My father-in-law has had this hanging in his garage for the last couple decades. I used the opportunity to have my 12-yo kid start working on bikes. So he and I did a pretty basic restoration just to get the thing rolling again. Tires were completely dry-rotted, so fresh rubber was the only thing I actually bought for it. I had a chain, brake and shifter cables, and grips lying around. It was fun to let my kid sort of figure a bunch of stuff out on his own as we got it rideable again! The shifters aren't great, but they still work. It's all the original Shimano XT stuff. Still needs a new middle chainring, so we're currently just pedaling it around in the big ring.
Does anybody know much about this bike? It's a Head 910. I'm told by my FIL that there were only a handful of these specific bikes made. Yeti built them for Head but I guess they only made a few that got out to a couple sales reps before they decided against going to market with them. Anyway, if anybody has an additional info on the bike, I'd love to hear it!
Lastly… wondering what I do with it now? We have plenty of bikes and spend most of our time on singletrack with full-suspension bikes. In a few years my kid could use it to commute to high school, so I could throw a front and/or rear rack on it. Any other fun upgrade/bling ideas? Shorter stem? Better handlebar to make it look more "xbike-y?
It's a cool-looking bike and I'd love to hang onto it for him, but he also needs a new mountain bike (how dare he keep growing!). Thinking I might just sell it and put the money toward that new bike. Anyway… would love to get everyone's thoughts!
by BW459
4 Comments
It looks like it needs no restoration. If it’s truly Yeti built then it should remain as original as possible, IMO.
Or you could unload that XT crap on u/MantraProAttitude
Every time I look at those chain stays it whispers, “belt drive.” My guess is it was a way to eliminate chain slap and ease chain removal, but not having to loop the chain through also means you can use a belt without a cut. I’ve seen a few bikes over the last couple of years do unusually high or low chain stays for the sake of belts.
I wouldn’t actually want to change it that drastically, because I think it looks great. But for comfort, I like inner grips, and new pedals might be nice.
Short stem, riser bars, the end
What to do with it considering the other bikes you have & use… take great pics & post it on ebay in hopes of finding someone who actually loves these bikes?
Since there’s like seven of those people on the whole planet and none of them would be stoked on buying it for >$300+shipping and because I’m always a fan of blingy tourer-commuter builds with paint matched alloy fenders, dynamo lighting, and a front rasket:
-build it up into a tourer-commuter.
Bigger middle & outer chainrings, and to unclutter the aesthetics of the crank get black middle & granny rings..
Let the kid get to experience the joy of lacing a wheelset with CXRay or Aerolite spokes and get yourself an Onyx & Son Delux and Standalone rims to enjoy as the reason for lacing wheels.
For school-commuter build… cheap shimano dynamo hub and a dual-light front & back setup, Panaracer T-Serv tires, beefy steel porteur rack for strapping down a book bag, and any 11-32 cassette and a single 52t chainring 1x setup will be plenty of gear range for pavement riding.