Eurobike 2011: Yeti SB95 and SB66 Carbon

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The Yeti booth this year was hidden in plain sight outdoors, but it was one of the brands most mentioned in the traditional ‘Hey, what have you seen that’s new?’ conversations that passing journalists and bike trade types always have at these events. There was talk of a new carbon bike and a 29er, but it was only on Saturday that I managed to fight through the crowds to see the bikes.

 

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First up, there is a new, carbon Yeti SB66. After being invited to the secret launch of the original SB66 back at Sea Otter time in April, I’d heard that there would be a carbon bike in the works for the end of the year, and here it is… The SB66 Carbon. It features the same ‘Switch Technology’ as the aluminium bike, the same 150mm travel, only now in carbon, which saves a pound of the frame weight and brings it to 6lbs rather than 7lbs.

 

A slightly odd angle makes the flared head tube look HUGE, but it's all in proportion.

 

Smooth lines from the carbon

 

 

The carbon lines flow smoothly, giving the bike a much more ‘normal’ look

Internal cable routing and a 142mm rear axle.
Reasonable amounts of mud room

Yeti SB95

And how about this? It’s the new 29er version of the SB66. It’s the 29er aluminium version of the SB66. It features 120mm of rear travel and here with a Fox 34 on the front. The bike will be offered in S, M, L and XL sizes and it said to weigh in at 7.5lbs, so a half pound more than the 26in version. We reckon this might swing a few people over to the big wheels next year…

 

Here's the whole machine. Doesn't look that funny, does it? The black big in the back is Yeti's Big Top 29er hardtail.

 

142mm dropouts at the back - a standard that has really taken off this year.

 

 

Again, pretty decent clearance out back

 

Big Top

And here’s the very shiny Yeti Big Top 29er hardtail. Yeti was another company that said it wouldn’t make 29ers, so it seems that they’re all producing a couple these days.

 

 

 

Fox's 34 is a 29er only fork designed for full suspension and bigger travel all-mountain riding. It features 34mm stanchions and 140mm travel

 

 

Chipps Chippendale

Singletrackworld's Editor At Large

With 22 years as Editor of Singletrack World Magazine, Chipps is the longest-running mountain bike magazine editor in the world. He started in the bike trade in 1990 and became a full time mountain bike journalist at the start of 1994. Over the last 30 years as a bike writer and photographer, he has seen mountain bike culture flourish, strengthen and diversify and bike technology go from rigid steel frames to fully suspended carbon fibre (and sometimes back to rigid steel as well.)

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