Yeti Cycles

SB130 Carbon LR C1 GX Eagle Mountain Bike

When the lunch bell rings at Yeti's headquarters in Golden, Colorado, magical things happen. Staff gets together, they saddle up, and they hit the trails in full force. These lunch laps enable total creativity to flow, both in the way berms are blasted and rollers are turned into doubles, and in component tweaks that are thrown together when folks around the office get hair-brained ideas to swap shocks, tune things a little differently, and transform already coveted steeds into entirely new beasts. That is, after all, how the Yeti SB130 Carbon LR C1 GX Eagle Mountain Bike came to be. The SB130 LR, short for Lunch Ride, equips you with a longer fork than its standard SB130, and boosts rear travel by 6-degrees for a more capable ride that feels bigger than its mid-travel sibling. It rides a fine line between enduro sled and nimble trail 29er, soaking up big hits that challenge the sum of its numbers, while still providing snappy pedaling for versatility when you point the bike skyward. And since a bike built to this be capable needs components to match, Yeti pairs this SB130 LR up with powerful SRAM Code brakes, workhorse SRAM GX Eagle drivetrain, and custom DT Swiss EX1700 32-spoke wheels that are made to take a beating.

Now, you'll still find the same frame as the SB130 — think of the SB130 LR as the punkrock twin brother, who, minus the band tee, studded jacket, and mohawk, has the same stock as its more conventional sibling. That means it features the same longer, slacker geometry for taking on the steeps, and steeper seat tube for pedaling up long climbs to earn your turns. Its 65.1-degree headtube is over a full degree slacker than the brand's 5.5, a bike that already pushed the boundaries of a long-travel 29er. Of course this contributes to unflappable stability when descending steep, technical terrain, but usually, a headtube angle so slack would be a bear on climbs and have lazy handling manners on the rest of the trail. This simply isn't the case with the SB130 as it employs a 44mm fork offset to bring the front wheel in closer to the rider so the contact patch is more aft than fore, for improved traction and a front wheel that's less likely to wander when the trail points up. Further helping in this regard is the 77-degree seat tube angle centering you right over the pedals letting you put the hammer down on the climbs. To push harnessing the watts and contributing to positive handling is the frame's Boost spacing placing the hub's flanges further apart and improving the spoke's bracing angle for a stiffer wheel and combining with the 1x-specific frame to allows space for tire clearances in the neighborhood of 2.5-inches with 433mm chainstays, the shortest we've seen yet on a full suspension 29er from Yeti for quick power transfers and the ability to get the front wheel up and over obstacles easier.

A Yeti wouldn't be a Yeti without its signature Switch Infinity suspension and the new-reconfigured SB130 LR utilizes some new linkages and a metric shock that frees up some precious real estate allowing for the fitment of a water bottle inside the main triangle, and packs in an extra 6-millimeters of travel beyond the standard SB130. What remains the same are the two silky-smooth Kashima-coated stanchions housed just above the bottom bracket that translates throughout the stroke of the Kashima-coated Fox Factory DPX2 shock to adjust the leverage ratio from supple, bump sucking plushness, to mid-stroke, anti-squat pedaling support, to a mild ramp up near the end responsible for its bottomless feel. You'll find that it bobs way less than other designs on the climbs and because its axle path isn't nearly as rearward as some platforms, it doesn't get hung up over square-edge hits letting you take speed and momentum over the obstacle. Whereas the older 4.5 required a little more precision when it came to line choices and favored maneuvering around obstacles, the new SB130 is tuned for full send and is happy taking on a point and shoot approach.

To expand the bike's capabilities, Yeti specs the LR with a beefier 160-millimeter fork to soak up more trail chatter, and offer a bit more of an enduro-ready feel than its trail-hungry sibling. It still provides a neutral, well-rounded riding position, but is a little bit more ready for action, soaking up drops to flat, or wheel-gobbling rock gardens. The 136mm of rear travel might not seem like a lot, but with a 160mm FOX Factory 36 up front and 29-inch wheels, this bike can save your hide when the going gets rough.

Yeti specs this build with its more pocket friendly carbon fiber, that still offers the stiffness and durability of its revered Truq line, but with a little more material than its sibling, enabling price to be dropped, while a couple of grams are gained. It scales in at about 220-grams heavier than its Turq counterpart, which is a moderate price to pay for the savings your bank account will gain. The frame comes with molded guards to protect the downtube and chainstay, and incorporates full-length cable tunnels to simplify maintenance since the housing slides easily through the frame and pops out in the same place every time. Lastly, it's worth mentioning that there's enough clearance in the rear triangle for up to 2.5in tires.