2019 Yeti SB130 Review (One Bike to Rule Them All) [Video]

Yeti SB130 Review

Ever been played? Yeti did us dirty and hid the most exciting bike until today! The Yeti SB130. Think of the heart-eyed emoji because that is exactly what we look like when talking about this incredible bike. Taking the place of the beloved SB4.5 (RIP), this mid-travel 29er is the true do it all bike for Yeti. Pedal your butt off for a 6-hour ride, go bike-packing, or even send it for a KOM on the local DH trails, this thing can and will conquer it all.

Yeti kept the same design philosophy in mind when building the SB130 as they did for their other new bikes, which is why it looks so similar to the SB100 and the SB150. The idea comes from every rider in the cycling community and what each one of them wanted. Obviously, opinions collide and not every person gets what they want, but this is the closest thing to making everyone happy.

You might be asking yourself, “What was wrong with the SB4.5?” Well, the short answer is nothing. It was an incredible bike and probably the most popular out of their entire lineup, however, the times are a changin’. People just wanted a little bit more and the SB4.5 wasn’t designed for that. Thus, the Yeti SB130 was born.

Changes from the SB4.5 and Geometry

The SB130 now features 130mm of rear travel as opposed to the 114mm previously seen on the SB4.5. With the bump in travel on the rear end of the bike comes an increase in fork travel as well. The front end is now specced with a 150mm fork instead of the 140mm. Another notable change in suspension is the upgrade to a Fox Shox 36 fork. Quite a heavy-duty fork for a trail bike and that is why you only saw a Fox Shox 34 fork on the SB4.5. There is good reason behind the upgrade. More travel means that you have a bike more capable of riding gnarlier terrain. The Fox 34 is just not designed for that type of abuse. It can handle it but not as well as the Fox 36 fork will.

Much like the SB150, you will see that the SB130 has a shorter seattube length to accommodate longer dropper seatposts. The seatube was also made steeper to increase pedaling efficiency as it puts the rider in a much better pedaling position. The reach was increased by an average of 36mm across all sizes of the frame. To give you an idea of how much the frame has changed, the rear end (chainstays) are 4mm shorter and the front triangle is actually longer. The wheelbase is averaging 49mm longer per frame size!

One of the factors that helps achieve a longer wheelbase is the slackened headtube angle. How slack is it? Well, in comparison, it's a whole 1.9 degrees slacker than the SB4.5. If you are not a bike nerd like us, then just trust us when we say that is a big difference! The SB4.5 had a headtube angle of 67.4 degrees and the SB130 now features a 65.5 degree headtube angle.

A slacker headtube means that your front end is going to feel really far in front of you and it might steer weird. That is why the fork offset has been reduced to 44mm as opposed to the traditional 51mm you would normally see on a 29er.

Other Notable Changes

One big feature is the ability for the rider to hold a bottle inside the front triangle of the frame. You will see this same feature on the SB100 and SB150. This is allowed by the kink in the downtube that you will see towards the bottom bracket. This is a godsend for anyone who thinks hydration packs are lame.

Yeti SB130 Geometry & Build Kits

Final Thoughts

So you might be asking yourself if this is the right bike for you and, to be honest, we don’t know. BUT we do suggest watching the video at the top of the page to hear Jeff’s thoughts on the bike and coming in to the shop to demo the bike. Nothing will help you understand a bike more than riding it before you actually buy the damn thing. There are many incredible bikes out on the market and this could very well be the one to rule them all!