The Rebirth

20th Anniversary C-26 Build

Everyone has a holy grail. 

When I started collecting and restoring, there were certain bikes that guided my passion and served as inspiration for my builds.  Unusual gems seen only in pictures, talked about in stories, but rarely seen in the flesh.  Although the object of a prolonged endeavor gives a collector direction and purpose, for about a year now, this project has been my White Whale.  An unhealthy obsession which led to countless hours of research, ebay snipes, and back alley deals. 

In September, 2007, I bought some vintage parts off Ebay, and since the seller lived in Durango, I was able to arrange a preferable local pickup and cash exchange.  While chatting in his garage and workshop, I noticed he had stockpiled a large amount of what he referred to as “old Yeti Junk.” Hacked-apart FRO framesets, rear ends, headtubes, and more collecting dust or rusting away in the yard…An NOS Yeti C-26 tubeset that hadn’t seen daylight in nearly 20 years.  In 1999, the last Yeti employee (Fritz) in charge of “cleaning out the place” came across many unlabeled boxes in the attic that were destined for the trash.  My new acquaintance, a former Yeti employee knew what they were and traded for many sets of C-26 tubes and rear ends.  Over the years, he had auctioned off many complete frame kits and tubes, and had one set remaining.  Since he assumed they were useless as he had no frame with which to mate them, he basically gave them to me.  I offered all the cash in my wallet and promised much more, but the deal was done for less.

I figured the project was a longshot at best, but I showed the tubes to Chris Herting, who laughed.   We chatted and discussed the possibility of taking on the project.  The concept wasn’t all that unfamiliar to him: he had had been approached years before about building a C-26 using a donor FRO frame and a set of tubes in Germany.  He was initially apprehensive about taking on the project, as it would require a huge time investment. Essentially the project would involve re-creating the first prototype.  The lugs for the prototype C-26 were computer-designed, but hand made from Cro-mo tubing on a lathe with specs given to him by Easton.  Chris and FTW built special jigs and tooling for each precision assembly step, and those had long since been tossed in the trash.  I knew what I was getting into, and in the end, with some persuasion, he decided to build the frame.

The project has ballooned into a monster. Chris took to it with enthusiasm, and dubbed it the C46, as he realized it was exactly 20 years since he began designing the prototype.  The initial goal was to build the bike with the carbon rear stays, which were supposed to have been in a box in a friend’s home in Southern California, but unfortunately they were misplaced years ago.  Determined to go someplace he was never allowed to at Yeti, we decided the carbon Accutrax would push the cool-factor even higher.  Originally, two carbon forks were made in late 1990, one of which exploded on the test table.  MBA took photos of one on Furtado’s 91 ARC, but it was never ridden, and it was given to Chuck Texiera.  According to Herting, Texiera no longer has it.  The fork legs are the exact diameter of the seat tube, so all that was needed was a destroyed frame for donor parts.  Luckily, what was left of the prototype was available for picking. 

	The start of the journey
	Donor frame found and delivered. It begins.
	Rear end stripped and hacked apart.
	Original decal from the prototype tubeset.  Removed and scanned for reproduction
	Lugs handmachined on a lathe
	Accutrax cut apart, ready for tube replacement
	Accutrax in fixture with carbon fork legs
	An 'updated' version of the Yeti seatube fix tool
	Headtube is welded together
	Frame in fixture
	The author, frame pickup day
	Finished product

Links

Yetifan.com
Yeti Cycles
3D Racing
 

MTBR VRC
Retrobike
MTB-News.de