Being a huge fan of 27.5 x 2.8" wheeled hardtails, I’m hoping to create a list of commercially available chainstay yokes for plus size tires. I know of two:
Paragon Machine Works - yoke for 3" tire in steel and titanium
Lichen Manufacturing - QDW yoke in steel
Both of these are CNC’ed. I have not yet used either one. Are there more? Any 3D printed yokes that are commercially available? Also, if you have any experience with these yokes, please share! Thanks for your contributions.
Can use a single or double Sidewinder from Cobra!
Don’t think there’s a 3D one out unless @Daniel_Y sells his…
@StratoCycles has his version also. Not sure what the max tire size is.
Check him IG or FB. They are not on his website.
Let hope @Daniel_Y sells them.
People can just design and print their own 
Specs:
Keep in mind I use worst-case tolerances. I don’t play the “some 2.8 will fit” or “will fit with sliders all the way back” games.
For 27.5x2.8, I think plate yoke on the DS can work well. Not as easy as a plug and play yoke though.
Why reinvent the wheel if the perfect design it out there already 
This is 1/4” plate from aircraft spruce, clamp one end in the vise, yank on the other end until you like the bend. The CS are the Deda 29er ones and can do a straight cut to match the profile of the plate. Fits most any chainring size too but not light!
Checkout @ben.land101’s $10 yoke: Mountain Bike Design 101 - The Chainstay Yoke - YouTube
Maybe @ben.land101 will upload the PDF plans here.
It works with a 29x2.6 tire with 410cs and 34T ring. I also made a modified version for my fat bike
The total cost about $12.50 from SCS with them providing the bends as well.
Konga yokes are nice, they come in parts and you have to weld/braze them together.
Here is one that I used
You folks are awesome. Happy to see it getting out in the wild and put on bikes.
Here’s the PDF I made a while back. I still need to get around to cleaning it up a bit and making ready-to-go files for a few different BB standards, axles and such. But the idea really is so simple it’s super easy to modify.
The $10 Chainstay Yoke.pdf (203.6 KB)
I’ve used a few different yokes. Konga, Daniel’s, and my own 4130 plate.
Personally, I prefer using 3d printed ones. It does bring my cost up but it also decreases my work time a lot.
@Meriwether gave me good tips in an instagram chat about using 4130 plate a year or two ago. I preferred the plates over the Konga yoke. But when I switched to Daniel’s 3d printed yokes what use to be the hardest part of the bike (chain stay subassembly) became the easiest.
I do everything by hand. No mill or lathe yet. Now all I have to do is cut my 19mm and square the end. Put in an 8-9 degree bend, and chop the chain stays to the right length. I use my surface plate and a life size print out I generate from Bikecad. I like to keep it low tech.
Using 3d printed yokes I’ve been able to get long travel hardtails (160mm) w/ 29er tires down to about 24-28lbs depending on parts (with cush core, and DH tires). The only plain gauge tubing I use on my bikes is chainstays / bent seat tube.The amount of weight dropped from 4130 plate / konga to 3d plate was easily a pound, maybe more
Yes that is why I want to use a yoke also. Since I don’t have a ton of time it would be great to make the rear end easier. I have F360 open and will do @Daniel_Y tutorial and get a frame and yoke made so I can get it 3D printed.
I designed a yoke after finishing @Daniel_Y 's frame tutorial, no other fusion experience.
Using the sweep tool, set the inner arc as the path and the outer arc as the guide rail, and set profile scaling to stretch.
The simple fit is alluring for sure. I also hand cut and find the fit up to a plate pretty quick using a bench disc sander, but definitely not as quick as a square cut.
1lb weight savings is impressive. I never weighed my yokes- @ben.land101 have you put one on a scale?
For reference, I was using 1/4" plate. I can’t remember the dimensions, it’s been a while, but I believe the plate was about 22mm tall. In my hands, one plate was just a bit heavier than the entire 3d printed yoke. You can see this design featured in the light blue bike in my previous comment. I wanted to give the look of tabbed dropouts with the yoke plates.
I haven’t had the chance to make myself a 3d printed yoke bike, but I have had one out being tested by a rider for almost a year now.
I currently have two 3d printed yoke bikes going on in my shop. One fitting a 34t chain ring, 2.4" tires, BSA shell, 435mm chain stays. Another fitting a 30t chainring, T47 shell, 27.5x2.8" tires, and 410mm stays. As per Daniel’s specs the 410mm shouldn’t work, but after checking with my Konga wheel checker and an actual 27.5x2.8" wheel it should be good to go.
I also just really prefer the aesthetics of the 3d yoke. It makes the bike feel more refined. I try to sneak in vintage road bike stuff into my design - hence the tabbed dropout look on the light blue bike. I’m fine with letting that go so I can have a lighter and easier to build frame.
@terraformbicycles: Really good information in your posts, thank you. Like you, I like to keep my setup simple. No mill, no lathe. Some folks are really into “rolling their own” when it comes to thinks like yokes and dropouts, and that’s really cool, but I generally prefer to buy when there are good solutions commercially available. My eye is on the prize of a great riding bicycle.
Where are you (or anyone on here) getting your 3D printed yokes? Is it your own design? Where did you have it made? What’s the per unit cost? Seems like it would be prohibitively expensive. I know my way around Solidworks so I could potentially design my own. So many questions!
Mine come from Daniel, he is affiliated with Neuhaus Metalworks.
Daniel messaged me on Instagram and asked if I was interested in trying his 3d yokes as a replacement for my yoke plates. I was a bit skeptical at first but I enjoy trying new things. I think at the time, Daniel was just trying to cast a wide net to make sure that the yokes offer a real solution.
Daniel still supplies them to me. Maybe when I’m ordering 10+ at a time that’ll change, I don’t know yet. I won’t comment on the price for privacy, and to my knowledge he doesn’t supply them publicly (yet?). But if you were to take the amount of time it takes to make yoke plates + buying the material OR doing the design + paying send cut send to cut them / bend them, the 3d yokes put you on top in terms of time.
I don’t build full time so time is my most important cost. I have about 3-4 hours I can spend in the shop each day. Being able to have a complete sub assembly finished in 3 hours vs 6+ for making the plates, getting the chainstays ready, contouring the plates so they look aesthetically pleasing… etc is huge for me. The yokes also just look badass.
I live in Canada so shipping metal over the border is insanely expensive. This pushes me away from Send cut send and just reinforces that Daniel’s yokes are the best option for me.
