Yeti A.R.C from 1993

[pwriter]

About 1 year ago, i get a nice old Yeti ARC frame.

The seller told me, that the frame is just for show, because it was cracked at head and seattube.
Nothing new for a Easton Yeti, but i thought about to bring the frame back to life.

The frame arrived to me and it looks terrible:



3 times cracked headtube:



and the seattube: :shock:










Straight Seatstays and the frame number says build in 1993




So the frame goes to http://www.gebla.de/.
A frame-builder, with a big heart of vintage frames and the "FTW" of the German IBC Classic Forum.

So the cracks will be cut out and the plan was to put a 1 1/8 inner-tube into the 1 1/4 head-tube.
So the reinforced headtube will be better prepared for crackes. Also a wish of me, because i collected some parts for the bike at 1 1/8 diameter.

 

[Skynet]

Makes my Manitou look mint!

 

[unit3]

Looking forward to more pictures of this

 

[Retro Spud]

Re:

Cracks like that scares the beJesus out of me, I'd be gutted if mine (A0757) cracked however looking at yours having surgery is strangely reassuring

As for your headtube fix, its one I've never heard of before but is clever and promises to be stronger than the original,

I guess the seat tube is dead and will be cut out or are you going to surprise us ?


Looking forward to updates..... So please keep em coming

 

[IHateRain]

Georg = GTW A.R.C.s with 1 1/4" headtubes sure are worth to be rescued. I personally wouldn´t go for a 1 1/8" front end... When Georg decides to take care of the frame it will come out just fine :!:

Friendly greetings
IHateRain

 

[Nader]

Good solution for head tube and it will be definitely stronger than the original
How it looks with the seat tube?

 

[Ollie]

I'm used to seeing yeti's with one or two cracks but not as many as yours ! Good job on the repairs though .

 

[pwriter]

the seattube repair:



















The only thing, what is missing, is the welded seat clamp.
Georg the frame builder is not a big fan of weldet clamps, so i can not persuaded him to do it, beware of new cracks...

Next step: Color.

 

[unit3]

Wow

Did you ream the seat tube after welding? from the pictures it looks a little out of line?

 

[cyclotoine]

Wow

Did you ream the seat tube after welding? from the pictures it looks a little out of line?

I'm guessing it is thicker than the rest of the seat tube which gives it that offset look. This is just an unbelievable amount of work to repair this frame. the devotion to retro MTB's astounds me.

I remember shopping for a road bike in 2004 and the vintage bug had bitten me. I was just getting back into bike after about an 8 year hiatus since my highschool MTB days... The guys in the pro shop told me the alloy frames were meant to be used 2 maybe 3 seasons if you were a light rider. After that they should be disposed. Based on the amount of tubing failure observed in alloy MTBs in the 1990s, I can see why that mentality stuck.