WHO IS RICHIE RUDE?
Born and raised in Connecticut, on the East Coast of the USA, Richie Rude is a pro enduro racer for the Yeti-Fox Shox Factory Team. Like many of his competitors, Richie cut his teeth racing downhill, before making the switch to enduro in 2014. The change of discipline was certainly not due to a lack of talent though, as he clinched a Junior World Champs win and several World Cup top 30 results aboard the big rig.
WHI THIS IS A SUPERBIKE?
- Sleek carbon, classic Yeti turquoise, gold Kashima suspension and team-edition orange parts make this one rad-looking steed!
- Any bike that can withstand the power and speed of Richie Rude must be pretty good, right?
Junior downhill world champ, two-time Enduro World Series title holder and winner of 21 EWS stages – it’s pretty incredible what American racer Richie Rude has managed to achieve by the age of 22. And while those incredible results are a reflection of Richie’s talent, they’re also a feather in the cap for long-term sponsors Yeti Cycles, the brand Richie has ridden for during every one of those victories.
His relationship with the company started back in 2011, when Yeti boss Chris Conway spotted the potential in the Connecticut teenager and signed him up to the team. It was a dream come true for 17-year-old Richie. He’d grown up watching videos featuring Yeti bikes and looking up to riders like Jared Graves, so to suddenly be teammates with him must have seemed pretty surreal.
After three years of DH, in 2014 Yeti and Jared switched their focus to enduro, and Richie followed suit. He’s since proven himself to be the ultimate all-rounder, winning back-to-back EWS titles in 2015 and ’16. Hoping to make it three in a row this year, Richie started his assault on the season aboard this bike – the SB5.
He opted to race this rig, as opposed to his regular race weapon, the longertravel SB6, at the opening two rounds because he felt that its more trailorientated geometry and 127mm of travel would suit the less steep, fasterrolling terrain of New Zealand and Tasmania. Torrential rain at both events prevented Richie from showing the SB5’s true potential and he switched back to the SB6 for the rougher subsequent rounds. But it’s worth noting that his first ever stage win, in 2014, came aboard the predecessor to this bike, the SB5c, amid the rocky gnarl of Winter Park, Colorado.
Learning from the best
Richie’s feedback on the SB5c was taken onboard to create the SB5. He asked for more stiffness and better mid-stroke support, and that’s what Yeti say they’ve achieved with the new bike, by altering the shape and carbon lay-up of the tubing, and tweaking the suspension kinematics. Several carbon prototypes were tested by the engineers before a frame was sent out to Richie for a serious beating. He must have liked it, because it was identical to the one we see here, which is stock, apart from the paint job.
Richie has fitted a 170mm Fox 36 fork in place of the standard 150mm Fox 34. While it helps him hammer though the rough, the longer fork raises the bike’s stack height. To counteract this, he runs his 50mm Renthal stem flipped upside down and slammed as low as it’ll go. It’s paired with a 35mm-diameter, 30mm-rise Renthal carbon bar. Richie’s very particular about his cockpit set-up and, unlike other EWS racers, always runs the same width bar (750mm), no matter how wide or tight the track.
Being such a big guy and having a riding style where he charges into stuff full bore, Richie is hard on parts, particularly wheels. His bike rolls on 32-hole DT Swiss EX 511 aluminium rims laced with J-bend spokes. He likes the extra strength this gives over a wheelset with a lower count of straightpull spokes. They’re shod with Maxxis tyres, run tubeless. Minion DHFs in the 2.5in width are Richie’s go-to set-up, but he’ll switch to a lower-profile Aggressor on the back or a spikier Shorty out front if conditions require it.
Conspicuous by their absence on his race bikes are 29in wheels. Despite doing a lot of his training aboard Yeti’s SB4.5 29er, Richie is yet to use the bigger wheels in competition. He’s still trying to find a set-up he’s totally happy with, and thinks a longer-travel 650b bike will always trump a 29er on rougher tracks. That said, he is thinking about using Yeti’s SB5.5 for some of the flowier tracks, including the next round in Aspen – watch this space.
Richie reckons the key to performing well is being comfy on the bike, so he likes to keep his set-up pretty consistent. He’ll change tyres and tweak suspension settings slightly to suit the conditions, but he’s not one of those racers who’s constantly revising things. It’s a strategy that seems to be working out pretty well for him so far, and even though the 2017 EWS season hasn’t quite gone the way he’d have liked, you can be sure he’s hungrier than ever to be back on the podium.
Price $11020 (stock Yeti SB5 Turq Eagle)
BRAKE HORSEPOWER
Built into the left arm of Richie’s Shimano XTR crankset is a Stages power meter, which links wirelessly to his bar-mounted GPS unit. For a top-level racer, power output data is one of the best ways to assess performance and record training.
TOOLED UP
Richie uses the EDS tool system from OneUp to ensure he’s got everything he needs to fix his bike mid race. Allen keys, chain links and a CO2 cartridge are housed ingeniously inside the fork steerer.
FACTORY FOX
Although the SB5 is designed around a 150mm fork, Richie runs a 170mm Fox 36 Float EVOL to cope with the impacts of EWS racing and slacken out the head angle. He sets it up super-stiff, favouring the solid feeling this gives the bike. Out back is Fox’s ultra-capable Float X2 shock.
TAMING THE TORQUE
Harnessing the American’s enormous thigh power is a 1x11 XTR drivetrain, fitted with a 34t OneUp ring and Bash Guide.
COVER-UP JOB
Richie’s mechanic, Shaun Hughes, covers the bolt holes with turquoise sticky tape to keep out mud and dust. You can be sure he double checks the torque first though!
