Beautiful Bicycle - A Matchy Moots Routt RSL

Titanium fans love that a bike can be more than just raw performance metrics. Gravel riders - outside of a small contingency of racers - love the idea of durability and timelessness. What do you get when you combine the two and add a sprinkle of sportiness? The Moots Routt RSL, a titanium gravel bike that caught our attention in this latest Beautiful Bicycle build.

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Moots Routt is a lineup of titanium gravel bikes made in Steamboat Springs, Colorado. There are effectively three options in the lineup: Routt ESC which isn’t far off from a monster cross bike or a hardtail mountain bike with drop bars, Routt 45 which offers heaps of tire clearance to cover the entire spectrum of gravel, and the Routt RSL. It is the lightest gravel bike Moots makes, thanks to a swap to their custom-butted tubing that drops weight where possible. Sporty, quick-handling, and with a touch of springiness that only titanium has, we think the Routt RSL is probably the best drop-bar titanium bike for most people that Moots makes. 

Titanium bikes are often seen as timeless, almost-heirloom types. But there are a few notable touches that are distinctly new-age. The back of the Routt 45 receives 3D-printed titanium dropouts for greater strength, for example. The look is distinctly clean, with none of the weld points one might expect from such a complicated part of the bike. Then there’s the anodizing, which isn’t new-school but makes the flat grey frame really pop. Here, the bike is anodized with a matte blue finish seen on the downtube and top tube. 

What do you do when your bike has matte blue anodizing? Match it to Chris King’s matte turquoise colorway, obviously. This Routt RSL receives the Chris King GRD23 wheelset with King R45D Centerlock hubs to start, as well as a matte turquoise headset and bottom bracket. 

The star of the show is Moots alligator. Named after an alligator-shaped pencil eraser superhero, Moots the alligator is found all over the bike. The headtube badge is a big one, but the chainstays, seatpost clamp, and a few other places are a simple reminder that you’re riding with the one and only. Hard to do that on a carbon bike.

Here are the rest of the build details:

Have any questions about this Moots Routt RSL bike or want a Moots for yourself? Contact us and we can get you started.