I've tried a Niner Jet 9 (nice, but I can't see it at the price they are asking, plus the 29'er thing I'm not sure is right for me), a Ghost AMR7500 (very good, but didn't make me smile), a Nickel (absolutely great, and the top contender so far) and Wednesday night will see me mincing round Llandegla on an ASR-5, which will need to be damn good to make me want to buy one over the Santa Cruz - I can't believe how much I'm looking forward to trying it though...I hope I like it as much as I think I will. I'm 46 and I should be over this sort of thing by now, but I reckon that "shiny new bike" feeling is the best thing ever. Takes us all back to our childhoods and that first glimpse of freedom...
Raindog - report back will you.
I'm thinking of the ASR5 as a replacement for my ASR-sl. 4 years is wayyy too long to have owned a bike 🙂
Will do. Try a Nickel though as a comparison, won't you ?
I'm more at the 'which colour of Yeti shall I get' stage.
Ha me too, but the SC was great. I'm thinking [s]white[/s] whichever I can get the fastest....
I saw the new Yeti SB66 in the flesh today and I was very very impressed. Can't wait try one to see how it rides and hopefully if it rides as good as it looks I'll be getting one. The Lime colour looked really nice too.
Didn't even bother test riding, just bought it as new it would be everything I wanted and more. Built it up with all my goodies inc 140mm talas FIT forks. Feel like I'm a child again every time I swing a leg over it which is 1 of the reasons we all ride bikes imo.
Same here, took a chance and love it.
It doesn't half go,and boy is it light.
I tried both and went for the ASR5. The Yeti felt quicker uphill and more nimble and lively going along. Going downhill it's also very confident. The Nickel was even better downhill and felt very 'planted', but felt sluggish and stodgy elsewhere by comparison. Just my thoughts for what they're worth. I'm sure you'll get a huge amount of enjoyment out of either 🙂
I'm going up now, will report back later 🙂
Good luck!
Would personally love an ASR5 ... Not jealous honestly 
Nickel looks awesome, but it's quite lardy - asr5 looks faster but poor tyre cLearance? Either way they look fantastic 🙂
Poor tyre clearance! I run the Conti X-King 2.4's on mine with no problems.
Maybe it just looked tight then - one I was looking at was carbon, do they all have carbon rear end?
Yes, both models have the same rear end. Great frame.
Well, did the red at Llandegla. Bike was great going up and along the relatively smooth stuff, but bloody awful on the rockier sections - skipping about at the front and really quite scary in places. I'm quite prepared to admit that it's probably down to me (I'm not light and not the most skilled) but it's not for me at all. I'm buying a Nickel, loads more fun in my eyes. Thank goodness for test rides, eh ?
Why not try a Heckler, probably lighter than a Nickel.
I run 140mm Talas on my Yeti and it ploughs through everything no problems. Feels like you've just insulted my mum!
Bike was great going up and along the relatively smooth stuff, but bloody awful on the rockier sections - skipping about at the front and really quite scary in places.
Yeti 575 sounds more like what you're after, or the new SB66.
The fork was, I think, in a bad state, but if Yeti are going to offer bikes to demo in that condition they deserve to lose sales to SC, n'est pas ? SB66 won't be around for a few weeks, and I'm (a) bikeless, and (b) very happy with the Nickel.
What fork was it? It must be at death's door to spoil the ASR5. Foolish to have that on a demo bike.
Fox float. No real compression damping and very fast rebound, I got about 60mm travel including sag...