REVIEWS DEALS BIKESHOPS TRAILS

My SS GT ?!!??!

1623 Views 6 Replies 5 Participants Last post by larryo108, Jun 27, 2009

GTscoob

Discussion Starter · Jun 25, 2009

Here's the bike I've been building for a while and now I think it's done until I can find a good deal on a suspension fork and front disc brake. I was given the frame for free at our local Atlanta bicycle co-op, Sopo Bikes (www.sopobikes.com).

Since then this frame has gone through numerous iterations, starting with a basic SS conversion using the hardware from an old Royce Union bike I've had since middle school all while gradually upgrading one part at a time. At its wildest it had BMX bars and skinny tires but I was never that happy with it until now. I went into this build wanting a cross country bike but now I'm realizing more that I want a hardtail all-mountain build that can take a lot of punishment.

Everything has been installed, removed, and installed again at Sopo. The wheels were the only thing that were bought used in this build and I'm around $550 into it in its current configuration.

My future plans are to ride it like this until I can find a used Santa Cruz Chameleon to swap the parts onto and then get a good AM/DJ fork and front disc brake setup.

As it sits right now it weighs ~24lbs on a very unreliable bathroom scale.

Build List:
GT XL frame - aluminum
SunRingle Rigid Fork
Cane Creek S3 Headset
Kona 70mm AM stem
243 riser handlebars
Oury Grips
Avid SD5 brakes and levers
WTB Pure V saddle
Ritchey seatpost
FSA V-Drive SS crank, 32T
DMR V8
KMC Kool Chain
Surly/Shimano XT wheelset with Kenda K-Rads for commuting/DJ and WTB Velociraptor for trails

And here's a pic from my first outing on our local BMX track in 12 years:

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homegrown_xt

· #2 · Jun 25, 2009 (Edited)

Nice bike!
I have a GT SS also. I use it for my commute to work and my flat land riding, while I use my SC Chameleon SS for my off road excursions. Both started out as bikes that were given to me since the original owners didn't want to put the money to fix them up. I tore them down & reused some of the original parts and put some other parts from my used parts pile from other bikes that I worked on and ended up with a couple of decent single speeds.

Ken

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OldZaskar

· #3 · Jun 26, 2009

A man after my own heart! Your GT looks sweet! That shot on the BMX track makes me jealous... In the past 25 years, the only BMX course I've ridden was at the start of a mountain bike race this year - and I loved it! (got the hole shot

)

This is my SS - I've had it since 1995; a Zaskar LE. Still my favorite bike. Weighed in, at build time (fall of 2008), at 19.75 pounds.

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Big Pete

· #4 · Jun 26, 2009

I love my GT!!!! A frame strip and polish is in the works! I am going SS with Mary bars. Currently I am collecting parts and riding the hell out of it.

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GTscoob

Discussion Starter · #5 · Jun 26, 2009

^^^ What year Aggressor is that? I've been trying to find out what kind of frame mine is and it looks very very similar to yours. You have the bullet shaped cable guides and the same gusseting under the bottom tube. Do you have a 68mm bottom bracket? Thats been the mystery of my frame; every other decent GT has a 73mm BB.

And OldZaskar, that BMX track is less than a mile from my parent's house in Peachtree City. Whenever I go home to visit I bring my bike and thrash it for a few hours. If you've got a free afternoon and feel like driving 35 miles for a bmx track I recommend it. You'll get some funny looks from the kids for riding a 26er but its all about the fun, though 2:1 is definately too short of a ratio for getting enough speed for big air on the track. And also, if you've got a spare chain, try throwing it on there with one less link than you're running, I thought mine would be too tight without the tensioner but it works with a 32/16, I think I'm at a 426mm chainstay. My chain looked very similar to yours with the chain tensioner I snapped a crappy old KMC but a newer beefy KMC Kool has been fine for over 100 miles now.

Here's a before pic, before I ditched the bashguard to straighten the chainline and ditch the rear tensioner. I was also running the aforementioned BMX bars here, the chain tensioner position looks just like yours. I thought the chain would bind, and it did on a small scale until I got the chainline just right :

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Big Pete

· #6 · Jun 27, 2009

It is a 2001 2.0 I think the thing is it is an XXL frame and everything I researched said XL was the largest made?? As for the BB I have no clue if there is a ## to look for let me know where and I will look for it. Currently it is geared but I am collecting all the parts to do the SS conversion all @ once including a frame strip and polish!!

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