Yeti 575 Mountain Bike Review

Value
Overall Rating

Yeti 575 Review

Yeti 575 Mountain Bike Review

The Yeti 575 is one of those bikes that simply does everything well.

If you are like us and prefer to see the end before the movie is over then let me just get this out of the way...the Yeti 575 Mountain bike is a great choice featuring a reasonably light frame combined with a smooth and controllable 6 inches of travel. In other words the Yeti 575 Mountain Bike is a superb choice for an all around trail bike.

In my opinion, the Yeti 575 mountain bike closely resembles the ultimate trail style mountain bike for my style and preferred riding type. The frame/suspension combo rewards a smooth style that but also incites confidence that it can handle the load if you were to get a little crazy and go a bit more hardcore on the downhill than normal. It isn't an all-mountain rig, but it does a decent imitation when it needs to, and then when the terrain turns upward, let's see those big, heavy bikes keep pace with the Yeti 575. It won't happen.

Yeti 575 Ride & handling

If you throw your leg over the top rail of the Yeti 575 and take it for a quick spin, you will instantly experience how smooth and plush the Yeti 575's ride really is. Of course this can be dramatically impacted by the way you set up the shock and the suspension but the Yeti 575, when properly setup is a smooth riding mountain bike. If you set the suspension up softly then roots and rocks are barely noticeable but don't let me deceive you, even if you compromise and set it up somewhere between soft and firm, the ride is still almost butter smooth. Overall the Yeti 575 Mountain bike provides a very nice ride.

Some of the shorter travel bikes on the market will require a little more finesse on the really rough terrain but the Yeti 575 will let you ride a bit more aggressive when the going gets tough. This may not seem that important but when your buddies are walking away from you on a downhill, yelling out what a sissy you are, then you will see the value of the suspension setup.

Where it gets even more fun is when the terrain levels out or even starts to head upwards.....is where the Yeti 575 will really shine. The 5.75 inch suspension allows you hang with the 6"+ bikes on the way down, but on the way UP, the sub 28lb frame will allow you to pedal right away from them. This will allow you to share in the namecalling fun and remind your compadres about their "sissyness" as well.

The Fox shock allows a stable and efficient ride under steady and consistent pedal power but if you have to get out of the saddle or really hit the mash button then you will be happy to know that you can lockout the shock to allow you transmit all that power to the drivetrain with very little loss of pedaling efficiency.

I am much more of a trail rider than I am a downhill banzai boy so for me, the Yeti 575 is a superb choice. Don't mistake what I am saying, it will handle the downhills great and quite frankly, probably is more bike than many riders need anyways in regards to the downhills. Combine this with the superb trail ride and uphill advantage and the Yeti 575 Mountain Bike just might be the ultimate trail machine.

Yeti 575 Frame

The frame is the heart of a mountain bike and the Yeti 575 frame incorporates just about all of the latest improvements and upgrades in frame design. It sports a hydroformed top tube that is octagonal in cross section, sports a beefy head tube and is rock solid. It's reinforced where it needs to be and inspires confidence just looking at it.

The Yeti 575 Mountain bike sports a carbon composite rear triangle and the top tube has a radically downward slope to improve the standover height. Each frame component is designed for maximum strength, lateral rigidity and accomplishes this while keeping the weight down. Very admirable.

A Yeti 575 medium sized frame weighs in at approximately 6lb, including the Fox Float RP23 shock. This shock performs admirably and shock bob isn’t much of an issue but you will be happy to know that the shock has three "ProPedal" damping settings and a lockout option if you choose. Choices....I love it.

The Yeti 575 is an attractive bike as is but you have choices in the appearance department with the Yeti sporting anodized pewter, anodized black, orange or team turquoise.

Yeti 575 Equipment

You can get a Yeti 575 in several different configurations of equipment but the one that we tested was the "race" build. The drivetrain sports a Shimano Deore XT crankset, Deore XT shifters and front mech with an XTR upgrade at the back. The Deore XT brakes perform admirably and are a great choice.

The build we sported was shod with a super pair of DT Swiss E54 wheels and these things are great. Very sturdy and robust but lightweight and high quality at the same time. The DT Swiss wheels were capped off with a superb set of Maxxis High Roller tires that did an admirable job of holding the line and keeping you on track even in the gnarliest of singletrack trails.

Yeti 575 Summary

I had never ridden a Yeti mountain bike before but I always marveled at the brand loyalty that the owners exhibited. Yeti is one of those bikes with a small but very devout and loyal following and we get it now. I didn't expect the bike to be anything extremely special but by the time we were done flogging it, we're almost converted. The Yeti 575 performed remarkably and we found very few things that we could poke holes at.

The Yeti 575 frame is lighter than most comparable suspension travel bikes in this category and it's rock solid. Don't misunderstand, this isn't an all mountain bike and you wouldn't want to start hitting the big drops on a regular basis on this bike but it will definitely hang with or near the all mountain bikes on all but he gnarliest downhill. When the trail changes, the lightweight and superb suspension will really shine.

A great build consisting of very practical XT level componentry and beefy tires make it a great choice for hard, fast trail riding that most of us enjoy on any given day. If you are looking for a great all around bike that is a bit different than what everyone else is sporting, then the Yeti 575 mountain bike is a superb choice that should keep you happy for some time to come.