Yeti Ultimate

[Once A Hero]

Might as well start a thread for this one seeing as I have a number of stalled builds on the go at the moment :roll: Plus seeing adri.75 and theproscloset fine examples has fuelled my build plans.

Picked this Ultimate up earlier this year as a frameset being offered for sale by forum member Kingroon.



Advertised at a fair price, and definitely a bike I was keen to own at some point, so I jumped at the opportunity to go for it. Picking it up was the safest thing to do, even if it did mean driving in to central London on a Friday afternoon, finding somewhere to park outside the congestion charge zone, and then having to carry a set of wheels to the bikes location! All fairly painless really, and it meant I got to ride the bike back to the car - which I must say I really enjoyed

I thought it would be tad too big for me, especially given the top tube lengths on these, but I was pleasantly surprised - although I had the seat a little high on collection as I didn’t want to force it lower than it seemed comfortable to go - must have been at that point for many years, so I’ll flush / lubricate the seat tube.



The ‘90’s were obvious just from the width of the bars - 465mm... , leading to there being barely enough room to fit my hands between the bar ends and brake levers...



In reality there is nothing much needed other than a set of wheels and decent service to make it rideable, but it wouldn’t be any fun if I didn’t make some changes, right?

Current spec is as follows;

Frame : 19” Yeti Ultimate (c.1992-93?) hard to tell from frame number
Forks : Answer Accutrax
Stem : Syncros (without noodle)
Headset : Unbranded? OEM?
Bars : Syncros - cut to 465mm!!!
Grips : ODI Attack - absolutely toast
Bar ends : Syncros Steer Horns (tired)
Seatpost : 3DV Ringle Moby (sadly this was found to be cracked)
Seat : Flite Titanium (date stamped ‘93)
Seatpost bolt : X-Lite (red)
BB : Shimano UN70 cartridge
Cranks : Ritchey Logic
Chainrings : Inner = Pace, Middle = Pace, Outer = Sugino
Front Mech : XT M735
Rear Mech : XT M735
Shifters : XT Thumb shifters
Brake Levers : XT M733
Brakes : Dia-Compe 986
Pedals : DMR V8

The planned changes are as follows:

Stem - a replacement is on the way....it’ll need painting and decals....
Bars - the Syncros bars have been cut down way too short (465mm!) so they’ve got to go (karma'd ) Hyperlites have been sourced.
Grips - I’ve binned the old ones already
Seatpost - Purple doesn’t suit, so black would be better, perhaps XT but not decided yet
Seatpost bolt - The X-Lite item is too long, and I’m keen to replace it with a QR
Cranks and rings - CBRs sourced - just need to decide what to do about rings
Cantilevers - Not a massive fan of the 986’s so will look to replace with black XT M734 low profiles, especially as the levers are already XT
Pedals - I interchange between bikes typically so expect to see M737 SPDs fitted
Wheels - Options in my mind are XT/Bullseye/Ringle hubs, and Mavic/Campag/Ritchey rims, it’ll just come down to what I can find and what budget I set myself!
Tyres - probably the black walled Smoke Lites I’ve got in stock - although I’m drawn to getting a used set of Porcs for the hell of it...

 

[cfreeride]

Good project and nice colour.

 

[Double-E F]

Watching with interest!

 

[Yetichaser]

Re:

Hi, congrats on the purchase.
Your bike belonged to my friend. We got the frames at the same time from Bromley Bike shop I believe it was 1993. Mine was the same colour although I had mine re-sprayed in white by Roberts around 2010.
Watch out for rust at bottom of seat tube as that caused rust on mine as there is no drainage hole.

I have a feeling that your frame is much earlier, possibly 1989ish. Mine is U162 (i think) which dates it around 1989. i vaguely remember a sticker on mine when it was orange and grey which said API resprays. I also vaguely recall that these frames had been used by the UK race team / Evolution Imports ie Bromley Bike shop from a conversation that I had with them at the time.
Anyway, enjoy it. I loved mine.

 

[Once A Hero]

Re: Re:

Hi, congrats on the purchase.
Your bike belonged to my friend. We got the frames at the same time from Bromley Bike shop I believe it was 1993. Mine was the same colour although I had mine re-sprayed in white by Roberts around 2010.
Watch out for rust at bottom of seat tube as that caused rust on mine as there is no drainage hole.

I have a feeling that your frame is much earlier, possibly 1989ish. Mine is U162 (i think) which dates it around 1989. i vaguely remember a sticker on mine when it was orange and grey which said API resprays. I also vaguely recall that these frames had been used by the UK race team / Evolution Imports ie Bromley Bike shop from a conversation that I had with them at the time.
Anyway, enjoy it. I loved mine.

Thanks for the extra history

So are you saying that what mine has is effectively an early re-spray to suit a team livery? I wonder what the original colour was in that case...not that it will be getting re-sprayed as aside from a little sun fading on the orange and the odd age related scratch, the paint is good.
I’m in two minds about removing some on the after market decals in case there is an obvious patch of faded colour - particularly the Manitou sticker on the top tube.

As to age, is there actually a way to date the frames from the number - as I had read that the numbers were essentially random? Mine reads U1072...

Yours looks great, can I assume from ‘loved’ that you no longer have it?

 

[Yetichaser]

Re:

I remember racing in Shirley Hills on cyclocross type events, along with Mike (previous owner of your frame).

Back then, I recall there was a team whether or not it was an official Yeti team but linked to Bromley Bike shop as I remember one of the guys riding the Yetis was from the shop.
The Ultimates they were riding were all white and so I thought that might have been the original colour of ours.
The shop had it re-sprayed before selling them - not sure why, also remember that there were stories of cracked seattubes but I cant see evidence of a replacement on mine.
Anyway, mine rusted at the bottom so Chas Roberts repaired it and that meant re-spraying it to white.
Still have it but dont use it.
I remember going to Bromley Bike shop every weekend to dribble over their stock. It was amazing. Especially when they had a white Ultimate with the full pirple Ringle and grafton kit on it. Looked out of of this world. That shop was a mecca for Yeti Ringle Grafton Bullseye Syncros etc.
Also saw Dave Hemming in there with a Klein Attitude as be lived locally.
Due to the quality of the repair I then went and ordered a Dogs Bolx in 2010 and then this year focused on building a Fat Chance XS for my son and a matching Yo Eddy for myself.

 

[mk one]

Great project, great colour

 

[daveyla]

This is a bike I'd love to own and I am very jealous of you both

 

[Once A Hero]

This is a bike I'd love to own and I am very jealous of you both

Thank you.
I feel the same about Klein Attitudes of the same era - which keep eluding me!

 

[tintin40]

Love it.