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I've been riding an SB95 for the past 6 seasons and am looking to upgrade. Being that is is early winter, there are some decent deals on slightly used SB 5.5s.
Used ones w/Sram X0s are going for around $4,500 or a touch less...
Temped to upgrade...
Who's sprung for one of these puppies? Thoughts?
Spent a fair amount of time on one. Great bike if you're pinned, all the time. Especially on trails that are descending, kinda rough, but not too rough. Less great if you want something mellow and cruisy for Sunday driving.
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I wouldn’t buy many carbon bikes without full (original owner usually) warranty. I wouldn’t buy carbon OR alloy Yeti without warranty.
I got a 5.5 in june, the cheapest (relative term) shimano build, I like the spec, i like the fox build, I dropped a couple teeth on the chainring with an absolute black 28T but that was all I changed
I like the 29's they roll over everything, climbs/descends/turns really well, seems to do everything as advertised with no hiccups fuckups and nothing broke ... great bike,
Beginning of the year my son got rid of his SC Nomad (last years model) to buy a 5.5 so i asked why, he said while the Nomad went downhill a little better the Yeti climbed and pedaled better for enduro races
Owner here. First FS was a long-Ed out Blur LT with a Fox 36, 5.5 was my first new bike ever. I have a 16’ full xt. As others have said it’s a friggin sledgehammer not a scalpel, sometimes I wish it had a little more liveliness (but compared to the old blur it has more), definitely wouldn’t be described as playful, but hell if it’s not just a war machine pin the hair back and giver machine. It destroys technical/rooty/rocky terrain and does so fast. One of my first big rides on it was in PNF in Brevard and that area was built for the 5.5. It climbs solidly for a trail bike and again it’s just a an assaulter of trails. I’d like to think of it as a Ford Raptor or Challenger Hellcat: unrefined eater of children.
My only issue is the lack of bottle cage on this bike. Cmon yeti. Come up with something I can reach and doesn't attract mud/sh!t
The shop I'm dealing with is a big Yeti dealer, they also sell Santa Cruz, the gear junkies seem to be moving over to Yeti
I duno if I would call the 5.5 an assaulter / destroyer, the specs don't seem to be sqewed that much towards DH, the head tube is a fairly upright 66.5 the seat tube 73.6 all I know is no matter what I'm doing the 5.5 always ends up going the right way
I really like how the bike feels to sit on/ride, it feels pretty nice even without dropping the seat i keep forgetting to use the dropper, junior seems to concur that the dropper is less important on the 5.5 than it was on his Nomad but that i should still use the dropper to get lower/ go faster
as for the water thing I can't see having room for a bottle with switch infinity, my kid mounts a cageless water bottle on those 2 screws under the down tube of the 5.5 sez it has never come off, I just use a pack with water/ pump/ tools ect which I figure I need anyhow
Whether or not the bottle comes off down there it still is in the line of fire for pretty much any gunk you run over. I understand all the yeti tribe don't want them to change the frame setup. Just think there's a ton of wasted space in the middle there, guess you can make a custom frame bag to fit in like Ibis or that new Canyon does.Quote:
Originally Posted by XXX-er
http://store.ibiscycles.com/mojo-por...-hd4-p363.aspx
This is honestly really helpful info. Because it tells me that we’re looking for completely different things from our bikes. I’m in the “I hit my dropper lever more than my shifter” camp.Quote:
Originally Posted by XXX-er
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is a water bottle more important than how the bike rides ? is that bag ^^ gona fit a water bottle ?Quote:
Originally Posted by bsavery
I've been on bikes where I was back behind the seat all the time but this bike it doesn't seem to matter as much to me very muchQuote:
Originally Posted by jm2e
Yes. I'd rather have a bike that was 90-95% as good a ride as a yeti that I could ride on short rides without a pack. I'm just saying if they put a little ingenuity into it and came up with some integrated storage solution that would be nicer. I really like the way the Yeti rides for sure. In fact might pick up a used one.Quote:
Originally Posted by XXX-er
Can confirm the water bottle position is the worst, I ride a medium 5.5 and have short arms and without some crazy body positioning on smooth trail it’s basically in an unobtanium position. But whatever, I only race long mile stuff once a year and I figure it out, all other times carry a bag.
As for the comment about not using dropper: 100% agree, it’s amazing how much less I used dropper especially early on when I got the ride, now have worked back up to using it more appropriately but this bike inspires confirdence even from a high ride position.
This is similar, but the water bottle cage is why it may be at the top of my list of next bikes.
https://www.transitionbikes.com/Bikes_Sentinel.cfm
Jeffsey and SB 5.5 are in the running too.
Its been ^^ designed around the water bottle SO its nowhere near the same design as a yeti5.5Quote:
Originally Posted by grskier
its not even the same color
If you like the Yeti you really should be looking at Spot Mayhem. Pricing just recently reduced when they went consumer direct. Killer bike.
Being that I live in Colorado and winter just started yesterday, I've done a sh*t ton of research on bikes along with riding my bike lots more than I normally would.
. I've liked my SB95 for the past 5 years, but I think I'm done drinking the Yeti cool aid- for a few reasons:
*no internal cable router sleeves and many issues w/water entering frame and never leaving
*defective paint/pealing/excessive chipping and basically no accountability by Yeti to fix this
*expensive/touchy maintenance on the switch infinity system
* I remember reading somewhere the bottom bracket was not threaded, but pressed- not sure on this one...
Yes, this is stuff I've read and not actually experienced. I'm sure the new bikes ride really well, but for the kind of $ these are selling for, I'd think some of the above noted issues would be non-issues.
That's a strong competitor there. The Spot system does use a flexible link instead of one pivot, but I think it's seen as many cycles in testing as the Yeti mechanism. Haven't been on the Mayhem, but the Rollick with that system stands out at times as weirdly fast.Quote:
Originally Posted by simple
I'm to the point where, I'm not going to buy a production bike without riding it. There have been several bikes I've been convinced were perfection until I rode them and didn't like them, and bikes that I was marginally interested in that ended up blowing me away. I live in a place where demo'ing anything that isn't a Trek, Specialized, or SC is difficult. I still have managed to track down bikes that interest me, and ride them. IMO, researching bikes doesn't need to go any further than the leverage curve, geometry, build and first-hand accounts from people you know and trust, and all that is really just useful for narrowing down the field of bikes to demo. There are exceptions, but I find the vast majority of reviews to be pretty worthless.
The water bottle thing may be trivial to some, but it's a valid consideration if you rely on water bottles. I consider the BB water bottle cage to be storage for a bottle that you swap out with the accessible one on top of the downtube. Way too many issues to rely on it exclusively...IMO.
Much truth there^^
Don't forget the value of a cheap piece of plastic between the front wheel and that brittle hollow thing we call a downtube.
People look at bikes and go oh aw but the Reality is nobody can tell how abike is gona ride unless they actually ride it. There is also execution of the final product cuz it's s not just a collection of parts it's how all those parts went together. How about the dealer or absence of In the case of internet bikes you might be buying this thing site unseen so not only do you not get to ride it if there is a problem you will need to be a strong enough tech to fix it yiurself
And even this is only going to give you an idea if it's a good feel/fit.Quote:
Originally Posted by XXX-er
Because if the demo bike isn't set up correctly suspension-wise for you, you can get a poor impression of a bike that may not deserve it.
And tires... JHFC - manufacturers/shops need to STOP putting shitty tires on their demo bikes. And don't get me started on the demo bikes that have reasonable tire choices, but the tread is so worn as to be a menace to the demo-ee.
"Properly" demo-ing bikes is more difficult than it sounds...
This is why events like Outerbike are killing it. Good times.Quote:
Originally Posted by bagtagley
https://nsmb.com/forum/forum/gear-4/...stries-129447/
for all you DIY types who wana buy off the internet here ^^ is 8 pages of real life drama of an NSMB'er ordering a YT industries bike and getting it MONTHS later, shit breaking and no support, it looks like you save a lot of money but you don't have dealer support so its strictly DIY which might make more sense for A DH bike than a enduro?
A Yeti dealer apparently does not make much $ on a bike cuz they have lower margins than say Giant and then they gotta pay the mechanic to put it all togetehr cuz a yeti does not come pre-assembled like the more mass produced bikes
I did a 2hr demo on my son's Large 5.5 and I could tell it was too long but I was pretty sure the medium would be perfect and it was, tires were fine cuz everyone runs Maxxis around here and suspension setup was also easy
my Prophet was easy to test bcuse they come with a little card that tells you how much air in the lefty and the shock
I moved up from a Rollik to a Mayhem. Also demoed a 5.5 (fun but terrible climber). I haven’t ridden a better all around bike yet than the Mayhem.Quote:
Originally Posted by jono
If you’re in CO (Golden) the Spot guys will let you take one out for free.