2015 YT Tues CF Comp Bike

(discontinued)

The frame is great. The feel of the bike on the trail is confidence inspiring. It manages to feel both aggressive and relaxed at the same time. The rear suspension is really progressive which means that it starts out supple, but gets stiffer as it moves through the travel, which helps prevent bottoming. There are lots of reviews out there about how great the YT Tues CF feels, so I wont go into more detail there. The bottom line is that I love the bike, but here's what I didn't like:

Day one on the bike, and i started feeling a "clunk" in the rear suspension. I was able to quickly isolate it as a lower rear suspension pivot bolt that had backed out. I had to remove the front chain ring to get to that bolt, and i was kinda bummed that on my first day, I was already having to worry about the bike build quality. When I finally did get back out on the trail, I had a heck of a time setting up the rear shock. The Rockshox Vivid R2C has beginning and end stroke rebound adjustment...as if it isn't confusing enough to dial in suspension already, Rockshox' unique approach to rebound was difficult for me to grasp. I didn't really know where "beginning stroke" ended and "end stroke" began. In addition, the beginning stroke knob was really hard to get to. I just wanted to ride the bike, but instead I was trying to adjust the rebound so the back end would stop bucking on me. I switched to the CCDB Coil after the first season, and I was able to get the shock perfectly dialed in just an hour or two. Of course, i've recently discovered the CCDB coil doesn't scale well to 10.5" x 3.5" and goes through shaft seals every few months, but that's a story for another time.

The SRAM Guide RS brakes lasted about 4 weekends before I started having issues with wandering bite point and spongy feedback. After bleeding, the brakes were like new again...for about half the day, then the issues returned. I took the bikes to a local bike shop to bleed, and the issue still returned on my next outing. I've finally given up, Saint brakes are on my workbench waiting to be installed.

The SRAM X9 rear derailleur was worse than the brakes. Id have to adjust several times throughout the day to keep it shifting reasonably. My trail bike, that I retrofitted with XT M8000 gear, had been adjusted once after the install, and never again after more than a year of riding. Same with the XT brakes. There's a Saint shifter and derailleur on my workbench next to the new brakes now.

Moving on to the Boxxer, it was "ok" when brand new but got sticky after just a few rides. I guess this is common for Rockshox- no grease, no oil. Still, it was one more thing I had to do on my new bike after just a few rides. I will say, since the thorough rebuild I did, the fork has been wonderful.

So really, I think the bike was fine - having to snug down a pivot bolt isn't a deal breaker. But the SRAM components just sucked the joy out of riding the bike. I've spent two seasons struggling to make them work, and I'm over it. All the money I saved on this bike, I am now spending to replace the SRAM stuff. This season, I look forward to enjoying some Good Times, without having to be a professional trail-side mechanic.