Q1
I am the unfortunate owner of a 2011 Yeti 575 which is an awesome bike, Hence i hear you say “why unfortunate”. Well on buying the frame it was pretty much brand new but for complicated reasons (no its not stolen)it is considered second-hand. i really enjoy riding it and it is definitely a hard bike to beat for UK riding.
Now the unfortunate bit:- the break mount cracked, a hair line fracture running in a rather odd direction, not crash damage i might add! So i set about looking into a replacement rear triangle. This turned out to be £599 which was for the new 2013 fully aluminium (a straight swap) and if i wanted the original alu/carbon job it would be £700. Now knowing the second hand value of the frame is only about £900 in almost mint condition i thought this was probably not going to be cost effective. I decided to get it welded instead, the welder is an excellent and highly competent chap who really produced an excellent repair and built in a little extra reinforcement.
Now I’ve been riding the frame now for about a month, and I’m considering selling the whole bike. What would you think it would be worth? the welded area has been resprayed and well blended in.
I’d be interested to know peoples thoughts on prices for a full build and the frame, the full build consists of full XT dropper post, renthal stem, chainring and handle bars, brand new ethirteen xcx and sun ringle wheel set as well as 2.4 and 2.2 conty rubber queens in black chilli compound. It also has rockshox XX revelations, the U-turm model. All bearings and seals recently replaced and the rp23 was specially tuned by mojo. Also any thoughts/ideas on the sorry story
Q2
If i decide to sell I’m thinking of going for a mass produced job and get away from the “boutique”, I recently became a home owner which has changed my bike cash flow situation dramatically. A good friend cracked his rear triangle on his enduro, which was second hand, specialized sorted him out with a replacement for £200.
One of the bikes i’ve been looking at is the new norco sight killer b3 at £1900 it seems a great buy with some decent components although the rear shock looks a bit ropey. Anyone got any experience with evans cycles as a customer? or with the new norco 650b trail bikes? i race a bit in gravity enduro events, alot of people are saying 650b will be the way to go.
Cheers all

If money is short I’d stick with what you have – as you say, the second hand value of a repaired frame is doubtful.

I have a 2011 575 and recently tested the Sight Killer B2. After 30 mins I decided to stick with the Yeti. Didn’t feel it came close. I ride a Medium 575 but the Large Norco felt too cramped. And I still beat my mates on 650bs down the trail with my Yeti so don’t feel I need to change 🙂

Evans were the usual i.e. didn’t have any idea about the bikes they sell. They just asked for a product number when I called the shop in order to check on the computer even though they only had 4 Norcos in stock all within sight of the counter!

2nd hand, welded, sale, nice price

Pick 2

welded the alu part on a triangle with carbon sections? brave!

Interestingly after riding the 575 for some time i feel most other bikes have felt short, even a friends lapierre.

Money isn’t crazy tight but i cant afford an full payment so will have to look at credit. Having said thati’m not about to go and spend 3800 quid on a basic turner santa-cruz or intense. One of the ads i ride with cracked his intense in several places, only a one year warranty, they gave him a crash replacement price which was barely less than brand new. I think they should just scratch the “crash” part and say its just replacement price.

Yes welded the the aluminium section and it is quite close to where the carbon is bonded, no adverse effects. My view was it was scrap with the broken break mount, its scrap with detached seat stays.

that brake mount is a stupid place where they have tried to save weigh, Ive seen a few break at that point.

If you are looking to save money you stick with what you’ve got, it’s you spending habits which need to change not the bike !

i know! why drill it out?? must save about 5 grams max should have left it a nice solid 5mm plate. mine cracked in the opposite direction to the main breaking forces.

Pictures of the crack for clarity, i don’t have any of the weld yet.

https://docs.google.com/drawings/d/11Ut2CK7b0yyJ-HmVn4dSVqhJGQ7bDaDo1UH47ZP_ZzA/edit

https://docs.google.com/drawings/d/1BmFOp-Ay7_47HumdhUNI7hAgnj-RLZRgYN95qYEaeL8/edit

dude that is not what i’d call a “hairline” crack 😯

is that a sticker?

If only it was a sticker.

Its probably more than a hairline, what i found strange is it broke at all, surely that should be the last bit to crack. I’ll just reiterate this just happened i didn’t even crash into a rock or anything.

Yeti break mount

😀

Ouch! Anyone heard of this happening to ASR5’s?

Ha, no pun intended wrecker, just my dyslexia wading in!

Wasn’t taking the piss mate, Mrs W is dyslexic. Thought it was a good speller.

yes its the same problem on the ASR5 – stupid place to save weight.

basically make sure that your brake pistons work evenly and are not putting any side load on the brake mount, that is my theory as to why they break the way they do.

To be fair, the latest generation (2012 onwards) of ASR5s have different swingarms, so this isn’t an issue with the newer ones.

Wilko, don’t let it put you off the bike- they really are awesome 🙂

do they have the solid brake mount or the hollowed out one? from 2012 onwards.

Cheers pinetree, I’ve already got one and love it, was just wondering if there’s a potential weak point there. Mine’s a 2012 so should be okay anyway. Maybe I’ll stop using the rear brake just to be safe… 😉

The new all aluminium swing arms/rear triangles on the 2013 575 are also milled out. When i sent the pictures to Yeti they were surprised and said they had never seen it break there before.

Even though the breaks are perfectly balanced the mount flexes laterally under breaking forces, over time this caused it to crack.

Wrecker, no worries matey i wasn’t having a jab, miss use of similar sounding words is a classic its usually their, there, and they’re, its exacerbated by stress levels and as i’m posting between the boss doing his office “who’s not working” walk.

Sancho- the new 2012 onwards version of the carbon s/arm on the ASR-5 has a solid brake mount.

not sure which year mine is havent checked

£700 for a rear triangle sounds awfully expensive . Surely if you speak to the right people and you have acquired the bike legally they can do a bit better than that . Can’t they supply you one at trade price ? Given the circumstances that’s the least I would expect .

What size rotor is that? Is the bike rated for one that large?

The very long post mount to IS adapter is putting a heck of a lot more bending force on the “break mount” than if you had an IS caliper that bolted direct to the swingarm’s mounting holes (without an adapter).

If I were you, I’d keep riding the bike. But switch to the smallest possible rear rotor.

An interesting point Joe, that looks like it might be a 203mm rotor (OP please correct me if I’m wrong). The adaptor puts the caliper mounting bolts a long way from the frame mounts. The top one in particular is going to create a huge amount of force/leverage on the frame mounts under braking

Its only a 180 and the brake set up is the one which yeti sell as a complete set up, the frame should easily be able to cope with those forces in my opinion. It is a bike that is aimed at enduro type riding hence the reason they beefed up the chain stays after the pre 2011’s had such an issue with shattering, bending, braking.

I was offered a cost price triangle which was 560 for the carbon and 460 for the Alu.

Fair enough, you’re right, it should be able to cope with the set-up it was designed for. I guess that’s where they went wrong, looking at the frame design and mounting arrangement you can see how a large force is going to be created under braking on the exact part of the frame that’s cracked. Coupled with any lateral force from the side to side movement of caliper and pistons

560 and 460 still seems steep – more “cost” than cost I reckon. Which dealer have you spoken to about it?

i’d rather not name dealers, but if you have any suggestions of people to contact i’d be very much interested in hearing about them.

They should have gone for post mount i think, it seems like it would limit the twisting forces.

This wasnt one of the discounted CRC batch of yeti’s was it?

Might be worth speaking to Silverfish who I believe are the official UK Yeti importer, if you haven’t already that is.

No its an ex team riders bike who is a pal. Spoke to silverfish, they were my first port of call