Yeti Cycles

ASRc Mountain Bike Frame - 2016

While Yeti's mascot and history tend skew toward the image of DH and enduro bruisers, the ASRc Mountain Bike Frame stands out as a genre-defying thumb in the eye to an industry that — for whatever reason — insists on overly simple labels like "DH" and "enduro." Even we get occasionally caught up in this need to taxonomize, but the ASRc frees us from those Linnaean fetters by seasoning what feels like an XC climber with the all-mountain firepower of a bike that's just as suited for gnarly lines on the descents.

The ASRc's line-sticking confidence stems from its head tube angle, which is relatively slack for a bike with XC pedigree for a bigger footprint on terrain we'd normally reserve for mid-travel machines. The frame is the culmination of Yeti's obsessively revisited lay-up of high-modulus carbon fiber, modified continuously over the years for just the right blend of low weight and stiffness. The suspension follows suit by eschewing Yeti's weighty Switch Infinity design in favor of a lightweight, single-pivot build. Though the platform lacks the complexity of Switch Infinity, the custom-tuned FOX Float Factory DPS shock nets suspension that feels as aggressive as the head tube is slack. Chances are good you'll find the bottom of the trail before you find the bottom of the travel.