Lance Has It All Wrong

When Mr. "sell-a-million-Treks" wrote his popular book- "It's Not About The Bike" Lance had a different story to tell. I believe it's a whole lot about the bike.
Not being a natural athlete, I've tried to grab every advantage I can in MTB competition through better equipment and maintenance. Five years running without a single DNF.
After moving to Colorado in 1997 from the Phoenix area, I decided to try MTB racing to regain some of my earlier thrills of motorcycle motocross and flat track racing only without the 2 stroke smoke and weekly medical bills.
OK ,the first one was a Lance-sell Trek hardtail for $499. Ridiculous. My first Hodaka 90cc was only $425. After a year of LXism, I was off on a search for the best MTB I could find. After all honey, I don't have a Harley, snowmobile, waverunner or 4-wheeler. A trip to Steamboat Springs to visit titanium land (working in metallurgy I was curious). Bike was OK but-that little flexy thing is the rear shock?
Next stop-Yeti factory in Golden. Friendly bunch of guys. Josh Somebody (no longer there) gave me a tour. Bikes and bike parts had just come back from Interbike in Vegas and the shop was a little "busy". After interrogating the welder about filler materials, root passes and post welding stress relief, I believed these guys knew what they were doing.
The result was an allegiance to a local source of top level hardware. And somehow, the collection began.





Yeti #1 was a 2002 ASR and 2001 Interbike booth show-off. Basement built from a collection of .com resources and Excel Sports & Wheatridge Cyclery components.






Yeti #2 was an identical 2002 Road Project built by former Yeti sales dude Scott Dammon. A road bike was "prescribed" by my cycling coach John Barclay as a way to increase MTB endurance and later proved to be a post surgery rehab tool for a torn meniscus. Turned my attention away from MTB racing in 2005 doing Ride the Rockies, Elephant Rock Century, Ride for the Cure and several other road riding funbies. She's got about 4K on those Mavics. She was later converted to a 30 speed Ultegra. The triple in honor of my old knees and the Left Hand canyon climb to Ward..

Yeti #3 -DAMN ASR IS TOO HEAVY -27 lbs with Psylo!! I need to build a hardtail for Battle the Bear and Winter Park Hill climb. So I did. E-bay purchased frame and Veloswap components produced a 17 lb. lightweight. Yetifan Bike-of-the-Month has not a single Shimano component.


Yeti #4 2007 ASR with Pro Build and carbon triangle. That's what I'm talking about--hardtail weight with double boinkers. COMotion Sports official ride for 2007 is pure XTR and handles like a go cart. Fox stuff is bullet proof and has more adjustment knobs than I can figure out.

Yeti#5 ..Bubba finally succeeded in getting the company to produce a limited edition cyclo-cross bike. Just finished in October 2008, pure Dura Ace and Ritchey WCS level components for a great training and racing ride.

Might as well take this Yeti thing to the grave with me!!