Chris Conroy of Yeti Cycles shows us the new All Mountain Chasis, currently known as the SB-66. Featuring the new Switch Technology, an eccentric link above bottom bracket that creates a stiff pedaling platform in the front end and gets more plush further into travel.
Yeti Cycles SB-66
- New trail bike
- In development for the last 2 years
- Good pedaling platform
- Switch Technology – Eccentric link above bottom bracket that creates a stiff pedaling platform in the front end and gets more plush further into travel
- Slack head angle – 67° head angle with a 150mm fork (66° with 160mm fork)
- Low bottom bracket
- 12 x 142 rear axle
- Custom molded integrated chainstays
- Optimized stand-over height
- Integrated tapered headtube
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It’s like totally cool and it like totally does everything you want it to do. Rad.
Gorgeous mountain slayer for the Mojo and Nomad shopper that would rather buy American, nice to see innovation.
While the price might suggest it is made in America, it is made overseas, like all Yetis.
They badge their bikes behind the seat tube, “Designed in the USA”, but not many of its parts are manufactured in the US.
Anyways, these are completely sold out and I wouldn’t be surprised if the next batch is spoken for already. People are even trying to sell frames for $3100 and complete used bikes for 6600 starting bid.
Owners are absolutely raving about this bike. I see why they call it a super bike. I certainly was impressed when I saw the charts in VitalMTB’s article (geeked out even), but was I gonna give it a year to work out bugs and maybe await the carbon version (or more likely the 29er version).
Don’t be fooled by all the hype. The bike has major flaws in the chainstay. I have seen quite a few come back to the factory, where we assemble the Taiwan manufactured bike. You want American, buy a custom bike from a reputable local frame builder. Every state has one and you’ll be surprised how similar in price it is.
So what!
A little wheel; triple chain ring, suspension bike — what’s new and exciting about that?
I guess that 2 years ago when they started development. 26″ wheels and triple chain ring cranks…were acceptable.
low bottom bracket = rocks pounding underneath
low bottom bracket = railing corners
Looks interesting but if you look at the specs it has a super-long top tube. You’d have to buy a size smaller to get the right sized bike.
if you want to buy american – get an intense.
this however looks like a really nice bike and will consider it when my 5.5 is up for replacement – along with the nomad and genius
low bottom bracket = low bottom bracket. Everybody has a preference.
Obviously Yeti felt the need to compete w/ todays trail bikes/ AM bikes. Funny thing is, 575 was a major force in creating that category. Also of interest is that in the October issue of Mountain Bike Action (which is often accused of favoring Trek and Specialized), the 575 scored #1 by a good margin in a shootout between 5 trail/AM bikes priced in the $3,000 range. Beat out Specialized Enduro, Trek Remedy, Giant Reign (MBA also loves Giant). It left me wanting a Yeti 575. How is this different? Yeah, I know the design is new-fangaled; I love everything I’ve read about it…but will the ride quality really be better than the Old Standard (with its lackluster single pivot design)?
The eccentric is not as new as you might be lead to believe. It has been around for a while and Yeti sat on this design, which they bought, for some years.
On face value it doesnt do anything a well design linkage, that utilizes the variable shock rates available these days from fox by way of ‘boost valve’ etc, can do.
GT force wants their design back…lol
This eccentric thing is in theory the same as a vpp short link style four-bar frame (just think about it, the big eccentric thing is like a very short “conventional” link).
That said, it may be pretty good.
Here in Europe Decathlon bikes (cheap but OK) used this.
I guess Yeti doesn’t have to pay for VPP patents this way.
just modify the old version of i-drive, move the round linkage from the BB to the pivot!
As always excellent build quality & materials from the folks at Yeti regardless of where it is made. However, I still think the 2011+ model 575 is the perfect all mountain ticket and agree with David’s earlier posting.
The SB-66 is a phenomenal bike. I rode it at a demo day right after riding a santa cruz carbon tallboy (arguably one of the best 29′ers out there) and I was completely blown away. The one-word review of the tallboy is, “dead”. Perhaps it’s the carbon frame combined with the large hoops, but I was not impressed. Riding the SB-66 was a different experience. It climbed like a goat and descended like a DH bike. It gives an overall ride that instills confidence whether climbing or descending. I’ve ridden every novelty in mountain biking going back to the 80′s (bio-pace chain ring anyone?) and I can assure you, the SB-66 is no gimmick. Bottom line: don’t believe anything you read. Go ride the bikes. Here in Colorado, where the SB-66 was designed and ridden every day (up hills and down), I’ll take the SB-66 over anything else. Now if I could just swing the $3500…
Question guys between sb 66 vs pivot mach 5.7 wich one will you pick
I really like it. It should have some superb lateral stiffness for the rear wheel. My big caveat is ‘WHY NOT NEEDLE BEARINGS?’. I don’t think the radial bearings will last in this application. They will probably need to spec needle bearings down the line. This isn’t a good application for a typical radial bearing, because only a few balls are going to be loaded and the races will deform quite quickly. Radial bearings are usually specified for high RPM designs, and the eccentric only rotates a small amount, thus it will not distribute load to the race in a uniform manner. I would wait for the inevitable needle bearing upgrade. It would be easier to maintain, stiffer and more reliable. Oh, and you wouldn’t have to make the eccentric so big so it would look better too!