 Routt Availability
The new wider tire & slacker geometry changes have made their way into all three Routt models by now as rolling updates. That means that all of the Routt 45, Routt RSL & Routt YBB gravel bikes in production in Steamboat Springs, CO get these updates, so you can start to configure your new Routt right away.
