“It all happened in typical Yeti style where we’d walk through a pile of shit and come out smelling like a rose!” - Chris Herting, Yeti Cycles designer, on the R&D effort for building the Yeti C-26.
As the history books recount, Yeti Cycles was born and bred to make steel mountain bikes. Although it was an early-80s cruiser bike that acted as the brand’s original seed, it was only after John Parker purchased the company in 1985 that the brand’s raison d’etre would evolve from making bikes designed to pedal along sunny SoCal bike paths to racing in the rugged mountains of Colorado and winning a world championship title five years later.
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From the Beginning
Yeti was a small SoCal bike brand home to a motley collection of bike freaks, all with a penchant for chasing performance and going racing. Accordingly, the bike that first brought them the spotlight was the aptly named “For Racing Only” model with its signature one-piece rear triangle and turquoise blue team color. Week in, week out, the Yeti FRO would show up at the races ready for battle against a growing number of bigger-budgeted mountain bike brands. Slowly, but surely, Yeti Cycles began attracting attention thanks to the team’s competitiveness and the flamboyant ways of company founder John Parker. If ever there was a brand built on the “race on Sunday, sell on Monday” recipe, it was Yeti Cycles.
From 1986-1988 the Yeti shop stayed busy welding their rugged and heavy steel-tubed FRO frames. But in the early months of 1988, Yeti Cycles began working overtime to develop a radical new bike that no one really had any idea how to develop! Thanks to Parker’s budding relationship with executives at the giant Easton tubing company, Yeti was able to get in on the ground floor to use Easton’s newly developed C9 carbon-wrapped aluminum tubes. The only problem was that, in those days, there wasn’t much known about how to glue carbon frame tubes together, especially for a mountain bike, and no one at the Yeti factory was well-versed in or enthusiastic about joining tubes with glue.
The C-26 was a radical departure for a brand famous for building heavy steel bikes. As Parker recalls, “We called the bike the C-26 because if you did the carbon dating on the bike, Chris was 26 years old when the bike came together, and it was a Chris Herting deal entirely.”
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And Then Came Tomac
In the spring of 1990, mountain bike racing icon John Tomac was in Europe performing road duties as a rookie on the vaunted 7-Eleven team. Following Paris-Roubaix, Tomac’s 7-Eleven schedule opened enough for him to make a summer return to the mountain bike circuit where he was still among the sport’s most popular riders. However, given the mid-season timing, there were no team vacancies available, so it was left to a handshake deal with Yeti’s John Parker to make his planned comeback a reality.
Knowing a history-making opportunity when he saw one, Parker promised race bikes, a mechanic, and perhaps most importantly, a box truck for Tomac to pit out of at the races. Although modern Sprinters and team trucks are a common sight at races today, in 1990 Yeti was the first to introduce the concept (as had been practiced for years by the motorcycle racing community) in mountain biking.
And so aboard his steel Yeti FRO mounted with the Cinelli drop handlebars, a rigid Answer Accu-Trax fork, and booming Tioga tension disc rear wheel, Tomac went on to thrill the NORBA National crowds across America. Despite the fat sponsorship contract that Yeti had with Campagnolo, “The Tomes” never came to terms with the Italian-made parts so his bike remained outfitted with Shimano components.
Although Yeti team rider Russell Worley had spent the season race testing a prototype C-26, it wasn’t until mid-summer when Herting finally assembled a carbon-tubed frame for Tomac to ride.
The (In)Significant Bike
For Mammoth, Yeti’s team camp (replete with tie-dyed t-shirts flagging in the wind like Tibetan prayer flags) could be found next to the main lodge – a spot as prestigious and valuable as the “Boardwalk” space on a Monopoly board! That the funky Yeti team was able to command such a highly coveted place in the pits was no doubt a pile driver of angst to the richer, big-brand teams. But what Yeti Cycles lacked in size and resources, they more than made up for with a “cool factor” that the mega brands could never possess.
Woodstock Comes to Mountain Biking
But it wasn’t just Zink’s charm and home address that brought the race to the Rocky Mountain hamlet. Over the years both Zink and the town had proven their race-promoting skills by promoting both the Iron Horse Classic road race as well as two years of NORBA National finals. Not that the road-focused UCI knew much about any of the off-road luminaries, but Durango was also home to two-time NORBA national champion Ned Overend who had also notched previous victories in both the American and European world championship races.
Heading into the weekend there was little doubt that Overend was the crowd favorite in the cross-country race with fellow Durango local Greg Herbold a strong bet in the downhill. But John Tomac was still John Tomac and race regulars knew better than to ever count him out.
Luckily for Yeti, Juli Furtado would suffer no such misfortune and she would ride her C-26 into the record books as the first UCI XC World Champion. In addition to her title, most race watchers would also reckon that after beating such talented and well-known competitors as Sara Ballantyne and Ruthie Matthes, Furtado’s win was also one of the biggest upsets ever seen.
The C-26’s Future
For Yeti Cycles, the 1991 season would bring big changes. While Furtado remained on the team, it wasn’t long after the race in Purgatory that Tomac’s gamble of racing for Yeti at no fee provided him enough spotlight to gain a high-dollar contract with a bigger brand. And that’s exactly what happened when he was hired by Raleigh who were in dire need of some off-road cred to ignite their marketing efforts. Their Merlin-made Ti/Carbon frame was similar to the C-26, only with titanium replacing the steel tubes and lugs joining the carbon tubes.
Years later, Parker himself would recall, “The C-26 had a short life, but it was defined by great artistry and craftsmanship. I knew carbon wasn’t the right stuff for us. But with Chris and Frank the Welder in the shop, it was a great learning exercise for us. Really, as cool of a bike as the C-26 was, it just didn’t have a future with us.”
When Wedding Bells Ring
The sport of mountain biking continued its explosive growth in popularity. I carried on as the editor of Mountain Bike Action Magazine, never without a flurry of new bikes to ride and races to attend. While the “high” of attending the world championships in Durango still lingered in my mind, my thoughts of the race and all the bikes and racers had dutifully been replaced with my need to plan for my upcoming May wedding.
A few weeks later Parker re-emerged at the MBA offices accompanied by the very C-26 that Tomac raced in the XC race in Durango. Surprise, surprise, my wedding gift had arrived! My bride Ronette wasn’t quite sure what to make of the carbon gift when I brought it home, and she was quick to announce that, as special as the bike may have been, it wasn’t going to reside anywhere near the other wedding gifts inside the house.
Years later, Parker warmed my heart when he reassured me, “There was nobody in the world I wanted to have that bike more than you — it was meant for you. I’m sure Ronette might’ve been less than thrilled, but hopefully, she could appreciate that it meant more to you than another set of dinner plates!”
In The End
Thankfully, everyone can now see this historic bike up close in the TPC Museum. I’m sure the bike is happier too now that it’s found a proper home befitting its coveted place in mountain bike racing history.
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