1993 Yeti ARC rebuild

Some of you may remember this Yeti from before. I've owned it for about two years and originally had it built as sort of a Yeti Team replica bike for the 92/93 season. The build was heavy on 3DV Ringle and Grafton which has been done to death and so I decided to try something a bit different. I'm sure it's been done before, but it's not the most common color choice for this ARC.

Original frame pic:

First build iteration:

Latest iteration

Full Grafton cockpit with levers and perches. I swapped out the brake stops for black ones. If / when the headtube cracks I'll repaint the dark in black. But this works for now.

The thing I hated the most about this bike was the Manitou 2 fork. I do like the look, so I decided to try and make it better. To fix the brake problem I simply added a DKG brake booster, as the M2 is notorious for the amount of flex it has this is an easy fix. I have an AC brake arch in black, but I think that might be too much. Second, the travel on the fork is nothing short of inconsequential, so I decided to try and retrofit it with the internals from a Manitou EFC. I happened to have a very nice one sitting around so I set about the surgery. Most of the parts are interchangeable, but I had to swap the dropouts from the EFC legs onto the M2 legs, that was about the only real challenge. Swapping over from the M2 to the EFC internals gives a longer elastomer stack (will change to springs in the long run) and adds an oil damping cartridge to smooth out the rebound. It also takes the travel from about 1,5" to almost 3" which is pretty good for an old bike.

Getting these dropouts aligned properly is a bit of a nightmare, I think I need one more attempt to get the wheel really dead nuts straight. It's close enough, but could be better. In the long run I might swap the QRs out for some Critical Racing ones, but these will do for now.

Out on the Brown Mountain loop heading to El Prieto. The bike rides great, still needs a bit of a tune as cables re-stretch and everything settles in. 

I think I'll keep it this way for a while and hope to ride it a fair amount this fall!!