Hi there Charli!

You know when you’ve worked with or around a group of people for a good long time, you can just about finish sentences for them? Moots can get to be a little like that.  The group here has spent a good deal of time together.  Close work enviorment which spills over to life and times after work hours. Bike rides, burger nights, family events and the joy of welcoming a new little one into this world.

We have a new addition to our group in the form of Charli Rae Meers.  She is the new daughter to our front line office manager Tami Summy and her partner Clay Meers.  If you’ve called Moots in the last couple of months you didn’t get Tami on the phone, she was out having a baby! Well, she’s back with us now and we have a new little one to welome to this crew. Please help us welcome Charli!

Hey, wait…is that the?…Still so sweet.

Tami gave us some specs on Charli:

Name: Charli Rae Meers

B-Day March 29^th, 2013

Likes: eating

Dislikes: being hungry.

LOVES her bath time…water baby for sure!

Welcome to the family!

Congrats to Tami & Clay!

David Gensch joins Moots this year for his second season on the GrassMoots Team.  He’s and amazing person, adventure on skis, bikes and life. This time around he takes us on his White Rim in a day trip.  For those of you that know this route and for those that don’t, it’s a ride that either done over multiple days with support or one big ride with no support, it’s an experience either way.  For today you can read Dave’s account of it below:

My breath deepened and slowed as my mind expanded with the horizon line, realizing just how log it had been since I was last in the great South West desert.  After setting up camp at the bottom of Mineral Bottom, the evening light broke through the afternoon thunderclouds and gave us quite a show during our walk to set up the beer cache.

The alarm went off early and just as quick as the night had ended the coffee was brewed.  Oatmeal, spiked with Honey Stinger gel took a bit more work to get down, but we were off shortly after 5:00 A.M.  This was Matt’s first time riding both the White Rim as well as this length of ride.   I had no doubt that he would stick it.

The first hour and a half is a climb in the pre dawn light and at sunrise we crested the high point for the day.  Riding a few miles further to the top of the Schafer Trail where our water cache was, we noticed the morning chill.  Dropping into the canyon, our thin rain jackets did little to shelter us from our chattering teeth and numb toes but the decent is fast and soon we were committed to the next 75 miles of desert.

It always seems that the next ten or so miles trend decieviously uphill but I wonder how much of it is my mind telling me to settle in for the next 8 hours.  I hear some of Matts fist heavy sighs and feel my own tweaks and twinges as the early season creeps its way into our ride.

The morning sun trended upwards and our layers began to shed as the rhythm of our pedal strokes regulated themselves.  Stopping at some of the more spectacular viewpoints, we made sure to keep fueled and hydrated.  By mid day we were half way and although I felt different parts of my body more than others, the simple joy of peddling my bike in the desert far out weighed any discomfort.

Lunch on top of Murphy’s Hogback was timely and welcomed as some famish and heat goose bumps teased us both.  The cool rock and warm sand soothed our poorly prepared spring bodies while we lightened our packs by grubbing down.

The rowdy double track downhill off of Murphy’s sets up the remaining 30 something miles with some more featured and fun riding and stunning scenery.  We lucked out with not too much afternoon wind and enjoyed a smooth pace.  Late in the afternoon, dark clouds came quick and we put in a push to get over Hard Scrabble before any rain would come.  We enjoyed a beer at the top that I had previously frozen and it was still nice and cold.

I told Matt that there would be a sand section towards the end of the ride and it was soft and deep this year.  It’s definitely a, “put your head down” section and not much fun but we had a beer cache at the old corral.  Another treat to bring in the last 6 miles.

We washed off the day in the Green River and cooked some burgers to enjoy by the fire.  We had no flats or mechanicals and although we both were not in biking shape we had great day in the desert.  It’s always a gift to spend time in these ancient and ever-changing places…

BEER CACHE

Many thanks to Nic at Aloha for setting our bikes up as we had a completely maintenance free day.

Josh Cady gets his miles where he can, when he can.  Like a lot of us our commutes can help add some much needed milage, when time is tight. Josh flys the Moots flag on the GrassMoots Team…he writes:

…..It’s groundhog day.  Again.  Living in Los Angeles makes everyday feel a lot like the day before.  Cycling here can either make you complacent or motivated.  After being moved here for work two years ago, I chose to be motivated.  I’m not sure if it is the weather or the location, but there is a lot here to be thankful for.

I get to ride to work every day of the year.  Sometimes that means I follow a familiar, less inviting path

but a lot of times I find myself on my cyclocross bike, burning up the local fireroads prior to reporting to work.

The majority of the time I’m riding my Moots Psychlo-X RSL.  I’m continually challenged in the local road, mountain, and cyclocross race series so I feel like getting on the Psycho-X covers all the bases.  In the summer I switch out the front chain rings and run a 50/38 or 53/39.  In the fall/winter, the bike gets prepped and run in a pure cross setup.  This year, with Cyclocross Nationals close to home, I’ve let the bike stay setup in cross mode a little longer, something I’ll be dialing in until January 2014.

Where ever you are, getting up early to ride is often a good idea.  Here in LA, you get a little more for your money.

Sand, sun, green grass and bike racing! This all sounds really good to us just as we get nailed by yet another “spring” winter storm.  Oh the humanity.

Moots will be attending the 2013 SEA OTTER CLASSIC on the sun drenched hills of Monterey California.  We’ll be showing our NAHBS Award Winning Trail Maintenace Bike, complete with chain saw, as well as our 27.5 YBB.

We will also have demo bikes on hand for you to check out.

Stop in and say hello, we’ll be under the Moots flag!

This Friday, Saturday and Sunday the worlds finest handmade bicycles will be on display at BESPOKE BRISTOL-UK.  Our outstanding Moots Dealer, Mosquito-Bikes in London will be on hand to display our craft.  The show itself is standing room only and is a wonderful time to get up close to the amazing details that run through our hand crafted industry.  Steel, carbon, titanium and alternative materials will be on display.  Please make your plans to attend and bring a comfortable pair of shoes.

You can find the fine folks from Mosquito-Bikes in booth number 61.

Mosquito Bikes location in London, England.

123 Essex Road

Islington

Just prior to the North American Handmade Bicycle Show we had the chance to show the crew at Velo (Velonews) around our place.  Last summer several of them had come to stay with us to relax and ride.  This time around we went into an in depth Moots tour.  Showing them just how we build our bikes and explaining to them some of the things that guide us in design, technique and our small mountain lifestyle.  You can pick up a copy of the May issue of VELO to read the entire special section on a select group of small frame builders.  For now you can click on the link to our story titled “The (Little) GIANT, we hope you enjoy it.

VELO MAY 2013—MOOTS “The (Little) GIANT

By now you may have seen the coverage of the North American Handmade Bicycle Show or NAHBS and our project bike called the Trail Maintenace Bike.  We though it might be nice to give you a little insight to the background, build and just how this bike came to be.

IN THE BEGINING

Let’s back up to late September 2012…you remember…late summer, warm weather with Fall colors right around the corner.  Back then the idea of a project bike for NAHBS came up around Moots.  We don’t often go down this road of one off-show-specific-bikes….it’s just not our nature.  Building show specific bikes takes a lot of time that pulls us away from our normal builds, that keep our dealers and customers happy. One feeling that really drove this project from the start was that it would be a REAL-USABLE-BIKE in the end….meaning that when the snow melts, we’ll be out maintaining our trails with it, and also loaning this rig out to our local trail club for trail days and hopefully passing the bike around to other trail days beyond Steamboat. Plus the crew put in loads of after-hours work on this….a labor of love and dedication. So off we started……

We invited our local IMBA chapter club (The Routt County Riders) and some good folks from the IMBA Headquarters office in Boulder, Colorado. We sat down with this group of people and asked a list of questions to base the direction of this build.  First and foremost we needed to know what tools it would need to carry.  The list of key tools was made and then we moved onto the plateform that we would use….Wheel size.  29er plus…not a fat bike, not a normal 29er….bigger tires to spread the load and carry both equipment and rider to thier destination with good ride quality.

DESIGN

Once the basics where covered off on, the crew here at Moots starting laying out drawings (really big drawings) for the frame work.  The tube set started coming together….some of our tubing and spec choices:

44mm head tube

100mm bottom bracket shell

Moots Custom built Titanium Fork 1 1/4” diameter, smooth gentle curve, with Paragon 9mm drop outs 135mm front wheel spacing

1.64” downtube

1.64” top tube

Rack material: 3/8” tubing

Chainsaw bar gaurd: 3/8” double wide, custom bend

7/8” Chain stays….extra long, extra stout

7/8” Seat stays large diameter and curvy

170mm rear wheel spacing

Rabbit Hole 29+ rims

Shimano Saint 4 piston disc brakes front & rear with 203mm rotors (post mount on both)

Shimano Xtr clutch rear der

The crew wanted to show off there skills and what was possible in tube forming, joining and one-off customization.  The frame itself borrows several ques from our stock line of bikes…curved tubes in large diameter, machined parts of perfection, a custom chainsaw bar-gaurd as well as two custom racks to handle any load…(in this case a chain saw and rouge hoe….and “beverages”).

Custom built titanium bar gaurd.

3/8” Tubing for racks, front & rear…31.8 stem clamps to hold hoe handles…

Engraved Mr. Moots and welded in place racks.

The crew at Moots is very happy the way the project turned out.  As Spring rolls our way we will be planning trail work days in Steamboat and looking at ways we can tie other IMBA trail days into the use of the bike. BUILD IT. RIDE IT. IMBA played a big part of the inspiration of the build of this bike.  Our hope is that this will move more people to get involved with their local trails and groups that make it possible for all of us to enjoy those trails that get us outside, riding and smiling.

You can learn more by clicking IMBA and find out what is happening with the trails in your area.

We are also selling a LIMITED EDITION MOOTS/IMBA/ROUTT COUNTY RIDERS T-SHIRT with all proceeds going to these two great organizations. Get yours today!

You can visit our MOOTS FLICKR account for many more photos of this great build.

There we have it…the first “bad ass” ride award of the month.  If you follow us on Strava in the Moots Riders Club account you could be a winner just like Nathan. Not the longest ride, not the most vertical, not the most “epic”….just a really good ride.  This one qualified on many fronts.  The distance is nice….69.5 miles…the perfect lenght to almost make you want to be off your bike late in the ride.  Climbing…yes, there was some of that, but not a ton.  The real determining factor comes in the form of a broken spoke, flat tire, bike change and then friends willing to wait for you to rally. Determination to ride for sure.

Nathan wins a nice selection of Moots Schwag from the Schwag lock-up here at Moots.

Stay tuned and keep riding….our next Strava-Schwag-Ganza will be April 15th.

The super classics are here, an amazing stretch of road racing just as all of us bike nerds are clipping in and putting in those early miles.  Ugly skies, and bad roads allow us to feel like real hardened bike riders.  In my opinion some of the most exciting racing of the year. (outside Cyclocross season). Enjoy the Ronde this weekend!

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This is Miles.  He’s been without his owner for almost two weeks.  He seems lost without him. Eric who works at Moots in the machining department has finally gone on his honeymoon.  He and his wife married last fall and put off a blissful trip to Hawaii until now…..good and ready for some warm weather.

We are a dog friendly work place so most days you will see a handful of dogs roaming the Moots shop.  Miles is a quiet one…he keeps to himself and doesn’t cause much trouble.  He’s been staying with a few different co-workers while Eric is away.  We think he’s pretty sad about the whole deal.  He wanders around looking for a friend….looking out the window until his friend comes home.