The Yelli Screamy is fun. That’s the best way to describe it. It’s my first 29er so I don’t have a ton of comparison there, but as far as mountain bikes go, it’s just fun.

The Build:

• Canfield Brothers Yelli Screamy Frame – Medium/Black
• Canfield Brothers 29er Wheelset
• Fox Talas 29er fork
• Truvativ Stylo Riser Bars
• Thompson Elite 50mm Stem
• SRAM XO Shifter
• Avid Elixer CR Brakes
• Truvativ Stylo Cranks
• MRP Chain Guide
• SRAM XO Dear Derailleur (10 spd)
• SRAM 10spd Cassette
• WTB Silverado Saddle
• Thompson Elite Seat Post
• Hope QR Seat Post Clamp

The Ride:
First off, it’s not the lightest hard tail bike, but certainly not the heaviest. It helped to kill the front derailleur, shifter and extra cogs on the cranks and really the 10 speed option is about all you need (at least for most of the trails I take it on). It would probably also help to change wheelset, but with all of that said, I wouldn’t change a thing about the bike.

The frame has a great feel. It helps that it has a drop tube on it so you get additional side to side clearance on the downs. The large wheels are also a lot of fun going down, because with the additional tread you can put on the ground you really feel confident leaning the bike over even farther than you normally would to rail the corners. The slack 68º head angle (with the fork all the way out at 140mm) is also confidence inspiring on the downs. Coming from a 26″ wheeled background, the wheel size took a minute to get used to, especially when I looked down, but I think the bike performs incredibly.

It climbs like a hard tail should and I feel I’m faster on this bike as the big wheels just seem to roll faster especially across relatively straight trail portions, across little techy sections with rocks shelves, roots, ect. and on the climbs. As I said, I have it built as a 1×10 and it really is all I need on this bike. I’ve gotten gassed on a couple of climbs even on the lowest gear, but I’m not Lance Armstrong and I think a small chain-ring up front would just make me lazy, plus I like the simplicity of only thinking about cycling through one gear set.

The Canfield guys have claimed this bike to have one of the shortest chain stays for a 29er on the market. As I said before, this is my first 29er so I can’t compare the benefit of the short chain stay performance wise with another 29er, but I will say that I didn’t notice much of a difference in the quickness/nimbleness between this bike and my 26″ bikes. I hope the Bros. figure out a full suspension 29er design, because I would certainly get one. I would recommend this bike to anyone (and already have) and think the price is well worth it. This bike is just damn fun.