In late fall, we traveled to the high elevations of the San Juan mountains to explore the vast range and to test out our prototype suspension platform. Our trip took us to the southwest part of Colorado because the San Juan's contain some of the most rugged terrain in Colorado and offer a loose network of trails - some fully developed, others just old mining paths filtering down the mountainside.
Fall in the Rockies is always epic, but the weather is variable. We encountered freezing temps and snow, but were rewarded with fresh loam and peak colors. In the end, after the trails were explored, weather was endured, flat tires were fixed, and a few beers were drunk, we found out what works and what doesn’t. Excursions like this are part of the feedback loop necessary to fully develop our suspension designs.
Fall in the San Juan range: high altitude holds snowy peaks and frigid temps while lower down in the valley the fading sun warms the gold leaves of aspen trees.
View from the Prospect Trail on Telluride Mountain. Peaks of the box canyon pierce through the afternoon clouds as a storm breaks and lights fills the valley below.
An unusually warm and moist fall delayed peak foliage season but that streak of weather broke early in our trip, leaving us to endure a few successive days of snowy weather.
Usually waiting out the bad weather would be the norm in the early morning, but we needed to cover trail. As the descent began and the rear wheel slid left to right, frozen puddles became targets. When feeling returned to our frozen toes, it all became worthwhile.
Most of the higher elevation trails were little more than footpaths on a ridge line, hidden under a thin layer of snow. Joey was able to clear them with his rear wheel.
The clouds hovered almost every day on the peaks, threatening our temperament and testing our novice meteorologist skills. Should we ride? How long? When do we turn around? The boot heaters normally reserved for ski season definitely came in handy.
You never know what to expect late season in the high country of Colorado, but that’s part of the fun. The variable conditions culminated into a perfect torture test for the Switch Infinity mechanism.
As the weather warmed and the skies began to break, we took a sketchy trip over the summit of Ophir pass and landed in Silverton. Once and old mining town, the boom days are long gone... The only gold left is on the trees.
The late afternoon sun percolating down through the trees.
Finding new ribbons of singletrack on every ride, the point of the trip becomes lost.
Many sections of trail were covered in a thick blanket of aspen leaves, making last-minute turns inevitable. Here the loose cover of fallen leaves is ripped off revealing the compost of fresh dirt below.
As the last of the autumn leaves fell and the fading sun set, a new technology was solidified and our joy of riding in our home state was reignited.
YETI SB5 CARBON
Learn More:
http://yeticycles.com/#/bikes.com/sb5cProven Here. SB5 Carbon and the San Juan Mountains.
Words, Photos, and Film by Craig Grant. Riding by Joey Schusler.
yeticycles.com
Rad riding and the scenery is pretty baller. Shot last fall and through the winter? Good job keeping it a secret Yeti, that shit can be hard these days!
Lloyd: I was thinking the same thing. That John Denver's full of shit, man.
Seriously though, I want to ride there after work.
First you love Yeti for their Switch link and now, well, the tables have turned. I don't get it. What I do get is people having an opinion; sure the new SB5c is novel, bold, maybe even revolutionary but these are just PREDICTIONS, based solely upon observation of what the model brings to the table. Meanwhile the switch infinity is the worst thing to happen to some since Harold Camping proclaimed apocalypse now.
It is expensive? you bet it is! Is it worth it? I'll give it a shot. Can you afford it? probably, if you really wanted to. So are you gonna buy and then make an informed decision that's neither anecdotal, comparative or in any other manner speculative? Oh, no? then you oughta just shut up.
Yeti, kudos for pushing the envelope. Bold move, yo. I've owned a 575 in the past and it was rad. Currently on an Ibis but I'm inching towards my next bike and it's down to you or a Canyon. But seriously, that's a lotta money.
after all it has 2cm less travel... that's probably the reason why graves is still running the sb66
ews tracks are pretty nasty... look at all the new 170mm enduro race bikes
and theoretically this system is pretty awesome, allowing more control over kinematics than conventional designs, just like their previous 303 design, but a LOT lighter and hopefully more user friendly
and look at the inital impressions from the media (e.g. vital), they were blown away.
after having the same doubts when they introduced the switch link and riding a sb66 for a year now, I can say these guys know what's up and how to design a full suspension bike!
I can't wait to see when they release their longer legged switch infinity bike, as it could be pretty dope. I talked to a Yeti guy a few weeks ago, and he warned me of the stuff that they were gonna be releasing. Color me impressed, for now.
I do have one question for the Yeti folks: with all this flack about the exposed rails, why not devise a flush, carbon, sealed cover that either clips on (not too secure) or bolts on?
Dirt is always going to get in, especially if you have a linear moving part to cover up. So inside the cover you might have a slower build up of dirt witch over time could become so much it would jam up the whole system.
Its a proven design principle that most of the time it is better to leave stuff very wide open so dirt can easily fall out again after it got in.
If anyone works as an engineer for yeti, feel free to correct me, but when I saw the shape of this box at the bottom for the first time this is what I thought they did... clever im my eyes...
BUT! 'Our trip took us to the southwest part of Colorado because the San Juan's contain some of the most rugged terrain in Colorado'. Rugged??? WTF! all that is pictured is smooth single track that would be fun on a hardtail. How does this make me want to buy a Yeti? you have shown me that you're bike as capable as a hardtail and your new suspension design gets caked in mud if its a little wet outside. Mountain bike marketing is so weird...
I can tell you from experience CO terrain is more hype than reality. Half the state is actually elevated prairie land, looks exactly like Kansas & Nebraska (Eastern slope). The other is the western slope, mountains but very old geologically so much of it are gentle slopes with very limited topographical relief. Plus some desert areas. Very stark contrast to the Cascades, Coast Mtns, Tetons, or even the Northern Canadian Rockies.
Wake me up when Jared Graves wins an Enduro World Series round on a 650b switch infinity equipped bike.
Oh ... Wait....... he still runs a 26" with the old concentric switch system..........
"colorado trails are boring."
Ah the internet...they are either joking or haven't been to the right place.
@Monkeyass, try: Heil Ranch, White Ranch, Dakota Ridge/Red Rocks (morrison slide), Mt. Falken/Lair 'O the Bear, Trestle/Snowmass (for DH), Elk Meadows/Bergen Peak, Kenosha Pass, Fruita (most anything), and on and on and on.
If you're going to be a smart ass, at least be smart about it
1) bike looks like it could be fun I would give it a try.
2) As a person who tries to build sustainable trails was anyone else annoyed by this video where the rider is thrashing through waterlogged trails and skidding through the corners (ie. ruining the trails)?
3) Is anyone else tired of seeing videos with people standing up and sprinting all the time? I would sure as hell like to see someone actually riding a bike as they normally would on a long epic ride (seated pedaling on flats and climbs, standing pedaling hard on descents).
4) Any bike company can show some pro-rider hauling ass down a mountain or simply bunny hoping over technical terrain, how about showing someone climbing up some gnarly technical terrain and riding THROUGH some sketchy rock/root gardens?
I do understand that sometimes your bike skids in turns at higher speeds, and that's understandable. But that's primarily a result of trail design, and so the trail builders had an opportunity to strengthen the trail for that.
and it's not a huge marketing department, just this one guy. craig grant.
As a Yeti fanboy, I am a bit perplexed by this "proven" video that doesn't show the bike doing anything impressive - like climbing roots or soaking up rock gardens. Beautiful scenery, but this is a miss for me.
But I do agree on the video - meh. Though I might have to steal some pics for my wallpaper. Maybe I'll watch Life Cycles tonight.
Cost is high, as expected. I can see myself on this platform once it trickles down into the industry proclaimed "affordable" bike range that sits around $3500, which it eventually will. BTW - when I tell people my bike retailed for $3,200 but I picked it up new for $1,999 due to a redesign for the next model year, people look incredulous because $2k is expen$ive to someone not familiar with the cycling industry. High end bikes are astronomically priced these days but they perform beautifully and the middle aged weekend warriors don't seem to give a sh#t, which is who this bike is designed for.
Anyway, I rode my outdated full suspension platform up the mountain this morning at 6 am and was plenty f#cking happy about it. Maybe one day Yeti.
Yeti tried a sliding pivot on a DH bike a few years ago didn't they? I hope it works out. I have been looking for something new for a while now and this might fit the bill.
Video is lame for the length. 30 seconds would've been enough.
The location of the video seems appropriate for a Trail Bike.
Yetis are great bikes.No question there, I've owned four, but have you noticed how many bikes and suspensions all look the same these days? Yeti design is putting itself out there every couple of years with some major innovation.
As far as this bike is concerned, it is probably a great ride, but I doubt I'll see many on the trail. It's just too damned expensive.
Good bike, amazing improvement coming form the switch, If i had the money I will buy this bike, but I prefer to wait to see this technology on a 26 frame and just change components from my actual bike
" simultaneous combination of landing and preloading for the next jump occasionally made the bike sink further into its travel than expected"
Sorry but I thought this new technology was meant to be a game changer?
"We'd make changes to the tyres and cockpit"
So you've just spunked £7k on the new "super bike" but the first thing you have to do is hand over more cash for upgrades!
take my money!! go on! take it! In fact I'll even rent my granny out down the docks to make sure I get one pre-ordered!
craziness
Bikes: 1:52
Total: 5:29
34% of this video shows a bike.
THAT IS JUAN/JAUN NICE BIKE!
Pure unashamed marketing hype.
Boggle us all with 2 days of tech talk and game changing claims, then can't even back it up with a decent vid!
Throw in a mediocre PB review that tells us the component choice is terrible and the supension behaves awkwardly on repeated succesive hits!
Surely the mtb money/marketing machine have all been sniffing glue? Are we expected to swallow this nonsense?
I work for a dealer that sells Yeti and prospective buyers choose the Stumpy 650b over the SB75 and know i have to try to sell this thing?
I don't think will be placing any order for this bike.