I’m a sceptical sort of chap and despite all that I’ve read in Singletrack for the past few years about super-short stems, slack head angles, low bottom brackets, heavy, laterally rigid frames, forks and shock linkages, my XC-racer roots always told me to think light, fast and nimble.

I tried a six inch travel bike for a while back in 2008 – a Yeti 575 – and mostly hated it as it wallowed about and was only fun on about 10% of my routes. I live in Hampshire where most of my riding takes place, but I get to the Lakes, Dales and Peaks once or twice a month.

So when the 575 was stolen I replaced it with a Trek Fuel EX9.8, which was a lot more fun the majority of the time. More recently I’ve been lucky enough to add the truly outstanding Cannondale Flash 29er Carbon 1 to my stable and so I have just about the fastest hardtail around that I can thrash around the local trails. The bike is outstanding darn sarf and I’m totally sold on the 29er wheels for climbing.

Having the Flash freed me up to think about a more burly bike for when I’m oop north. I still struggled to justify a 30lb bike, but took the plunge and bought a 2014 Yeti SB75 from Merlin who’re offering amazing deals on the last of these bikes at the moment. I had it built up with an X01 drivetrain, Reverb and 50mm stem. Yesterday was its first outing and I took it to the Devil’s Punchbowl in Surrey as I haven’t ridden there for some years and it’s a good spot for testing a bike on the ups and downs, on hard pack and deep mud.

Well what can I say? The girls and boys at Singletrack were right all along! On the scales the SB75 weighs exactly 30lb in a size XL and including XTR pedals. So it falls into my mental category of bloody heavy.

But immediately I started riding I could feel the value of that extra weight. There is absolutely no lateral flex anywhere and the bike will follow whatever line you point it at. Technical descents were despatched with contempt, the whole bike feeling damped and isolating me from the usual trail chatter. The Fox 34 140 fork may not be as trendy as the Pike but worked beautifully for me and the 127mm of rear travel is extremely efficient thanks to Yeti’s clever Switch Technology which meant that I could leave the rear shock in trail mode the whole time and let the switch transform the bike from stable pedalling platform to smooth descender as needed.

The 1×11 transmission really does free your brain to focus on the trail and the Reverb means that I can run the saddle at a road bike height for optimum pedalling efficiency then drop it and increase the working environment available to me by what feels like 100%. The 27.5 wheels felt more like 29ers than 26ers, which suits me fine, but the bike benefited from feeling slightly more compact than a 29er with similar travel.

What was really staggering was that I didn’t know where any of the Strava segments were and nor did I know how long any of the hills went on for but, despite that, this 30lb behemoth cruised to fourth place out of 140 riders on a 0.6 mile climb and 16th of 315 on a 1.7 mile climb without me making any particular effort to set a fast time (I should note that climbing is my forte). Even on the descents where I was being careful, learning how the tyres and suspension interacted, the times were comfortably in the top 15-20%. That’s not to say that the Yeti would trouble the Flash up a hill, you wouldn’t see the Flash for dust, but for such a big bike it’s remarkably capable up hill.

The only thing that needs imminent change is the Maxxis Ardent rear tyre which is totally hopeless in wintery Britain. It’ll be great in the summer but it makes more-or-less no forward progress in anything approaching mud. Very frustrating and I can’t understand why any manufacturer would specify this tyre on a bike destined for Blighty! I had Specialized Butcher Control and Ground Control 2.3s fitted to the Trek and they are an outstanding combination that I’ll probably replicate on the Yeti.

So, this isn’t meant to be about the SB75 specifically, though I’d recommend anyone to snap one up at the current bargain price backed by Merlin’s outstanding customer service, but to confirm that all the latest improvements in mountain bike design really do work despite my scepticism. I find that things tend to move on in a big enough step to make it worth investing in a new bike every five years and it’s perhaps no coincidence that it’s six years since I bought my Trek. That was a massive step up in agility and efficiency compared with my previous bike, from 2001, and it will be interesting to see what the bikes of 2020 are like. Can’t wait!

Yep, ignoring all the hype things do seem to have moved on in the last few years. I upgraded my bike last year, well originally it wasn’t going to be an upgrade but a complement to the existing bike but it’s so much better that I gave the old bike to my nephew.

Went from a Marin Mt Vision (26″ wheeled FS) to a Cotic Solaris (29″ HT). So what’s better? Which of: larger wheels; high volume tyres; tubeless tyres/lower pressures; geometry; dropper seatpost; wider handlebars; 1×10 drivetrain among other things has made the most difference? TBH I’ve no idea but suspect it’s the tyres.

Like you I think the Ardent is not the best tyre for the UK: I had one originally on the HT, fine on hard packed trails but useless on anything else. There’s a lot on here that rate them but I suspect that they do most if not all of their riding at trail centres where they are probably fine. Now have a Bontrager XR3 on the back – slightly softer sidewalls but that means there’s a bit more give and softens things up a bit.

Went out for a 96Km ride round the Dales yesterday, the bike was fine, just need to get the engine sorted out 🙄 I usually reckon on adding 50% to the Strava KOM for most segments and was well within that for most, I was even approaching that figure for the descents and I’m rubbish at descending.

I wish my Mega weighed as little as 30lbs… 🙂

Thing is though the solaris is not new. It was released back end of 2011. It’s steel not fancy hydroformed ally or carbon fibre. But it works… Very well. Largely down to geometry.

I have a 2011 camber. I have test ridden quite a few bikes now and have not been “wowed” by anything. Sure the new bikes are lighter….. But for me…. Just not special enough to warrant an upgrade.

I see so many shiny expensive 3/4 k enduro beasts mincing around Swinley / sh…. Being carried over puddles and walked up the smallest of inclines.

It’s my opinion that for most people a skills course or a treadmill would be a far more worthy upgrade.

But at the end of the day it’s all bikes. If you can afford a new one, go for it! Who are we all to judge. Happy trails.

Thanks for this post I’m currently procrastinating over a new bike I’ve got a 25lb Carbon 110mm 29er and it climbs like a missile but I’m thinking about something more capable on the downs but the same as you I’m a bit concerned about dragging a 30lb bike around but reading your post makes me feel a bit better about taking the plunge.

@doncorleoni I meant new to me. The Mt Vision was hardly new out of the blocks when I bought one so I was probably buying geometry/design originating in 2000 or so. It’s still a good five or six year gap between design philosophies though. For the riding I tend to do the Solaris is more than capable and I can just about hold my own on it blasting down technical trails, I’d don’t think that I’d be much faster on a FS trail bike.

Yeah, a skills course and a healthy dose of rule #5 would sort most people out 8)

Whitestone yeah agree there. I am less than convinced all this tech is a good thing. Tech advancement is good… But tech for tech sake (ie to make more money) is not.

Back 10 years ago we had a few choices….basically boiling down to ridgid vs sus. Wheel size (not that I am going there as I like kittens) was not really a consideration (OK maybe for downhill pros). Now days we have so so much choice 26, 650, 29, fat, half fat, full fat, ridgid, hardtail, full squish,steel,ally,carbon fibre, rockshox v fox, sram v shimano etc etc. Single ring, double bash, single? Road bikes we now have audax, winter, cross, tri, gravel, touring etc etc. 9 / 10 / 11 speeds? Hydro vs mechanical brakes? Now throw electric in the mix! Tiagra, sora, claris, 105, ultegra etc

Choice is great…. But these choices cause problems as certain people tend to focus on all this as opposed to actually riding (looks directly at hora). I bet for 90 percent of people they would not notice the improvement of any of this except to the wallet, psychological improvements aside.

I think some bikes/styles just suit some people more than others. I demoed a couple of bikes prior to settling on the Solaris including an Orange 5. Now the 5 gets a lot of positive press but I just didn’t get on with it. OK, it may not have been set up absolutely the best and a couple of hours isn’t perhaps long enough to get dialled in to bike but an equivalent time (and lack of setup) on the Solaris and for me the Solaris was way better. Note that I used to have an Orange Evo2 so I’m not anti Orange.

I may have been lucky in finding relatively quickly a bike that suits me, like most I can’t afford to be changing bikes every year, but I doubt many could really tell the difference between a 440mm and 445mm chainstay for example.

Must say I agree that modern geometry,( long/slack short stem) definitely has something to it.

Sold my old 2009 giant trance-x recently and bought a kili flyer, same travel, roughly the same weight but the feel is like night and day, they climb about the same but on descents the kili is on another level.

Bite: I ride Sat and Sunday every weekend. Lots of STW’ers commute by bike, get ground down by it and/or don’t ride off road for months+.

Now I have night lights that’s three times a week so evaluate your prejudice ..

When did 30lb become heavy. My lightest bike is 35lB and it works just fine

ndthornton – Member
When did 30lb become heavy. My lightest bike is 35lB and it works just fine

About the same time that every 30lb quoted weighed 35lb.

In reality with a modern bike 30lb is easy to hit with not much compromise.

Mate just built up a Rocky Altitude (OK so the top end one) but it’s close about 27lb with Fox 36’s and decent rubber.

Carbon frames, lighter stronger wheels and some clever thinking around fork bulk has changed a lot of what is possible and strong. Also the performance of air shocks is not at a point where coil on trail bikes should be redundant.

Short stem, wide bar coupled with the low slack geo to handle it, it’s not hype IME and makes a massive difference with few trade-offs for your average rider, who’s tyres leave terra firma from time to time and like to clang the odd big drop as opposed to riding flat tow paths and the like where you won’t feel any advantage.

It’s been interesting reading the responses to my post. I wonder if there’s a generational thing here. I’ve been ‘mountain biking’ since the mid-70s on a road bike with on-trend cow-horn handlebars to make it a proper scrambler. My first ‘proper’ mountain bike arrived in ’91 and was a rigid steel Ridgeback with an unfeasibly (for the time) large number of gears – 21, I think. The 1″ headset would come loose on every ride, as did the cranks and riding on anything other than smooth paths was purgatory.

I soon began XC racing and the focus of all the magazines, manufacturers and ‘proper mountain bikers’ was to find a way to reduce the weight of the bike and the rider. My first ‘race’ mountain bike arrived in ’94 – a Rocky Mountain Vapour in 7005 aluminium with a RockShox Quadra suspension fork. This was my first mountain bike that could actually be used off road at speed and not fall apart. Lots of upgrades ensued to extend the stem (yes, really) and lose weight. By the end it had very advanced, for the time, Rond air/oil forks and weighed about 25lb.

The Rocky eventually gave way to my first full-susser, a Cannondale Super V, which was, at the time in ’96, a sexy spaceship. After a bit of fettling that weighed in at 26lb and got me over everything the Lake District could throw at me. The relatively steep head angle, racy tyres and terrible brakes made for some exciting, in the wrong way, ridhes!

I was still racing and my quest for speed made a change to a super-fast Trek STP 400 carbon fibre soft-tail the obvious choice in 2001. The carbon fibre was a revelation as was the 21.5lb weight and twangy back end. It was fantastic down south but very limited on rocky terrain up North.

That bike was so good that I kept it until 2008. I hadn’t been racing for ages and most of my pleasure came from big days in the hills in the Lakes and Dales so I took the plunge and bought the Yeti 575, which lasted six months before it was stolen. It weighed 26.5lb but was disappointing unless pointing downhill. The Trek Fuel EX 9.8 that replaced it in 2009 was better almost everywhere and weighed 25lb.

All that to say that I suspect that the focus of many of us who came out of the XC race scene of the early ’90s has been on weight and Singletrack speed at the expense of lateral rigidity, big-hit capability and comfort. The biggest thing I noticed riding my new SB75 is just how of-a-piece these new, heavier designs can be compared with any previous generation of MTB. The extra material that creates the 7.5lb frame on the Yeti is highly visible in the down tube, seat and chain stays and in the rocker mount. It all adds up to stiffness and confidence.

30lb still seems heavy to me and although a 35lb bike may work as commented earlier, it’s not going to be very responsive if you ride up hill or on rolling trails a lot. As with all things MTB, we all assume that everyone rides like us and the great thing is that no one does and that’s what makes mountain biking the interesting hobby that it is, but it does mean that trying to draw conclusions from forum posts can be quite challenging. I also wonder how many people need the amount of suspension that they’re being urged to buy into by the industry. 100mm is very workable in southern England, 120mm with the right geometry will get you through most of what England can throw at you and provide a great buzz. 150-160mm must compromise the bike’s performance on 90% of the rides I do, but would work well if you do uplifts and the like. The only concern is the number of people who post to the forums to say that they’re not a confident descender but they’re buying a bike with a 160mm fork. They’re probably going to hate it as most of their riding will, presumably, not be downhill and the bike isn’t going to transform their ability. As others have said, a skills course could be a better solution.

Phew, I’m still ahead of you on one of the Punchbowl segments 🙂

‘bwakel’ – Rarely have I read a thread on a forum that I agree with as much as your last one. I’d vote for it as post of the year (so far…).

Probably the segment where I got lost and had to stop to read the map a couple of times, allthepies! 😉

Thanks Stevet1, I appreciate the positive sentiment.

Short stem, wide bar coupled with the low slack geo to handle it, it’s not hype IME and makes a massive difference with few trade-offs for your average rider, who’s tyres leave terra firma from time to time and like to clang the odd big drop as opposed to riding flat tow paths and the like where you won’t feel any advantage.

yer not wrong… I’m loving wide bars and short stem…

Lol @ ndthornton, what about your soda?

it may not have been set up absolutely the best

I reckon this is most of it.

Setup is a MASSIVE part of it. 10mm on the stem, rotate the bars a bit, saddle a few mmm forward or backward all significantly affect where your weight sits, and that affects how the front and rear suspension work, and how the bike turns.

My Patriot out of the shop wasn’t anything special. However it’s now an absolute riot, and all I’ve done is change the stem and tweak the riding position and suspension setup. Took me many years to figure it out.

Molgrips makes a good point. Most people don’t understand just how small adjustments of position can be and still make significant differences to how a bike rides, particularly full-suss bikes. It’s why I don’t put any store in demo rides. It takes weeks of riding to understand how to set a bike up, settle in to how it feels and get used to anything that’s different to what you had previously. It’s quite remarkable how over time your MTB becomes an extension of your nervous system. Your muscles are correcting and adjusting the bike’s behaviour through sub-conscious thought. The problem is that when you try another bike that all goes out the window and every sensation is different. Some of it may feel better, some worse, but often, given time, you discover that some of what felt worse is actually better and vice-versa. It’s really quite bizarre if you jump back on a bike that used to feel perfect but which has been gathering dust in the shed for some time due to the arrival of a new steed. Whereas the new steed felt odd to begin with, the old bike, which was so perfect in terms of riding position and responsiveness, now feels like a bag of spanners, too low, too high, too stretched or too cramped.

That said, a single pivot bike like the Orange is always going to be compromised somewhere, particularly under braking. In essence the suspension design is no more advanced than that on my ’96 Cannondale Super V and that only needed to cope with 80mm of travel. Riding something like the Fuel EX with a very honed suspension set up highlights the difference pretty quickly and the whole setup is less affected by changes in weight distribution. There’s a lot to be said for the massive R&D budgets of the likes of Trek and Specialized even if you don’t much like their brand image.

Most people don’t understand just how small adjustments of position can be and still make significant differences to how a bike rides, particularly full-suss bikes. It’s why I don’t put any store in demo rides.

What demo rides do for me is rule things out for size, shape, fit and feel. The rest can be imagined or ruled in or out for me.

Setup is a MASSIVE part of it

I know where you are coming from and realise that altering one component has an effect on several other parts of the bike. I was actually referring to the suspension: preload, etc was “out of the can” as it were. If bike’s in the right ball park then you can tweek it to get it spot on but if it’s just wrong then no amount of tweeking/adjustments will sort it out. Ultimately you can end up with “analysis paralysis” and spend more time worrying about things than riding.

I’ve had the Solaris for 9 months now and have changed just one thing: I put a shorter stem on primarily to see how much difference it made – a bit lighter front end on the climbs; no discernable difference on the descents.

if it’s just wrong then no amount of tweeking/adjustments will sort it out

Hmm.. but a wrong setup option can make a bike feel ‘just wrong’ so how do you know if the bike’s really wrong or it’s just set up badly?

No selective quoting please 😆

Obviously if the suspension is set up for a 70Kg racing whippet and you are a 110Kg diesel then no amount of tweeking bars, seat or whatever is going to sort it out until you fix the suspension.

If you set up a bike according to whatever cheat sheet you follow and it’s a dog then it’s a dog.

My Patriot out of the shop wasn’t anything special. However it’s now an absolute riot, and all I’ve done is change the stem and tweak the riding position and suspension setup. Took me many years to figure it out.

^ This. Getting the riding position dialled is essential for getting the best out of your bike. It took me years too…

There are some things that can never be fixed with setup. My old Wolf Ridge was a fantastic bike, but it cried out for a longer top tube, as did I whenever I smacked my knees on the bars or bemoaned the lack of breathing room. No matter what I did to improve its abilities on singletrack, I found the lack of stability dictated by the short front-centre slowed me down. I simply couldn’t get the front end to grip as securely as the rear.

I think there is something to be said for ‘earning your ride’. When it comes to appreciating the new tech, you need to have sweated it out old school – earning your stripes on an old faithful 3×11 HT with 90mm travel on a fork that never got serviced, squeaky breaks and a seized up seatpost, it makes those plush and lush FS bikes all the more worthwhile.