Integrated Mosaic GT-1 i45 Slithers In with SCALE Artist Series Finishes

Written by Ron Frazelle Mar 12, 2024 3:06 p.m. ET

(Photo/Mosaic Cycles)

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Boulder Colorado’s bespoke titanium bicycle maker, Mosaic Cycles tops off its lineup of handcrafted, fully integrated bikes with their new GT-1 i45 gravel bike. The i45 delivers the same responsive ride feel, and stable pedaling platform as the original GT-1 45 – but the fully integrated version features bigger tire clearance, (conservative 45mm of clearance), and an integrated front end.

Mosaic GT-1 i45

Mosaic Cycles GT-1 i45 Gravel Bike Intgrated front end — (Photos/Mosaic Cycles)

The i45 is designed around the ENVE Integrated Gravel Fork and Cockpit. Launched at the unofficial gravel season kick-off, Mid South, Mosiac fully embraces the GT-1 i45’s racing heritage.

Mosaic Cycles GT-1 i45 Gravel Bike frameset

Mosaic Cycles GT-1 i45 Gravel Bike Frame module

The GT-1 i45 is built with a double-butted titanium tube set that will be specifically selected for each rider and is offered with Mosaic’s Made-To-Order geometry. This will ensure that the GT-1 i45 fits each rider’s specific fit requirements, handling preferences, and riding aspirations.

Mosaic Cycles GT-1 i45 Gravel Bike finish details

Mosaic Cycles GT-1 i45 Gravel Bike big tire clearance

Mosaic is adding a few other integrated options to its line-up as well. Like the RT-1 iTR (integrated thick road), GT-1 iAR All-Road, along with the GT1 i45 Gravel. Mosaic also knows that fully integrated front ends aren’t for everyone, and will continue to produce and support the traditional RT and GT bikes.

Mosaic GT-1 i45 Stock Geometry

Mosaic Cycles GT-1 i45 Gravel Bike geo diagram

Mosaic Cycles GT-1 i45 Gravel Bike geo chart

GT-1 i45 Frame Features

Tubeset: Rider Specific T3A/2.5V Double Butted Titanium Tubeset
Geometry: Made To Order (Stock geometry also available)
Tire Clearance: 700x45mm
Derailleur Hanger: Choice of UDH or Standard Derailleur Hanger
Chainline: Gravel WIDE w/ 46T Max Chainring
Fork: ENVE Integrated Gravel Fork (53 & 55 Rake)
Headset: ENVE Integrated Headset
Brake Mount: Flat Mount Disc
Brake Routing: Integrated Internal
Shift Routing: Integrated Di2 or eTap
Axle Spacing: 12×100 Front // 12×142 Rear
Bottom Bracket: Threaded BSA 68mm
Seatpost Diameter: 27.2 (30.9, 31.6 Optional)
Front Derailleur Mount: Clamp or braze-on
Water Bottle Mounts: Up to 4 (DT, ST, Under DT, Bento)

GT-1 i45 Pricing & Availability

Mosaic’s Made-To-Order 1-Level GT-1 i45 frameset is available exclusively through a Mosaic Dealer. Lead time is 6-8 weeks.

Retail: $8,300 for Frameset Module (frame, fork, ENVE Integrated Stem, ENVE Seatpost, ENVE Integrated Headset)

SCALE Artist Series

Mosaic Cycles GT-1 i45 Gravel Bike Tidal — Tidal

Mosaic Cycles GT-1 i45 Gravel Bike Nurple — Tidal

Not only is the new Mosaic GT-1 i45 fully integrated aiding in its clean aesthetic, but Mosaic’s eye-catching Artist Series paint design is available upon ordering to set the bike apart.

“SCALE marks the sixth edition of the Mosiac Artist Series and features a cohesive mix of colorful chaos with each design,” Mosaic founder Aaron Barcheck explains. “We’re pumped to add another Artist Series option to the lineup and love the serpentine look and feel of SCALE.”

Mosaic Cycles GT-1 i45 Gravel Bike Terra — Terra

Mosaic Cycles GT-1 i45 Gravel Bike Sub Zero — Terra

First introduced in 2019 with PRISMATICA, the Mosaic Artist Series finish work program blurs the line between art and cycling. Barcheck’s art team dreams up intricate and unique designs and releases them on a limited-edition basis.

The series evolves with each new design and is available as an option on any Mosaic bike model or as a re-paint on any existing Mosaic frame.

SCALE Artist Series Paint Pricing & Availability

The new Artist Series paint design is available for an upcharge of $1300 on any 1-Level Mosaic frame.

Check out everything Mosaic Cycles has to offer when you hit the link below.

MosaicCycles.com

Ron Frazelle

638 articles

Ron Frazelle is the Cycling Lifestyle Editor for Bikerumor, he has been writing about bicycles and the cycling way of life for 7+ years. Prior to Bikerumor, he worked in the bicycle industry, living and breathing bicycles since 1995. He is based in Anaheim, California, Frazelle is an avid cyclist of all disciplines, camper, father to 6 children, husband, musician and self-proclaimed retro-grouch.

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Eggs Benedict

9 months ago

Nice geometry, shorter top tubes with decent stack height. Good tire clearance, and can accept a front derailleur. All at an unfortunate price.

Bumscag

9 months ago

I don’t really get Mosaic. Very cleanly made frames and beautiful finishes. But that’s available from a bunch of other builders (Moots, No22, Firefly, etc). And they’re just not that interesting. Boring middle of the road geometry. Boring frame design and details. And the price… Eye watering.

JoeS

9 months ago

Reply to Bumscag

They are essentially nothing, but a Dean with fancy paint and a nosebleed price. The Mosaic founder was the lead guy at Dean, and it seems like all that has really changed is fancy paint, marketing BS, and a massive price hike.

Very similar to how Firefly morphed out of IF years ago. They adopted the same new model = basically the same bikes as before at IF with new fancy ti finishes and ridiculous prices. They seem boring just like Moots, #22, etc. None of them are doing any serious customization like Brad Bingham does. It’s just some fancy paint or and/or cerakote finish and nutty prices,

Bumscag

9 months ago

Reply to JoeS

Uhhh, I think you put Brad in the wrong category. He does amazing work but he’s a lot closer to Mosaic than 22 or Firefly are. His bikes *are* Moots with vaguely different dropouts. You really can’t bag on Firefly for descending from IF and give Brad a pass when he’s doing even less innovative frame design than before…

And Firefly and 22 are both doing some really cool stuff with custom frame components, 3D Ti printing, and mixed Ti-Carbon that none of those others are doing. Yeah, Moots was the first of the bunch on the printed dropout wagon, but they didn’t go anywhere else with the tech, and what’s the point of 3D printing parts if they look just like the Ti part but with a worse finish?

JoeS

9 months ago

Reply to Bumscag

I did not put Brad in the wrong category. Please read again what I actually posted above.

The entire point of my post was that neither #22, nor Firefly, nor Mosaic are doing the serious true custom work that Brad Bingham actually does on a job by job basis. Brad is the only one of the 4 makers I mentioned building true custom bikes IMO.

JoeS

9 months ago

Reply to Bumscag

Sorry, but other than BB finish you are completely off base regarding Bingham versus moots. Bingham regularly does true one-off customized work like actually fabbing a customized crankset spider from a solid aluminum billet to fit a particular customized geometry frame he is fabbing. He also does a good deal of other highly customized fabbing with his framesets that neither Firefly, nor # 22, nor Moots, nor Mossic would ever do and they’d laugh at you if you asked them to.

Sorry, but there is absolutely nothing in common with a Moots versus a Bingham Built at this point. The vast majority of Moots at this point are batch built stock framesets with little to no customization at all. For an up charge they’ll slightly increase or decrease your stack for example or add an extra water bottle mount or internal cable routing, but that’s about it plus some custom finish options.

Every single bike that comes out of Bingham is literally a one-off 100% custom job just like Steve Potts. Neither of those guys are producing the equivalent of stock batch built bikes like Moots does. That’s reality!

Ask Bingham for a particular BB, he’ll do it, ask him to bend a seatube for extra clearance he’ll do it, fab a custom spider to provide clearance on a particular frame he’s building and he’ll do it, fab a gravel frame to accommodate a specific geometry suspension fork, yep, he’ll do it, tell him you want cantis because you think disc brakes on a gravel bike is a stupid idea and he’ll do it, on and on. Sorry, but if most of those requests were put to Firefly, #22, Moots or Mosaic the response you are gonna get is nope, we don’t do that!

Rim Brake enjoyer

9 months ago

Reply to JoeS

Kind of a broad brush. Firefly makes some excellent frames which are quite aesthetically pleasing, custom, in the USA for a few hundred bucks cheaper than mass produced S-Works Taiwanesium and like 20 bucks more than Indy-Fab.

I’ve never got why people think these bespoke super niche bikes should be cheap. If you’ve ever owned a business in the US or EMEA you know that the labor cost and statutory costs of producing anything in the first world is astronomical. You should be complaining more about the prices of 105 aluminum bikes than stuff like this.

carbonfodder

9 months ago

Reply to Rim Brake enjoyer

Not trying to be a jackass, but, is it really true that 1st world labor costs are that high? My frame of reference here is Lynskey, who seem to be able to make reasonable priced ti frames in Tennessee.
I absolutely agree that the R+D/finish/etc for the top shelf builders is a significant cost (and differentiator), but the voices in my head would put that on a per bike basis at around $2-3K. Add that to the $2K for a Lynskey frame (with margin already sunk in) and I can’t make $8K work. What am I missing?

Paul H

9 months ago

Reply to carbonfodder

Because they’re not trying to find a lower bound for their margins to maximize their quantity numbers. Their goal is to find the upper bound of what the market will bear.

John

9 months ago

Reply to carbonfodder

One major reason:

It’s custom geometry and tubing for all XXX-1 models. If you want a certain tube weight or stiffness, they will do that for you. That means a frame builder is spending more time than just choosing a singular tube for a 56cm frame and welding it.

Their XXX-2 models come quite a bit cheaper (relatively speaking) but in a stock geometry offering and standard tubing.

Lynskey and Litespeed AFAIK do not offer this custom geo or tubing.

Is it worth $8k? No, but if you take out the Enve parts and frame painting pricing (which is built into that price even if you don’t want to get the frame painted), it’s closer to $6k.

Ben Delaney has a good walk through of Mosaic’s factory from a few years ago.

Bumscag

9 months ago

Reply to carbonfodder

Well, you’re missing that Lynsky uses incredibly cheap titanium tubing and materials from India (IIRC) and is a production house that cuts corners wherever possible. You don’t get the time spent with them designing and speccing your frame, which can eat up several hours of a builder’s time.

I just checked the builders we’re discussing and (somehow) Firefly framesets start $3300 *less* than Mosaic or Moots and a grand less than No22. Brad’s even a grand less than them, which is bonkers for the quality he builds, even if his builds are much less bespoke.

And I don’t know about the other builders, but Firefly does lots of fatigue testing on their new designs. We used to use the same testing house for our automotive components and saw their stuff there a few times.

carbonfodder

9 months ago

Reply to Bumscag

Thanks. I had no idea that Lynskey got their ti from India, and I absolutely agree that they are a production house where you get what you get from stock models with little to no real customization options. (I question that most people need custom – but that is a digression for another day.)
Otherwise, we seem aligned that $8K(+) for a frameset has significant margin. I guess it comes down to ‘the market decides the price’ and I can’t comment on anyone else’s determination of value.

JoeS

9 months ago

Reply to Rim Brake enjoyer

The problem with your claim is that there is nothing really seriously custom about 99% of Firefly’s except for the finish. Their idea of “custom” is increasing your stack by 1 or 2 cm’s for a given reach, etc…. Same as Moots, same as #22,”. There is nothing truly serious custom about their bikes. A guy like Brad Bingham is doing real actual custom. Custom fabbing say a one off crankset spider to work with a particular frame set he has fabbed. Sorry, but you are not getting any of that with a #22, nor a Firefly, and certainly not a Mosaic. You’re basically paying a huge price for what is the equivalent of a batch built frameset with very minor reach and/or stack mods and a cute paint job.

FYI, I agree, the prices of a stock Specialized or a Cervelo R5 etc… are laughable, but the prices of these few ti makers are just as big of a joke. They are asking the price of a solid low mileage used car for a bike frame set. They are asking more for a bike frameset with little to no components on it than what I was out the door with tax and registration for on a Brand New Kawasaki Ninja 650 for, $7,000. A motorbike that has exponentially more real serious R&D in it and more real fabrication costs than any non powered bike frameset. That is bat shit crazy bike pricing in any even semi sane dimension.

Rim Brake enjoyer

9 months ago

Cool looking bikes

Jason DW

9 months ago

Too pretty to ride, almost.

Integrated Mosaic GT-1 i45 Slithers In with SCALE Artist Series Finishes