2014 Yeti SB66-AC

[Justin Fox]

Latest Photo - build complete!

2014 Yeti Super Bike 26" 6" travel Alloy front triangle Carbon rear triangle.

Long story short; I miss my old 2008 Giant Reign and once a week I ride with my old mate Eugene who refuses to get a new bike and insists on riding his 26" bikes. (I've know him since we were 3 and he got me into mountain biking in 1990). I figure there was an opportunity to build up a 26" bike to level out the playing field a little when riding with him (IE: ride slower ).

I've done a lot of research over the past few months, watched a lot of YouTube vids, admittedly wasted some people's time on FB Marketplace (BAD!), posted on reddit as well as here. I came really close to buying @gippyz awesome Banshee Spitfire and I had just given up on finding a Yeti SB66 as they never pop up on FB Marketplace or eBay, but yesterday an SB66 popped up on eBay Australia, sadly it was a size large.

Brian Cahal's review of the SB6.

QuarterHP vid on the SB66.

I spent the entire day out West shooting cars at JDMyard and halfway through the day I got a PM from @Haylex who was wondering if I'd be interested in buying his SB66 frame in size medium which he's had sitting in a box for the last 10 years. I think I went Interstellar. The right colour, the right size, the power of manifestation! I was spiritualized. We've agreed on a price (frame is interstate), and it turns out Haylex is also a car guy. He sent me through some images of his highly modified EG6 and I fucking remember it from back in the JDMST Forum days! What's even more wild is that he has a JDMyard sticker on his car and I was at JDMyard at the time. Can't help but feel this was all meant to be

Haylex's EG6.

Love Haylex's backstory on the bike too. He bought it as a frame new in 2014 after watching Jared Graves nearly win the 2013 world champs in South Africa on one. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I vaguely remember a video where they did a bike check on Jared's bike and it was running a 180mm fork for DH races?! I've found old threads on MTBR where owners at the time thought that 150mm was the more balanced option, and even someone at Yeti suggesting that a 160mm fork worked for him, but probably wouldn't work best for most people. I'm pretty keen to get a 160mm fork on it though.

Anyways, super chuffed! Frame is not in my hands yet (first photo is a shot Haylex just took last night) so first step is to get the frame, put it in the stand in my lounge room and like a blank canvas, live with it for a bit to let the ideas flow.

Interestingly I've been chatting to a fellow Weight Weenie forum member on Discord who says they're quite unwanted in the UK and widely available on FB Marketplace. He sent me through a fair few listings.

 

[RastaRuss]

My fave 26er, logged in to watch the build Mate.

 

[Justin Fox]

OK so the first thing I want to tackle is the wheelset.

The frame has 142 rear spacing and I've found some front 15x100mm thru axles with rear 12x142mm thru axle wheelsets on AliExpress but they all look a little shitty. If I went this route I'd have to then look for an non-boost old fork. I did find a new old stock 160mm FOX Talas on eBay. It has that gizmo that lets you adjust travel on the fly which sounds like a disaster waiting to happen.

Earlier today a Facebook friend messaged me to say he has 2 26" wheelsets I could have as he's not using them. One with Hope hubs, the other with DT Swiss 240 hubs. I did some digging as the DT Swiss hubs might be worth it?

Cyclinic sell this conversion kit, but since I have to remove the front wheel to put the bike in the car the 2 loose spacers would drive me nuts.

Woolftooth sell a DT 240 end cap but if I got this I'd have to re-dish the wheel.

MRP sells this DT Swiss 240 conversion kit which would be the easiest of the 3 options.

Ideally I'd like to take the 160mm FOX 36 Factory fork from my Amflow and chuck it on the Yeti. It's a 29er fork though so the bridge will sit quite high off the tyre and might look a little silly? But if I do this I can finally justify an upgrade to a 180mm FOX 38 for my Amflow.

In this case I'd need:
- 26" boost front wheel with 15 x110mm thru axle
- 26" rear wheel with 12 x 142mm thru axle

I thought I'd reach out to Zara at ZEN Carbon Bike who's made many wheelsets for me (I've never had any issues with their road wheels and the rear 27.5" MTB wheel is holding up nicely). Turns out she does have a carbon 26" rim and the specs look good too.

She was a bit confused by the specs I asked for thinking boost front hub and gravel rear hub, but I've sent through more info and hopefully she can make it work.

I've also sent out an email to Industry 9 who have 26" DJ wheelsets in their online shop. Boost front is available but 142 rear is only available in single speed. Maybe they can make me a custom 142 rear with an XD freehub.

I also reached out to local company Caden Wheels. Ben is a legend and has helped me out with road bike stuff before. I also know an awesome wheel builder who builds wheels for The Brig and I've asked him to see if he can build me up a wheelset (though I'm guessing I'd have to source the wheels, hubs and spokes myself).

Fun Fun Fun!

 

[k3n!f]

You have a problem. I approve.

 

[Justin Fox]

You have a problem. I approve.

Yup, this is what my mind looks like at the moment.

OK so Industry 9 got back to me and it's a no go (they could only build me up a 142 7-Speed rear hub). Caden Wheels also can't help as they don't stock 26" wheels. My wheel builder mate is away overseas but did suggest that if I source all the parts (as I expected) I can get The Brig to make them for me. Nextie wheels got back to me (I forgot to mention them) with a solid set, but ZEN Carbon Bike got back to me with an even better set for less so I've jumped on it and now we wait.

The Chinese companies usually use WhatsApp, but I don't use WhatsApp so I've always made my orders via Instagram messaging with Zara at ZEN Carbon Bike. Her English is OK-ish, like many of the Chinese companies they respond VERY fast before you pay lol. Shipping is hit and miss. Sometimes it's 3 weeks, sometimes it's 5 weeks, but she'll always send me an image like the above to look over (spelling mistakes and all) before sending through a PayPal invoice.

Quite happy with the weight. Price wasn't cheap at $1,366 (66!) but still cheaper than a Nextie set of wheels and no doubt lighter (because carbon) and cheaper than what an Industry 9 set of wheels, or custom set of wheels from The Brig would have cost me. I'm glad she's able to source the Hope Pro V hub for me (should be a pretty quiet hub too from all my research which would be great). I made some changes to the above though, namely an XD freehub and making sure she chucks in some tubeless rim tape and valves in for me too.

 

[pink poodle]

Dare we summon the other yeti demon...what about zelvy wheels?

 

[Haylex]

It was an epic rig back in the day, many fond memories with this bike. Looking forward to seeing its new lease on life!

 

[nzhumpy]

View attachment 426706
Yup, this is what my mind looks like at the moment.

That's @k3n!f 's XC storage shed at the base of Maydena

 

[beeb]

A 160mm travel 29" fork is going to have a significantly longer axle-to-crown height than a 26" fork.

A2C comparison of 160mm Fox 36's:
26" - 536mm
27.5 - 549mm
29" - 567mm

At an average I'd guess 10mm of fork length slackens the head angle by about half a degree. So while 1.5degs slacker might be desirable on a retro frame - the shorter reach, higher BB, and potential concerns about headtube longevity maybe not so much.

 

[Justin Fox]

A 160mm travel 29" fork is going to have a significantly longer axle-to-crown height than a 26" fork.

A2C comparison of 160mm Fox 36's:
26" - 536mm
27.5 - 549mm
29" - 567mm

At an average I'd guess 10mm of fork length slackens the head angle by about half a degree. So while 1.5degs slacker might be desirable on a retro frame - the shorter reach, higher BB, and potential concerns about headtube longevity maybe not so much.

Hey good to know beeb thank you. I'm terrible at math!

I know a lot of people ran the SB66 with 180mm forks back in the day (found some vids on YouTube and builds on Pinkbike). Jared Graves also raced DH on a carbon SB6 with a 180mm fork so I'm not at all worried about the strength of the frame (especially as the front triangle is alloy). I think this puts the 29er fork to bed though, and I'll have to, for now, leave the Amflow as is and look for a 27.5" fork specifically for this build.

 

[Justin Fox]

A2C comparison of 160mm Fox 36's:
26" - 536mm
27.5 - 549mm
29" - 567mm

OK so using a calculator.

- A 29er 160mm fork decreases the reach by a huge 18mm and increase BB height by 13mm and slacken HTA by 1.7 degrees.
- A 27.5" 160mm fork decreases reach by 9.8mm and increases BB height by 7.1mm and slakens HTA by 0.9 degrees.

The frame is a little big for me (in 2014 they suggested a small for my height). Older geometry had shorter reach numbers though and the medium SB66 has 422mm of reach. My Specialized Chisel is a small (I sized down) and it has 415mm reach and I've overforked it which has reduced the reach even more and I really like it as it reminds me of my old Giant Reign (ie: it's playful).

I think I'll need to see what's available out there in 27.5 and boost but before I buy anything I could do some tests with forks I already have; a 120mm, 140mm, 150mm and a 160mm (all 29er forks).

 

[k3n!f]

That's @k3n!f 's XC storage shed at the base of Maydena

Not gonna lie, that got a proper LOL from me!

 

[pink poodle]

I cant believe you arent going to run something 26 on the front!

 

[Justin Fox]

I've been chatting with Haylex about drivetrains. He brought up some concerns that a big 10-50T cassette on a 26" wheel could look out of place and a long cage derailleur might come very close to the ground. Great concerns that I hadn't even thought about! Planning isn't my forte as I tend to build bikes (and solve problems) as I go. I get this from my painting and graphic design background and it's how I tend to do my best work. Sounds sadistic but I enjoy problem solving and sometimes I create problems just so I can solve them. IE: I fuck it all up just to do it again as it makes my life more... interesting

Thought I'd drop in to r/xbiking on reddit and yup, here it is. 11-52Y cassette on a 26" wheel.

My thinking, after riding with old mate who's on 26" wheels every week and my Chisel being on 27.5" wheels, is that there's really not that much difference between a 26" wheel vs. a 27.5" wheel. Old mate is running narrow tyres, but if you put fatter tyres on a 26" wheel there's even less of a difference in total diameter. What's really important though when thinking about how close a long derailleur cage will be to the ground is the radius.

The Yeti will take a 2.4" tyre (thinking a Maxxis Minion DHR II 2.4 rear and a Maxxis Minion DHF 2.5 front). The rear 2.4" tyre calculates to 681mm tyre diameter. That's only 23mm less in diameter and the radius (axle to the ground) is only 11.5mm. IE: The derailleur cage at the lowest point would only be 11.5mm lower than on a 27.5" wheel.

I've not had any issues with the derailleur cage being low to the ground (yet?!) on either my Chisel or my e-MTB (both with 27.5" rear wheels). I have brushed the derailleur body of both bikes on rocks but shit happens.

I'm thinking 12-Speed with a big range cassette is still on the cards for now. You could argue a 26" wheel doesn't need such a massive cassette to get up hills but I use the 50T cog on the steepest fire road climbs at Loftus, and the 26" wheels being only 23mm less in diameter makes me doubt a smaller 46T cassette would cut it (I suppose I could always get a sub 30T chainring, or just get stronger, or walk!).

 

[Cardy George]

Is that a front derailleur mount I see? If so have you considered 2 x 10 with a 42t rear cog?
I had it on a 29" Procaliber in the Di2 flavour.

 

[rangersac]

Size down your chainring and go for a tighter rear cassette as you can run a medium cage RD that way. Something like a 30T front and either a 10-45 in 12 speed or a 9-42 in 11 speed is plenty of range

Sent from my Pixel 7a using Tapatalk

 

[Justin Fox]

Is that a front derailleur mount I see? If so have you considered 2 x 10 with a 42t rear cog?
I had it on a 29" Procaliber in the Di2 flavour.

Yup, but I just can't bring myself to do it as I've been so quick to convert all my bikes to 1 by (road bikes) for the sake of "less is more". Looks better, cleaner, simpler and lighter too.

Size down your chainring and go for a tighter rear cassette as you can run a medium cage RD that way. Something like a 30T front and either a 10-45 in 12 speed or a 9-42 in 11 speed is plenty of range

Sent from my Pixel 7a using Tapatalk

I run a 30T chainring on the Starling and the Chisel and 50T cassette on both and can only JUST make it up the steepest fire roads at Loftus. I do have a spare 28T chainring though which I could try with a 46T cassette and MID Shimano rear derailleur.

Cheers for the input guys! Appreciate it. So many options it's doing my head in (but I love it lol).

 

[Tubbsy]

Smaller chain ring for and deal with the lack of top end speed I reckon.

 

[Haylex]

I reckon lack of gearing won't be a problem with a ~45t cassette and a shorter cage. Prior to 11sp being released, I rode this bike with a 32t chainring, 11-36t cassette and a zee short cage mech. Its more going to be seating position on those climbs for you. The ~420 reach isn't a problem for you, provided you run a ~40/35mm stem. When you are standing up / descending it will be great based on what you have said around your preferences.

What will be the problem is going to be the 2014 seat tube angle and its impact on the effective top tube length, especially if you end up going longer than 540mm Axle to Crown (bigger problem is STA as you go longer A2C). It's going to feel long to you sitting on the saddle. I think the solution is one of those adapters that brings the seat further forward to steepen the ESTA will be money well spent - https://www.fairbicycle.com/product-page/drop-best-uc-m6

 

[Mr Crudley]

Madam's Nickel has a 30/51 on 26". Works fine but don't go looking for loose branches either.

I look at lowest gear to run that I feel comfortable with is about a 0.65 to 0.70 which gives me a bailout gear for most climbs. Anything harder and I'll be walking it anyhow.

My 2c......

So the Heckler has 22/34 = 0.64, TRc 32/46 = 0.69 and 5010 30/46 = 0.65. Phatter tyres also makes it harder to spin the rear. I don't worry so much about top end and rarely have long run to use it much.

This has worked for me so far, but also the wheels are 26 and 27.5 so not far away in diameter.