Bike of the Week

A dream titanium build from the Colorado brand

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By Oscar Huckle

Published: December 28, 2022 at 12:00 pm

The Moots Womble is a titanium hardtail mountain bike designed around a 140mm-travel fork and 29in wheels.

The American brand is revered for its titanium craftsmanship and the Womble, named after its namesake trail in Mount Ida, Arkansas, is no exception.

In today's edition of Bike of the Week, we take a closer look at the luxurious frame and its heady top-shelf build.

Even without the branding, there's no mistaking this is a Moots frame – its meticulously neat welds and distinctive 3D-printed dropout design give it away from a mile off.

Moot says the Womble uses proprietary double-butted top and down tubes. Both are said to be the largest-diameter tubes it has ever created, boosting stiffness and strength.

The brand says the Womble is constructed to the highest possible standards, with the tubes cut to exacting tolerances before being placed in a jig and then double-welded.

The Womble is designed around a 140mm-travel suspension fork with 42mm offset. However, Moots says you can also use a 120mm-travel fork with 51mm offset and maintain its handling characteristics.

The frame can accept two water bottles inside the front triangle (although only one on the smallest size). Its maximum tyre clearance is rated to 29×2.6in.

The frame uses a 73mm threaded bottom bracket standard and post-mount disc brakes.

The cables are routed externally through some particularly neat guides, without requiring zip ties.

On a size medium, the Womble has a reasonably progressive 67.1-degree head tube angle, a 75.7-degree seat tube angle and 450mm reach.

The 44mm head tube means you could run an angle-adjusting headset if you wish.

The Womble's geometry is designed around a 35 to 50mm stem and Moots recommends a minimum of 150mm drop for the dropper post.

Every fortnight, we’ll bring you a detailed first look at one of the latest bikes (or framesets) to arrive at BikeRadar HQ – from road to commuting, gravel to enduro, and anything in between.

This is our chance to introduce the bike and everything that makes it unique before hitting the road or trails.

Head to our Bike of the Week hub for previous editions.

The Womble is sold as a frame only for £4,800 / $3,999 and is available in any of Moots’ in-house paint finishes. This particular colourway is called ‘Facet’.

Our example build is from Moots’ UK distributor, Saddleback, and is built using products from many of the component brands it distributes.

The bike features a RockShox Ultimate SL fork sporting 140mm suspension travel, with PUSH Industries providing its ASC3 internals.

SRAM contributes the top-flight XX1 Eagle AXS drivetrain. The only deviation is to the crankset, which is a Race Face Next SL crank on a Wolf Tooth 32t chainring.

SRAM is also on braking duties with its G2 stoppers. They’re paired with a 180mm SRAM HS2 disc brake rotor up-front and a 160mm rotor out back.

ENVE provides its M5 carbon handlebars and Alloy MTB stem, as well as the AM30 rims. These are laced to Industry Nine hubs.

The AM30s are shod with Schwalbe Wicked Will mountain bike tyres in its Addix SpeedGrip compound.

A San Marco Allroad saddle is paired with the RockShox Reverb AXS dropper post.

There are quite a few Wolf Tooth components on the bike too. The brand supplies the colour-matching blue headset, grips, seat clamp and disc rotor lockrings.

All-in, the bike weighs in at 11.78kg without pedals.

Technical writer

Oscar Huckle is a technical writer at BikeRadar. He has been an avid cyclist since his teenage years, initially catching the road cycling bug and riding for a local club. He's since been indoctrinated into gravel riding and more recently has taken to the dark art of mountain biking. His favourite rides are epic road or gravel routes, and he has also caught the bikepacking bug hard after completing the King Alfred's Way and West Kernow Way. Oscar has a BA degree in English Literature and Film Studies and has close to a decade of cycling industry experience, initially working in a variety of roles at Evans Cycles before joining Carbon Bike Repair. He is particularly fond of workshop tool exotica and is a proponent of Campagnolo groupsets. Oscar prefers lightweight road and gravel frames with simple tube shapes, rather than the latest trend for aerodynamics and full integration. He is obsessed with keeping up to date with all the latest tech, is fixated with the smallest details and is known for his unique opinions.

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