GT Avalanche ‘91

[vtwinvince]

Great project, love that splatter paint. And those first-gen XT rapidfire units are actually getting harder to find.

 

[Canuckbiker]

Well done on this, just catching up a bit late. I really like the choices you made, the blue highlights really suit the frame colors. Regarding the surface rust on bolts and hardware: have you considered using a product such as Evapo-Rust? I gave this a try recently and it works great. Leave it in for a few hours or over night and rust will be gone. Just wash the hardware afterward and they are often good as new. Far gone rust is a different story but minor surface rust should disappear. I'm unsure it it comes back but worth a try for sure.

 

[albash82]

Bit late to the party but bloody love this. My bro had this one, it was the first high end bike either of us owned.
I think I had a tequesta briefly in the late 90s from this vintage, nowhere near as nice though.
Have you ridden it much?

 

[Northernlight]

Thanks for all the positive comments! I really enjoyed the youthful nostalgia that this project brought back and it certainly whetted the appetite for taking on something similar again.

As is often the way though, life gets in the way and arrival of a little ‘un recently has meant that I’ve hardly had time to consider the final touches to the Avalanche (albeit now find myself regularly up at 4.30am to catch up on retrobike inspo!).

So, I’ve actually only ridden the old GT once - but it instantly brought back the ‘feel’ that I used to love in mtb’s of the day. That slight compliance of steel with only the tyres to provide suspension and the head down, seat up, narrow flat bar joy at speed (or terror when the downhills got anything like steep!).

 

[Suprachrgd82]

I remember every detail of the ‘92 Tequesta I got back in September of that year and the 3 snow white Avalanches sitting beside it in the shop, just identical to yours. Wish I knew the difference in Suntour vs Shimano at that time too. The U brakes worked so well and it was super cool to have different brakes front and rear. The non-tapered fork legs were bizarre and new. Aahhh, pure nostalgia right there, Northernlight.

The stem you have looks a great deal like the creaky 120mm reversible GT offered in ‘93, yeah? I still have the original Tequesta thru stem if you want it. It’ll need to be painted, but the price is right.