A retro rebuild that uses the same frame raced by the US star when he narrowly beat the UK’s Jason McRoy in the 1993 Reebok Eliminator final
Words & pics Steve Behr
Myles Rockwell’s Yeti ARC-AS LT is a bike steeped in downhill racing history. Not only because of the American’s victory on it in the 1993 Reebok Eliminator – a legendary two-up DH race down California’s Mammoth Mountain – but also for whom he beat. Losing out in the final by just three-tenths of a second, Jason McRoy showed that British riders were now a force to be reckoned with on the world stage, in the process earning a factory deal with Specialized and paving the way for a whole generation of UK downhill racers.
This bike was painstakingly rebuilt over four years by Andrew Palmer from www.yetifan.com, after he was given the frame and some parts by Yeti Cycles founder John Parker in the early 2000s. It’s now owned by Darren Mabbott, managing director of Yeti’s UK distributors Silverfish and a big fan of the Colorado-based brand.
Inching ahead
The frame is Myles’s original ARC-AS (Alloy Racing Composite-Active Suspension) chassis, with the LT in the name denoting that it’s the ‘long-travel’ version, with a heady 80mm or so of rear bounce! It sports all the scratches, dings and scars you’d expect on a bike raced in pretty extreme conditions at speeds approaching 60mph. While the geometry is steep compared to most modern MTBs, let alone downhill bikes, this frame was at least constructed with longer-than-normal chainstays, to give more stability on the descents.
Another unique feature is the seatstay bridge (1). This was only ever specced on team bikes, not production models, to add stiffness. When this bike was rebuilt, the bridge was missing. This one was sourced from the late, legendary Chris ‘Monkdog’ Vasquez, the team mechanic, who provided it from his personal stash. That emphasises the level of detail that went into this immaculate rebuild. Of course, the frame is finished in the classic Yeti turquoise-and-yellow colour scheme, with a lot of the components anodised to match.
One ring to rule them all
The parts are mostly the same ones the US star raced on, the main exception being the massive 64t Paragon Machineworks chainring fitted here (2).
Myles usually raced on a slightly more ‘normal’ (but still pretty enormous) 56t ring, with only his teammate Jimmy Deaton running such a monster. Grafton Speed Sticks crank arms and two
regular-sized chainrings complete the triple crankset, which is paired with a smooth-shifting Shimano XTR M900 front mech, rear mech and eight-spe
