I have no business sense, so while I applaud your effort to sell the bike for your friends' benefit I won't pretend my advice will further that goal. That said....

Seems to me the best thing to do would be to document and publish the bike in the most visible way possible. Make it famous. A photo essay in a mountain biking magazine would be best, I think, or in a general cycling or outdoor magazine. The accompanying article should include the prototype Yeti frame above, and period photos of the people involved in the process, and, of course, extensive documentary photos of the bike in its present condition. And there should be photos of the bike's evolutionary descendants. The goal of this article is to (1) get as many people to see the bike as possible, and (2) to provide ready access to the bike's history. Somewhere in that article there might be a reference to an upcoming sale; but keep the sale itself separate.

just as a thought


Isn't this chainstay design perfect for the problem of belt driven bikes? as you don't need to break the chain or the stay to install the belt (as you can't split a belt)

That occurred to me as well. The elevated chainstay MTBs and the older Raleigh frames with bolted-on seatstays would be easily adaptable to the new continuous belts.
If belt driven bikes become popular, I wouldn't be at all surprised to see the elevated stay design implemented, as it would be cheaper than building a frame designed to "open up" for belt replacement.

Me being me, I sort of need to keep things simple and hit the forums (like velobase a site I love) and my beloved BF. While I am good at aiming a hammer, I feel pretty awkward working with words. I would imagine anyone reading a letter I wrote is about the same as when I see a home spun welding repair. Since it's been since 1990 or so since I thought much about this bike, I need to verify all my facts and fill in the blanks regarding the specifications.

We made a bunch of prototypes during those years. I always had at least one concept bike going all the time as did Chris and John always had stuff he wanted for the team and the VIP's. I don't know where many of them ended up including the earlier Ultimate frames.

That is a pretty good application for this design, belt drive.. nice one!

Elevated chainstays usually make me think of the Santa Cruz Superlight. The single pivot FS design on that bike is simple, and I think the model is still in Santa Cruz's lineup.

You'll find a lot of interest in this bike over at retrobike.co.uk Those guys love an elevated chainstay. I was briefly obsessed with owning one and spent a lot of time on that site learning all about them.

Frank,
I have followed your various posts and threads here and have admired your skills, willingness to offer help to anyone asking and the history you area part of in bicycling. I am a road bike guy but this bike is so important to MTB history and your friends needs so great I wish you all the best in the auction. I would think Zap and the other guys would be glad to help from reading their stuff all these years. they seem like super people to me.

I am not well off but if there is a way to donate to the helping of your friend please let us know how we could do so. I would gladly make a donation for them. Bicyclist are neat people and your efforts just reinforce this to me and I am sure others here.

Bill

Frank, among your good traits is humility. Many of us consider you to be quite skilled at words. Don't worry about bad writing. Write what's in your heart and mind, and it will come out fine.

Hahaha! I want that life style SO bad... time to get an English degree.

Thanks a bunch, as soon as I get the photos and auction together I will spread them around a bit to different forums. It should be a fun auction! I am looking forward to digging around in my artifacts to find more cool stuff to toss in.

I agree with Tom. You need to write your own add, the sincerity you have for this bike and the reason you are selling it will come through. An ad written by a someone else will just seem too corporate.

Frank, email me when you start the auction - I write for bikingindallas.com and will put up an article to point people in the direction of your auction. We get thousands of hits a day. If you PM me your email I'd like to ask you some questions to get started on the article.

As any English Major should know: that's "Perqs of Being an English Major" since the word's a contraction of perquisite...but that's both obvious and beside the point.
All praises to Frank for formulating the idea of this auction and to all the good people who will help make it succeed...it will succeed!

OK, we are back with more photos. I was surprised to see the Campagnolo rims, I had forgotten about those. This bike is very clean and seems to have little wear. It was cool to see the Onza bar ends and middle ring.

If you think we need more or better shots, please post and example we can look at. My friends, Cindy and Steve are looking wondering why we are so nuts about old bikes.


Left side by frankthewelder, on Flickr


right side by frankthewelder, on Flickr


underside by frankthewelder, on Flickr


campy rims by frankthewelder, on Flickr


purple nipple by frankthewelder, on Flickr


cranks by frankthewelder, on Flickr


rear derailleur by frankthewelder, on Flickr

Ebay Ad Draft:

Yeti Mountain Bike: One of a Kind Prototype

Sometimes a really unique bike becomes available which causes collectors' hearts to race, skip a beat, and even bring out the defibrillator--- just in case. This is one of those bikes!

What you see is an original Yeti prototype MTB, as it was originally built in Burbank, California in 19___. This original Yeti was crafted by John Parker, Chris Herting, and Frank the Welder, all legends in the early history of MTB.

In actually it is the second Yeti prototype. The first was a mock up for a MBA magazine article and recently sold as a frame for $3600. The second, this one, was used to test and prove the tooling needed in order to take this model into production, and was exclusively built by Frank the Welder.

After production was ramped up, Frank the Welder kept this particular bike at a friend's house in the California desert. This Yeti was only occasionally ridden when Frank would visit. Otherwise it was carefully stored.

Some of the details:

* Prototype Shimano Deore derailleurs and shifters
* Frank the Welder constructed Bullseye cranks
* Frank the Welder designed Answer ATAC stem
* Yeti grips Frank the Welder helped design.
* Wheels built by Jed St. Henri with the trademark single purple nipple and Campagnolo rims
* Onza bar ends and middle chain ring.

This sale, by Frank the Welder, will benefit his long time friend who is currently in serious financial trouble.

why is this a sticky?

There is a charity auction that will take place to benefit the couple mentioned and it was decided that it would be stickied. There were some delays.

OK, I finally got this stuff worked out and listed it. 150702802002 is the ebay listing number

Notice is popping up on other sites, too.

The C&V thread of mtbr.com has it.

Such a beautiful story to a great bike.

Good luck!

Frank,

Best of luck with the sale. So far so good!

Let's keep our fingers crossed!

Good luck on the auction, Frank.

I enjoyed reading the story behind this bike. Great piece of MTB history.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/ws/eBayISAPI...m=150702802002

Awesome.

It's going great so far Frank, good luck!