I’ve now had the Yelli for around 10 months, and, this being Montana, that means I have about four months of riding time on it. During my time with the Yelli, I’ve made some relatively minor tweaks to the build. The first change was to bump the fork travel up to 120mm. In my initial review, the fork was set at 100mm out of shear laziness—that’s how it came, and that’s how it stayed for a couple of months.
As I noted previously, while the front end didn’t wander too badly on climbs, it still felt relatively high. I didn’t want the front end to get any higher with the additional travel, so I swapped the 19mm rise bar for a flat bar (which is also a bit wider).
I can’t say that the increased travel on the fork has made the bike handle significantly differently, although I use all of the travel, so I suppose it’s working. I’m happy with the current iteration of the cockpit, which is a 70mm stem mated to the aforementioned wide bar. By increasing the fork travel, the head tube is also slackened to 68 degrees (according to Canfield’s geometry chart). Again, I don’t find this difference particularly noticeable, but the front end certainly doesn’t demonstrate any of the slow-speed floppiness that can become a problem with slacker head tubes. I’ll add the caveat that most of the other bikes I spend significant time on (mostly the Pivot Firebird, but also a Trek Session 88) are just as slack or slacker than the Yelli, so my frame of reference (no pun intended) may be skewed.
The one other minor (but important) change concerns my beloved water bottle cages. I like riding with water bottles because I think backpacks are hot and kind of uncomfortable. As I mentioned in my initial review, my Yelli has three bottle mounts (seat tube, down tube, underside of down tube). Much to my chagrin, I found that only two of these are usable at any given time; the seat tube and down tube mounts interfere with each other when using normal bottle cages. A friend just received a newer Yelli Screamy, which appears to be identical to mine except that it is missing the seat tube bottle mount. This strikes me as an excellent change because I also had complaints about how the bottle mounts interfered with lowering my seat post.
Sometimes initial impressions are misleading; the fact that it’s new and shiny manages to overcome what might otherwise be a mediocre product. But now that the Yelli is less new and less shiny, I can honestly say that my initial impressions were spot on: it’s a ridiculously fun bike. Every time I get it pointed down a nice flowy trail, I still giggle a little bit, which is about the best compliment I can give a bike.
After putting a few more miles on the Yelli, I can safely say that the frame is stiff. This is fantastic when you see a nice corner coming up in the trail and you think to yourself, I am going to slay the hell out of that. Conversely, when you’ve been in the saddle for a couple of hours mostly seated riding, you’re primarily thinking about how your saddle is slaying the hell out of your spinal column and/or nether regions. If your interior monologue is slightly less aggressive or has a disdain for overused descriptors, you might think to yourself that the combination of short chainstays and a stiff frame do not make for a particularly forgiving ride.
Personally, I’m fine with that. (The stiff ride, that is; I don’t really care what your interior monologue has to say). The Yelli is still more forgiving than an equivalently overbuilt 26er, and the big wheels definitely take the edge off many of the spine jarring hits. I don’t do too many epic (sorry, more overused descriptors) back-road adventures, and most of my longer rides are done on bikes with suspension.
Everyone and their mother has started copying the Yelli’s geometry, which is a testament to its greatness. If you’re looking for something to accompany you on your 80-mile fire road slog, this (unsurprisingly) isn’t the frame for you. However, if you’re tempted by the all the hoopla surrounding wagon wheels, or maybe you’re just frustrated with the sucky riding characteristics of your current 29er, the Yelli Screamy is more fun than a barrel of monkeys.
If you like this bike, try the Kona Honzo. Basically same geo with steel construction for a more forgiving ride. Also a better size range than the Yelli, and slightly shorter stays.
Leaving a comment for those doing a search when considering whether to buy a used Yelli Screamy 29. I bought a used 2013 model which was just built up as a boulevard cruiser. After riding it on singletrack and then more technical, rooty, rocky uphill and downhill trails I was hooked. Despite the shock my knees have to take (as it is a hardtail after all) I finish every ride with an ear to ear grin – it is so fun. It is my go to trail bike out of a stable that consists of a sub-20 pound Niner Air9 RDO hardtail and a 30-pound Knolly Warden. The frame is solid and inspires confidence to go down steep rocky stuff or very fast over rolling rocky and rooty singletrack and flow trails. The short chainstays make for instant acceleration with each pedal stroke. TL;DR Buy one, you won’t regret it. Like the Knolly, the bulletproof aluminum frame feels like it will last a lifetime.