Video: Juli Furtado's 1990 Yeti FRO

Jan 22, 2015 at 13:03
by Jonathon Gage  
Views: 2,463    Faves: 3    Comments: 2


Juli Furtado introduced herself to the mountain bike racing world in 1990 when she was crowned Women's XC World Champion in her rookie season. She rode this steel Yeti FRO with Campagnolo Euclid and Centaur components until the Mountain Bike World Championships in Durango when she traded it in for a Yeti C-26.

In December 2014, Juli stopped by The Pro's Closet in Boulder to talk about the early days of MTB racing and her experience as a top female rider.

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Member since Feb 17, 2014
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73 Comments
  • 50 2
 This women was a legend. Back in the days of pure mountain bikes. To handle those things with ridiculously long stems, no suspension, cantilever brakes, bars ends and crap tyres they were true hero's of our sport. I often think how fast would people like her and Jason McRoy would go on modern machinery. Probably at light speed!!!
  • 31 2
 *IS a legend
  • 6 55
flag freeride-forever (Jan 22, 2015 at 20:01) (Below Threshold)
 She'd go more or less the same speed she did back then. "Modern machinery" is little different in any real practical terms as far as XC goes. Maybe a little lighter & a different shade of goofy but that's about it. Suspension lock-outs are about the only thing that could really make any significant gains.
  • 22 2
 ^^^^ Uh...OK? Have you ridden a sub 20lb carbon XC bike? Those things are amazing and result in real differences in course time. For fun though we should have a pro-racer ride this thing then get on their latest ride and see just how big the difference would be.
  • 13 0
 Would I go back to riding a bike like the one I rode in 1991 ... was just like Juli's . Thumb Shifters, rigid fork, Canti's, Steal Frame, Bar-ends ..... NO WAY !! Do I go faster now, especially on really rough stuff ? Damn right I do !! 'Cause my bloody brakes work . So @Freeride-forever, you're maybe right that it wouldn't make much difference to the Results from a competition point of view. Everyone was using the same stuff at the time just like everyone now is on similar bikes. But they are going a lot faster now then back then. Why ? Cause the "Modern machinery" is a lot more dependable and controlable !
If you've never had that horrible feeling that you're actually accelerating while pulling the brakes so hard you think the levers are going to break then just be quite on this subject.
  • 3 0
 @jaycubzz sorry your right should have put 'is' not 'was'. My bad'
  • 9 0
 I remember that horrible feeling of pulling the cantilever brakes and nothing happening and you actually starting going faster on a dh section. Very scary especially if you had ridden through wet grass.
  • 4 0
 I agree with ryan83, I demoed an S-Works carbon Stumpy HT and that thing felt like a damn attack fighter on the trails!! It was pretty awesome.
  • 6 2
 @freeride-forever, She'd still win today.. Dude, I have my original 93' M2 Stumpjumper frame hanging in my garage. I have the original rigid fork, carbon bar ends, 110mm stem, new un-used handlebar and LX cantis in a box somewhere. I'm sure I can find some non v-brake levers to slap on there. Even have the original grey 1.95 tires in a box. I can slap it together and have you ride it. That 72 degree head angle, long stem and narrow bars will be fun. Oh and I'll even spray some water on the wheels, just to make it interesting, I mean, it does have "all weather" brake pads. I have some toe clip pedals too. You know, the ones you strap into. I won't ride it again. I don't miss any of it except for that feeling of being completely on the edge, because you actually were. No suspension to save you or reliable working brakes for that matter. Then I can have you jump on my modern, rigid 29er. Slack geometry, killer brakes, roll over, etc etc. Then ride the same trail on a modern full carbon FS, 100mm of travel, 23lbs XC bike. Then tell us again how XC bikes aren't any better. Today's XC bikes are far better, faster, more reliable and have more travel then the 92' GT she rode to score her downhill world championship title.
  • 1 0
 @Matt76 no worries man
  • 7 1
 @freeride-forever

I was racing mountain bikes in 1992 through 1997 starting with racing cross country at National level on a sponsored shop team (I rode KHS), before racing DH on a sponsored factory team (I rode Bombproof)

The bikes we ride today are a quantum leap beyond those early bikes, and you can ride significantly faster, with more control, and less fatigue.

I currently ride a carbon fibre Specialized Stumpjumper Marathon hardtail with 80mm suspension fork, hydraulic brakes and 29'er tubeless wheels.

Its great having been involved in the early days (I started in MTB in 1986 after years of BMX racing and freestyle) because I really appreciate the modern equipment. The bike I currently ride is simply ridiculous in terms of the speed it can be ridden, when you have the fitness and technical skill.

Its been very cool to be part of that journey Smile
  • 3 0
 Hahaha so far from the truth! When did you start riding? I began in 1991 and can attest, bikes back thwere scary compared to what we ride today. funny to think how stretched out we were, it was like riding a fat tire road bike. Back when 2.0" was a big tire.
  • 19 0
 I like the comment Julie made about just riding the bike. Don't car about aluminium, carbon, etc. just pick it up and if it functions ride it.
  • 1 0
 I liked that too. I was gonna say a piece on it, but I'll leave it alone. JF proves the point.
  • 1 1
 she mentions weight though. i bet that if she were in racing condition today (she might still be i dont know) and was given the choice to race on her first steel yeti or a modern carbon superbike, shed probably pick the carbon bike. pretty simple
  • 3 1
 We're made to think nowadays that, we need this, we need that, etc, etc.. to be able to compete. Juli says herself right in this video that she doesn't care what it is, she'll ride it, and she will still to this day probably whoop ass on it. Does technology help, sure, to an extent. But at the end of the day, it all comes down to the skill and the natural ability of the person using said technology.

People think and are made to think that if they buy the latest and greatest "do dad" that they are gonna just automatically kick ass which is def not the case at all.

You could stick Semenuk on a huffy from Walmart and that kid would still find his way onto the podium.
  • 4 0
 it's interesting that she says she doesn't care about the build etc of a bike.... given that one of her namesake Santa Cruz frans is named only comes in carbon!
  • 1 0
 A shame she didn't go into details about the bike though. I loved yeti bikes and back then you couldn't get enough info about them. Bloody hell how the net has changed things
  • 11 0
 Didn't she sing 'I'm like a bird'?
  • 1 0
 Mate!!!! Lols!!!!
  • 9 0
 sweet thread pink bike. A classy rider I have always respected. Great to hear her speaking about her career
  • 4 0
 I didn’t know that she only raced for 5 years – a very successful 5 years…She did not mention it, but was her career cut short because of illness if memory serves correct.
  • 2 0
 That was strange to hear her say that. She was on GT for 5 years alone. I remember her retiring in 1997 due to Lupus, right?
  • 2 0
 Yes, it was Lupus. How I died when she suffered through the the 96 Olympics after being such a dominant force. I still love you Julie!
  • 1 0
 I thought it was Lyme's disease... Are they the same thing?
  • 5 0
 hell yeah! cantilever brakes and rigid forks...those were the days. nothing but pure fun
  • 2 0
 racing and enduro took a lot more skill back then!
  • 3 0
 the old Tomac video of DH with drop bars is classic mountain biking and the DH drifts are better than most seen today on any modern full squish
www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ETziC9oBtM
  • 5 0
 they all probly chuckle to themselves when they see the squabbles about wheel size and fork choice on here.
  • 1 0
 That video is funny as. That Judy SL looks like it's bottomed, but they only had 60mm travel hey so it's probably only half way down. Magura brakes have aged well though.
  • 3 0
 Rad to see Juli talking about her early days. Would be cool to here what she thought of old Frank The Welder. Check him out at www.pinkbike.com/video/385962 and www.frankthewelder.com
  • 4 2
 I've had the pleasure of riding with her before, just by chance. Her lines are SMOOTH and FAST. I live in the same town and was racing at the same time she was. She is a class act, for sure. Super friendly, very down to Earth. It's really great to see this video and those beautiful Yeti's of old. It's my memory of her on those Yeti's (and John Tomac) that made me buy an SB95 this year. Great vid!
  • 5 0
 Full props to July Furtado... but being a Canadian I was always rooting for Alison Sydor. Awesome throwback!
  • 1 0
 Sydor was hot! That gal could do some serious riding. Wasn't she on Schwinn then Cannondale with Tinker?
  • 2 0
 Interesting vid! As a kid my memories of Juli Furtado were of her aboard a GT Xizang or RTS. I guess that's down to the short stay on Yeti but also to the epic GT team from 93 - 96 that got so much press. Such an inspirational athlete, Juli dominated womens xc while staying humble and so professional.
What's interesting is how many top americans started out with Yeti and the impact they had early on, for such a small team and brand they had a massive pressence in early 90's MTB history.
Great bike, i guess someone spent a lot of time and effort getting it back to what it is now? Cool to See pro's like Juli still involved in the sport and always cool to see these old bikes for a trip down memory lane
  • 1 0
 Ive still got my 89" Gt karakoram in near minty shape with the up grades I did back then. Odyysea inflator seatpost pump,
scott AT4 bars salsa stem and all deore. My u brake has the original booster and works very well. I also I had a set of roadie wheels built back then. XT hubs, sun mistal m14 rims with 32 db butted spokes in rear and 28 in front.
Still has biopace rings lol and massive 54 tooth big ring as well as full deore shifting with thumbies etc. Right now it has soem old school panaracer blackwall smoke lites on it in 1.75.
  • 4 0
 Anyone up for Throwback Thursday vintage footage?
  • 1 0
 Remember that whole seen well. Was in college lusting after a Yeti because of Tomac and Furtado. Nothing's really changed. 25yrs later I just sold my 303 so I can try to buy an SB5. Yeti!
  • 3 0
 I wonder why bar ends went way of the Dodo? Sure they look ridiculous, but they were actually useful for XC riding.
  • 2 0
 Wide handlebar had a similar effect. Moves weight forward and more leverage
  • 1 0
 I used mine all the time, you could get some crazy leverage standing and pedaling. I ran mine in line with the top tube. When bars hit 24-25 inches/625mm or so, I found that I didn't really need them for seated climbing. I don't know if I've ever been able to match the leverage when standing with a wide bar on my modern bikes, doesn't feel like it at least. Of course my bar/stem are a bit taller. On long days in the saddle, I do still rest my hands on the end of the bar, like I did when I ran bar ends.
  • 3 3
 Road riding was doped to the gills in these years. I wonder how clean the MTB guys were in the early 90's - since now we know even back in early 2000's there were so many dirty guys (Hesjedal, Sheppard, etc).
  • 5 5
 The roadies are still doped. Danielson, Lance, Micheal Barry. Its so f'd how much Lance lost because of it.
  • 2 1
 Of course they are. Where there's [little] money to be made, and fear of people losing jobs for lack of performance, there will always be cheating.

But my comment is more implying there was no real testing for EPO back in the 90's, which is why it was so rampant in that era. And when testing became available at turn of century, it was still beatable with microdosing - like Armstrong and all the other roadies did, and like Rasmussen taught Canadian MTB'ers.
  • 2 1
 I'm sure that doping happened in MTB and that EPO use was happening in all endurance sports between the late 80s and the mid 2000s. However, it seems like random speculation to throw this comment in on an article about Juli Furtado, which makes no reference to doping. I dunno. It should be discussed, but it's a bit odd to do it here.
  • 2 0
 John Tomac actually quit road racing and started mountain biking full time because he didn't want to dope. Think the best way to put an end to it, Supermodified classification. Full UCI testing has been done for a good 15 years and to date, the total number of mtbers that have tested positive is still less than a single year of road failed tests.
  • 2 0
 anyone care to explain whats going on with that back wheel on the bike behind her??
  • 3 0
 Disc wheel... Probably Tomac's old bike.
  • 8 1
 That for all of you too young to remember, is the Tioga Disk Drive. No spokes, just kevlar fiber strings reinforcing a composite disk wheel. It was super strong and super light, so it was the favourite wheel for all the downhillers of the time. (i.e. Tomac etc. the ones who used to pedal 50 tooth chainrings downhill without suspension.)
  • 4 0
 I loved the noise it made when Tomac came ripping down The Kamikaze on Mammoth!!!
  • 1 0
 I used to drool over those Yeti's as a kid. Loved the beefy fork, cable routing and cool rear triangle. More throwback videos please!
  • 1 1
 A Steel Yeti...I don't think so, bro. Plus the giant EASTON sticker should give it away, also wasn't FTW the welder at the time.
  • 1 0
 Frank the welder the welder
  • 2 0
 That is absolutely a steel Yeti, Easton sticker or not. How narrow the welding bead is compared to what it would be on an aluminum frame and the rust where the paint is scratched are clear visual proof of it being steel. Yeti made the FRO in both steel and aluminum.
  • 2 0
 Yep, you're right--I'm definitely confused re: Yeti history. I thought the FRO was a race-light version of the ARC, hell wasn't there a model with elevated chainstays?! Thanks for the correction I'll look at the photos closer next time.
  • 1 0
 That Yeti is steel. Also Frank did work for them at that time. He was actually temporary fired for building Yeti's first aluminum frame out a prototype tube set that Easton gave them.
  • 2 0
 Totally dig the old school stuff! Wanna see more!
  • 4 0
 Tomac and Herbold next please.
  • 2 0
 Hell yeah! Would love a feature on Ned Overend too; hell, just start going through all the big names from the NORBA era!
  • 1 0
 Totally agreed! Tinker too! Those two are legends!
  • 3 0
 Tioga DISK DRIVE!
  • 3 0
 For Race Only baby!!!
  • 1 0
 Yeah real rock stars at 0:52. Way sillier lookin' than Gene Simm's could ever hope to be.
  • 1 0
 Really cool to see her 25 years on, still have pics I took of her in Durango in 1990
  • 2 0
 Hows about some Furtado xizangs?
  • 1 0
 Cool to see Juliana again after all this time. Lookin good.
  • 1 0
 its all about the stem, bout the stem, no travel
  • 1 0
 I love this video series, looking forward to more!
  • 1 0
 a wet Dream from Back in the Days !
  • 1 2
 Love that vomit and migraine headache inducing colour scheme!
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