The Santa Cruz 5010, by a margin most reviewers agree on. The 29" front wheel has roughly 8% more rollover than the SB135's 27.5", which means square-edged hits and root nests get absorbed instead of ricocheting the front end off line. Pinkbike specifically called out that the V5 5010 "rides a tiny bit bigger than the numbers suggest" and can handle enduro-adjacent terrain.

The SB135 isn't outclassed — Switch Infinity's bottomless mid-stroke holds up well — but Singletracks and Pinkbike both noted that the smaller wheels get "pinged out of your desired path" in steep, janky terrain in a way the mullet 5010 doesn't.

The Yeti SB135, with caveats. The dual 27.5" wheels turn in faster, the rear wheel whips through berms with less effort, and BikeRadar described it as dropping onto its shoulder more readily than any 29er in the segment. NSMB and Mountain Bike Action both used the phrase "rips corners unapologetically."

That said, the 5010 is no slouch — it's the same playful platform Santa Cruz has refined for a decade — and the 27.5" rear of the mullet setup recovers most of the SB135's cornering snap. If cornering is the single most important attribute, lean SB135; if you want cornering plus rollover, the 5010 wins on balance.

5 mm. The 5010 has 130 mm rear / 140 mm fork; the SB135 has 135 mm rear / 150 mm fork (the LR build pushes the fork to 160 mm). On the trail, that 5 mm is dwarfed by the difference in suspension character — VPP's reduced anti-squat versus Switch Infinity's bottomless feel — and by wheel size. Don't pick on travel numbers alone.

The Santa Cruz 5010. Both frames carry lifetime warranties, but the 5010 also covers pivot bearings for life and uses VPP — a relatively low-maintenance linkage. The Yeti's Switch Infinity unit needs service every 20 hours in wet conditions per Yeti's own recommendation, and multiple long-term reviewers (NSMB, Pinkbike) reported premature wear when that interval slipped.

Both bikes use threaded BBs and tube-in-tube cable routing, so day-to-day wrenching is similar. The maintenance gap is mostly about that one Switch Infinity service interval.

Depends on what you're climbing. On smooth fire roads or paved approaches, the SB135 wins — its Switch Infinity link is famously hardtail-firm under pedaling, and the smaller wheels accelerate faster.

On technical, chunky climbs, the 5010 wins — the V5's reduced anti-squat keeps the rear wheel tracking instead of skipping, and the 29" front rolls over ledges that stall the SB135's 27.5" front. Multiple reviewers called the 5010's technical climbing one of its best traits, while the SB135 is more of a stop-and-surge climber on the same terrain.

Santa Cruz 5010: 63.5 mm (~2.5") at the rear, per the published frame standard. Stock builds run a 27.5x2.4" Maxxis Minion DHR II.

Yeti SB135: Yeti doesn't publish an explicit clearance number, but stock builds ship with 27.5x2.6" Maxxis tires (Minion DHF front, Rekon rear), so 2.6" is the practical ceiling.

Both bikes prioritize aggressive trail tires over plus-width — neither is meant to run anything wider than a true 2.6".

Two reasons. First, the SB135's cheapest build ($4,200 C2) starts at SRAM E90 Transmission on a TURQ-series carbon frame — there's no aluminum option and no lower-tier groupset. Second, Yeti has a smaller dealer network and runs smaller production volumes than Santa Cruz, which translates directly into less price competition at the bottom of the range.

The 5010's $4,799 R build uses SRAM NX Eagle (mechanical, lower-tier than E90 Transmission) on a Carbon C frame — a meaningfully different spec at the entry level, which is part of why the 5010 floor is lower.

Yes — both frames have enough progression and shock-mount real estate to accept a coil. The 5010's leverage curve is moderately progressive and most coil conversions work fine without volume tuning. The SB135's 14% progression is on the linear side of progressive, so coil riders may want to tune for additional ramp-up if they ride bigger jump lines. Neither manufacturer ships a stock coil build, so any conversion is aftermarket.