GT Outpost Trail

[hawkhill97]

Been keeping my eyes out for a winter project for a little while, but seems there's not much worth bothering with about - maybe the rock bottom pricing is meaning people are keeping hold of their kit at the moment as they'll only get pennies for selling it (not too mention the horrendous faff of trying to sell anything on FB marketplace!).

I'm not sure this one really counts as "worth it" either....

But it was only a tenner and a ten minute drive away. And it's purple!

 

[hawkhill97]

Hmmmm.

I'm going to have to raid the parts bin a fair bit too make something halfway nice out of this aren't I

 

[hawkhill97]

I picked up an absolute wreck of a bike a few weeks ago, which (underneath a hefty crust of skank) yielded a nice Suntour xc pro crankset, stx brifters, and a nice XT rear mech.

The crap bits from the GT can go on the (mystery) ally frame - might as well build it into a functional bicycle and pass it on to someone who may be able to make use of it.

The nicer bits will go on the GT. Not 100% sure what the final plan for the build will be, I'm sort of tempted by some big swept back cruiser bars (as I've never ridden this setup in anger off road), but I suspect it'll look best with narrow flat bars.

Not feeling super inspired right now TBH, but I need some shed-therapy time now the rain/mud/dark is setting in, and who knows, it may turn out nicer than it has any right to be

 

[minor_LEGEND]

Did these get any lighter over the years? I remember the iconic Orange coloured 91 era model Outpost weighing an absolute tonne.
If it were me I would strip the paint & go all artistic with my own splatter paint effort. GT's should have bonkers paint finishes & that would certainly be therapy of the shed kind.

 

[hawkhill97]

Nope, it's pretty heavy!

The frame has a sticker boasting of a CroMo seat tube, which I presume means pig iron top tube and down tube.

Interesting you sound mention the spatter paint jobs... Was idly wondering about this myself on the way into work. Purple with white drizzle overlay maybe. Let's see how it cleans up first.

 

[hawkhill97]

Stripped down and cleaned up the frame looks pretty good. It is rather heavy!

The paint is really nice, looks blue in some lights and purple in others - very difficult to photograph under artificial light but will get some pics up as things progress. I think it's nice enough that I'll leave it as is rather than going down the splatter paint route.

 

[Gtpulse]

As a kid this and the Timberline were in the category of being much nicer than most bikes around my area and not completely impossible that I might get one for Christmas. They seemed like a proper bike to me and a cut above the Raleighs/Apollos/Emmelles that most kids had round my way. Needless to say I never got one! Fair to say that had some impact in my collecting in later life.

 

[hawkhill97]

Was having serious difficulty getting the BB out (bearings weren't in dreadful shape, but had a bit of drag and I've got a nice spare one too replace it with).

It's not often "the persuader" comes out from under the work bench, but it saw the light of day for this job.

Clamped the BB tool in place and let the persuader do it's thing. Nothing resists the persuader




Hmmm. The BB had been installed the wrong way in! Never seen that before.

Fortunately test fitting the new UN52 BB feels OK, it does require the use of the BB tool rather than spinning in by hand as it should, but didn't require any real force.

Hopefully the BB shell threads will have survived enough to fit the new BB in the right way around. I guess Plan B will be to use some blue loctite on refitting, but I'll only do that if it works loose, don't want to cause unnecessary problems down the line.

There's something very satisfying about solving these little problems that crop up during a build

 

[hawkhill97]

Interestingly the BB shell threads look totally fine. I wonder if it's possible that the cartridge BB is designed the "wrong way around" such that the cartridge is designed to thread into the NDS with a right handed thread.

Did such things exist? Will have to have a closer look at the old BB next week.