Gutted, 15k from home and half way down a nice wide and sandy trail my back end locked up and ground to a halt. First inspection looked like rear hanger failure. Then looked again and rear bracket (part of rear triangle) the hanger bolts onto had snapped and made a right mess with the rear derailer mangled up in wheel.

Managed to walk it to a Nat Trust car park and get collected by good old wifey.

LBS who supplied it (who are great by the way) are talking to UK distributor on Monday but havent seen one do this before.

I know there were some reports of early frame failures, but anyone else had a late 2011 one fail?

A think the rear derailier (XTR) may be damaged and a few spokes. Ho hum, was an excellent ride up until that point.

Oh yeah I’ve seen this 4 times now, it has happened to a mate of mine twice now. Silverfish and Yeti said it was set up at 1st and then they said it was the fact he was using a Shimano rear mech. It took him weeks of emailing Yeti in the states to get anywhere.
My local shop has seen it twice too, my mate’s seem to have lasted longer with a 12 rear end.

Will keep an eye on mine, but so far no problems and it gets a fair bit of stick up here in the lakes, I’m sure Yeti will look after you, well at least i hope they do! xanboy what did Yeti do for your mate?

Same thing happened to mine. Had a new rear tringle fitted under warranty within a couple of weeks.

Interesting Guys, many thanks.
Im starting to wonder if its the play in the 15mm QR skewers that may be causing it as of course its probably one of the weakest points of any bike. Any of those that have failed had the bolt through kit on?

Interesting that Silverfish & Yeti may have queried Shimano kit as its part of their supported and supplied kits, so in effect they have already underwritten tried/tested & approved use already.

I converted to the Bolt Thru Axle and am glad i did, makes my life a lot easier and i would like to say that personally i think it makes that back end more sturdy, Be interesting to know if any of the problems have happened with the conversion done, anybody??

Xanboy – with all due respect, that’s boll*cks.

If a warranty was questioned for any reason at all it would NEVER be because of a Shimano rear mech being fitted. Yeti supply bikes with Shimano and work closely with them. In fact they were one of the few companies that Shinano worked with to develop the 142mm axle.
I would guess that your mate was told something different and in Chinese whisper styles it’s turned into something incorrect.

Oh and Variflex – drop it into your LBS and they’ll deal with it all on your behalf, sorry to hear its broken but hopefully between us and the shop we’ll get you out on the trails again soon.

Hi Richy,

I’ve seen the emails from Yeti querying the fact he was using an XTR rapid rise rear mech thanks and suggesting this may have been a causing factor.
Also I know how long it took him to get his replacement as he was using my spare bike whilst his was out of action.
In 18 months he’s had 2 rear triangles and a new front triangle, he’s had to shell out on 2 rear mechs and also the conversion kit for his rear hub as it was suggested he should use the 15mm rear axle.
I’m also not going to question my LBS as, I’ve seen the emails that were sent to them, where it was questioned if they had set the bike up properly.
They have seen 4 rear ends break in the same place from 3 different riders.

I’m going to have to go have a good look at my Bike and check the frame!! As said i have converted the rear axle from very early after purchase(from new) but i have had the chainstays taped with black amalgamation tape to stop rubbing from my boot, perhaps the tape is holding it together!! lol

Fingers crossed…

From what I can see mine looks good, so good that if this weather clears later today am taking the bike for a blast and give it some stick, because all in all to me they are a cracking bike frame(pardon the pun)…

Many thanks richiethesilverfish,
They’ll be in touch tomorrow I would have thought. They are a great bunch and I know between them and you guys, I’ll be back out on what is the best bike Ive had in 10 years very soon.

Like all things mechanical, these sorts of things happen occasionally (come from family of engineers) and are almost impossible to eradicate from what looks like quite a complex manufacuring/assembly process these days. Im glad Yeti provide a comprehensive warranty service to go with it 🙂

Ive asked them to look into upgrading to the solid rear axle at the same time, I guess this is just an extra conversion kit I would need. Just need to find out possibilities with my wheelset.

Kind Regards
J

I believe that when the Yeti 5 came out it had a 5 year warranty but now it’s only 2 years.

http://www.yeticycles.com/pdf/manuals/2012_OwnersManual_ASR5_LR.pdf

Page 30 – 2 years

http://www.yeticycles.com/pdf/manuals/10OwnersManualASR5C.pdf

Page 28 – 5 years

Shame as they are a great bike.

Hmmm. Shame that, may have a rethink.

Many thanks to richiethesilverfish as his team.
New rear triangle arrived at LBS on Friday and fitted ready to run by 5pm the same day. So just under a week from broken bike to fully sorted, which is excellent.

Holding off riding whilst I wait for a rear bolt through kit which was ordered on Friday along with new wheelset.

Thanks again

I seen this on a demo bike the other week – couldn’t believe a frame would fail there

Yeti’s were my dream bike 15 years ago – not any more!