The bike went together with a single glitch. We are using a very light carbon fiber crank and there was a minor bottom bracket tolerance problem remedied with a bit of careful grinding. We have run into a couple of clearance issues with this particular crank and a couple of different bottom brackets, but both problems (on two separate bikes with two separate issues) have been worked through and are addressed in the process of building each and every bike. Nothing is perfect, and this particular bottom bracket and crank arm selection is well worth the adjustments and fiddling. I would describe the problems to you, but what is the point? I am not here to help other shops with their builds. I am just here to reassure you that I have worked through the problems, so that you don't have to even think about them.

I am using the Fox Float AVA on this bike. I would have prefered to use the Fox Float AVA ProPedal, but alas, Moots is not up to speed on the progessive valving issue, just yet. I called to ask, "Why not the ProPedal shock?" and the rep answered, "We are slow." Of course, I understood. They are looking at switching over to a progessively valved shock in mid December and are still holding out for the best deal. They may go with Progressive or Fox. It is just a matter of "the deal." Both are excellent, so I will just ride with the basic AVA (not really so "basic"--it works very nicely) until the new shock is at the Moots factory. I will then use the shock on this bike for a spare--something anyone with a full suspension rig should have.

I set the AVA at the most plush setting (large air chamber) and tuned it to my weight from the specs in the owners' manual. I pumped the standard air pressures I usually run for my weight in Marzocchi Marathons (not the settings in the owners' manual. by the way), and voila, the suspension was nearly perfectly balanced. Only a couple of tweaks and it was where it will remain for a while.

Even with my usual anal cabling and meticulous wheel building tedium associated with light, stretchy spokes, the pain-in-the-ass Moots seatpost clamp (not literally), and that one clearance issue with the bottom bracket and crank arm, the bike was a breeze to put together. It came out looking like a million bucks. The choice of torquoise King hubs and headset was perfect. The color balance of the gray touches on the bars, fork, saddle and grips were just right with the silky gray of the bike's satin titanium finish. The blue Trail Blaster tires were the icing on the ti cake (I later switched to basic black Hutchinson Pythons).

I busted the Smoothie's cherry on Entrada caprock moguls and loose rock and sand on a trail into the backside of Arches National Park (not Klondike Bluffs, if you are wondering). After spending most of the previous week on a Ventana La Bruja freeride rig, the initial moguls were a shock on the light weight short travel Smoothie, but I soon discovered the bike's strong points and rapidly put them to work for me. It is LIGHT. It is responsive. It accelerates like a rocket. It wanted me to be very cautious about weight transfer. Over moguls the Smoothie was a treat. I was able to change directions, hoist the bike and hop with ease. I could slowly and meticulously place the front wheel onto a spot on a rock mogul the size of a large sow, lean forward, hop the tire onto the face and torque the pedals to bring the rear up on top with very little energy. The placement of the wheels was very precise. Stops and starts were accomplished with very little muscle. This gave me a lot of confidence at slow speed over large obstacles, ledges and near vertical stone pillows. The Smoothie is not about momentum, but the ability to overcome momentum (inertia), a very different feeling for me, coming from a 37.5 pound freeride rig.

I must commend the Panaracer Trail Blaster tires that I ran on this initial test. For 2.1's, they were very sure and grippy. I appreciated the firm knobs and tacky rubber at speed over rubble and on sidehills and off camber moves. They don't absorb much impact, but they do grab. I did not experience a single instance of unplanned slip over the loose rock or on the slickrock moguls. Not bad for an XC tire. AND, they are light. The downside to the tires is that they do not roll very well, so I would not recommend them for racing. You have to "push" them along. It is a trade-off for more loose, rough terrain. {The Hutchinson Pythons I now run on the Smoothie roll very fast, but flat easily and don't handle loose stuff or slickrock so well. The Hutchinsons are lighter, however, bringing the overall weight of the bike down a quarter pound.}

IS THERE REAR END FLEX? There is a rough hill on a particular trail where I routinely test rear end lateral flex under power. There is a small, very ledgy section where I can repeatedly pedal up and over, trying to cause the drivetrain to ghost shift as I evenly apply power as the bike bounces up the ledges. To test the bike fully, I do not pull up or hop over the ledges, but instead focus on putting the wheels squarely on the repeated impacts to get the most violence happening in the rear end at around 15 to 20 miles per hour. A few bikes that were well reviewed by magazines flunked this test, ghost shifting repeatedly in "straight chain" gears. I have been told that there was a review in a magazine that remarked about flex in the rear end of the titanium Moots Smoothie. This particular spot of trail is where it was going to show its head, if the flex issue was indeed substantial enough to worry about. But, after a couple of bashings, I was very pleasantly surprised by the performance of the Smoothie. In my initial test of the factory demo I received from Moots, I was immediately impressed by the lateral rigidity of the frame as I slammed through transitions on the Moab Slickrock Trail. This initial impression was not an illusion. The Smoothie Max did not skip a beat or ghost shift when bashing it up this rough hill. Of course, it DID bounce a bit. The Smoothie rear end only has a tad under 4 inches of travel. I was running high air pressure in the shock and tires. The repeated ledges are about ten inches tall. Since I try to impact the ledges with force and no help from body English as I rigidly punch the pedals, the Smoothie was running out of travel. After smacking the stuttering ledges on this rough little hill a few times more, I just couldn't get the drivetrain to skip a gear in the straight c chain gear (middle chainring, middle sprocket). So, this is how I know that the Smoothie is remarkably laterally stiff under pedaling loads over rough trail. I am not speaking of lateral loads caused by extreme cornering on downhill courses or sweeping hot turns. I certainly would not choose titanium for that kind of riding. If you are very heavy or are using a Smoothie like a downhill racer or freeride bike, you are not being realisitic with the bike's intended use or limitations. Heavily sideloading a titanium bike will definitely cause the frame to wind-up and slingshot. That is a fact, and many bikes we have tested wind-up and let go in very hot turns, even some downhill frames that are supposedly designed to counter this effect. If you want a bike for this kind of riding, we have a bike that is perfect for railing hot turns (the Ventana La Bruja, specifically), but don't expect a Smoothie to feel like a motorcycle. That said, my guess is that reviewers in the magazine in question were experiencing lateral flex from the wheelset, not the frame, or maybe they don't know what they are talking about. {I am suspect of most magazine reviews. A lot of our research in Moab has contradicted a great deal of component, complete bike and frame reviews, so we wonder, or more accurately we understand. Most are written by amateurs. The editors are certainly suspect to compromising the truth due to the fact that they accept schwag bribes and have to sell ad space. The tone and raves always echo the amount of marketing cash spent by reviewed bike companies on ads in the same magazine. You simply cannot trust the fox to watch the hens.} I built this Smoothie with some pretty light spokes, and I can attest to obvious flex that exists in light wheelsets, even my own. It is a fact of life. If you want a light wheelset, you are going to have to sacrifice a bit of stiffness and/or a lot of the reliability (aluminum spokes are NOT smart for anyone who requires longevity or long term reliablilty). Spoke flex, however, does not cause ghost shifting over rough trail. Frame flex causes ghost shifting over rough trail. My experience is that the Moots Smoothie is far more laterally rigid than Horst Link bikes. It is certainly due to the fact that the Smoothie has no chainstay/seatstay pivot thanks to the arcing axle path design.

If you are reading this to get a picture of just where the Smoothie excels, I can tell you that it climbs like crazy. Yes, it is from Steamboat Springs, Colorado and reflects its birthplace by having a suspension that works to grab, not to comfort. As a result we are offering the Max with a choice of saddles. The Smoothie IN MOAB calls for some padding. For a hardtail rider or XC racer, it may not be necessary, so we offer options--a Flite, a Flite TT, or a WTB Laser Ti. I recommend the Laser for those who will be riding the Smoothie over repeated sharp impacts. The TT brings the weight of the bike down quite a bit. The Flite is a Flite, just a damn good saddle.

This is not to say that the Smoothie is not "smooth." It certainly is by virtue of the material from which it is made. If you own a ti bike, you know what I am talking about. There is a sweet deadening of high frequency vibration that can only be described as a silky ride. This is the "smooth" they are talking about. If you take the Smoothie to Moab, however, you are going to find out why we prefer 6" of rear wheel travel. There is a point at which the "titanium silk" is just plain lost in translation. The Smoothie is NOT a Moab bike. It is a singletrack mountain bike for the mountains, for steep climbs that last a million years and for tight trails that require very quick handling, instant acceleration and occassional lifting of the bike. Trails that present a skilled rider with roots and rocks to navigate in a very tight space between trees are perfect for the Smoothie. The Smoothie is for East Coast, Rocky Mountain, Northern California, and European trails or just about any tight, twisting terrain that requires a bike that sings when gently coaxed left, right, up or down. It takes on tight trail and any osbtacle without a lot of extra effort. If you are looking for a bike that will save energy in tight, or fast and twisty, situations, on long climbs and in spots where you have to lift the machine from a dead standstill, the Smoothie is as good as it gets. It feels like a trusty stead, not a bulky mass of metal parts.

10/1/03 CONCLUSIONS

10/24/03 UPDATE

Blueberry is now THE bike to ride FROM TOWN. I love to be able to take it up Sand Flats road to get to the rocks and sand. It works on road, dirt road, and rough trails. Sure, I adjust speed to suit the light wheels, shorter travel and air shocks, but the advantage of being able to climb with less effort makes up for most of its lack of freeride heft and squat. Blueberry is definitely under my skin.

The finishing touch on this bike, my bike, was the installaton of Moots SL handlebars and a set of my personal favorite barends. I was VERY pleasantly surprised by the subtle soft feel of the light titanium bars. High frequency vibration at speed was noticably less compared to the carbon bars. I immediately changed the XDreaMAX standard build to include the Moots bar, so that everyone can safely have the option for barends. Blueberry is incredibly easy to climb, but it's geometry and stable feel top the list of my compliments. It is both stable and quick, fast and balanced. In the rough Blueberry can be trusted to get you through, but in tight situtations, it shines. If you ride a long travel trailbike like I do, you will be trying to catch the Smoothie on just about any terrain that goes up. If you ride a hardtail, you won't be able to keep up, except maybe on the paved road.

I have had no problems with the usual pedal whacking I experience on longer travel bikes with similar bottom bracket heights. Blueberry's bottom bracket height seems very well balanced for the 3" of travel and my custom fork length. I fooled with the Marzocchi Marathon a bit more to give me tad slacker head angle while balancing the need for as much cush as I could get out of the fork without bottoming it. With the trails in Moab being sandy and rough, I installed a 2.4 Mutanoraptor tire on the front and a 1.95 Python tire on the back. This is a very light combo that works exceptionally well on narrow rims. With the right pressures, these tires are adequate for any Moab trail. The added floatation combined with the balance weight of the frame allows for some really interesting handling qualities. For example: I can stop in the middle of steep downhill sand, and not have to clip out. I just stay on the back of the saddle, trust the bike, and pedal out.

On the trail, the rear suspension seems neutral in all chainrings, though I must admit to not using the small chainring once in the time I have been riding this Smoothie. I may need the little thing in the mountains, but not in Moab. I have not noticed no ill effects of hard braking on the suspension action. The rear suspension travel is obviously dialed when it comes to the design of the linkage. Any concern I had during the initial test of the factory demo is now set aside. This bike is so well balanced in every respect that I find myself stopping on top of rocks, in sand, on a slickrock descent, balancing for a moment, checking out the terrain ahead, then making the move. If I get snagged, all I have to do is relax and decide whether to put a foot down or muscle my way out. Blueberry is soooo friendly.

One very nice surprise was the performance of the Fox Float RL AVA shock. The larger adjustable air chamber is a real gas to tune, but the pressure adjustments in the Moots owners manual for this shock proved to be way off. Now the air volume and pressure is dialed, the rear end is plush and damped just right for the harder hits of the ax blades on Porcupine Rim, while still remaining very plush over the ripples. Sag is a perfect one third of available travel, as with the fork.

The new bars and the shift/brake lever combo along with the curve of the bar creates a nifty one finger braking feel. With the barends I use personally (you can have them free with the build, BTW, but they are not included), Moots riser bars, fat carbon levers, SRAM shifters and cut down Oury grips, produces a dreamy cockpit with intuitive controls. I am putting WTB Laser DH saddles on these bike in particular--comfortable, light, minimal and very sturdy. The ultra light Laser DH saddle keeps my butt happy and awake. The texture of the saddle is especially smart looking and ultimately effective. I am not pulling your leg when I say that this bike is the most comfortable classic XC mountain bike that I have ever been on. The fit, geometry, ergonomics, and all that titanium combine for a SMOOOOOOOOTHIE ride. I did it for myself. I can do it for you, too.

This week I am installing a heavier wheelset with 14 gauge spokes and wider rims to see just how the frame performs at higher speeds over rough terrain and to test out fatter tire combos.