YT IZZO UNCAGED 7

YT’S removed all bugetary constraints but can the Uncaged 7 realise its down-country dreams?

£6,835.13 / 29in / yt-industries.com

YT launched its short-travel Izzo 18 months ago, and in its original form it was a 130mmtravel bike that bridged the gap between trail and XC. Shortly after, YT over-forked the front end with a 140mm-travel Pike and called it the Izzo Blaze. And to complete the Izzo family, YT has now gone the other way; lightweight bits and 120mm of travel mean the Uncaged 7 is aimed squarely at those who prefer their pain and pleasure in equal measures.

Unchanged from the original model, the Izzo frame cuts quite a dash with its sharp creases, slender tube profiles and continuous lines hewn from YT’S top-end Ultra Modulus carbon. It’s undoubtedly a good-looking bike, and nothing on the Uncaged 7 changes that. That bright Laser Yellow paint might prove divisive, but in a sea of blacks and greys, personally I love it.

The Izzo’s layout represents the epitome of classic suspension bike designs given a modern twist. As pioneered by Scott, the shock sits upside down, which allows the upper rocker link to be kept narrow and away from knees and gives direct access to the damping controls for the remote lockout while keeping the cable mostly hidden.

There’s a big and boxy junction between the down tube, bottom bracket and seat tube that doubles as the lower shock mount, but YT has included a small drain hole to ensure the area doesn’t turn into a bird bath. At the back there’s a pivot on the chainstay, which bucks the trend among short-travel bikes to run flexstays and probably adds 100g or so to the frame weight.

Offered in five frame sizes, the Izzo is relatively contemporary in terms of sizing but does suffer slightly from overlong seat tubes on the larger options. Reach spans from 432mm on the Small to 517mm on the XXL, which is slightly longer than the regular Izzo simply because the head angle is a touch steeper and the front end lower due to the fork having 10mm less travel. My size Large test bike had a 475mm reach, a few millimetres shorter than our benchmark down-country bike, the Transition Spur.

To help keep the balance and handling consistent across the size range there are two different chainstay lengths – 432mm on the smaller frames and 437mm on the XL and XXL. And for making subtle changes to the handling, a flip-chip at the rocker link gives 0.4° of head angle adjustment (65.5°/65.9°) and alters the BB height by 5mm.

Uncaged, in YT parlance, refers to models where the shackles of hitting a particular price point are severed and anything goes. As such, the spec on the Izzo Uncaged 7 should be a juicy affair. Headlining the act is the Rockshox SID Ultimate fork and shock, along with a complete suite of wireless SRAM AXS components. We’ve been impressed with the latest SID suspension since it was introduced in 2020, and having ridden it on numerous different bikes in many different situations, it’s definitely our fork and shock of choice for any Xc/down-country build. Light and efficient when covering ground, the supple, supportive travel also allows you to charge hard on the descents.