1991 / 92 Yeti Ultimate

So, the third time's the charm! I missed two opportunities to buy a Yeti Ultimate recently, but finally persevered and landed this one. It's fairly late model, Colorado built Ultimate (U11xx), with the later style graphics. Fortunately the original owner didn't succumb to the trends and kept the original Accutrax fork. The bike was built with rather crappy Shimano DX components and most of them were in pretty poor and non functional condition.

If I had to find one word to describe the Ultimate it would be "scrappy." The bike just has this affable quality that makes you smile. I don't know whether it's the design, the color or something else, but I just feel good when working on it. I hope riding it results in a similar feeling.

My attempt at a full build stalled out this weekend due to part shortages. Turns out I am short on 68mm bottom brackets, the wheels I have slated for the bike need to be rebuilt and cranks and brakes need to be polished up. I decided to go with a 7-spd in favor of XTR, just seemed more appropriate. If I have time I'll try to built up some Ringle wheels (front is ready to go) to go along with the silver Chris King headset, ATAC stem, Hyperlite bars, Cook Bros cranks and silver Grafton brakes. I am considering swapping the CBR cranks in favor or Bullseyes, and replacing the wheels with Bullsyes... TBD

The welds on the bike are very fine, and the overall craftsmanship is amazing. There are a lot of little details in the design, such as the reinforcement fore the front derailleur cable, the rear brake cable guide/support and of course, the loop stays and curved downtube.

I am thrilled to have the bike and look forward to completing it and taking it for a spin!!