How good is GT's I-Drive design?

i owned an 09 gt force 3.0 for about 2 months and then got rid of it.

On the whole the I-drive system is as advertised. It is a very good pedaling platform. I'd say it's about as good as the vpp or dwlink bikes I've ridden (turner, pivot, santa cruz). I wouldn't say it's as active in the descents as the vpp bikes. However for putting miles in the saddle it's certainly a very capable trail frame.

I would not call it an AM frame per say. The geo simply does not lend itself to being ridden overy aggressive in gravity situations. The steep HT angle is great while climbing but not so great in drops, highly techy situations or stuff like that. In addition the force frame that I had was a maintenance nightmare. It has a constant creaking problem and required a lot of attention in both the pivot and dropout area.

If you must buy a GT I think the sanction is the only one I would own. The force simply isn't AM enough for me.

On the other hand, the Rune, or Blur LT2 with a 160mm fork will tear in all situations. I ended up getting a pitch pro because of budget constraints (as it turns out not a single part on the bike is stock now and I could have just gotten a better frame to begin with but i digress) and I'm much happier.

Long story short, the force simply isn't in the same league as the other bikes on your list.

just say no

I work for one of those lbs, namely performance bikes, i will not say which one. And as far as they go, they are great for the beginner crowd who dont look for major performance and reliabilty from their frames. I have ridden everything from the fisher hifi, the specialized fsr's, giants full suspension stuff, as well as rocky mountains stuff. The basic ones come poorly equipped, tektro brakes, suntour forks, funny thing is gt loves to throw money away on ritchey stems, handlebars, seats, and seatpost, instead of putting it into the suspension or drive train components. I have ridden these things in many conditions, over the area, like mentioned above they do climb well, but on the descents they are poor, often sinking into the turns, sluggish on the pickup among other things. Servicing isnt too bad though they do often have noisy pivots. the plates are removable with a shimano bottom bracket tool so they come off easily enough. If you can afford the santa cruz go for it, well worth it

I owned a 04 I-Drive and loved it, climbed great and did well on the descents, I had the 5th element coil shock that made the descents very smooth. the only problem I had with the I-Drive was the dog bone linkage was alway loose and couldn't get tight enough. Wonder what type of terrain you are going to be riding because I beleive the force is a 6" travel bike that should handle most anything other than park or DH riding. If your looking for something with a more slack HA and on the light side I'm riding a Chumba VF2 (Horst link design) and have had real good luck with it, also the price isnt bad I think you can get the frame and shock for $1400. Also the Sata Cruz Heckler is a great option, classic single pivot design and bombproof. Goodluck though buying a bike can become difficult, but if you have the option to test ride then it should make it easier.:thumbsup:

I have a 04 idxc. It has been a great bike. I did upgrade the fork to a 130mm travel Manitou and that helped slacken the head angle a bit, made it a much better descender. As my skills improved and I began to ride harder terrain, I found the suspension linkage to have issue after issue. Bearing in mind that I was using what GT named an XC bike for a lot of "all mountain" type riding, so maybe a burlier version would hold up.

As far as performance of the suspension design it is awesome. Great climbing and worked nice in all situations until something broke. Recently I broke the metal plate that connects the two pivots. Then I broke a bolt that hold the new plate in place. This was after a few other breakdowns.

Good luck. For the money the GT is a great buy. If I were looking for a FS replacement at this stage I would look hard at the Diamond Back Mission series with the new knucklebox suspension design. There was an article recently in a magazine about how they arrived at it and reeviews are great.

Best of luck.

John