Keeping with the theme of custom hand built bicycles, Moots is making frames for the Rapha Continental team. Moots specializes in hand built titanium frames. Based in Steamboat Springs, CO they have been building bicycles for past 30 years. They must be doing something right, because for the 2010 season Rapha Continental riders will have added Moots to their arsenal of rigs.
Rapha also sat down with Jon Cariveau, a 13 year veteran of the Moots family, for a little interview. Read it all here.
Enjoy more bike porn here.
Not to knock the larger bicycle companies, but obtaining a frame from Moots, or Vanilla, or Calfee, etc... just isn't the same. I have a Fuji SL1 which is also the Scott CR1. Same Taiwanese frame just branded differently. You loose a lot of character when you buy from a larger company but it's also less expensive and you don't have to wait for it to be built (Vanilla Workshop average wait is 5 years). There are so many pros and cons but when it comes down to it, a custom hand built is always the best bet. You get a beautifully hand built frame and the satisfaction supporting such a small group of people. Unless you want a generic frame made from the same carbon tubing everyone is using from Taiwan. Then you do you.
Believe me, when the time and finances are right I'll be riding a custom hand built frame breaking your neck as I pass you up on that climb.