lyncch00

I'm looking at The GT Bikes, specifically the Nomad and the Tachyon. If anybody is riding a GT Bike and can offer up an opinion on its quality I'd appreciate it.

CCrew

The GT's are a decent basic bike. Nothing more, nothing less really. A step above a big box bike, but somewhat at the bottom of the heap in the LBS "pecking order". If you want a bike that you don't spend a ton of money on, and tend not to get bored with them and sell them a year later, it's a decent serviceable bike. Not much resale which is why I said what I said.

GT is Dorel Industries, which is Mongoose, and Schwinn, and Pacific and a few others people here loathe. That said, they just bought Cannondale, so maybe that sauys something for them.

I have an Avalanche 1.0 MTB sitting here that I picked up at Performance for my son. But they were selling a $900 bike for the whopping sum of $270 to clear it out, and we bought it for the components if it didn't pan out, but it's still together and he's riding it.

LongIslandTom

I bought a GT Zum 5.0 (XS frame size) from Performance Bike as a Christmas gift for a 9-year-old member of my family. The bike cost $340 (during Performance bike's 20%-off Thanksgiving sale), plus another $44 for shipping.

Since the recipient of the gift will be outgrowing the bike in about 3 years or so, I figure the $340 bike is a good compromise between cost and quality that should last 3 years.

My impression of the Zaskar Urban Machine (that's what Zum stood for) when it arrived, partially assembled in its shipping box:

The Good

- The aluminum frame and rigid fork is nice and light, and solidly built. The bike weighs just 27 pounds when put together-- Much lighter than the heavy-steel Trek single-speed kid's bike (I call it a monkey bike) it will be replacing.

- The Shimano Alivio components (with trigger shifters) and the Tektro V-brake setup are decent entry level parts. Definitely good enough quality for a bike that will be outgrown in 3 years.

The Bad

- The Alex rims are flimsy. The wheels arrived out-of-true, and I had to pay my LBS $25 to true them.

- The chain is WAY too short. When shifted to the lowest gear on the cassette, the extremely short chain stretches the derailleur way too forward, under great strain. I had to pay my LBS $30 to have a correct-length chain put on.

The Ugly

- I found that if you shift up to the highest gear while the bike is at a standstill (so the chain is still on the biggest gear on the cassette), the slack on the shifter cable will actually cause the cable to come loose from its mounting bracket on the chainstay. VERY BAD. I can't believe those guys at GT would overlook a glaring problem like this. The problem was easy to solve though-- I just used a zip-tie to fasten the shifter cable tubing to the chainstay so it won't pop loose when the cable is slack.

My Verdict:

The bike I felt was decent for its price range, but it needed some work before it was roadworthy (the wheel truing, the new correct-length chain, and affixing the shifter cable tubing to the chainstay so it won't pop loose).

But once I got it roadworthy and put on all the accessories (Bar ends, water bottle cage, saddle bag, safety bell, and a Cateye Enduro 8 basic cyclocomputer), I was very satisfied with the result. And the family member receiving the gift was thrilled. (Had a great test ride too-- Perfect fit!).

I like the Zaskar frame so much, I might buy a medium-sized one for myself (but I'm definitely replacing the rims with something better and doing the rest of the fixes I identified).

I guess my first experience with a GT can be rated as "decent".

lyncch00

Thanks for the feedback. I intend to keep the bike for a long time so I better look at other manufacturers.

qmsdc15

GT first made it's name in BMX. They have been making mountain bikes for a long time and have sponsored such luminaries as Juli Furtado, Hans Rey, Mike King, to name three off the top of my head. All three have won World Championships on GT bikes.

Juli, first woman Mountain Bike World Champion. Juli was a very promising ski racer before numerous knee injuries forced her to quit at a young age. She switched to mountain bikes and went on to win World Championships in both cross-country and downhill, also numerous national championships, all on GT bikes. Correction, the first World Championship was on a Yeti, but she won the World Championship once and the Overall World Cup title three times as well as many NORBA Overall titles on GT.


Lotto, one of the top pro teams in the world rode GT bikes in the Tour de France. GT bikes are not junk.

A Lotto rider at Paris Roubaix with a flat tire.

CCrew

All PRE-Dorel.

qmsdc15

Yeah, I was composing that when I noticed that bit about Doral in your previous post, but I thought I would submit my flawed thesis anyway, mainly for readers who aren't familiar with the achievements of Juli Furtado. She had numerous reconstructive surgeries on both of her knees from skiing injuries before she even began pursuing a career as a bicycle racer. Juli was named Velo News' Cyclist of the Year in 1993 and was named by Sports Illustrated as one of the Top 100 Women Athletes of the Century.

If GT specifies the same tubing and components as Brand T and has the frames built in the same Chinese factory, the fact that they are owned by a larger conglomerate might not really matter as much as you think. Will the Cannondales remain at their current level of quality or will Doral sacrifice quality by cutting costs in production?

Schwinn and Mopngoose bikes produced by Doral are cheaper, lower quality than the Schwinns and Mongooses of the past. I don't know that they have done the same with GT, or will do with Cannondale.