1994 GT Karakoram Elite (Corrado)

[rigidftw]

Good morning gentlemen,

today I would like to share some photos of my 1994 GT Karakoram Elite and a bit of back story.

Growing up I had an affinity towards GT bikes.
My second mountainbike was a cheap and cheerful GT Aggressor. After getting that bike I hung out at the bike shop I got it from, which culminated in building 2007 GT Zaskar Team with the owner of the shop. Good times.

In 2009 I invested heavily (for me at least) in cheap old bikes and ended up with this 1994 GT Karakoram Elite, which was apparently called Corrado in the rest of the world. Ebay find, original owner, I think I payed about €250.

Original condition apart from the rear tyre, IIRC.

This was the fleet back then. 92 Cadex CFM2, 94 GT Karakoram Elite, 91 Bridgestone MB-3.


Tinkering with the red GT I found the fork dropouts to be misaligned. So I tried different forks.

I think I remember realigning the dropouts with a big pair of pliers. So back on it went, as well as a different drivetrain, new brakes, tyres and stem.

The Groove Tube was a nice detail.

This red Bontrager saddle did not last long.

The drivetrain used to be on my 2007 Zaskar. 3x9, RaceFace Deus XC cranks, XT 770 shifters, LX FD, Dura Ace RD, 11-23 Dura Ace 9s cassette.
Brakes were Avid SD Ultimate mated to some Paul Love Levers.

For a trip to some nearby mountains I then simplified the drivetrain and removed two chainrings.
The Ritchey stem proved to be too uncomfortable and was replaced by a slightly longer Corratec Ti stem.
Chunkier tyres were also added.

The True Temper GTX tubeset made for a light and comfortable ride.

 

[rigidftw]

Next I changed the cranks to something more appropriate.

Probably my favourite phase of owning the bike.
Yet somehow I lost interest in it for a few months at least.

 

[synchronicity]

You invented 1x!

 

[Jimmy oldskool]

Nice!!!

Would love a 16" Corrado!

 

[rigidftw]

One thing I definitely was not satisfied with were the brakes. No matter what I did with them, they never performed the way I expected them to.

So when I decided to do something with the frame and fork, that I had stripped of its parts and put in a dark corner, I built it with Avid SD Ti brakes and levers and I was much happier.

I fancied to try some more singlespeeding at the time and was open to some questionable bodges.

It stayed unchanged for a good year. And I enjoyed riding it a lot until I decided to fit an angle-adjust headset.

I then sold the frame and fork to a good friend who had fallen in love with the bike.
Unfortunately he crashed into a car not too long after taking possession and bent the forks so much they were unrideable. He was ok, luckily.
He subsequently lost confidence in the bike and his riding ability and sold the remains off to some other guy and it is now gone forever.

 

[kingoffootball]

Was it in Germany where they used the old Karakoram Elite name instead of Corrado?

I don't suppose you have the frame number recorded do you? It would be interesting to add to the records and compare with other 1994 models.

 

[rigidftw]

Yup, Germany. Probably because VW had a car with the name Corrado.

And sorry, no idea what the frame number is.

 

[huggy]

what size seatpost is it?
just picked up a black '93 elite (?) & i think its 26.8 & im struggling to find one long enough for it

 

[rigidftw]

I think you are correct. This one used this exact size seatpost.

 

[kingoffootball]

what size seatpost is it?
just picked up a black '93 elite (?) & i think its 26.8 & im struggling to find one long enough for it

Any pictures? Do you know anything of the history of the bike? I would expect it was imported at some point if it is a Karakoram Elite rather than Corrado.

Would you mind sharing the frame number?
https://www.retrobike.co.uk/threads/help-please-steel-gt-serial-numbers.392411
It would be interesting to me as the Corrado and Karakoram frames should be different (True Temper GTX vs Tange MTB Double-butted) but I have the same model code recorded for both which makes me wonder whether the Karakoram serial was actually a Karakoram Elite.