Yeti History - A Photo Essay Series

[thekidmalone]

Re:

Outstanding work, Martin.

You are setting a high standard for documenting the history of an MTB manufacturer and its output. Thanks for the inspiration, both with your real-world builds and this on-line history.

Cheers,
The Kid

 

[Rahbari]

Great work!

For reference, you should add, that XR341 already had 2nd Generation Yeti man and was probably one of the first, that had an oval top tube.

Maybe I really should remove the paint from parts of my bottom bracket and find out if my FRO is XR335 (instead of XR885). As you remember, I have 26.6 seatpost, screws for portage belt, oval tube, Simplex dropouts, old style FD routing, BMX steerer tube, Yeti fork (EDIT: with Camapgnolo Dropouts), 2nd. Generation Yeti man. My steel stem (labelled FTW) could be later, as it has an alloy shaft.

 

[mkozaczek]

I thought I did that RE XR341, I'll double check.

I think 26.6 vs 26.8 was just chance. I have 309 and it's 26.8 through and through. So, I suspect either the tubing varied or they didn't have reaming down really well early on. I have your bike documented in my registry, but since we didn't have the S/N sorted it didn't make it into the thread

What dropouts does your fork have?

All the stem noodles were alloy, it's a standard motorcycle part sourced them from Flanders Motorcycle in LA.

 

[Smithjss70]

Very good compilation. Nice work Martin.

 

[mkozaczek]

Thanks. Part 3 is probably 2 weeks away give or take.

It's fun doing this 'research' and compiling some historical data.

 

[BC]

I'm so glad to see the info has been updated and to include Lindwal. Cheers, Eric

 

[mkozaczek]

Re:

FWIW JP downplayed the Lindwall connection. Gave me some background that I may expand on in the future, but not gonna dig into it a lot right now.

 

[Rahbari]

Re:

Hi Martin,

you have done a great job! Indeed, a lot of half accurate information was floating around.

I am looking forward to part 3! If possible, please include information, on when Yeti stopped using BB shells with the "XR" imprint. Some information regarding the Yeti stem would also be nice.

Regarding the seatpost diameter: the first leaflet (probably early 1987) states that it is 26.6. However, FTW told me, he cannot remember using 26.6 seat tubes.

 

[mkozaczek]

I'll update the BB stamping to the best of my knowledge, 368 is the lowest non XR number I have in my database while XR341 is the highest XR serial. So, I can add that.

I have heard of two other bikes that have 26.6 seat tubes, but I maintain that it might just be variation in tubing. I bet the 96 brochure shows 26.6 because that's what they had in the last days of MC. In reality it ended up being 26.8.

I'll talk about stems, forks and things like that as much as I can. That info is hard to find and unlike my S/N database it's tough to find the subtle differences and correlate them to a date or any specific point in time.

 

[Mr.Toad]

Re:

Excellent information. Great work!

There was a Team Shrew Yeti for sale locally last year, now i'm regretting not picking it up.