2011 Moots MootoX RSL — Weight
For those with an unlimited budget for racing, a comparable carbon fiber frame bought each racing season might weight a pound less, but titanium lasts just about forever, good luck with carbon fiber over the long term and/or if you’re a big guy.
Titanium is elegant, durable, and rides with some extra comfort and zing that you won’t find in carbon. At the least, a carbon fiber frame with anything less than a full lifetime replacement warranty is not a poor long-term investment. Replacing a frame is hardly free, as it requires a teardown and rebuild.
But for me it’s primarily a comfort issue. In my experience so far, carbon fiber mountain bike frames have a too-stiff ride that only dual suspension can mitigate adequately. Since I’m not interested in a sloppy conventional dual suspension bike, that leaves a hardtail (or softtail).
Frame weight
The 2011 Moots MootoX RSL 18" frame is a racing design in a titanium hardtail 29er, and thus should be lightweight, and indeed it is as things go for a metal (non carbon) frame.
Moots specifies an 18" frame weight of 3.5 pounds, but it’s unclear what that includes (e.g., dropouts, bolts for water bottles, etc).
I weighed the 18" MootoX RSL frame on a gram-accurate scale after the SRAM PressFit 30 bottom bracket had already been installed (91g + ~10g (?) shims).
Weights here ALSO include the dropouts and bolts for the water bottles, but NOT the seat post or seat post clamp. Within a few grams, frame weight seems to be exactly what Moots claims.
This is a remarkable weight for a 29er metal frame, yet it looks and feels to be an extremely solid build; examining it in person and handling it makes me think of it as something as suitable for display as art as for building as a bike.
Moots "30.9 X 380 LB CO2" seatpost: 255g Moots Ti handlebar custom 26" X 8°: 239g (bar), 256g with 31.8mm shims
Click for larger image, and see the image gallery.
XTR Parts weight
As weighed on my gram-accurate lab scale.
XTR 26/38 crankset - cranks 660g - SMBB90-A 86g XTR 11-36 cassette: 276g - largest 5 rings are titanium XTR F01A pads with heat sinks: 18g XTR pedals: - 305g - + 53g cleats XTR chain: 271g in bag with pins XTR front derailleur: 127g XTR rear derailleur: 175g XTR shifter set with cables, housings: 344g