corebike 2017, yeti cycles, silverfish, myles rockwell, reebok eliminator, kamikaze

CoreBike 2017: Yeti Cycles

by 0

The Silverfish/Yeti Cycles booth at CoreBike2017 was awash with swoopy carbon-framed bikes in the modern style. There was the whole range of bikes from the trail-friendly SB5 to the more enduro-y SB6 (and no, despite Richie Rude’s Instagramming, there’s apparently no plan for a DH bike).

Yeti SB4.5
Yeti SB4.5
corebike17-yeti-bikes07
The chunky SB6, all 6in of travel
corebike17-yeti-bikes06
The SB5.5 – a big wheel enduro machine

There was also the 29er ‘Point 5’ versions of these machines – the SB4.5 and SB5.5 – and even the new plus bike, but there was one machine that drew gasps of amazement from the old hands and blank stares from the Saturday lads. It was Myles Rockwell’s 1993 Kamikaze, Reebok Eliminator Yeti, complete with battle scars and that 64T Paragon Machineworks chainring.

corebike17-yeti-myles01
Fancy a spin?
corebike17-yeti-myles02
No missing the paintjob and name on the top tube
corebike17-yeti-myles03
Grafton Speed Controllers on Mavic 261 Ceramics. Still not a great braking combo
corebike17-yeti-myles04
In all its glory

The beautifully well preserved bike is still fitted with a Retrobike explosion of components; Grafton Speedstix cranks, Ringlé hubs, IRC tyres, XTR front and rear mechs. No, we don’t reckon that mech will make the shift either, but it served to help keep the chain on and we imagine the bike was used with a more conventional triple range. The huge A-Tac stem is of its time, as is the untapered 1 1/4in steerer on the Answer Manitou forks. And are those SRAM X-Ray shifters? Nice!

corebike17-yeti-myles05
Now that was a proper front end!

Here’s a short moment of the bike being ridden to victory in the 1993 Reebok Eliminator. Although Myles beat a young Jason McRoy (from ‘Scotland’ apparently) it propelled JMC into the international limelight and helped him become a pro rider and the first international mountain bike team signing for a UK rider. Plus there’s a video of the retro Yeti A.R.C below.

https://youtu.be/RSsdsfGY4BI
Can’t see it? Here’s the link.

Core Bike
Core Bike 2017: Yeti Cycles

Singletrack Weekly Word

Sports Newsletter of the Year finalist at the Publisher Newsletter Awards 2024. Find out why our newsletter is different and give it a go.

Chipps Chippendale

Singletrackworld's Editor At Large

With 23 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.)

More posts from Chipps