If the Royal Family lived to splat quag on the Queen's singletrack, this would be its official bike. With its impeccable machine work, lustrous anodized finish (shown in royal blue of course), and elegant geometry, the Truth is regal right down to its Gothic lettering. But it isn't just a pretty bike marketed to aging riders with chubby wallets and matching
paunches. The Truth rides as clean as it looks. Indeed, Ellsworth's take on the four-bar linkage is one of the best we tested; it effectively isolates the suspension from drive-train forces and actively absorbs high-frequency trail chatter on even the rockiest of climbs.It's an ideal cross-country race bike because you could ride it hard seven days a
week—no worries about excessive wear here since the pivot housings are machined from solid billet aluminum and then heat-treated to harden further.
True, 2.8 inches isn't a lot of travel, but the Sugar isn't for heavily tattooed freeriders who are into landing big air (Dude! I bet I can clear those nuns!). If you're a racer, however, or just like to ride fast, always picking the cleanest line, it's perfect. A low-leverage design (short chainstays and a single-pivot placed low on the frame), the Sugar's
suspension isn't designed to to soak up big hits. It's more important for a race bike to actively absorb washboard and roots so riders can stay seated, powering the pedals to the finish line. That's where the Blink, a short-bar linkage located next to the shock, comes in: By reducing lateral play in the rear swingarm, it makes the bike handle like a
traditional racing frame. Best of all, the Sugar 1 only weighs a pound more than a similarly built hardtail.
The name says race, but don't pigeonhole this Yeti—it's possibly the most versatile bike we rode. Credit the dogbone, an extra pivot that keeps the rear shock, and therefore the single-pivot swingarm, moving more freely during the first two inches of travel; the treads stick to the trail on steep climbs. Point it through the rocks and that active
suspension doesn't bottom out harshly because the travel gets progressively stiffer. It's the traction, though, that had testers raving about cranking up angles they usually had to hike. On descents, the Avid mechanical disc brakes have more stopping power than Dirty Harry's .44 Magnum, without the hassle of messy hydraulic fluids or NRA memberships. Yeti
calls the AS-R the perfect Colorado trail bike. We say you'd be hard-pressed to find a trail where it didn't thrive.
What can we say? A $7,000 titanium mountain bike with a smart suspension design and gobs of chichi parts is going to ride, well, flawlessly. What you get is a single-pivot/rocker-link design that doesn't bob, remains active while climbing, and feels as plush as mink underwear (we're guessing). It's not a pure race machine, but you could race it because its
sub-71-degree head-tube angle means the Mootaineer likes the downhills as much as the climbs. Choosing a "best" bike is too subjective, but it rode at least as well as our favorites—Yeti, Ellsworth, GT, Santa Cruz, in no particular order. What it is, is titanium. Your grandson could be riding the Mootaineer some day when the rest of the bikes on these
pages are Old Milwaukee cans. Moots just doesn't make bad apples. Cha-ching.
