Yeti Cycles. A bike brand synonymous for being a bit ‘out there’ with their creative and, most definitely successful, suspension designs. Pioneering the controlled rail system on their 303DH bikes and fine tuning the infamous single-pivot linkage activated designs – Yeti have now introduced another completely new way of controlling the rear shock, and this one is a bit clever! For 2012 Yeti introduced the ‘Switch-Link’ suspension with their all new SB66 and SB95 bikes…

Words: Dominic Simmons | Photos: Dominic Simmons / Scott MacPherson

Essentially the rear triangle of the bike pivots on an eccentric bearing in the lower half of the front triangle and without delving deep into the engineering, the rotating direction of the eccentric pivot changes half way through the travel. So effectively for the first half of the 150mm of travel on the SB66, the rear wheel is moving slightly rearward. We will go into more details after having ridden the bike for a while, but this is basically meant to be a new way of improving pedal efficiency.

The SB66 falls into that ‘all-mountain’ or ‘trail’ category, so it should be able to take you anywhere, and on some pretty epic adventures. Because the frame weighs slightly more than the average in this genre, we have built it up with some pretty special parts! Lets start at the front…

Handlebars are something that can’t please everyone. Being a big fan of the RaceFace Atlas FR bars, I wanted something quite similar in feel, but carbon. Maybe not the most obvious choice, but crankbrothers seemed to fit all the requirements, and dang are they light!

Matched with a Renthal Duo Stem, and you have a killer combination. Durability, great design, and light weight.

For front suspension, the new Fox 34 Float CTD’s were the perfect match – stronger than a standard 32 series fork, but lower in height than a 36. Schwalbe have also been big in the game this year, and after having a set of their tyres on my hardtail, were the obvious choice for this new ride. Up front is the new Hans Dampf whilst a Racing Ralph takes control of the rear. The Hans Dampf actually sizes up quite large and you could compare it to a Maxxis 2.5″ despite this being marked as a reasonable 2.3″ tyre. Especially compared to the 2.25″ Racing Ralph on the rear, the 2.3″ up front is a beast!

Running tubeless means you have two real options. You can either run a standard rim with a tubeless ready tyre and utilise a conversion kit, or you can go for the full job and buy tubeless ready rims as well as tyres. With there being quite a bit of hype from people I know, ride with and work with, about the Stan’s ZTR Flow rims… I thought it was about time I gave them a run. Coupled with the ever popular Hope Pro2 Evo hubs, these wheels should definitely be able to take a bit of a battering!

Moving swiftly back, all Yeti bikes come specified with Fox rear shocks and on this 2012 Yeti SB66, we have the Fox RP23 with Kashima coating – an industry favourite! All of the newer and 2013 models of the SB range will come equipped with a Fox CTD rear shock, but I don’t think that a few extra optional settings are what would make or break this frame…

A must for all bikes at the ‘hard core’ end of this category is most definitely a dropper post. Love them or hate them (although once you have tried one, I don’t know how you could hate one!) they are here to stay and if you can get your hands on one, it will change a lot more than you might have thought. For starters, you can easily drop the post an inch for a short technical descent without having to get off the bike or ride down a bit tentatively with your saddle at full stretch. We all know about the Rock Shox Reverb post that seems to have taken the market by storm but crankbrothers have been in the game almost since it began and this year, they released their fully revamped (from the ground up I must add) Kronolog post. The Kronolog supposedly takes all of the bonuses of a hydraulic dropper post and changes them for use in a mechanic post. A simple design that uses air to pop the saddle back up, but it is the lever in particular that is something very neat indeed!

The drivetrain on our SB66 is a simple 1×10 set-up. No faffing around here. Using a Sram X9 rear mech coupled with a Sram X0 crankset and e.13 LG1+ chainguide, we have the perfect setup for enduro racing and trail ripping. A disadvantage to using Sram cranks though, is the limitations in chainring size. To be able to run smaller chainrings, you have to get your hands on a smaller spider to allow room for the chain to pass. This isn’t easy though, so MRP took the initiative and have designed a new model of chainring specifically for Sram X0 and X9 cranksets. In essence, what they have is a standard chainring that has combined the spider as part of the chainring, meaning that you can run whatever tooth size you want. Clever! This system not only saves the hassle and removes the unnecessary spider from the cranks but also saves a bit of weight, so it really is a win-win. Except for the price, as these little beauties will set you back a good £50, and that is a lot for a chainring.

That is about it for the main things. A few nice touches to add would be about the ESI grips that we have chosen to fit to the handlebars. Here at Factory Jackson, we like our retro non lock-on grips and ESI grips looks like they could be winners. Using a rubberised, foam silicone material, these grips simply slide onto your handlebars with a bit of help from that bottle of window cleaner that you have under the sink. Once fitted, they are as snug as can be. But the best bit is that unlike most foam grips, the ESI grips actually get grippier in the wet! This is down to the silicone used in the foam, more on that later…

For pedals, we are trying out the new crankbrothers 5050 3s, and although the colours clash a bit, they look classy and should keep our feet firmly planted.

Check back over the next few months to see how we have handled our new goods and to see what we thought about them. Until then, check out some of the products we are trying on the Yeti, crankbrothers, Fox and Sram websites.

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