My Second Yeti ASR Build - And How I Made It Better [Video]

Jeff seems like he's finally found the perfect bike for the riding he likes to do - the Yeti ASR. Whether it's ripping our local trails or tackling week-long adventure races, his ASR is the tool for the job. Find out what makes this build special in this classic bike check and long term review.

Suspension

Jeff likes to keep his bikes light and fast. The RockShox SID Ultimate suspension fits the bill perfectly for this bike and the way he likes to ride - like a slippery seal speeding down a water slide. It's extremely lightweight and yet the suppleness punches above its weight class. Jeff opted to forgo the remote lockouts on this bike since he isn't trying to win any world cups, and likes to keep his cockpit free of as many cables as possible without resorting to electronic components.

Cockpit & Contact Points

Jeff is very proud of the incredible components that we've been able to create with Trail One and here he's using the Crockett carbon bar paired to a 40mm Rockville Stem and Hell's Gate grips with a top cap and spacer kit to top it all off. Pedal wise, he's running his favorite Crankbrothers Mallet E pedals with the Titanium Spindle upgrade. His bum rests upon his favorite saddle to date - a Fizik 3D printed Vento Argo saddle, with carbon rails of course. His thumb actuates his favorite dropper lever, the Wolf Tooth ReMote Pro which is connected to a OneUp V3 dropper post.

Drivetrain & Brakes

Jeff is all about 11 speed drivetrains on his lightweight bikes and this bike is no exception. His Wolf Tooth Chainring and XX SL carbon cranks drive an 11 speed E*Thirteen 9-46t cassette with a black XX1 Eagle chain while shifting duties are performed by a SRAM XX1 11 speed shifter and rear derailleur. Slowing the bike down is a set of SRAM Motive Ultimate 4 piston brakes paired with Galfer 180mm & 160mm rotors in the front and rear, respectively. 

Wheels & Tires

Wheels and tires are arguably some of the most important parts of the bike. Keeping with the theme of this bike, things are light and fast. Industry Nine Solix M TR300/290 24h Carbon wheels keep things rolling, and those are wrapped in a Maxxis Forekaster up front and a Rekon out back. This keeps things nice and grippy up front and fast rolling in the rear. Silver hubs keep things classy and timeless.

If you are one strange human that would like to read a transcript of the video above, continue reading below!

00:00:00:10 - 00:00:25:03
Unknown
I recently built up another Yeti ASR, and this video will serve as a little bit of my long term review on the bike, as well as some details and specifications on the current new recent build that I just did. I really like this bike and have well over maybe a couple thousand miles on this thing so far. I'm going to tell you my thoughts on it and all the little details that I've done to my second build to make it a little bit different than the first build, which I think is actually pretty meaningful

00:00:25:03 - 00:00:45:15
Unknown
if you're going to custom build one of these, or consider buying one.

00:00:45:17 - 00:01:07:18
Unknown
A lot has been said about the ASR. It is an iconic race machine from Yeti that was sort of their flagship bike for many years. Then it was discontinued and now it's been reborn into this new modern. I don't know what you'd call these the new wave of cross country World Cup race bikes, but this is the first full blown quote unquote XC bike I've ever ridden that I've actually really, really liked.

00:01:07:22 - 00:01:27:12
Unknown
And mostly that's because it doesn't have cross country geometry in the traditional sense. It has a steeper seat tube angle a slacker headtube angle. It feels like a proper enduro trail bike when you're riding it in terms of your body positioning and the way it corners and handles, however, it is as light and as fast as you could ever imagine

00:01:27:12 - 00:01:45:13
Unknown
a world cup worthy XC bike is. And as I started riding the first one of these, I just kind of fell in love with it and really enjoyed it. There's pros and cons to that, right? So it is a 115mm travel on the back, 120mm in the front and with this suspension design, pros and cons: light, fast, efficient.

00:01:45:15 - 00:01:59:15
Unknown
It does have a little bit of bob to it if you just say pedaling up a fire road and a lot of people utilize the lockout on it, I pretty rarely ever lock mine out. And with the custom build I have here, I don't have a remote lock out, which is traditionally how they're sold. I rarely use it.

00:01:59:15 - 00:02:18:13
Unknown
I don't think it bobs that much to be bothersome. It's still just super fast and really fun, efficient bike. And that's why I built a second one. I really liked my first one, but I typically ride a bike for about six months to a year, and then I like to sell them while they're still fresh. When it came to this bike, I wanted to build another one and just do it even better.

00:02:18:19 - 00:02:44:15
Unknown
I use this bike not only for local trail riding, but also for adventure races, and this bike is kind of the ideal adventure race bike because it is so comfortable, fast, light and efficient. Two water bottles, room for tools and everything on your frame. And yeah, it's just it just feels so good. If you're used to the feeling and body positioning of an enduro or a trail bike, this is the XC bike that still feels like that, but it's also lightning fast.

00:02:44:20 - 00:03:00:17
Unknown
I just really enjoyed this bike and wanted to keep riding it, which is why I built the second one. This one in particular was custom painted by Tec Gnar He's kind of an iconic mountain bike painter, and yeah, he's done a few of my bikes in the past, and this one, I asked him to just do WC blue and keep it really simple.

00:03:00:17 - 00:03:18:22
Unknown
I just wanted this bike to be clean and simple. One color frame, chome hubs on the Industry Nine wheels, and then of course, all black everything else except for the pedals, I guess. And yeah, I love how this thing came out. This bike has been ridden, this exact one, I think over a thousand miles so far, and I had probably over 1000 miles on my last one.

00:03:19:00 - 00:03:38:10
Unknown
And yeah, it's held up super, super well. You might imagine the pivots are going to have issues and creaky-ness, but surprisingly they don't, if you maintain them pretty well, they are smaller bearings than you might imagine like a trail or enduro bike would have, but they've held up super good, and again, I try to maintain everything as best as possible,

00:03:38:10 - 00:03:57:20
Unknown
and I won't necessarily say I because, it's either Liam or Trevor that's actually physically doing the work to keep my bikes dialed in and maintained, so credit where credit's due. But yeah, this this thing has been fantastic to ride and has got a few adventure races under its belt already that were super long distance and putting in road miles on it,

00:03:57:20 - 00:04:18:07
Unknown
fire road miles on it, single track on it. It's so much fun. Before I jump into every individual part, I will say, something I changed from this one, as compared to my last one was a couple things. Most importantly, it was the wheels. So on my last ASR, I had Zipp 1Zero SW, HiTop 1Zero SW, something like that.

00:04:18:08 - 00:04:43:18
Unknown
They were, I think, slightly lighter than these, very close, but they were a little flexier. And this is not a necessarily a stiff bike to begin with, being its focus is meant to be super lightweight and an XC bike. So if you wanted something stiffer, Yeti has a very similar bike and a similar travel range, which is the SB120, but this bike has a little bit more flex than like a more rigid trail bike would have.

00:04:43:18 - 00:05:04:21
Unknown
And with the Zipp wheels, that was almost a little bit too much flex all around. And the way I thought about it, after riding that bike for quite some time and sort of solved it on this bike, was Industry Nine wheels. So these are Industry Nine Solix wheels, it's their cross country wheelset. So 24 holes on a spoke count carbon rims and just a super lightweight wheelset.

00:05:04:21 - 00:05:24:22
Unknown
But it does use the Industry Nine what they call system wheels which is their own proprietary spoke and hub system where you have an aluminum spoke, traditional spoke is steel, an aluminum spoke that has no nipple. It actually threads directly into the hub shell. That gives you a very, very stiff wheel that's also super lightweight. And I really enjoy that.

00:05:24:22 - 00:06:00:05
Unknown
And it pairs perfectly with this bike. And these bit more stiff wheels, I think paired really well with this frame to where the thing now just totally feels solid and stiff and rigid, as much as I would ever want it to be, no matter how I'm riding it. So that was an important thing that I changed from the last ASR to this ASR that I think is relevant, because if you are going to custom build one of these, or if you have one and you're thinking about changing how the bike feels overall, a stiffer wheelset can make a big difference on really any bike, but especially on a bike that's this lightweight and XC bike.

00:06:00:07 - 00:06:21:03
Unknown
Important difference there. The other main change that I made was the brakes, and that's mostly because these are just the new SRAM brakes, Motive Ultimates. I really enjoy these things. These have four pistons. The last had Level two pistons. The only thing I don't like about these brakes is that it doesn't have a contact point adjust. So there's no adjustment to determine how much throw is in a lever.

00:06:21:08 - 00:06:41:09
Unknown
I actually like that adjustment and it works pretty good on SRAM's brakes don't have it on these and I understand why. It's more of like a weight savings related thing. And you have to kind of bleed them just perfectly to get the lever throw the way you want it. Still love them. Still super powerful. I actually really enjoy these brakes and they do have the Gelfor pads and rotors, wave rotors and then their pro compound pad.

00:06:41:09 - 00:07:05:00
Unknown
I believe. And, to move on from the brakes, what else is different between this bike on my last one is the saddle. So this is a new saddle that I decided to try because Liam has been using it and loving it. It is the fizik Vento Argo R1 Adaptive and it's the carbon railed version. Crazy looking 3D printed thing.

00:07:05:00 - 00:07:28:08
Unknown
And yeah, it is actually extremely comfortable and also outrageously expensive. But you buy a really high end seat lasts a long time. I think Liam's had his since they came out over two years, and he's just been switching it from bike to bike, and I plan to keep this one for a super long time. I thought it was going to be 30-40% better than the best saddle I've ever rode, but it's like 10% better, so it's still the best saddle I've ever used.

00:07:28:14 - 00:07:50:15
Unknown
But it isn't. It isn't as life changing as it looks different, but it is still the best one I've ever used, and I really enjoy it and has just a super good feel. I pretty much never ride with a chamois unless I'm going to be riding over usually 30 miles. Mostly do that because in adventure racing you do sometimes 90 mile rides and you put in, you know, 100 plus miles over the course of a couple days or a few days.

00:07:50:15 - 00:08:09:13
Unknown
And in that case, like you do need a chamois but I want to train, find my booty for that. So I most of the time don't ride with chamois. Looks like those iron bun workout videos are really paying off! I also changed the dropper post. So this is now the OneUp V3, which is, I think still the lightest post

00:08:09:13 - 00:08:28:15
Unknown
there is at least one that has the infinite adjust to it. I love that post. Solid, reliable. Good stuff. What else is different on this bike or things I should mention it is a size large which is a 465 reach. I am now a total advocate for people to stop calling bikes small, medium, large, extra large. Just call them the reach number.

00:08:28:15 - 00:08:47:13
Unknown
It's the most important number on a frame. And what people who are buying mountain bikes need to genuinely memorize what works for them and what they like. And in my case, it's a 465 reach. And in the case of this Yeti, that's a large which is very confusing because all of Yeti's other bikes are sized totally differently.......

00:08:47:13 - 00:09:07:13
Unknown
**Jeff Bike Sizing Tirade** That's, Yeah, I'll avoid that tirade there. So yeah, size large 465 reach, which I really enjoy. And I have a 40mm Trail One Rockville stem on there, and I have my bars cut down to 760, which is what I pretty much like on all my bikes.

00:09:07:13 - 00:09:33:02
Unknown
Trail One Crockett carbon bars, Trail One Hell’s Gate grips matching beautifully, integrated Trail One top cap & spacer kit with a Wolf Tooth headset that also happens to color match nicely with the Trail One stuff. That kind of rounds out the cockpit. Drivetrain, which a lot of people always ask me about because they're surprised that on my personal bikes I don't use electronic drivetrains, and frankly, I just don't need anymore obligations and responsibilities in my life.

00:09:33:02 - 00:09:53:02
Unknown
And I charge enough batteries and I don't want to charge any more batteries. And there's more to it than just that. I use this bike is specifically for and most importantly, adventure racing, which is a multi-day sport where you're going back and forth between mountain biking, trail running, hiking, pack rafting, rock climbing, all of that. And they're generally multiple days long, nonstop.

00:09:53:08 - 00:10:15:23
Unknown
And it's another time when you wouldn't want to deal with charging batteries. So I also really like the just a mechanical feel. And yeah, this is an 11-speed SRAM mechanical drivetrain, XX1. A couple things with that. It's lighter than the electronic stuff. It's lighter than the existing 12-speed Eagle mechanical stuff. Downside of that is it's not, you know, transmission.

00:10:15:23 - 00:10:44:02
Unknown
So I don't have the derailleur bolted directly to the frame. I still have a derailleur hanger on there. Small downside. However, in terms of the gear range, I compensate for that a little bit by having an e*thirteen cassette which goes 9 to 46. It's the Helix R, I believe. So I still have the huge amount of gear range, 30 tooth Wolf Tooth chainring up front and then this 11-speed derailleur has a much shorter cage as well, which is just good for clearance and whatnot.

00:10:44:02 - 00:11:03:06
Unknown
I just love the setup. The other thing I do to this to keep this quiet, which is a little bit of a sneaky hack. Your mileage may vary,on't do this at home, but you can on the derailleur essentially pull out one of the washers that's in there and replace it with a pedal washer. And that will keep the derailleur from having any kickback.

00:11:03:12 - 00:11:18:03
Unknown
What that means also, is that you do need to loosen this in order to pull it back to get the wheel off. So you need to, you know, partially loosen your derailleur every time to get your wheel off. And then remember to put your wheel on and retighten the derailleur. Oh come on! But that keeps it from going back.

00:11:18:03 - 00:11:30:15
Unknown
And the only reason it needs to go back to take the wheel on and off. But it does that and it slaps and makes noise. So it's a little bit of a trick to keep your derailleur quieter, but you just have to remember how to operate it like that. But you got to loosen it when you take the wheel on and off.

00:11:30:15 - 00:11:48:02
Unknown
So. So if you use cage lock, but there's no backward motion on the derailleur once it's locked down like that. So this setup has incredible amount of gear range. It's, you know, don't have to charge it. And it's got more clearance. And yeah, it's just like hard to imagine that I'm not riding the latest and greatest stuff because I'm generally obsessed with that.

00:11:48:02 - 00:12:15:02
Unknown
But in the case of drivetrains, there's still an argument, which I'm making for certain bikes and certain use cases and certain reasons to run this incredibly good SRAM 11-speed drivetrain with a wide range cassette that has a nine tooth cog on it from e*thirteen. I love this setup, and I'll probably continue to ride it until further notice, but who knows, maybe SRAM will make the, you know, transmission XX SL in a mechanical variant that is lighter than this.

00:12:15:02 - 00:12:34:00
Unknown
And then I might switch to that, but TBD when it comes to that. Speaking of that, I do have those cranks, the XXL and the matching SRAM dub bottom bracket. Super lightweight man. SRAM is just kind of killing the game these days with all the drivetrain stuff and just the lightest, stiffest cranks there are for XC bikes. Yeah, I love that setup.

00:12:34:02 - 00:12:54:09
Unknown
Crankbrothers Mallet E pedals with titanium spindles. The titanium spindles shave a little bit of weight and they look cool because they're gold and they're outrageously expensive. But yeah, I just like I had to have them. Mallet E is a bit rare for an XC bike. However, I still don't ever want to sacrifice pedal performance and bike like overall feel.

00:12:54:13 - 00:13:10:01
Unknown
So yeah, it's a heavier pedal than something like the Mallet Trail or a candy, or even an eggbeater, which would be more common to see on a full blown XC bike. But because I don't use it necessarily for just XC I really prefer these pedals, even though they're slightly heavier compared to what you'd normally see on an XC bike.

00:13:10:07 - 00:13:30:11
Unknown
I just really like Mallet E pedals. Tires, I switched that up a little bit too, because I was having some flats on the Ikons I was running on the rear of my last one, and so this one I switched to a Rekon EXO+ actually, which again is like kind of rare for me because I'm a bit of a weight weenie, so I don't usually run any EXO+ on the back of an XC bike.

00:13:30:13 - 00:13:55:17
Unknown
But again, I really wanted this thing to be dialed in for adventure racing, and, I just didn't want to have to worry about flats and the minimal amount of additional weight was worth it. Also, the Exo+ and the Rekon, it just has a stiffer, more stable feel to it. So if you're riding this thing sort of more aggressively, as if it's a trail bike or an enduro bike and slashing into corners and stuff, this tire just feels better. Forekaster up front.

00:13:55:17 - 00:14:15:04
Unknown
I love that tire. That's just regular EXO. Good, good set up there in terms of like balancing this bike, being trail bike worthy and feeling really reliable and strong and not, not like I was cutting corners to make things less reliable just for the sake of weight. Hence the tires and the pedals and the cockpit and whatnot.

00:14:15:10 - 00:14:39:08
Unknown
Water bottle cages, some random carbon ones from a company called Aden Gear, which is a website that sells very niche adventure race specific products. And I just like the look of those cages and they don't drop bottles. I know there's a bunch of like generic carbon cages that look the same, and I do like side load cages normally, but on a bike that I'm using for adventure racing a lot, I like the top load, even though they're more cumbersome.

00:14:39:08 - 00:14:57:05
Unknown
But that way if I have stuff in my hands like food or a map or a compass, I can more easily still just put the bottle on either side. Occam strap, which we worked with them to make some custom branded ones that have our logo on them. And yeah, I have my whole little kit inside of there of backup things, which I went over in some other video, which I talked about.

00:14:57:05 - 00:15:15:17
Unknown
I think that video was like things I don't want to ride without. If you're curious what's inside of there? But yeah, tubes, Dynaplug, Lesyne pump over there. Trail One bottles, which is actually a pretty cool plant based bottle. Unique product right there. That's a non-petroleum product and biodegradable which is pretty rad. That product, like all the other Trail One products which,

00:15:15:17 - 00:15:31:12
Unknown
full disclosure I am a co-founder and owner of Trail One and work on all the designs. Every Trail One product gives back to the trail networks that we love. So a dollar from every product sold goes back to the trail networks and supports trail building across the world. There's my little plug there. My last bike had Fox suspension on it.

00:15:31:13 - 00:15:55:20
Unknown
This bike has RockShox SiD stuff on it, and I haven't ridden the latest Fox XC offering, whereas this is the latest RockShox XC offering. And this beat out the last Fox XC offering. It just looks good too. And yeah, this is the best like XC suspension I've used yet. However, a lot of debate. And again like I said, I haven't ridden the latest Fox stuff.

00:15:55:20 - 00:16:13:16
Unknown
But yeah, I love the RockShox stuff, especially how it looks. And when it comes to XC suspension, it all is not as good as like what you'd imagine Enduro bike suspension is going to feel like anyway. But yeah, this stuff works great. And yeah, no, no real complaints there. And yeah, I think that pretty much rounds out this bike.

00:16:13:18 - 00:16:37:12
Unknown
If you guys have any questions whatsoever, feel free to drop them in the comments. I'll be answering down there for at least a few days after this video goes live. And yeah, this bike we've talked a lot about on the MTB podcast and had to make a little bit of a follow up and longer term review and tell you some of the things I changed from the first one to the last one, or to this current one, and just how much I love this thing in general, because this is like a good, true, fast, high speed mountain bike.

00:16:37:13 - 00:16:50:00
Unknown
And yeah, it's kind of weird to put it in a class of XC because it doesn't feel like an XC bike when you ride it. I've just really enjoyed this thing. And yeah, probably build another one of these, but who knows what's going to come out in the next six months to a year. So we'll see. That's it.

00:16:50:00 - 00:16:55:06
Unknown
That's all. If you enjoyed this video, please share it with your mountain biker friends and hit that subscribe button and see you guys in the next one.