Yeti 575 Review - BikeRadar

It’s light, it has almost six inches of travel and it’s controlled, smooth and accurate. The Yeti 575 might just be the ultimate trail bike.

There are heavy 5in travel bikes on the market, and there are light 6in travel bikes. And there’s the Yeti 575. The name refers to its 5.75in of suspension travel. On the face of it, the Yeti offers the best of both worlds.

The 575 comes close to being ideal for my preferred type of riding. It rewards smooth style, but allows you to throw caution to the wind when you’re trying to stick with guys on more hardcore all-mountain rigs on the downs. Then you just pull away from those riders struggling with their 34-pounders on the ups. That’s my sort of bike.

Ride & handling: smooth, plush medium-hit eater

You’ll instantly notice how buttery-plush the 575’s ride feel is. Obviously this depends on how you fettle the shock, but the attributes of the frame would be wasted if you set it up harsh. Set up soft, the back end makes small rocks and roots irrelevant, and medium-sized hits barely hinder your progress.

If you’re comparing the 575 with Yeti’s shorter-travel AS-R, it’s on those medium-sized hits where you can really let loose on a 575. The AS-R demands more finesse, but the 575 allows you to get messy from time to time. It forgives occasional bad line choice and permits the sort of carefree antics you expect from a 6in travel bike, but don’t always expect from a sub-28lb bike.

While everything remains plush over most terrain, a ramp-up towards the end of the compression means it takes a really big hit to reach maximum travel. You always feel as though the bike is holding a little reserve for blunders and risks. That’s a good feeling.

The ride is stable and efficient under steady pedal power, but if you’re an out-of-the-saddle uphill power masher you’ll need to use Fox’s ProPedal settings and lockout lever on the rear shock. Elsewhere, you’ll just want to make full use of the deep-pile-carpet ride.

It’s a joy on fast and challenging singletrack, and we couldn’t find a descent that fazed the back end, even when we were getting almost full travel on the fork.

Frame: Tuned for fun & feel

The detail of the 575 shows off almost every single recent advancement in frame design and building. The swoopy hydroformed top tube is octagonal in cross-section, beefed-up behind the reinforced head tube and generally shaped to boost stiffness along its complete length, but in particular where the shock and the dogbone link tube are attached.

The new rear triangle is carbon composite.

The top tube’s radically downward swoop – to improve standover height – the generous mud room and quality pivot bearings throughout stress Yeti’s thoroughly practical approach.

Every single frame segment is sculpted to achieve the ideal mix of high strength, lateral rigidity and low weight.

The dog bone bridging the seat stays and lower shock mount across to the top tube is a crucial part of the design. It guides and braces the carbon swingarm, controls the shock’s compression curve and lessens side loads on the shock. 

This all combines nicely with the slight vertical flex built into the swingarm by the drop-outs in helping to dictate a super-plush ride.

The frame’s main pivot sits just above the bottom bracket, between the inner and middle chainrings.

Neat aluminium sections holding the bearings are bonded into the asymmetric carbon swingarm.

A tough wrap-around sheath with an extra deflector plate by the chainrings stops chain slap from damaging the right chain stay.

There’s a single set of bottle bosses, and a through-guide option of running full outer cable to the rear gear.

The medium sized frame weighs about 6lb, including the Fox Float RP23 shock. While unwanted shock bob isn’t really an issue here, there are three ProPedal damping settings and a lockout option.

As well as the anodised pewter of our test bike, it comes in anodised black, team turquoise or orange.

Equipment: light kit for go-faster fun

Yeti’s importer Bromley Bike can offer any build you like on the 575. Our test bike was based on their ‘Race’ build, but with a few tweaks. A Fox Float RLC 140mm travel fork is an option that suits the bike’s rear suspension well, with its sorted compression and rebound damping, plus adjustable lockout.

The drivetrain twins a Shimano Deore XT crankset, shifters and front mech with an XTR upgrade at the back. Deore XT brakes are a fine choice, too.

The DT Swiss E54 wheels are robust yet light, and are nicely built.

A big, grippy Maxxis High Roller tyre keeps steering precisely on track in all conditions up front, while a Larsen TT ensures minimum rolling drag out back.

Verdict: perfect hard & fast trail bike

We can understand why Yeti bikes command passionate loyalty from those who own them. Every model in the range has an aura of pure performance, not to mention the classy and thoroughly practical design and build quality.

The 575 frame is lighter than most that offer this much travel, and it’s by no means the sort of bike you’d go throwing off big drops. But, built with sensible XT level componentry and beefy tyres, it’s a great choice for the sort of hard and fast trail riding that most of us can manage within the limits of our nerve.

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