GT Palomar?

[monkeyfiend]

As Retro bike seems to be the authority on GT's I was wondering....

My brother has an old Avalanche that was sold by someone claiming it was basicaly a re-badged Zaskar? Its made of 6061 alu and its a good bike. I've just found a Palomar frame in 6061 and to me it looks just like the Avalanche, they're both rim brake only frames but doing a little search the Palomar seems very basic and low quality? another made in Taiwan by the 1000's perhaps.

So is it only a pub bike or could it handle some xc?

Just done some more searching and they do apear to be seen as a bottom of the barrell GT.

 

[Drencrom]

Nowadays Palomars are indeed 6061 - but they're not a patch on a retro Zaskar in terms of quality. The Palomar had a steel frame up to at least 2003 - and were bottom of the range - but in terms of suitability to riding off-road, it's more a question of the components being up to the job rather than the frame.

GT switched production of the Avalanche from 7005 series aluminium to 6061 in 2001, although it was labelled as the Avalanche 1.0 or 2.0 by then. Modern versions aren't really comparable to Zaskars - just decent aluminium frames.

 

[monkeyfiend]

Thanks for that, so just because it hasn't got disc tabs doesn't mean its retro (lesson learnt)
Looking at the different grades of aluminium, the 6000 series isnt as strong as the 7000 so I guess it would give a slightly more comfortable ride?
Although not that you would notice.

 

[Drencrom]

It's a negligible difference if any on the retro 6061/7005 GT frames - they are all stiff as a very stiff thing.