Good to see and hear of someone kicking the crap out of an SB and saying good things. I was beginning to think that everyone only had bad things to say about them ( altho I might be saying this to early with your review just round the corner)
Iv also put mine through the mill a few times and it's holding up well, hit a few nice size drops aswell... (few pics in my profile)
It doesnt matter if you think you want one or not. Im a downhiller, just trust me on this one suggestion. Go ride an SB-66. Find an LBS doing a demo day or a friend who has one. Just jump on one for an hour. You will have a blast!
@riley-blott, I would never suffer the indignity of riding a stem longer than 50mm, but that's me. Wide bars, yeah to an extent. As to anodizing, I'd rather have a bike that was more stealth than bling. I could care less for flashy colors, not my thing.
My original comment was about time machine configuration.. additional shutter jacks, sensor inputs, etc. Seeing as Brad is the only person I've heard of with the system, I'd like to know what he's found to work well, and what extras he might recommend. After riding bikes around for more than 20 years, I think I have my bike setup pretty dialed at this point.
The "infrared beam" works well for me, although they do have a two-laser sensor as well. Infrared beam uses a reflector to bounce the beam back to the sensor. Anything breaking the beam triggers the unit. The two-laser sensor may be an easier setup, but it's more wires to keep up with/hide in the image. Infrared beam reflector has driven me insane on more than one occasion trying to get it properly aligned, and you'll always want to have an extra 9V battery in your bag because at some point it will die in the middle of your shoot right after all your meticulous setup time. In general, most of these images take about two hours to get the desired photo. Be ready to pull your hair out in frustration. Even after many successful images, I still have issues about half the time that leaves me cursing trailside. The best is when people come across me on the trail while I'm cursing and pacing, tormented by this evil little device, making me that weird guy in the woods. Pretty satisfying when it all goes right though.
Actually Steve, that's the guy that gets me the bikes! I think he just meant that an all-mountain bike isn't usually expected to take drops. In this case, Yeti did name it the SB (Super Bike), so it better be able to handle a few drops.
Still alive and kicking strong. Not a single issue with any component in 4 months of hard use and various weather conditions. I seriously haven't touched this bike with a wrench since the day I got it. Never done anything to the pivots, not lubed or anything. Review to follow soon.