Moots’ new MX Divide full suspension 29er mountain bike was designed with endurance XC racing in mind. Borrowing heavily from the performance features usually reserved for their RSL bikes, the MX Divide gets a PFBB30 bottom bracket, post-mount rear brake, dual-curve downtube and a 44 headtube.
The frame has a 100mm travel suspension designed in concert with the Sotto Group. It uses a carbon fiber swingarm link and will come with a Kashima coated Fox shock standard.
For 2012, Moots has also created a MootoX RSL bike and updated the frames of the regular and YBB Mooto-X, added a carbon ‘cross fork and, as of a few weeks ago, actually started making the long-awaited Psychlo-X RSL cyclocross bike. Pics and info when you click through…
The lower linkages use sculpted bearing points that are machined in-house at Moots’ Steamboat Springs, CO, facility. The chainstays are a thick 7/8″ ovalized and shaped tubes. Combined with oversized bearings, Moots says the rear end is kept stiff and efficient.
The seatstays are titanium. Pivots use oversized bearings to keep things running smoothly, and Moots says they won’t need much maintenance. The design uses a single pivot with the “Fusion Swing Link” upper linkage to tune the shock rate and provide supple action without pedal bob. Introduced a couple years ago, the 44mm head tube standard gives frame builders and consumers a lot of versatility when picking their headset type and size. While hardtails may need a thinner seatpost to add a little bump-mitigating flex, the MX Divide uses a fat 30.9 post to increase overall bike stiffness. They’re targeting Spring 2012 for release, MSRP TBD.
This is one I’ve been waiting on since placing my own personal order in February. The Psychlo-RSL is their top of the line cyclocross bike and, because each one is handbuilt in the Rockies,” they can be customized any way you’d like. Mine, like this one, will be disc brake only with 135mm rear hub spacing (which is shaping up to be the standard for disc ‘cross bikes, thankfully) plus tabs for fenders and racks during the off season. This show bike is using a WoundUp disc fork, but with more options hitting the market (ENVE, 3T, Ritchey), all we’re really waiting on are SRAM, Shimano or Campagnolo to give us a hydraulic road group.
Change doesn’t happen overnight, though, and this new carbon fiber cyclocross fork is something Moots has been working on for some time now. Similar to the RSL carbon fork that comes on their road bikes, it has a metallic gray paint that matches their frames about perfectly and small recesses inside the legs to give the pads a bit more clearance. This is particularly helpful when opening the brakes to remove the front wheel.
The MootoX 29er frames come in three variations, the top-end RSL, the YBB with a short travel “soft tail” design and the regular hardtail (shown in their current incarnation from top to bottom below). The MootoX RSL was only just introduced two years ago and it’s already getting a major refresh. The original frame had only the single downtube curve just behind the head tube. The new model gets a second curve at the bottom, too, to make it a bit laterally stiffer and whole lot sexier. It keeps the S-bend stays, PFBB30 and 44 head tube.
For 2012, the regular and YBB versions will get the single-curved downtube like the old RSL, shown at top.
