Quote:
Originally Posted by poff
Your SL was built using 6/4 ti and it was not butted. RSL series is the only butted one offered by Moots.
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Actually, Steve was correct—the SL used double-butted 6/4 ti from Reynolds (in the main triangle iirc). From the 2007 catalog: "Sourced from high grade certified 3/2.5 straight gauged aerospace tubing on the standard frame, or the Reynolds double butted 6/4 tubing on the SL." As Steve notes, from my discussions with folks from Moots, their intent with the SL was to build a bike with a similar ride character to the standard Vamoots or Compact of the day, but slightly lighter (about a third of a pound in a size 55 frame). Having owned and/or ridden both, I would say that they succeeded. If you set the frames side by side, you would notice that the diameters of the main tubes of the SL's were slightly smaller, to compensate for the extra stiffness of the 6/4 tubes. The RSL is another thing altogether, with oversized, butted 3/2.5 tubes in the main triangle (and the skinny seatstays are 6/4 ti). The RSL weighs about the same as an SL did, and imo is noticeably stiffer than a Vamoots/Compact CR or the older generation Vamoots/Compact (regular or SL).
This topic has long since gone to the glue factory here if one does some searching in the archives. Butted tubing gives a builder more variables to play with—same stiffness, less weight; stiffer, same weight, etc.—but comes at a cost. Can one feel the difference? That really depends on the design parameters.