Demo a Moots-Hills of Maryland

So after cracking another bike that brings the tally up to: 8
1998 Mongoose Rx 7.7 Cracked in accident
1999 Bianchi Alloro Cracked seatube BB in 2001
2001 Bianchi Alloro Cracked seatube BB in 2007
2003 Bianchi Axis Cracked seatube BB in 2006
(sensing a trend here :-)
2006 Gary Fisher 292 Cracked TopTube where the shockmount is
2007 Gary Fisher 292 Cracked TopTube where the shockmount is
2008 Gary Fisher Hi-Fi Cracked the Chainstay
2008 Cranked the Seat stay on the Raliegh Team Frame

So I decided that I would go the same route as I had for my cx bike. I had Aluminum and now I am riding a Jamis Super Nova out of 853 Steel. So for the road bike I have always wanted a titanium bike.
Family Bike Shop has just started becoming a Moots dealer so I talked to Jonathan and he was able to get in contact with Moots to get a Demo bike that I could try out.
I got the bike and took her out for the first ride, a short 15 mile ride around where I live. There were two problems first the Moots stem was too short was a 110 and the seat was a racer seat where I usually ride something with a little more cush.
For my second ride I needed to get my rigid SS fork from my brother-in-law, and I thought I would do a ride from Leesburg. I usually ride compact gearing so I wanted to do a ride that wasn't too hilly, and I ended up doing a pretty hilly ride anyway! I had the bike set up with a 130mm stem(which was a little too long 120mm is just right).
Hightlights from the ride:
83 miles
4450 elevation

• Going up the short steep hill before the Flint hill store was a good way to test the Moots for uphill standing climbing sense my gear was too high to sit. With the Titanium and the Top end Mavic wheels the bike just moved whenever you stomped on the pedals.
• Mt. Zion was tuff but not as bad as I thought it would be, I knew it was going to challenge me with mountain in name of the road.
• In Middletown on Bidle Rd. the bridge is gone not just closed, I rode down the hill and saw just water to cross, so had to backtrack and look at a map at the gasstation and reroute myself.
• I took a wrong turn at the top of Gapland Rd. I went off the mountain the wrong way had to go back up what I came down.
  

The bike rode well, I wasn't totally used to it yet but I could feel the promise of what the bike could do when it is dialed in to the rider. I was pretty gased the last hour so I ended up taking the W&OD trail for the last couple of miles, was fun to be on there after not riding it for like 4-5 years.

82 Miles Hills of Maryland

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