Moots Routt YBB

[Dino Suegiù]

Originally Posted by pmac

A year later, wondering if there are more people with direct experience with one of these. A few specific questions.

Does locking it out remove the squishy feeling climbing on paved roads?
What is involved in locking it out? Easy to do mid ride?
Is it really much better than just running bigger/softer tires?
Any maintenance issues?

Thanks, Paul

I concur with everything "oldpotatoe" stated above. YBB is a very good, simple, sturdy system. To build on what he wrote:

1) No real "squish" sensation, locked or unlocked, especially with the "hard/stiff" spring. More towards hardtail than towards full soft.

2) Locking out the YBB requires one to dismount and use a 5mm hex key to lock/unlock the lockout collar. Very fast.

3) Not so comparable to bigger/softer tires I think; it is much more a subtle frame adjustment; but this is subjective.

4) Maintenance is very simple:

a) leave the lockout collar either tightly locked or completely unlocked (so as to not have to lockout bolt score and wear the inner titanium slider when unlocked).
b) occasional use of teflon lube on the slider/bushing, basically whenever one lubes the chain, etc.
c) even complete dis-assembly/cleaning/lubrication/re-assembly is very simple and fast:
Moots YBB Shock General Care and Maintenance

I have had a Moots YBB Psychlo-X for many years (and even replaced the YBB inners once; $60 total from Moots iirc); used for "road", "cx", "gravel", "commuting", "blah blah etc", in other words ridden a lot; and in my experience YBB is excellent.

I have a larger frame, now with the stiffer ("hard" vs "soft") YBB spring, always left unlocked, and I recommend the system. It is well-made, simple enough to actually work very effectively and will last a long time while not being so overly complicated to fail. Apparently one can even tune them a bit, to get to a sort of "medium" spring in essence, simply by inserting pennies in the housing underneath a "soft" spring.

I have sometimes read some people claim that YBB makes for a "less stiff/too flexy" frame, whatever that means...that may be their honest impression or just princess/pea complaining, I do not know, but I have never felt that way about it, locked or unlocked, in all these years. I prefer YBB to a straight titanium hardtail, but never found the YBB to be "too flexy/etc". Plus, YBB has been on the market for over 30 years, used by many riders for lifetimes, so it is a very well-tested system over many seasons of use and Moots models. The fact that Moots still provide YBB, basically unmodified since 1987, is a testament to the excellence of the system.

[Lionel]

Pretty nice looking Moots. I have been tempted by YBB a few times in the past (on their MTB).

[Dave B]

Originally Posted by happycampyer

This is the bike that I tried to get Moots to build for me several years ago, and ended up getting a Firefly. I still have my old YBB, and a very early generation Psychlo-X YBB disc that was what sparked my interest in a Routt YBB. The prototype Moots showed of this bike at NAHBS last year (with the Fox suspension fork) did not have the flat mount dropout—glad that the production version does.

To nmrt re “bob,” the YBB tends to be somewhat polarizing. I personally don’t notice the movement of the elastomer except under certain conditions, but I know several folks for whom the suspension drives them nuts. I love my YBBs, and will have to think long and hard about the Routt YBB...

I remember so badly wanting you to sell me those.

To this very day, you still know my favorite picture that you have. Wow, old and good times. That pic was my work computer background for years.

[Butch]

A couple notes to this. I know the YBB for the gravel bike was developed to be different and avoid the bobbing that the original YBB has. The guts are different and the travel less. Those of us at the shop were never satisfied with the feel on the road with the old set up, hence the difference and improvement.

A few years ago we eliminated the lock out. This does not lock out. With the preload that is calculated into the system the lockout really requires the rider to be seated when the bolt is tightened. Often this is not done so that when someone hits a bump hard it would move and for any rough terrain you had to tighten the daylights out of the bolt making it bottom out. Bottom line for the past 5 years or so the collar on all YBB's is different and cannot be locked out.

[sw3759]

thank you Butch for sharing the inside info,i was unsure as well on the most of the lockout questions and had not reached out to Moots to clarify.

[happycampyer]

Thanks, Butch! That just makes me want the Routt that much more...

[Dino Suegiù]

Originally Posted by Butch

A couple notes to this. I know the YBB for the gravel bike was developed to be different and avoid the bobbing that the original YBB has. The guts are different and the travel less. Those of us at the shop were never satisfied with the feel on the road with the old set up, hence the difference and improvement.

A few years ago we eliminated the lock out. This does not lock out. With the preload that is calculated into the system the lockout really requires the rider to be seated when the bolt is tightened. Often this is not done so that when someone hits a bump hard it would move and for any rough terrain you had to tighten the daylights out of the bolt making it bottom out. Bottom line for the past 5 years or so the collar on all YBB's is different and cannot be locked out.

Thank you for the clarification. My YBB is definitely the previous older generation. Good thing that Moots still include the maintenance instructions for the older YBB system on the website, too, because it is a very durable system.