Drop bars make any mountain bike hot. Now whether it’s a heat that you feel in your heart or in your stomach depends on your point of view. For Mike at Golden Saddle Cyclery, he wanted to do something new to his rigid Moots Mooto X RSL after growing tired of it with flat bars, so he converted it to a dirt drop MTB. By using a Wolf Tooth Tanpan, Mike was able to run Shimano road shifters with the MTB derailleur and cassette. That nifty piece of tech, gives you Di2 road / mountain compatibility with standard, cable-actuated shifting.

Mike’s been riding it to work at GSC, where he’s a mechanic, via the various dirt trails and roads in LA. When you think about it, a bike like this makes a lot of sense when you can ride dirt from your front door, that may not merit suspension but would benefit from a chunkier tire. Personally, I think bikes like this look damn good and are damn fun to ride.