Yeti Cycles

SB5 Turq LR X01 Eagle Complete Mountain Bike - 2018

We love when bike brands spec a build that is the choice of what most of the riders of the company ride. In the case of the SB5 Turq LR X01 Eagle Complete Mountain Bike—whose LR appellation stands for Lunch Ride—that means bigger tires, a wee bit longer fork, and wider bars. The SB5 is known as one of Yeti's most versatile and popular bikes among the Tribe and it took that excellent frame and custom curated a build that satisfied their fastest in-house rippers. Lunch rides around Yeti are pretty renowned for being hammerfests and this SB5 is how many Yeti employees build up their own machines to get the job done.

Every day at 11:30, Yeti shuts down the factory for lunch, letting their employees go for a ride on their favorite local trail, Apex. We think this is a rad policy as it lets the employees have a bit of a mid-day unwind and it's a great way to test new products. The folks at Yeti love tinkering with their bikes and through the process of riding, they find a hybrid spec that they all end up loving. We certainly like the changes and this bike is built to take a beating.

The fork gets bumped from the usual FOX 34 to a burlier Factory Kashima-coated 36 and gains 10mm more travel while the rear shock gets a swapped for the DPX2 with a piggyback normally seen on the SB6. Tires get beefed up from the normal spec Maxxis Ardents to a Maxxis Minion 2.5in up front and a 2.3-inch Aggressor in the rear. SRAM Guide RSC brakes see 180mm rotors on both ends to handle the long descents Golden, CO is known for. The X01 spec is super dependable offering plenty of range for rides going into the 5 digit numbers. So what they have created is a bike that still climbs and pedals with the urgency of the original SB5, but with the downhill chops that would have you questioning if you really need an SB6. Yeti says that their EWS teams will chose a build like the SB5 LR on courses like Rotorua and Tasmania, proving the bike’s range of capabilities.

As the frame itself is identical to the SB5, the Switch Infinity remains the same, which is a very good thing. In short, Switch Infinity utilizes a patented translating pivot that switches direction as the bike moves through its travel. This provides excellent anti-squat characteristics for superior pedaling performance and ideal suspension kinematics as it gets deeper into the travel. The linear path of the patented Switch Infinity system has very little resistance as the shock moves through its stroke. This allows the system to achieve seemingly contradictory characteristics. In the early stage of the travel, it displays superior pedaling efficiency and excellent small bump sensitivity. As you move deeper into the travel, the suspension is well supported and responds effortlessly to square-edge hits. The mechanical advantage of this system couldn't be achieved with traditional link designs.

THE SB5 Lunch Ride only comes in the TURQ carbon frame since that's what all of their employees ride. TURQ Series bikes are manufactured with the highest quality and best-performing carbon fiber available and offer the perfect balance of stiffness, durability, and compliance. The result is a bike that feels smooth, solid and aggressive. We are fairly certain that if the ride qualities and durability are sufficient for Richie Rude and Yeti's internal testing, they will plenty fine for what we can dish out on our local trails. The weight savings of around 350 grams help take back a little that is lost in the burlier build.

This is the kind of bike we would build from the frame up or eventually assemble in the way of upgrades. Yeti has perfected what they want most in a bike and they've tested it on countless laps in the Colorado Front Range and stops on the EWS circuit. The selected parts withstand the chucky, rocky trails in their backyard and we have to agree that we like it for our riding and think you will too. This rig is rowdy ready.