Head To Head 102

102| Head To Head
Matt pitches two similar, but surprisingly different
mid-travel bikes together from Yeti and Santa Cruz.
Yeti 575
Price: Frame only £1350.00 painted,
£1400.00 anodised
From: Evolution Imports 020 8290 0807
www.yeticycles.com
Santa Cruz Blur LT
Price: Frame only – £1479.99 painted,
£1629.00 anodised.
Complete bikes from £2649.00
(in a limited run of 30)
From: Jungle Products 01423 780 088
www.santacruzbikes.co.uk
I
f you’re in the market for an all-round trail bike this year, then the Blur LT
and Yeti 575 are almost certainly on your list as a potential toy. Both of them
have very similar rear travel (140mm and 146mm respectively), you can
run them both with up to 160mm travel forks and they even look vaguely
similar to one another in silhouette. So are the Blur and Yeti two like-abikes or are they genuinely different machines?
Blur LT
This is the latest generation of the Blur LT and it looks radically different from the
older design: the whole look is more organic with a heavily dropped top tube and
generally a more ‘swoopy’ shape where previously there was a straight line. Angle
changes are few with a half a degree dropped off the head angle and the BB rising
very slightly. The basic layout however is the same as its previous incarnation. The
curved and dropped top tube however, isn’t just aesthetic as it provides over two
more inches of standover. The medium we tested came with a 22.5in top tube
(mentioned now, as a ‘medium’ from Santa Cruz is very different to one from Yeti.)
What has changed a lot is the VPP layout, in essence they’ve de-VPP-ed it a
little so that its axle path is a less-pronounced ‘S’ shape.
It’s more vertical so should have less of a pronounced drop-off from firm to
‘flying through its travel’ feel. It still has the two very small neat linkages attaching
the swingarm to the main frame, with the lower link attached just behind and
below the BB and the upper link (now carbon) also attached at the
seatube. It still maintains its asymmetric swingarm from previous years
Hydrophobes should rejoice, the new lower link on the Santa Cruz
now comes with a grease port on the lower link and the link itself
can be removed without removing the crankset. The upper link is
removable with a multi tool and bearing seals and quality have been
improved as well (those endless UK Forum complaints must work
after all.)
The bike came equipped with a full SRAM drivetrain, Pike forks,
Easton bars and Avid Ultimate brakes. It was also equipped with a
Crank Brothers’ Joplin Seatpost with a bar mounted controller.
The Ride
With 30% sag on the Blur with a Fox Float R rear shock, the bike felt
very taut and the back end felt close and compact. On climbs there
was no bob and so much less pedal feedback than the older model.
It is a fantastic technical climber: grippy, forgiving but not wallowy.
Power to the back end was quick and intuitive - one of those bikes
that will climb way beyond your lung capacity. The extra standover
was appreciated even here, hanging over the bars on the ups, though
it would be appreciated even more if the top tube was a little longer.
On singletrack and descents it was classic Santa Cruz: it felt like a
mini DH bike - the suspension seemed more ‘available’ (even their
single pivot race bike, the Superlight seems to manage this trick.) The
LT was very accurate and demanded to be worked. What it wasn’t
was a super plush sofa - and all the better for it. It was involving, you
could work it through stuff and had some say whether you wanted
the line you were in rather than being (literally) stuck in the rut.
‘Nimble’ is the word that comes most readily to mind.
Yeti 575
Bearing in mind that both of the models were medium-sized, the Yeti
looks positively massive by comparison. That will be down to one
man’s ‘medium’ being another mans ‘. The Yeti is nearly 1.3in longer
than the Blur LT, so while the Blur felt shortish, the Yeti was at the
gangly end of things for a medium, The Yeti 575 in a ‘small’ is actually
longer than the Blur’s ‘medium’ so make sure you cock your leg over
either of these bikes before buying.
Other than the top tube length, the angles are very similar but the
wheelbase is longer by over an inch for a medium, all of this makes
for a lot longer legged feeling bike than the Blur.
The Yeti’s front end is remarkably similar looking to the Blur: less
swoopy perhaps but there’s a definite similarity. Perhaps that style of
front end works well for many suspension designs to hang off while
giving a good balance of standover to frame stiffness.
The rear end is made up of a carbon fibre swingarm, The chainstay
is attached to the frame via a pivot on the seatube just above the BB
shell. The upper part of the swingarm is attached to the frame by a
swing-link that actuates the shock that’s attached to the main frame,
the swing-link being used to adjust spring rate as it moves through its
travel
Finish kit on the 575 was a Fox Float RP23, full Shimano XT, Fox
Float forks and Thomson cockpit.
The Ride
Initially I was a little confused with set up of the rear shock, starting
with 25% sag and no Pro Pedal, it absolutely flew through its travel.
The ride was grippy but very bobby, not that you noticed through
your pedals though. There was no chain growth or pedal feedback
that I could feel at all but it did make climbing a chore.
After looking online and setting the air pressure rather than using
the sag as a guide it felt much better, and even better with Pro Pedal
on which I ended up leaving on permanently, giving a much more
controlled feeling shock still with no sharp edges and bags of travel.
Considering that the Blur and the Yeti have such similar travel they
give it out in a very different way.
On anything downhill, the Yeti was as quick as the Blur but in
an entirely different way: it just crushed (or flattened) everything
in front of it. Sitting a long way into its travel, it was very flattering
and massively skill compensating. On slow and technical sections it
felt taller than the Blur though the angles and measurements would
suggest otherwise, it may be that the more compact nature of the Blur
helped it out here a little.
Riding a biggish XC loop was where it felt most at home. Just sit
and pedal and let the suspension gobble everything up. It also did a
great job of ‘seat and arse in the air’ XC descending, though it never
felt as manoeuvrable as the Blur.
Conclusion
Firstly these are two great, similar looking, but different bikes. One
of the aspects that was liked is they’re both ‘just’ mountain bikes: they
may be different to ride from each other but they function just fine
on most UK terrain.You could put massive tyres on them and bigger
forks and they’d be fine for a week in the Alps, you could hack round
your local woods on them, or take part in an XC race (though if
you want to win you’ll be looking for a different bike). Marathons,
little drop off here and there, big days out… you name it and they’ll
be fine. There’s a direct bloodline to those rigid steel bikes we were
riding in the late 80s, early 90s, just 20 years on.
What does what…
As was said before, they are very different so, depending on the type
of riding you do, one may suit you more. The Yeti is a real mile
muncher: it’s a ‘sit down and pedal’ cruiser. If you favour Merida
marathons and 24 hour races and the like, and you like to be able to
feel your suspension working, you’ll love It. Make sure that shock setup is right and make sure you get the right size and I’m sure at the
end of that 100km you won’t ache half as much.
The Blur LT is a technical tool. Full sussers shouldn’t feel so
nimble, it belied its level of travel and rode down some very nasty
stuff. It was also a fabulous compromise between a firm platform to
pedal off on climbs and supple enough suspension to stop the back
spitting. Again, check the sizes as you may be going up one (this
shouldn’t be such a problem, though it’s a shame the top tube isn’t
longer, I’m sure it would lose nothing technically and put it another
league for bigger rides.)
The best thing is that either of these two bikes will still completely
happily do what the other does best, just with not such focussed
clarity.
Hooray for mountain bikes!
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104| Head To Head