2026 Yeti LTE review
Me: 5’9” (175.26cm) 210lbs (95kg) 56yrs old, raced BMX in my younger days, and expert DH until I had kids. The bikes are so good now, I actually feel faster now then in my DH racing days. Sorry for the long review, but if you only care about the Yeti LTe, just scroll down to the review.
Bought the bike from N+1 bike shop. They shipped it Tubeless with Stans sealant, put the bike together and made sure everything was set right, brakes, wheels, headset bearings, etc. Packed it up and sent it down to me. Setting up the bike was easy! Big props to N+1 bikes!
Before my review here are my past bikes.
Intense Tazer VPP 165mm rear / 170 front. Really nice 1st ebike, 500wh battery became its downfall. It climbed well, DH very well. A pain in the asrh to work on, as this was one the 1st ebikes out there. I put carbon wheels and XT DI2 shifting and all else stock. One motor replacement, but ultimately range anxiety had me sell this ebike.
Gen 2 alloy Levo horst link 150mm rear / 170mm front. I did a lot to this bike, carbon wheels, experimented with rear shocks, cascade link 160mm travel. I thought this bike was awesome climbing and DHing. I tried to make this trail bike into an enduro / AM ebike and I thought I accomplished this (more on this later). But its biggest con was 3 motors and one cracked frame. Took about 2 months to get another frame.
FF Kenevo horst link 180mm rear / 180mm front and at times a fox 40 installed 200mm. When I got this bike, I clearly saw whatever I did to my Gen 2 Levo, it was still a trail bike maybe slightly into enduro category. But the Kenevo truly opened up my eyes to how a bike that was designed for enduro/AM riding was far superior to a bike designed for trail speeds, regardless of what you add on to it. The amazing thing about the Kenevo is it did everything well including climbing but point this thing downhill and wow! Plush, stable and fast! Yes, cornering on it was tougher, but you get use to putting more muscle into corner and cornering became easy. Its biggest CON was 2 motor replacements and 700wh battery wasn’t big enough for my weekend rides.
Crestline with Gen 4 Bosch Race motor VPP 180mm rear suspension / 180mm front and at times Fox 40 set at 190mm. I bought a spare 750wh battery plus a 250wh range extender, this took care of my range anxiety concerns for the weekend rides. On this bike I was fighting the rear suspension to feel smooth/plush, the air suspension just could not smooth out the trail enough for me no matter how I tune it. I think that’s a trait of a VPP suspension, at least how it was tuned for Crestline. I ended up getting a Vorsprung Telum rear shock and that made the bike much smoother/plusher, stable downhiller and comparable to the Kenevo I just had. The Kenevo and the Crestline I would say a toss up when pointed downhill. Crestline was a great bike, the Bosch race motor I loved, thought it had great power and good range. Overall, nothing went wrong with the Crestline, dead reliable ebike. But now we have bikes with 800wh batteries and more powerful motors. I went riding with a buddy on Gen 4 S-Works and he killed everyone on the climbs. So my mind started thinking, what do I need now to keep up with an S-Work Levo or Amflow equipped bike?
These were the ebikes on my list: Crestline Amflow, Yeti LTE, Norco Range, or Forbidden Core. I ruled out the Amflow because no range extender batteries, and NO I’m not setting the power levels so low to be able to do 6k ft or more of climbing. That left the Range and LTE. I researched and read all the reviews I could find on both these bikes. The general consensus was both ebikes did everything well. For me I think the Pinkbike review pushed me towards the LTE and the comment “The Yeti LTe feels like magic” and how they would love to have normal Yeti’s with Sixfinity suspension. I dug deeper into Sixfinity of course on the Yeti website/marketing sold me with talk of tuned Anti-squat at sag 101% and drops way lower as the bike moves through its travel. Then predictable control with tuned Anti-rise suspension, “anti-rise to remain consistent throughout suspension travel with a linear curve. Why? The LTe’s linear anti-rise strikes the ideal balance between active suspension and geometry preservation when braking. It’s this trait – combined with the switching behavior of the acceleration response – that puts Sixfinity in a performance class all its own.” This is the magic reviewers talk about, and I can confirm, the suspension works amazing.
2026 Medium Yeti LTe T3 Manjo Sixfinity 160mm rear / Fox 38 170mm. Modes set to: Tour +, EMTB, EMTB + and Turbo. Bike is all stock as sold by Yeti. Fit and build is excellent for me at 5’9” (175.26cm). I used Yeti’s suspension calculator for suspension set up and found it to be pretty spot on, only change rebound HS and low speed a few clicks faster.
Pro’s: Sixfinity works amazingly. Fox Float X2 climbs well, with lots of traction no matter how rough the climb gets. The Gen 5 motor is an amazing upgrade to the Gen 4. I typically ride from my house in tour + for about 1/5hr, switch to EMTB for 1/2hr and then to EMTB +. I am honestly surprised at how efficient this motor is compared to old Shimano, Brose and Bosch race systems. My biggest ride so far has been: just over 2hrs, 25 miles (40km) with 3,800ft (1,158.24m) of climbing with 15% battery remaining. For me this exceeded my expectations!
Now the DH, the Sixfinity suspension in my opinion amazing, I don’t feel the need to switch to a coil. It works so good, plush, yet supportive, rocks, drops, jumps, no problems. Just handles it without complaint. The biggest thing I had to get use to was steep DH and straight-line stability, both the Kenevo and Crestline were super stable. But a few rides in and I’ve adjusted my style and feel for this concern. The plus side is the bike is a carver in turns, probably because I’m used to my previous bikes. I’ve tried 25% and 30% rear shock progression settings and I like the 20% for my local trails. When I hit Laguna Beach, CA, I’ll 100% switch back to 30 or 35% as the trail there have way bigger drops. This LTe in my opinion goes downhill better than the Kenevo and Crestline.
I road with a Gen 4 S-Works again. I was giving this rider a tour of my backyard. on the fireroad we were even, not knowing where he was going probably made sure he couldn’t go faster. Once we got to single track, I could pull away from him at will, again I had home field advantage, but just a data point for me. This is by far the quietest Ebike I’ve ridden!
I like you can configure 29” or MX. I loved the Kenevo at 29” compared to MX. I might not even try MX, but I do have a spare 27.5 rear wheel if I get curious.
Cons: I wish you could configure with 600wh or 800wh batteries when purchasing and frame only option. I’ll probably get a 600wh at some point for my weekday rides. Motor needs to swing down to get the battery out, not easily but manageable. I maybe too lazy to do that. I wish the battery port was higher, I need to bend down to plug it.
I like to over fork my bikes, fork should come in at 180mm. I’ll probably buy a 180mm air shaft. I also still have a Fox 40, may install it at some point. I’m enjoying a slightly light weight ebike. The Sram match maker pods. I like my brake levers closer to horizontal, but the shifters were angled to far down to reach the buttons comfortably. I got use to the different brake lever angles.
Gen 5 motor, I believe the overrun operates like this: the harder you press on the pedal, the more overrun you get. This has happened to my several times, hard pedaling into jumps and stop pedaling, I hear the motor still on leaving the jump in a wheeling motion. Not a good feeling, I’ve adapted and make sure to get my speed in way before the jump. Great for places I know, but in areas I’ve not ridden, I’ll probably have this concern again. I wish they had overrun settings for the APP.
Now the low down on components.
Fox 38 Grip X2 works very well, 115psi, HSC 4 clicks / LSC 9 clicks, HSR 4 click / LSR 6 clicks. Best feeling Fox 38 I’ve tried. I’m comparing to my last stock 2023 Fox 38 and I upgraded the 2023 with Avalanche hybrid cartridge/spring setup. I don’t think I’m going to put the Avalanche 38 on this bike. It works great the way it is.
2026 Float X2 works amazing with this Sixfinity suspension system. All bikes before, I felt the need to tinker with the suspension to get it to my liking. This bike works great as is.
Wheelset DT Swiss HXC 1700 Carbon 30mm: At 210lbs (95kg) expert rider, rear wheels take a beating and I’ve gone through so many rear wheels: WAO, I9, Spinergy, just to name a few and they all failed within months (broken spokes, rims, bearings, axles). When the WAO spokes failed, I sent the rear out to Berd wheels to get a rebuild, problem solved, just need to true once a month. Only 6 rides so far on the DT Swiss wheel and good, but if they fail, I’ll send to Berd for a rebuild. As a side note, this started occurring when I switch to enduro/AM speed bikes (Kenevo & Crestline) and suddenly the rear wheel couldn’t handle the extra stress of added speed.
Drivetrain: XO Transmission works awesome, click the button and shifts perfect up/down, under pressure, just works. I’m going to try and hardwire the XO transmission. What I didn’t like was the Sram match maker pods. I like my brake levers closer to horizontal, but the shifters were angled to far down to reach. I had to angle my lever down more than I’m use to, but I adapted and feels fine now.
Brakes Sram Maven Silver with 200mm HS2 rotors work great. I had the limited-edition Ultimate on the Crestline and they are strong brakes that will bring you to a stop no matter how steep the trail is. Modulation and lever feel to me is great.
Tires: Front Magic Marry Trail Pro 2.5 radial soft / rear Albert Gravity Pro 2.5 soft. So far so good, no flats, traction turning in So California dirt great, braking strong. Not much more to say.
blisterreview.com
. I don’t believe there‘s a negative review out there about the LTE! I wish I could see Blister’s bike comparison, but I’m not willing to buy the premium membership. After reading so many positive reviews, my LTE T3 Manjo should be coming tomorrow afternoon from N+1 bikes. He gave me a really good deal
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