1991 GT Avalanche

Ompelukone

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No matter how I'd like to indulge you with an epic build story, I'll have to resort to a humble tale of simply waiting for the perfect bike to become available.

I recently found an old thread by Yidaki for 1991 GT Avalanche being for sale here on RetroBike. The bike hadn't sold yet, so we made a deal.

All, except tyres, are original and very lightly used as far as I can tell. Tange Prestige, GT 2x4 adjustable rake fork, GT FlipFlop stem, full DX groupset. And I love it. For some reason this is the first bike in years, which makes me want to go riding when ever the weather permits.

The left pushpush shifter unfortunately broke when I was trying to soften the hardened grease with lighter oil. The zinc axle was cracked at the nut and held together just by the tiny screw holding the plastic cover. I decided to go thumbies, as I've never grown to like these "modern" shifting systems. Now I'm running all DX, except XT thumbies - and needless to say, they are super nice!

Trails being rough hereabouts, I decided to get some suspension to save me ol' wrists. A nice period correct Scott Unishoks came available and I had to get it. It was one of the things we drooled upon BITD.

Now the shocks are set for a test ride and I'm looking forward to see whether the early 90's suspension technology can compete with the horrible RockShocks I had on my 2008 Avalanche. Better fitting stem is needed and brake cable needs extending. There is also a bit of a challenge getting the brakes to work with narrow rim and fat tyre due to brake posts being farther away from the centreline than usual. The pads seem to move up rather than away from the rim and end up touching the tyre.

I admit, the stem and bar ends are ugly - they have to be sorted! If the fork starts performing well, I'll cut more thread to the steerer and use the original Daktari coloured FlipFlop stem. It's an aheadset setup atm.

Edit: Changed picture to original setup, the stem is so ugly! Judging by the quality I've got to get a proper camera to take these pics...
 

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Re:

My favourite GT, would have killed for one of these BITD but had to make do with an Outpost.

Must dig mine out of the store :D
 
Re:

Always had a soft spot for these, as this was the first retro mtb i owned. I got it when i was 16 and even then it was considered to be a bit of a classic

Anyway... What do you mean its running ahead? It looks like a threaded headset to me. And how come the steerer is too long when they are the original forks?

Sean
 
I've always thought that editing posts just causes confusion. And it did just so once again. :) Although I managed to do it before anyone even replied! ;)

At The Moment there's a Scott Unishocks on it and it has too long steerer. I'm currently running it with aheadset upper bearing just to try the fork before I invest on threading and cutting the steerer. Due to that the stem is what ever we managed to find at bhill22's shed. Too long and silver stem with aheadset spacers on top of the stem is not nice to the eye. So I changed the pic to a "before" version.

BTW BITD I had a '91 Karakoram, which got nicked when it was less than two weeks old. With the insurance money I was able to negotiate a '91 Karakoram Elite. Now I've found a '91 Avalanche. From the ready made GT:s there's only the '91 Team Avalanche left! ;)
 
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