Thought I'd throw up a bit about this funky bike as I plan to return to, and try to complete this project (been sidelined by the Groves and Yeti).
This is a pretty nice example of an early steel Moots from back in the old days in Steamboat Springs when Kent ran the show. It has a lot of unusual features like custom made lugs, subtle paint touches, the moots brake mount and articulating cable mounts just to name a few.
I got the bike from a guy in CO, who got it from the original owner as payment for painting his house. The second guy had no clue what the bike was and really didn't take good care of it, fortunately he didn't throw away the rigid fork like so many do. The bike was built with a very eclectic mix of parts including WTB Speedmaster roller cam brake in the rear, Cook Bros cranks and Cook Ti BB (BB was toast), XC-PRO drivetrain, CK headset and Mavic wheels (missing front and rear was beat). The seatpost was frozen in the frame and slammed all the way down, took a few days of soaking with penetrating fluid until it was freed. The BB was much worse. The cups had to be cut out, resulting in a little bit of damage to the BB shell, but nothing really bad. Otherwise the bike is solid, shiny blue pearlescent paint, no dents, dings or any major scratches. It's definitely been used and stored with little care, but it's only skin deep.
I replaced most of the worn out and rusted XC-PRO stuff with some nicer pieces I had lying around. For the time being I'm using XC-PRO wheels, although I was able to get a set of Mavic hubs so I may go back to those. The rigid fork is back on the bike and once I get the BB sorted and clean up the chain suck area a bit it'll be there. The seat on there was only used for purposes of extracting the seatpost and it now has a nice vintage suede seat.
BEFORE:
AFTER / DURING REBUILD:
This is a pretty nice example of an early steel Moots from back in the old days in Steamboat Springs when Kent ran the show. It has a lot of unusual features like custom made lugs, subtle paint touches, the moots brake mount and articulating cable mounts just to name a few.
I got the bike from a guy in CO, who got it from the original owner as payment for painting his house. The second guy had no clue what the bike was and really didn't take good care of it, fortunately he didn't throw away the rigid fork like so many do. The bike was built with a very eclectic mix of parts including WTB Speedmaster roller cam brake in the rear, Cook Bros cranks and Cook Ti BB (BB was toast), XC-PRO drivetrain, CK headset and Mavic wheels (missing front and rear was beat). The seatpost was frozen in the frame and slammed all the way down, took a few days of soaking with penetrating fluid until it was freed. The BB was much worse. The cups had to be cut out, resulting in a little bit of damage to the BB shell, but nothing really bad. Otherwise the bike is solid, shiny blue pearlescent paint, no dents, dings or any major scratches. It's definitely been used and stored with little care, but it's only skin deep.
I replaced most of the worn out and rusted XC-PRO stuff with some nicer pieces I had lying around. For the time being I'm using XC-PRO wheels, although I was able to get a set of Mavic hubs so I may go back to those. The rigid fork is back on the bike and once I get the BB sorted and clean up the chain suck area a bit it'll be there. The seat on there was only used for purposes of extracting the seatpost and it now has a nice vintage suede seat.
BEFORE:
AFTER / DURING REBUILD: