Met this gent yesterday while out for a ride, through broken Chinglish he claimed that his frame was over 20 years old, can anyone confirm as I know next to nothing about GT’s (just curious)?

The frame did look old and he had even managed to weld a mount on the rear chainstay so that he could mount rear disk brakes?

That is an old skool GT Avalanche. Looks about 1996’ish.

No way is that 20 years old.

Maybe a 1998 model at the earliest, still 14 years is not too shoddy, however no where near as good as 20?
Bikepedia

Look at the inside of the rear drop out. It will have several numbers, the first two are the month and second two year.

ie- 0396 would mean march 1996

Look at the inside of the rear drop out. It will have several numbers, the first two are the month and second two year.

ie- 0396 would mean march 1996

Bit late for that I fear….

If it was a 1994 frame it probably wouldnt have disc mounts.

Dunno but it should not have those forks on even if its 2008 rather than 1998 !

has it got factory disc mounts though? its got a brake cable guide on the back of the seat tube above the triangle brace which my 1994 Pantera (currently gathering moss in rear yard 😳 ) has, and IIRC they binned that when V brakes took off before they fitted disc mounts.

Could be any of their lower ally frames of the period- its looks like its been stripped and the zaskar (US built 6061) and avalanche (FE 7005) were polished and lacquered, the Pantera, Tempest Al etc painted.

Given mine’s 18yrs old it might not be far off.

Forget the frame age. He’s got swagged out forks in the front, a saddle cover (like a boss), St Bernard Rum barrel saddle pouch and some kind of class A stash taped to his TT.

Legend.

crashtestmonkey – Member

has it got factory disc mounts though?

stewartc – Member

he had even managed to weld a mount on the rear chainstay so that he could mount rear disk brakes?

Al, was aimed at mjsmke, enforcing why they arent original.

The replaceable hanger is of the style that started in 1996 so its not 20 years old. Older alu GT frames had two bolts for the hanger. I’d say it was a 96 model because it still have the guide on the seat tube for canti brakes after that it was deleted when V brakes became the norm.

You know what, it might not be far off. The guide for cantis round the seat tube stopped when v-brakes became more common and that was ’93 ish I think.

Where were you riding? Did a ride from Shek Pik back to the Mui Wo Ferry once that nearly killed me. Rigid forks, zero skills and big rocks.

Big rocks between your legs or on the trail? I vaguely recognise the middle dude…I think about 10 years ago some mag did an article about mtbing in some eastern country, Mongolia or similar. The chap reminds of the guy in the article and I think it was a gt with v-brakes back then…I read the article a thought that it was great biking from the pics but also how older kit was still being well used. I’m sure he was on Judy forks as well…

csb – This was at the Tai Lam chung Reservoir, near the BBQ area at what I would usual describe as the start of the CX loop.
DickBarton – From our fractured conversation he did (appear) to say that he had gone around Taiwan on it.

Goodbye headtube….

You know what, it might not be far off. The guide for cantis round the seat tube stopped when v-brakes became more common and that was ’93 ish I think.

V Brakes didn’t appear til mid/late 1996, and that was only XT and XTR level. In 97 LX got introduced, and Avid got in on the game too.

I’m guessing that’s a 97/98 Avalanche, purely by the features mentioned already in this thread. Could be wrong, certainly it’s not over 20 years old, but it’s probably close to 15.

Dunno but it should not have those forks on even if its 2008 rather than 1998 !

Indeed! Looks like 140mm Fox forks on a frame that was at best, designed for use with a 60mm travel elastomer sprung fork. Strange build on that bike, pretty much everything on it is fairly contemporary only the frame is really old. Time to retire it and hang on the wall methinks… Or get on the hunt for some retro kit to build it with!

I had an aluminum GT Backwoods which looked very similar to that. It must have been Feb ’97 when I bought it. That had V-brakes. I also ran it with 80-100mm Manitou forks for a few years 1999-2003ish. Certainly wouldn’t ever consider putting 140s to it. It was a quick and nippy handling little frame, pretty much as harsh as you can get though, there isn’t much in them. My mate actually still has the frame in his shed.

Kev

Watched a 100mm fork rip the headtube of a `96 Zaskar….It had no disc mounts. The manufacture year is part of the frame number on GTs is (was) it not,although it wont be of much help to you now 🙂

How many years did GT run cantis for? I thought early models had U brakes or was that just lower models?