Happy Feet

If you like the bike, and it fits, just do what is needed for now and wait until some deals come along.

Its a bit of a rabbithole if you want all new all at once.

The saddle is easy as it is transferable bike to bike. Tires are consumables.

Bars are tricky. If you find some that fit fine but you may wind up needing to recable your brake/shifters if you go too wide. Also, does it have an older quill integrated steerer/stem or more modern threadless and is it 31.8mm bar diameter? All can be worked around but need to be considered- and how that changes if you go for a new suspension fork. Why a new bar?

You begin to get into another quandary when converting to disc. A set of mechanical brakes is a pretty cheap upgrade but the accompanying wheelset is not.

If you keep your eyes out for a donor bike for a suspension fork it may come with a disc compatable wheel. Or, worse case, you buy a front disc wheel and keep the rear V brake.

There is really no sense in buying 1x. You can convert your 3x by just using the middle ring and taking off the other two plus the front derailer but if you have rf type shifters the brake/shifter may be integrated. In the end you get no benefit over the current 3x so converting should be low on the need list.

pjcampbell

Hand made in the USA by a small company with quality parts. I know back then a lot of them still were made in the USA. In my experience the frame is very beefy and very stiff and used high quality Easton aluminum tubing. Schwinn's homegrown factory race bikes were actually made by Yeti in that era also.

Kapusta

Of these two options, I would go with the Recon. Otherwise it gets into a lot of money for low end stuff that offers you little benefit over what you have for what it sounds like you will be doing.

Treat the bike to new cables and housing, and get some good brake housing, like Jagwire Pro compressionless.

If the Issue with the shifters is that when you push the lever it moves freely without pulling any cable, it is most likely just hardened grease clogging up the notches that the shifter needs to catch to pull the cable. This is common on old Shimano shifters. I have resurrected three sets of shimano shifters (LX, XT, and Ultegra) by flushing out the hardened grease with WD40.

Get some Kool Stop Pads for the V-Brakes.

If you want a new saddle and bars to change the fit... go for it.

Keep the rigid fork around. The bike may make a cool town bike someday.

Post pics when you are done.

Happy Feet

I had the opposite brake issue. For years I've had a disc compatible wheelset but no frames with caliper mounts. When I got the Bomber fork, which has disc mounts, I was like "finally, I can put a rotor on this thing!" Still V's in the back.

2old

Good advice from Happy Feet IMO. The bottom line is do you enjoy this bike, and if so it's worth reasonable changes. I've been on many different bikes, but ride my 2005 Santa Cruz Superlight three times a week because it's the one that I have the most fun on (1500+ rides, 23,000+ miles in 16 years). As you know, your bike is designed by an MTB innovator and constructed by a legendary welder, so you'll be piloting a classic.

pjcampbell

I just found out that Frank now lives in VT (Not far from me), pretty crazy!

veganbikes

I guess nothing will convince you of anything here. You seem to be skeptical. It was a winning bike made by a well known designer in the U.S. out of good quality custom designed tubing. I guess you believe every single bike on the planet must be almost nearly the same and nothing could differentiate it, which is just silly. I would fashion a guess that because the bike below has a marginally similar idea in 26" 3x rim brake mountain bike with colors (ok the front is a disc, I didn't want to spend a lot of time searching so I took the first one) that you would also class that in the same realm as the Yeti ARC.

Maybe you are having a laugh or something or just don't understand bikes, I don't know, but the Yeti ARC was a special bike that is and was well respected and loved.

Could Lewis Hamilton have won 6 F1 championships without Mercedes AMG, probably! He is a great driver but the fact is he did it with that team, those engines and those cars (technically you could say 7 championships as one was done with a McLaren car but Mercedes engine).

Happy Feet

I think it's just a disconnect that occurs when you have a wide forum with enthusiasts who come from different angles.

If one could take muscle car fans as a "loose" analogy:

You have some who appreciate the 69 Camaro. Some of those will argue about the benefits of keeping them stock, some the benefits of hot rodding them. Some others will go for the modern design and say the older cars do not hold a candle to the 2021 Camaro in terms of performance. Usually those genres create their own individual "sub" clubs where they champion their particular ethos and encourage each other. Outliers are quickly chastised and made to feel unwelcome.

Here, adherents of each sub ideology post into the same general threads and try to relate or influence the conversation from their own perspectives. Argue argue argue...

pjcampbell

Thanks all for the suggestions. I decided to start with the new RockShox Recon silver TK fork and then see what I want to do from there.

https://planetcyclery.com/rockshox-r...hoCjnoQAvD_BwE

Probably a dumb question but although I know it is heavier than the old Judy SID SL - will the RockShox Recon silver TK have very different shock absorbing characteristics?

70sSanO

My advice is to buy a new bike and take your time upgrading the Yeti. Also build it the way you want. If you want to go 1x then set it up that way. But do the research first. Google as much as you can and make decisions based on the research. I built my 2 hardtails in 2013/14 after I had done months of researching.

I love this video. It is the reason why you want to ride an old 26er and the reason why you don't want to ride one.

https://www.bikemag.com/videos/old-bike-psyche/

John

Happy Feet

Any sense upgrading an old bike?
Depends what you do with it.



Yesterdays ride

pjcampbell

First upgrade arrived today, just waiting on a Park star nut driver to throw it on there.
I ordered new wider 725mm bars, stem (because 31.8mm bars... ) and lock on grips also which come today, so I can measure the steer tube length with the new stem.

I couldn't quite tell which fork weighs more, my gut is the RockShox is a little heavier. I may throw it on the scale out of curiosity. The air pressure guide on the fork shows settings for 80mm travel as well as 100mm, so I think it will work just fine on the Yeti frame meant for 80mm travel. The Recon silver tk solo air was about $225 fwiw.

prj71

A bike from a reputable bike company as Yeti can't be compared to department store bikes.

From the reputable manufactures of that era...such as Specialized, Trek, Giant...unless I'm missing something...nothing about that bike stands out to me that's any different than this one...

veganbikes

But that is where you are arguing from. That the bike because it is a 26" bike is just a bike so why not compare it to the Huffy. What sets it apart if nothing will set it apart from the Specialized (a mass produced bike)?

If the wins on NORBA and the World stage, being designed by the legend Frank the Welder with high end parts from a much smaller company doesn't set it apart from Specialized why should we set either bike apart from that Huffy?

prj71

Because huffy / department store bikes from that era, just like now, are made with inferior components. It's not an apples to apples comparison.

That's what I've been asking all along.

As is the case with any bike in a race...it's the rider (motor) not the bike. Whoever won NORBA on THAT bike could have done the same on a different branded bike as well. At the time and now...Yeti, Specialized, Trek, Giant, Cannondale etc. all use high end parts. That's what sets them all apart from a Huffy.

Frank seems like a great guy though...

https://mmbhof.org/frank-wadelton/

Happy Feet

I am not familiar with the Yeti but some bikes from that era, while looking similar to others, had far lighter frames and component materials.
The whole reason I bought my Marin at the time was simply how light it felt when I picked it up. Noticably so. Later, this was confirmed when removing components like the bars and seat post. The bars at the time (Al) felt as light as carbon bars.
While you could put it side by side with similar bikes, there were subtle build differences that added up to a slightly better bike.

It's the same today with FS bikes. They all sort of look the same but some are just better than others.

prj71

The inexorable march of progress. Bikes change. In general, they always get better. It’s hard to deny. Overall I see the "better" changes in the mountain bike industry more so than the road bikes.

veganbikes

No what I am asking is how the Huffy is different from the Rockhopper? If nothing matters in the Yeti case and it won't be different no matter what then why is the Huffy any different? Literally every point that was brought up in why Yeti is different was shot down again and again so you cannot now say that the 26" Huffy is different because literally nothing makes any bike different. Not tubing not design not anything about the company and the people involved in it, the races they have won...

Yes it is the rider but those riders got their start with Yeti and it is possible without sponsorship from Yeti they may not have the careers they did, things could have turned out much differently.

Frank is awesome.

Happy Feet

Only sort of.

Like road bikes and racing design, mountain bike changes are being driven by the extreme edge of the spectrum in terms of frame design, gearing, suspension and braking. That is a positive if one is always seeking to push the envelope of what is possible with a bike (big air, drops,) but not for those who fall into the less extreme end of the pool. Many people, as we see here with new people seeking a simple basic trail bike, would be better served by a more moderately designed, basic and cheaper bike. Some features like lower gearing and 29" tires translate well down the chain but others (quad piston hydraulic brakes) do not. At one time it was possible for a lay person to service their bike - now, for many, it is not. They have become dependent consumers of both parts and service which is nuts for a simple trail bike. You wouldn't believe (or maybe you would) the number of middle aged, cautious riders I see on trails riding expensive FS bikes way beyond what they need. A family going by on a summer ride on 10-15000 worth of bicycle. Many would be just as well served on technology like the Yeti if the geometry and old gearing were better. They will never approach the capability of their bikes but are being sold them anyways.

So back to the Yeti and why it may be worth fixing up if the conditions it is intended for match the design. Yep. For some trails/riding that is all one needs. Just like a Honda Civic may be all one really needs if commuting. And that's not a knock on Honda Civics. Amazingly designed machines that easily reach 500,000 miles if cared for just like that era of highly developed rigid/hardtail mtb.

DMC707

I will pile on a bit to add to the history lesson.

You have a valid point in that my old school Yeti , or the OP's ARC i posted a pic of earlier is not that far removed from Happy Feet 's MArin or any number of old hardtails in theory. Simply swapping framesets back then with all other things being identical would not make you 10 seconds a lap faster on your favorite trail --

So why? I dont know -- why is a 1963 Split Window Corvette worth more money than a '72 Mustang notchback? They are both just old cars right?

I raced mountain bikes and motocross concurrently in those days and YEti was one of the first avid and outspoken cross-sports marketers. They knew that MTB's in that era were popular cross training options for motocross athletes and supported several athletes like Johnny O' MAra, - who went on to become a pro mtb racer (XC) after retiring from motocross. O'MAra riding for YEti along with the likes of JEff Stanton and moto journalist Zapata Espinoza running Yeti logos on their helmets made people in the moto community curious about the brand

Jody Weisel, editor of Motocross Action magazine, even had a hand in designing the YEti Ultimate raised chainstay bike. This cycling and moto crowd inter-mingled quite a bit in those days , with Richard Cunningham even being the man behind Mantis bicycles. (not to mention, Horst Leitner, MErt Lawwill, PAul Turner, Jim Felt -- among others)

But where a lot of mountain bikes resembled road bikes with knobbies and flat bars, the YEti's borrowed design cues from old school BMX (looptail chainstays ) and cyclocross bikes (top tube cable routing)

This along with the founders vision of how he wanted mountain bike racing to be. John Parker was an oddball compared to the cycling mainstrem then. When John Tomac was hitting the Nationals for Yeti, PArker made sure he pitted out of a box van , just like the motocross teams did. HE tooled around the pits on his clapped out Indian himself , and he gave a lot of young, unknown talent their first shot.

Juli Furtado had the MTB experience of a cat 5 beginner when she won the world championship race in 1990, but she had a motor and was aboard a Yeti . Would she have achieved success elsewhere? MAybe, -- but Yeti gave the beginner with the big motor a shot. Very similar story with Missy Giove. Cross marketing by giving bikes to PAul Tracy (Indycar guy ) helped plus the early innovative ideas (carbon tubes, bonded aluminum, too many kooky downhill bikes to count , etc etc. ) plus the distinctive team color schemes and their strong ties to the moto community made YEti the bike to have for a lot of people .

Plus limited regional marketing made the bikes hard to get. There was not a dealership east of Colorado

Eventually . PArker sold out - In the very late 90's /early '00s they were swallowed up by the Schwinn wrecking ball (like Trek did to Klein, Bontrager and Fisher ) - but Schwinn had a lot of problems of their own and thus failed to really grow the brand any further . Other brands became the hip, cool and edgy face of mountain biking (Santa Cruz is the first to come to mind, but there were others )

So in answer to "why" regarding Yeti

Exclusivity
hand built and hard to get
grass roots race effort - almost like a guerilla marketing campaign
anti-establishment
pushed design limits for the time
moto community tie ins
stylish (for the time) design cues and colorways
not to mention fostering a FUN aspect to mountain bike racing


But yes - there came a time when geometry settled in to what worked on NORBA style trails and there were many similarities between brands.

Playing devils advocate, id venture a guess that the same imaginary rider , hypothetically , could pull the XT or XTR build kit and wheels off a YEti, (or S Works or Fat Chance, DeKerf or whatever ) and build a generic Supergo or Nashbar cromoly frameset from the period and have almost identical results by the stopwatch

Darth Lefty 

The C&V community just has to come to terms with MTB suspension forks so things like this can stop happening. It can't just be about derailleurs any more

70sSanO

While that is true, it is probably a decade too late. A lot of older suspension forks can’t be re-built and no one makes a decent for with 1-1/8”, much less 1”, steerers anymore.

John

Darth Lefty 

That’s what I mean, though. No one makes NR RD’s any more either but there’s loads of them already in the fleet. This bike didn’t need the cheapest simplest 6lb fork from 2021, it needed the coolest one from Y2K. When it was made, MCU forks were mostly gone, everyone loved Bombers, and Fox was about to enter the market.

70sSanO

I’ve got Bombers on my bikes, and a couple back-ups, but it’s over. You can make almost any component fit on an older bike, but you can never fit a larger steerer into a smaller head tube. That is where it ends.

John

pjcampbell

Here is my new old Yeti current progress:

It got the new RockShox recon silver tk
New old stock RaceFace bar, stem and grips
Microshift 1x 11-48t drivetrain with Garbaruk XTR 30t chainring.
New Conti Mountain king tires

Rides pretty nice!!!