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Gt idrive bike9/12/2023 ![]() In November of 1987 GT showed its first line of 5 mountain bikes at the young Interbike Show in Reno, Nevada. In light of this Richard turned his focus onto the new sport of Mountain Biking, although he never forgot BMX and in fact turned up the heat on his competitors. As the late 80 ‘s approached, BMX racing tapered off and the BMX business got hit hard. For better or for worse GT goes from garage to corporate in a big way.ġ987-1994 BMX DIES WHILE GT MOVES INTO MOUNTAIN BIKE. GT establishes itself as the preeminent racing brand in the sport and begins to dominate the race venues that would lead to the nickname “the firm”. During this period GT would come to dominate BMX racing as the sport matured into a worldwide phenomena. Soon, they grow from one office into 4 separate buildings that handle welding, warehousing, shipping and administrative. The company moves into new digs on 2300 Container Lane in Huntington Beach California. The first frame designed by Gary for freestyle, the Performer, becomes a legend in freestyle and, still today, in 2002, is one of the most recognized brand names in juvenile bicycles. GT expands exponentially every year and enters the new off shoot sport of BMX, Freestyle. Little did they know that in 20 years they would build together one of the most well known bicycle companies in the world.ġ980-86 THE GLORY DAYS OF BMX. Richard is the business and marketing genius and Gary is the engineer and craftsmen. Richard sold his bike shop and began selling frames as fast as possible to bicycle distributors across the USA and into Europe. In 1979 they incorporated into GT Bicycles, Inc. Things happen fast and soon Richard and Gary invested in a shop dedicated to making top quality Cro-moly BMX frames in Santa Ana. Gary agrees and the most famous partnership in BMX history starts.ġ975-1980 BUILDING A BRAND, ONE FRAME AT A TIME. Richard calls Gary and asks him if he can stock and sell the frames. He notices that they are selling and that people want to know how to get them. Richard Long owns and runs a bike shop in Orange County, California. His son’s bike gets noticed and Gary starts to supply the frames to other kids and building his reputation one frame at a time.ġ974 THE BEGINNING. ![]() With the high grade aircraft cro-moly tubing used for dragsters, Gary starts to make frames for his son to race at the MX track. Gary is not only a musical instrument repairmen with experience welding things like trumpets and trombones, but is also a professional drag racer and has experience welding and building cro-mo “rails” or chassis, for drag racers. ![]() He notices that the bikes are heavy, slow and fragile. In 1973, a father named Gary Turner is one of the dads that goes to Moto Cross races and watches the kids racing, including his own. Dad’s get involved and Bicycle Moto Cross was born. Between moto’s parents allow the youngsters to race bicycles on the big dirt tracks. Moto Cross takes off and MX racing is big. It turned out to be a 2009 GT Palomar, which came with a set of iffy cut down Answer hyperlite bars as well.Įverything else i had lying around and since the photos I given it a good riding and it is quite fun to ride.IT IS THE EARLY 1970’s. The reason I bought this particular job lot, I saw a GT frame, and thought why not. The stem came from a job lot I had bought of Facebook, which I got for a quid. The Deore 2002 brakeset, and gearset all came from a freecycle job lot which I had planned on hanging on something else, but could not resist putting on this build. ![]() This bike also came fitted with a set of Magura HS11 amongst other things. The forks and handlebars came from a bike I bought at the local recycling centre for £7.00. They had been bought for another project which I then decided I didn't want them for. ![]() The wheels are GT branded ones (although the branding is really only a sticker), which I think come for 2000-2001. It made a massive difference compared to the stock RST 22A shock that originally was fitted to it. While building this, the rear shock appeared on ebay, and a last minute punt also secured it for peanuts as well. I did also realise that the front mech bottom bracket cable guide was missing, so a shout out on facebook resulted in a very kind chap sending me one for free. To build this up to ride, I only had to buy a rear mech hanger (as it was missing it), a new chain, full set of cables, a full set of brake blocks, and bolts for the lock on grips as the allen sockets in the original bolts were rounded. I don't often post in this group, but I've always fancied riding one of these, and so when I saw the frame going for peanuts on ebay, I couldn't resist. ![]()
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