Completed, Canfield Yelli Screamy

weeksy59

Raceface Turbine 700mm bars with ODI bar ends.
Ritchey foam grips
Deore rear shifter
Formula K24 brakes
Ragley 50mm stem (not fitted yet)
E-13 SRS Plus Chainguide
Deore crank running a 32T
SLX sprocket
Formula 180 rotors front/rear
WTB Laserdisc 29er wheels
Marzocchi Ti 44 140mm forks
Schwalbe Hans Dampf 2.35 rubber front/rear
29lb 0.

ilovedirt

that's rather cool!

weeksy59

Just been out for an hour on it. First real test-ride.

Ride was purely XC, but that's the majority of my riding anyway.

Doing some back to back measuring with the Giant XTC29 i've found that they're now very very close in actual measurments for the ETT, BB>seat etc. The Yelli however FEELS a lot bigger. Not really sure why. the 50mm stem on the Yelli has brought it down almost to the size of the Medium Giant with a 90mm stem.

The one MAJOR plus though is the BB height of the Yelli compared to the Giant. I've got one particular tight XC trail by my house which was great on the Bionicon but it's rubbish on the Giant due to pedal strikes. Rode it today and no pedal strikes at all, so that's REALLY pleasing to me.

Again, with the measuring, the seatpost is laid back a good 3-4deg compared to the Giant and the Forks are much slacker, this gives the Yelli about 3-4" extra overall wheelbase. Which boy can you notice at times on the tight twisty stuff, the Giant is more flickable at the moment and i got caught out on a couple of corners running a little wide on the Yelli.

The next part where the Yelli excells is in speed. I seemed to be 1 gear higher most sections today, even though both bikes are running the same gearing ratios, both 32T front. Same cassette fitted to both. The flat/downhill speed of the Yelli is fantastic, the thing cracks on and when you hit the downhills, you have to hang on because it picks up speed brilliantly.

The Yelli powers up hills standing really nicely, even seems to climb better sitting down. The perception of less fatigue was something i noticed a few times.

Overall, i think i'm going to end up with a bit of a dilema, despite them both being markedly different, they're also distinctly simillar. There's not THAT much difference between the 2 bikes for me to say "well, i'd use this one for XYZ and that one for ABC" So i see the longer term picture that only one of the bikes will remain in the stable long term.

It needs more testing before i begin to make that sort of decision though.

cat_with_no_tail

I really like that. If this is the one you decide to dispose of, I want dibs!

weeksy59

Cat With No Tail wrote:

I really like that. If this is the one you decide to dispose of, I want dibs!

Difficult one fella... it would also be pretty expensive for a HT 29er i think second hand.

I couldn't really let it go for <£1000 as that's what it's cost me all in to build as the frames are silly money, so are the forks... but then again i don't really feel happy knocking the Giant out for £800 as that cost me £1300 last year LOL.

However, all of this will take several weeks for me to decide as i'm away at some motorbike trackdays this weekend etc.

weeksy59

Well the bike now has a new HOPE headset, which is excellent. All at a great price at my new LBS, supplied, fitted, setup... top job.

Swapped out the blue temporary cable ties for some back ones... checked it all and ready to ride as soon as the monsoon we're in the middle of has passed.

BB height on the Yelli is 1.9cm higher than on the Giant... which is i guess where the lack of pedal strikes is coming from, you wouldn't think less than 2cm would make much of a difference, but it seems to.