Yeti Cycles ASR Beti SLX Complete Mountain Bike 2016

In this brave new world of enduro excess, it's easy to shrug off four inch travel bikes as limited XC machines for hardpack and locked forks only, but Yeti Cycles' ASR Beti SLX Complete Mountain Bike exposes that as a specious assumption. At best. Sure it's a got relatively low travel compared to bikes like the SB6, but the fact that it's a Yeti means the ASR Beti is never ready to call it a day until it's been to the ragged edge and back. The biggest difference between it and the SB4. 5 is that it's got a few millimeters less travel, a steeper head tube, and a single pivot suspension rather than the heftier Switch Infinity. This suits it for smaller riders who benefit from a lighter shock tune. It also suits it for the rider who wants to get to the top first and then skillfully dissect terrain that enduro sled bruisers would just roll through. If Yeti's Super Bike line comprises enduro hatchets, then the ASR is the surgeon's scalpel. That's not to say that the ASR Beti gets timid when grueling climbs let onto jarring descents littered with boulders, loose shale, and twisty roots. This is where other cross country bikes would be begging for mercy, yet the ASR Beti shines across abusive terrain and white knuckle descents. Big or bigger wheels sizes small and below ship with 27. 5in wheels sizes medium and larger ship as 29ers steamroll anything lying in the bike's path, allowing you to ride over trail impediments with effortless composure. And because it's distinctly Yeti at heart, the frame proudly retains a gravity friendly persona with a head tube ranging from 68 to 69 degrees, again depending on size. This more relaxed geometry won't chuck you over the bars like other cross country bikes when the going gets steep, allowing you to confidently descend on only four inches of suspension where other riders are packing longer travel bikes. As noted above, the ASR Beti eschews Yeti's applauded Switch Infinity for a significantly lighter single pivot suspension....