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Currently thinking of moving from a 575 to a second hand SB66c but I'm a bit wary of all the moaning about excessive bearing wear.
If anyone out there who owns one, could give me their honest opinions about the bike (in general, not just the bearings) it would be greatly appreciated.
A mate has one and yes it eats bearings. A few other mates had alu sb66s and they also spent more in bearings than drivetrains.
It is great to ride. I pringled my front wheel on a trip and rode his sb66c back to back with an sb6c and yes the £7k 650b superbike was better, but not night and day better.
He is selling his sb66c frame and fork by the way if you were looking for one
Don't have the carbon version, but the alloy version.
Absolutely love it, coming from a Specialized Rockhopper, it feels so much more in control and natural in the air like I'm never going to go over the bars. Much more sat back and upright position
Had the bike about a year so far and there is no play in the bearings, had to replace one of the bushings on the shock.
Bought mine as a frame only, it's fitted with X-Fusion Metric forks set at 150mm, Shimano XT 11spd Hope Race Evo E4 brakes, 180mm front 160mm rear hope floating rotors, 55mm Easton stem and 740 Easton Haven carbon bars. Nothing I want to change on it at the moment which is unlike me.
Front end can be a bit wandery on steep climbs but an absolute hoon on the way downs. Can't see me wanting to change it ever so far.
Sounds like nice build austy! Pics?
Had my alloy 66 for 4 years now. The trick with the bearings is to pop the seals on the new bearing & pack it full of grease. They don't rotate far so the more grease the better.
If I could find a 66c, I would in a heartbeat.
But this will do for a long time yet
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I'd be more concerned about the carbon than the bearings tbh. I have an alloy 66, bought it with carbon rear which lasted 4 months before cracking in at least 4 places. Replaced with another carbon rear by Yeti, this one lasted a little longer til all the cracks started appearing.
I got them to send me an alloy rear after that.
Bearings aren't too bad, if ye keep the hose away from the switch and buy decent bearings.
don't get the sb66 with the gloss carbon rear end (and alu front end), they crack like no tomorrow. my (and a friends) matte sb66c have been faultless as far as the carbon goes.
i've done a bearing change once, the trick is, never wash the bike 😉
that being said, when the bearings were done last time, the feeling of the bike was simply amazing... even on the 300 yrd ride from the shop to my car 😯
I've got a 66c and had it for 2yrs, I ride it every week in all conditions. Ride it in peaks,lakes,Wales and Scotland in natural routes on all different terrain including mostly rocky knarly stuff.
Found I needed to change the bearings once per year tbh but only to stop the squeaking noise the bearings make, otherwise it would be less
If you can do it yourself and pack the bearings with grease periodically as maintenance then it would be less, also not had any breakages, neither has my pal who's a downhiller and who puts his through far more than I do mine
It's just had a wash so night be a good time to take pic.
Probably get hounded for not having the tyres lined up and brake hoses too long etc.
Got a 66C; had it about 3 years. Bought it as an ex Demo frame.
The stuff above about "spending more on bearings than drivetrain" is just plain wrong. Switch bearings are £9 a side for Max Enduro and last a year easy if you stay away from the jetwash.
I'm not light, I regularly use all the travel and there is no sign of any crackage.
Great ride, though. I've looked a couple of times at blocking it in against a SB6C and can't bring myself to part with it.
So going by people's experience here my mates were probably jetwashing them to within an inch of their life! If the bearings last when well treated then I would definitely go for one
I'm not sure what all the greese the bearings is about? Normally they are dry fit? My SC has greese nipples for the bottom pair. What they are designed for. Rest are dry. Any lube fired at a dry fit is going to add to wear. Could they be using ye old GT85? What's the yeti servicing say?
Page 12 of servicing manual says
thOrOUGhly Clean pivOt pOints with a raG (DO nOt lUBriCate)
Copy and paste says do not lube
Dry fit? We're talking about grease inside the bearings.
IMO it's always worth popping a seal off of even brand new bearings and having a look at least. I got some bearings from hope recently and was quite surprised to see the lack of grease in them.
Yeti says no lube. My Zesty and SC are the same. No lube. It's dry fit. Any lube will increase wear.
You're misreading PB. They mean Lube as in firing some sort of GT85 or otherwise at it, as a lot of these type of lubes will assist in washing the grease out of bearings.
Sealed cartridge bearings need grease, try running a dried out bearing and see how long it lasts.
Yup agreed but I suspect, given the short life some are? Saw a mate do it on his new Niner, squirt GT85 before we set out, shudder. And if they are over packing the greese then again I suspect it's affecting the bearing life. If I had to greese regularly then there would be nipples like on the SC.
Bearings wearing out quicker than drive train! Seems somethings wrong. Yeti haven't been known for their carbon rear robustness either.
Over packing grease is only an issue on high speed bearings, as the extra grease causes frictional heat and can lead to the grease 'splitting' as grease is essentially oil and soap mixed. So, it's not an issue on pivot bearings, as they don't even do anywhere near a full rotation.
I suspect SC put grease nipples on there as it means it saves them money on the free bearing scheme. I don't understand why more manufacturers don't fit them tbh.
Yup the agreed nipple approach, tried and tested. If it's not the bearing maint regime then it must be poor bearing quality? I always expect my drive train to out last the frame bearings
What nobeer said, ball bearings are designed for high rpm and (relatively) low load which is why they come lightly greased. As a pivot it's moving slowly and through a fraction of a revolution, so grease doesn't get re-distributed throughout the whole bearing, so individual balls become dry, corrode and seize.
Mine had 3 sets of bearings in 8 months. It was warrantied because all the paint started to then fall off it (and he reason below).
Thankfully, the bearings were easy to replace, because the seat tolerances were literally so bad, if I tipped the frame on it's side, the bearings fell out.
The originals kind of stayed in place because I assume when the frame was built, they used half a bottle of Loctite BRC to hold them in.
Nice bike to ride, piece of crap to live with. Hilarious warranty battle for the above (even more so at the time, considering my position).
Dont forget, Americans dont ride their bikes in the mud. They are not allowed to ride trails when wet.
(read the comments on Pinkbike about their product of the year for an insight:
http://www.pinkbike.com/news/pinkbike-awards-2015-best-gear-or-accessory.html)
Sure, they look nice, but UK riding means mud, water and washing.
Sure, they look nice, but UK riding means mud, water and washing
yup Bronson hits the about 100 miles a week all through the winter. Its got grease nipples. Bottom bearings lasted 18 months, free replacement as well. That's the only ones replaced so far. Rest of the frame ones as good as always and I power hose. Life time warranty on frame. There's just good and bad manufacturers
So the majority seem to think they're OK then?
I'm seriously tempted.
I'm 6ft tall so I'm guessing I'd need a large frame as my medium 575 feels a little cramped.
14weeks my last bearings lasted on the alloy sb66 but I live and ride the Alps all year round so it was 14weeks of racing and very hard riding, lake Garda finished them off, should be fine if you don't jet wash near the bearings.
I also found they lasted longer in you pack them with thick hub gease before you fit them.
Choppersquad, don't take this the wrong way but you're displaying Confirmation Bias. You want people to tell you they're okay because you want the bike, and that's what you've taken from this thread. A 51/49 positive ratio would be a majority but it wouldn't get my money.
Trimix probably doesn't even remember the guys chatting next to us in the North Downs who'd had 3 SBs warrantied between them.
Buy one, pack the bearings with grease and ride with your fingers crossed. I walked away from a half-price-new deal because of the number of failures, and I'm someone who works on bikes for fun.
Get one, love mine. Quicker you go the easier it rides. Change bearings when you need them.
A mate lunched the bearings in a couple of weekends and was in dispute with shop about misuse vs not fit for purpose. Its a shame because they look lovely but they are being rode in Cumbria and not Arizona or California...
Just back from a night ride up on the moor on mine, love it, such a stable yet poppy bike. I'll be keeping mine for a few years yet for 2 reasons.
It's a great bike and as a 26er it's worth **** all to sell.
Bearings in there are 14 months old, but they were from Kael, God rest his soul, so they're good uns.
as a former owner of a 66 and mechanic at a (former)yeti dealer just don't. Bearing life is terrible, the thing is that they seem all solid and play free until the bearings are absolutely mullered.
i sold mine within 3 months (2 full sets of bearings) of building it. i've had a lot of bikes and the only 2 that had really bad bearing problems were the yeti and a blur ltc, don't think the yanks test in mud at all.
Oh and silverfish/yeti are terrible to deal with regarding warranties too.
I know of one SB66c which had the headtube shear clean off. Warranty was refused too. Put me off the brand permanently.
they stopped doing the SB66 because of patent infringement case the design company couldn't afford to fight*.
that's why they changed to the sb6c design.
I'd have an sb66c tomorrow
*straight from the horse's mouth.