Yeti Ultimate – Born again!

From the mouth of builder Brad Hodges:

“What’s the best way to put this – it’s a modern version of an original Yeti Ultimate. It’s an homage to the original bike that John Parker and Frank the Welder built. It’s one of, if not the most bad ass steel frames ever made in my personal opinion, built in an era before suspension and rocket science tech. This was the pinnacle of hardtail frames at that time. Last year, I built a modern Klunker that was pretty well received and well what was I going to bring this year but a bike from the 80’s.

“I’ll be honest, I thought it was going to be a lot easier to build than it was. But I didn’t start framebuilding because it was easy. Building “throwback” bikes like this, while incorporating modern geometry and standards can be tough, while still retaining the original design influences. On this bike, that’s the bent down tube and the correct angle for the love tube,’ which is the tube that runs between the down tube and seat tube that give the visual look of one single flat tube with an extension off the bottom.

Hubbah hubbah.

Moar trickery here. [/url]

Urgh..

O’ribble.

I recently emailed FTW and asked him how much for a new build 29er version and nearly fell off my giraffe when the answer came. It would have been horribly flexy anyway.

Rad…which computer was used to bend the chain stays?

I like it, E-stays have been on my mind lately, old yeti’s and alpinestars…

It’s a solution that suits “plus” tyres so why not unearth a classic?

The BB Shell appears to be on the wrong end, is it from one of Northwinds designs?

Wrong.

It’s a BSO given credibility by history.

Just for reference…

Like a bit of retro fun so all for bringing back the classics with a modern twist (See Fat Chance) but…..

[/quote] This was the pinnacle of hardtail frames at that time.

No it wasn’t.

Very nice!

… but I’d be more excited if it was one of these:

(If anyone has or knows of one of those groupsets for sale, please let me know)

cookeaa – Member
Just for reference…

Sort of makes me think of a paperclip. Now I understand the OP’s fondness 🙂

Were many of those Yetis sold/ridden?

I think credit should go to Alpinestars who did it in production volumes, perhaps before anyone else? I don’t think they had a reputation for snapping either, unlike the Fisher copy.

Looked better than the others except perhaps Nishiki/Mantis IMO too.

Looked like a shopping trolley then…Still looks like one now

I think credit should go to Alpinestars

Nishiki

credit should go to Alpinestars who did it in production volumes, perhaps before anyone else? I don’t think they had a reputation for snapping either

The aluminium ones pretty much all snapped/cracked.