"Nom De Plume" (unlistedusername)
05/11/2020 at 21:40 • Filed to: None
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"Nom De Plume" (unlistedusername)
05/11/2020 at 21:40 • Filed to: None | 1
| 11 |
This is monumental. 2000/2001 was a dark time during which GT bikes was shuttered. Basically everything wrong with cycling was on full display. They were for the longest time the premier bikes to own and ride. Better yet they were impossible to kill designs of sheer genius that translated into acquiring skills modern bikes substitute for. At prices your first job could make happen.
As alluded to above, this ended very badly. Eventually the “brand” was bought by the fine people who stock Walmart with ill conceived pig metal that resembles a bike. Grim stuff, how the mighty had fallen. Somehow things improved a bit and they started making mtb’s using a revised full suspension design that didn’t exactly bend the world over it’s knee in a way it had done in the past.
This went on for years, being a minor player that capitalized off the amount of money being invested on machinery and training in Asia. About the time frames got very selfsame, if not outright identical, the company’s lot had improved to where they weren’t hated as much for what they no longer were. Mostly by people new to the sport avoiding buying cREDiBULLity to match their flatbrim hat and dirthole ethics. Respectable enough if lacking GARY TURNER and his team designing, racing, and destroying (other brands) bikes on a level that will not be paralleled.
You cannot overstate the contribution to BMX and mountain biking as we currently know it. Somehow Gary Turner is back at the brand he started and this bodes extremely well for anyone who actually enjoys riding more than posing next to a $80K brotruck littered with $20K bikes on hipstersham.
HammerheadFistpunch
> Nom De Plume
05/11/2020 at 21:55 |
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I was selling gt/Schwinn in 2000/2001. Dark times indeed.
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Nom De Plume
> HammerheadFistpunch
05/11/2020 at 22:04 |
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Ouch. T hank for that post today and leading me towards finding this. Wild seeing all these people together again in a surprisingly well done video.
Cash Rewards
> HammerheadFistpunch
05/11/2020 at 22:39 |
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In 2000 I got a gt mtb for my graduation present. Loved that think. Got it stolen of my porch, which was terribly depression. Haven't had a bike I love as much since
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HammerheadFistpunch
> Nom De Plume
05/11/2020 at 23:04 |
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That was a fun watch. Lots of old names. I was racing around the mid 90's in XC. I had the posters of these people. I might even still have a brochure for the first year of the i-drive design.
Highlander-Datsuns are Forever
> Nom De Plume
05/11/2020 at 23:42 |
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I started road racing around 2000. We still road mountain bikes but not nearly as much. GT was non existent at that time. I was riding a trek and got a specialized around 2003. I wore out the specialized and kept riding the trek to replace it with my first 29er a 2009, a Salsa Mamasita. The salsa is still alive and being ridden by my moms boyfriend.
When I was in high school I had a dyno comp bmx/freestyle bike and had some Matt Hoffman videos on VHS. I had GT bars and seat post on that bike.
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Nom De Plume
> HammerheadFistpunch
05/11/2020 at 23:42 |
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Only did a little cross country racing and later than that. For me road bikes were always fun the nearer it got to being a race and mtb riding was funner the further from one it got.
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HammerheadFistpunch
> Nom De Plume
05/11/2020 at 23:44 |
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You’re right about that. Moving up from sport ruined racing for me
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Nom De Plume
> HammerheadFistpunch
05/12/2020 at 00:10 |
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Not sure where I would pick up again if when I get back to the mountains. My head says enduro bike all the way. My other head says find the everyman’s Unno Aora and get reacquainted to riding in the mountains.
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Nom De Plume
> Highlander-Datsuns are Forever
05/12/2020 at 00:54 |
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Thrilling contradictions as the marketing catch phrase for the Porsche Panamera goes
. Not a bad description of picking my own path through the Lance era and beyond.
BMX is a completely different story. Had the best dirt jumps for some ways around in my backyard. Excellent way to learn how to destroy and keep a bike running near optimally at the same time.
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HammerheadFistpunch
> Cash Rewards
05/12/2020 at 10:52 |
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They were solid bikes
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Cash Rewards
> HammerheadFistpunch
05/12/2020 at 13:51 |
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I looked it up. A gt aggressor, black with yellow. Rock shock (Judy?) up front, Shimano all around. Loved that damn bike.