After an exceptionally cold, wet and prolonged winter, and with a good number of months riding the Yeti SB-66 in all sorts of situations, it is time to take a good look at why this bike has been getting as much attention as it has.

Around the middle of 2011 I had been toying with the idea of getting a new bike that would allow me to do a bit more of everything that my previous bikes had lacked. With the start of enduro racing really coming out, and an abundance of new and fantastic ‘do-it-all’ bikes on the market there was plenty to choose from…

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

I toyed with the ideas of getting any one of the highly capable bikes of this genre: Ibis Mojo HD, Commençal Meta AM, and the Pivot Mach5.7 just to name a few and all seemed like great contenders, but I was looking for something a bit different. Then the Yeti SB-66 was announced. The bike looked great, it seemed well thought out, and it had an ingenious new suspension system that caught my eye and imagination. Half a year later and here is the result!

Having now been riding the SB-66 for over a year, this is a good opportunity to talk about some of its pros and cons. I truly have ridden this bike in a broad spectrum of conditions and locations. It has been taken around Glentress, Innerleithen, Laggan, Mabie Forest, been down Fort William’s two world cup downhill tracks, raced around the Tweed Valley during the POC King and Queen of the Hill enduro and most recently been hammered around the North Shore of Vancouver and Whistler Bike Park.

SCOTLAND

BRITISH COLUMBIA

There is no doubt in my mind that the SB-66 is a great looking frame – it has all the usual traits of a Yeti with its smooth curving figure, Yeti logo sticker on the toptube, the ‘made in Colorado’ badge and of course and in this instance, the colour – the iconic turquoise that sends some week at the knees. A big change however with this design is the new Switch Technology, which drives the rear suspension. This is quite a complex little system to fully understand and the advantages of it, so here is a little blab from Yeti: “SWITCH TECHNOLOGY is an optimized dual-link design that utilizes an eccentric mechanism that switches direction as the bike moves through its travel. Built into a compact assembly, the eccentric creates a micro-link that continuously repositions the lower pivot of the swing arm, allowing us to create a suspension system with no compromises.“

Frame Detail
After having built, stripped down and rebuilt the frame, I have noticed that the downtube zip-tie points are rather narrow and you will find it difficult to thread through any normal sized zip-ties. I found myself heading down to the nearest B&Q to get some specifically narrower ties that would fit through the holes and allow me to clamp the cables down nicely. Not a big issue, but definitely one to be prepared for! As for the tubing, Yeti have certainly done a great deal of work in the R & D of the SB-66 and it shows with all the tubing meticulously shaped for optimised strength-to-weight. This certainly isn’t the lightest frame in its category, weighing in at 7.5lbs with Fox rear shock. This weight compromise is swallowed when you realise the extra responsiveness as a result of the stiffer frame.

Whilst the overall frame finish on my frame is good, I found the paint to be slightly below Yeti standards in areas where the paint finishes and meets exposed metal (around bolts, pivots, dropouts). In these areas the paint seemed to have a little tendency to peel if you weren’t careful. I wouldn’t imagine this to be the same of all SB-66 frames…

Ascending

Climbing the Yeti makes the ups almost as enjoyable as the downs. Almost. On a first ride, it didn’t shoot up the climbs like I was expecting, but then again I think my expectations were pretty high! Having said that though, the SB-66 is a fantastic bike for climbing against other bikes in this category. There is a great balance between the rear suspension being smooth and solid enough to make climbing as efficient as possible, but the give is there when things get a bit rougher. Power transfer through the frame’s stiffness is probably the most impressive feature with your rear tyre digging aggressively into the ground when you put down the power. The longer than average top tube also provides some extra stability on the climbs and a great asset for running shorter stems without upsetting reach. Whilst I often still apply the Pro-Pedal, this is more out of habit, as there really isn’t much of a need for it.

Descending

The descents are where the SB-66 really shows what it is all about. The combination of aggressive geometry, stiff tubing and the longer top tube provide a platform that is built for speed. Riding at speed is definitely where the bike exceeds in its descending capabilities. Riding tight and technical trails at slower speeds, and you will definitely find it riding high in its travel – despite this, I have found the SB-66 to be extremely nimble when the going gets tight and I have often had great fun flicking the bike around tight or rooty sections. 

When the speed does open up though, the bike sits really nicely in the rear suspension’s mid-stroke and you will find yourself riding with tremendous flow and enjoyment. Sinking perfectly into natural berms really gives you the feeling of hugging the corner and trail. Riding the SB-66 on flat-out, bumpy, muddy and meandering trails that go straight down the contours of the hills are where I have found the most success and have enjoyed riding the bike most. The frame’s responsiveness gives you great confidence riding down these tightly-spaced-tree trails where you can pick up speed easily, but still act quickly knowing that the bike will do as you need.

The only situations I have found difficulty in terms of descending with the SB-66 are when the trails have a lot of large rocks or boulders that produce big square edge hits. At these times, the bike becomes a little unstable, but this may be down to a mixture of speed (lack of it!) or my personal setup.

The SB-66 is definitely a frame that excels at speed and this is clearly where the biggest benefits are found. So if you are looking to get the most out of the handling and descending capabilities that this frame clearly has, keep off those brakes and pick up some speed!

Parts Check

At this point I want to focus on giving a few words about some specific parts that I chose to build the bike up with: First up is the Renthal Duo Stem. This is one unique looking stem and it’s quite light too! Whilst I do like the Duo overall, I did find some quirky downsides. The first of these was the fact you can’t simply slip a face-plate off the front to remove the handlebars. You have to remove 4 screws and loosen another so that you can lift off the entire top half of the stem. Secondly, I found that if you didn’t tighten the screws in a particular order, it meant that I wasn’t able to tighten my top-cap sufficiently which led to a loose feeling headset.

Next up is the 2013 Fox Racing Shox 34 Float 160 CTD – quite a mouthful. This is my first foray into the world of Kashima coating, and I was really surprised by how much of a difference I actually noticed! I was quite impressed with the performance of the forks in this respect. Whilst there have been many complaints about the tuning of these forks in the CTD Descend mode, I generally had few problems with diving. This doesn’t mean I didn’t experience these well discussed problems at all, but realistically there were few cases where I had problems, and they usually arose when riding fast into a highly banked, steep corner where speed was quickly reduced.

I am a big fan of Schwalbe tyres and have Racing Ralphs on the rear of both my bikes, simply because of the incredible rolling speeds. I was a little disappointed however, when they began to fall-off their prime condition quite quickly. As you can see from the photos above, there is still a some tread left, but the outer tread has begun peeling significantly and not obvious from the picture but there are a number of tiny holes throughout the centre of the tyre. These have been sealed well by the tubeless sealant.

There isn’t much to say about the LG1+ chainguide. It is a well loved guide with riders all over the world. Again this is something that features on both my bikes, however the one on the SB-66 has developed a small crack around the upper bolt despite not being overly tightened.

Conclusion.

To finish up, I have to say that the SB-66 is an incredibly capable bike (if not proven by Jared Graves this season) and is one of the most fun bikes I have ridden. Everyone else that has ridden the bike seems to agree. The speed, stiffness and responsiveness are fantastic and give the bike balance for both ascending and descending. I have now been riding the bike for over a year, and have had virtually no problems with bearings. Only now am I going to have to replace two of the link bearings and the rear shock bushings.

It goes without saying that to get the most out of the SB-66, you need to ride it fast and this is where you will find the bike most at home. With there now being a 29″ and 27.5″ variants of the SB-66 in the SB-95 and SB-75 respectively, Yeti have covered all bases with regards to appeasing those who like big wheels. If the other bikes are as good their little 26″ brother, then there is a lot to look forward to from Yeti!

Yeti Cycles are exclusively distributed in the UK by Silverfish-UK and for everything else turquoise, tap the logo below. Happy Trails, Dom.

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