Yeti Cycles never hides the fact they are a race-focused brand. Heck, even their motto is “Race Bred Since 1985”. Building on its previous platform, the new Yeti SB160 takes everything Yeti learned over the last four years and applies it to this new bike. The foremost change is that it rocks more travel with 160mm of travel out back with a 170mm fork. Refined to be even better, the SB160 receives many small yet extremely noticeable updates to build on the legacy of the most winning EWS platform.

The Yeti SB150 was the bike of choice for the Yeti/Fox Factory Team where it won 51 stages, 12 EWS races, and one National title. That doesn’t even account for plenty of other racers, both pro and amateur, choosing this platform for their race bikes. When the SB150 first came out four years ago, Yeti pushed the geometry to what was the extreme at that time: long, slack and aggressive. Those numbers have stood the test of time and there wasn’t much that needed to be done around the geometry, except for maybe a refinement here and there. The headtube angle got a touch slacker and now the SB160 has size-specific chainstays. Those are just some of the updates the SB160 gets over the previous SB150.

What's New:

The Yeti SB160 gets a handful of new treatments, so let's start with the basics. There is 160mm of rear travel with 170mm of front travel on this bike, and the headtube angle gets .5 degree slacker to 64 degrees even. There are also some other geometry tweaks but nothing major or significant. The silhouette of the frame has been adjusted a bit, the bottom of the downtube is re-shaped to have better rock clearance, and lastly the seat tube has been shortened on all sizes to get a max travel dropper in there. All of the pivots, hardware, and Switch Infinity have also been re-designed. Now the pivots have bearings instead of in the frame, the hardware uses a floating collet axle design, and the Switch Infinity has even better durability and ease of maintenance. Frame protection is all new with the downtube protection being part rubber and part plastic and the chainstay protection is now designed to have better sound-dampening characteristics. A SRAM Universal Derailleur Hanger (UDH) is found on the Yeti SB160 as well as secured cable management as you have previously seen on the Yeti ARC and Yeti SB160e, which also helps to cut down on noise. Last and maybe the hottest topic for many internet forum followers, the Yeti SB160 now has a co-molded threaded bottom bracket.

Specs:

• 160mm rear travel / 170mm front travel
• 64 degree head tube angle / 77.5 degree seat tube angle
• New Switch Infinity assembly
• Updated pivot design and floating collet axle pivots
• Threaded bottom bracket
• Increased downtube clearance
• Universal Derailleur Hanger (UDH)
• Secured cable management
• Shorter seat tube, longer travel droppers
• Sizes: S-XXL
• Reach (M = 455mm, L = 485mm, XL = 510mm)
• Size-specific chainstays (M = 439mm, L = 441mm, XL = 443mm)
• 17% average leverage ratio
• Colors: Turq, Cobalt, Radium

Geometry:

The geometry of the Yeti SB160 gets a nice update but nothing as revolutionary as what the SB150 showed us. As mentioned before, the head tube angle got .5 degree slacker and now sits at 64 degrees for the SB160. Reach gets about 5mm longer per size and there is now an XXL size with a massive 525mm reach. Seat tube length gets about 10mm shorter per size than previously found on the SB150. For us, one of the biggest geometry updates is size-specific chainstays, which is something I think has been needed on bikes for a while. Since bikes have gotten longer over the past five years, chainstays have not grown as fast and also have not grown across sizes. So a small gets the same chainstay as an XL, but thankfully not anymore. A medium SB160 gets a 439mm chainstay, a large at 441mm, and the other sizes get 2mm longer or shorter as sizing goes up or down.

On Trail Performance:

While we didn’t get a ton of time trying out the new SB160, we did get a little bit and we also got the chance to talk to lots of the test riders. While it does ride very similarly to the SB150, one thing I noticed was how much stiffer the SB160 is. We know stiffer is an industry buzzword and not always what you want, but there are often times it's a great thing and sometimes it's not. In this case, it's a great thing and you can really feel how this bike can track better through the rough stuff and stay on line that much more. This is largely thanks to the redesigned pivot hardware and Switch Infinity. Being secured with better hardware means less flex, and also when pivots flex less they are able to cycle through the travel much more smoothly. That also leads to one of the other major improvements on this SB160. How it takes square edge hits is smoother for the same reason. There is less binding when the bike is going through its travel and that translates to a smoother ride. The geometry changes felt amazing and the size-specific chainstays will help each size ride balanced and have perfectly tuned stability you have come to know from the Colorado brand.

What's Worldwide's Takeaway?:

Whenever Yeti releases a new bike, you know they will be aiming for the best riding bike possible. Having very large shoes to fill with the SB150, the new Yeti SB160 improves with all the small changes the riders have asked for. From size-specific chainstays to the threaded bottom bracket, to stiffer pivots that are also easier from a maintenance side of things, to SRAM UDH, better frame protection and secured cable management, Yeti took care of it all. The SB160 is ready for EWS races, your local races, all-day laps with the crew, or just heading out for a pedal to clear the mind. We are stoked with the changes and look forward to getting more in the shop to ride and stoke out customers.

If you're one strange human and would like to read the transcript of the video above, continue reading below!

Ladies and gentlemen today Yeti releases the SB160 the all-new bike that is the choice for their Factory racers

Yeti unveils their latest and greatest long travel 29er I personally am extremely excited for this bike because I actually had two of the bikes that it replaced (the SB150) over the years and I absolutely loved that bike, so it is super awesome and exciting to see the little ways that Yeti has gone back and made improvements on this bike that was already amazing. We were actually lucky enough to go out to Yeti HQ in Golden Colorado prior to this bike's release and really just feast our eyes on the absolute beauty that this thing really is and see so many cool little details that Yeti really thought of over the course of the SB150’s life and just little ways that they knew they could make that bike better. So without further delay let's jump into the details on the new SB160.

First off we've got 160 millimeters of rear travel with 170 up front in addition to a 64 degree head tube angle and a 77 and a half degree seat tube angle so so you are nice and upright for those climbs but the front end is nice and slack for those rowdy descents.

There is an updated switch infiniti on the Turq series frames which offers improved serviceability and increased durability. There's an updated pivot design that you'll notice is different than the SB150 which utilizes floating collet axles so instead of having the bearings pressed in to the rear triangle and other carbon parts of the frame they're all pressed into the linkage which is really nice for servicing your bike. One thing that I am particularly excited to tell you all about is the threaded bottom bracket - yes there is a threaded bottom bracket on a Yeti. Pinkbike commenters can rejoice. Not only that but there's increased down tube clearance which you'll notice where that down tube is designed slightly differently than the sb150. Rounding out the new details on the sb160 is a universal derailleur hanger aka the udh which is obviously a huge improvement allowing you to get a new derailleur hanger from any bike shop in the country instead of having to order a special Yeti derailleur hanger from wherever. You'll also notice that Yeti has added secure cable management which you've probably already seen on The ARC and the 160E. This allows you to route cables not only tube in tube so they go in one end of the frame and out the other but it keeps your bike nice and quiet when you're on those rowdy descents. Yeti has also incorporated a shorter seat tube on this bike so you can maximize the length of your dropper post. The bike comes in sizes small to extra extra large and the reach on the medium frame is 455 with 485 reach on the large and a 510 millimeter reach on the XL. Another cool feature that Yeti has come out with on this bike is size specific chainstays so no matter the size of the rider you will get a bike that rides exactly how you want it to. Chain stays on the medium at 439 millimeters 441 millimeters on the large and 443 on the XL bike. They've also got three colors to choose from the classic Yeti turquoise, Cobalt, and radium. As with most bikes when they're released the spec has changed a little bit from the model that was going out so if you'd like to take a look at the spec sheet go ahead and pause your screen now.

We are supposed to have some sb160s in stock at the time this video comes out but if you have any questions about this bike please feel free to shoot us a comment below and we will do our best to get back to you as soon as we can. If you enjoyed this video please consider giving it a thumbs up and subscribing to our channel and thank you so much for watching. We really appreciate it.