I've had a 91 Karakoram which had conventional routing on the down tube and was in Tange tubing. And I still have (but am about to get rid of) my 92 Karakoram which had a groove tube. I really, really like the groove tube design, it looked neat and worked well. If only my Karakoram was 17" instead of 19", I'd probably choose it as my only MTB.
GT groove tube
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utahdog2003
Senior Retro Guru
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gm1230126":1yh0yraz said:funny...real funny posts! When most othe bike companies were going to banjo string top tube cable routing...three on top, three on one side....GT decided cleaner was better and tucked them up out of the way. The Groove tube was a True Temper design and as stated above started in 1992 and was continued through at least 96 on the Psyclone for sure. GT began running the rear brake cable only in a top tube groove tube on the some of the lower to mid priced models that weren't True Temper tubing. I've had a couple bikes with it for years and never had any issues with it collecting dirt but I guess some of you let your bikes go years between cleanings
I prefer to take the hose to mine when I come home after a muddy ride.
Isn't it funny though, that bigger companies like GT take it on the chin for trying to be different?...their frame characteristics always labeled as "just a marketing gimick"
Cannondale and the cantilevered dropouts, boring bonded Treks (which admittedly I never liked) and the much maligned GT tripple triangles would probably be much more desireable were it not for their manufacturing volume, and bolt on rear triangles would probably be much less desireable, Mantis or otherwise, if Fisher had taken its head out of its ass and figured out how to turn a proffit on CR-7s. And if E-stay bikes weren't universally piles of brittle junk, there would be many more of them still around and they'd certainly be derided as nothing more than gimick rather than highly sought after, regardless of manufacturer, as they are. (my Alien was a pile of crap)
I always wince when I hear that 'gimick' term brandied about too liberally. Yes many of the frame design traits that GT rolled out were marketing driven, but then again, so are 90% of the decisions made by everyone else. Vintage GTs are defined by goofy stuff like Flip-flop stems and Groove Tubes, and that aint a bad thing. Branding is a powerful thing, and a GT without a marketable characteristic is just a Mt Shasta. *yawn*
Finally, the difference between the Tripple Triangles and Grooves Tubes, and say, the CR-7 bolt on rear triangles, is that unlike the removeable rear triangle Fishers (whose rear triangles removed themselves) the GT features didn't conspire to make the frame a total POS.
Besides...have you ever been at the trailhead having a conversation with a fellow biker, someone you casually know from riding only, and probably only by first name, and been talking about a third guy and when the second says, "who?", thanks to the tripple triangle, you can say, "you know him, the guy with the silver GT!"
Response: "Oh yeah! I know that guy!"
Try that with a Mt Shasta.
SeeingisBelievingGTMuseum
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@ utahdog.....both thumbs up for that post. For those not familiar with the Groove Tube this pic shows the underside of the top tube of a 94 Timberline indented for running the rear brake cable. The higher end models that GT produced with a True Temper top tube routed both derailleur cables and the rear brake cable under the top tube in the "groove"
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The frame in question all three cables run though the groove and it is very neat I have to say. For the record the frame was dirty but the groove was fairly clean. Actually not sure what I'm going to do with this.
all three cables run though the groove and it is very neat I have to say. For the record the frame was dirty but the groove was fairly clean. Actually not sure what I'm going to do with this.
Mine (?) is the, possibly, rarer black version :?
I don't have the forks though, as there was a dodgy looking mark around the GT at the dropout. I didn't know if it was a crack or not. So I freebied them out stating that. Not that I heard if the recipient had them or not :evil:
I don't have the forks though, as there was a dodgy looking mark around the GT at the dropout. I didn't know if it was a crack or not. So I freebied them out stating that. Not that I heard if the recipient had them or not :evil:
